- But do we need a "live action" remake, 15 years after the original? No.
- Is this "live action" remake well-made? Sure.
There are a slew of remakes of animated movies, and I find it weird, and crassly commercial, and dumb to make good and successful movies where some or all of the characters are still animated, just with more gigabytes of pixels than they were in the first place. Some are a mix of human actors and CGI creatures (Snow White, Lilo & Stitch) and some are just more realistic CGI (the Lion King remakes).
I guess what it boils down to is, the 2010 animated Dragon movie is excellent. This 2025 remake, with an identical plot, and human actors interacting with CGI dragons, is 27 minutes longer. That's 22 percent longer. What happens during that 27 minutes? Do these human actors really make the movie better? Is the advanced CGI better for the storytelling than the 2010 CGI? I like the creative team too much to really challenge them on the "why" of it all. What I do know is, right where Act 2 pivots to Act 3, I got restless and took a moment to visit the bathroom.
(Triplex Great Barrington)