MOVIE: How to Train Your Dragon (2025)

by benmweilertNo Comments
How to Train Your Dragon Year: 2025 Rating: PG Length: 125 minutes / 2.08 hours With Disney making so many live-action adaptations of their previously successful animated movies, it was only a matter of time before other studios like DreamWorks would do the same. Enter How to Train Your Dragon (2025), a live-action, almost shot-for-shot remake of the 2010 movie of the same name. While most of these live-action adaptations are much worse than their source material, somehow this one works. The slight changes are mostly beneficial, but the few cuts from the original erase a setup for the climactic battle. Of course, one issue with an almost-faithful adaptation of the original movie is that the cadence and tonality of some lines just feels off from how they were said in the previous version. Probably not noticeable to people who haven’t seen the 2010 version dozens of times, but it just felt off to me. Additionally, while I understand cutting some scenes for run-time, one...
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BOOK: Uprooted (2015)

by benmweilertNo Comments
UprootedYear: 2015Author: Naomi NovikLength: 1,064 minutes / 17.73 hours One of my first experiences with the writing of Naomi Novik was with Spinning Silver. This Rumpelstiltskin retelling was quite interesting and complex compared to the original fairy tale it was based on. Realizing this was the second in a “series” (of which I’m using this term loosely), I eventually sought this book’s predecessor. Uprooted seems to be an adaptation of eastern European folktales, but with more of the romance aspect that I expect from these kinds of fantasy books. As with other fairy tale retellings, Uprooted starts off with plenty of tropes from the Grimm fairy tales. Dragons stealing maidens from their families, peasant farmers in poverty, things like that. It continues into the predictable tropes of the Dragon being misunderstood and the fair maiden resisting his cold personality long enough to have him warm up to her. Fortunately, this book is deeper than the tropes it was based on. The depth...
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