How To Train Your Dragon is becoming a live action adaptation but I seriously doubt it can keep its all-white cast of characters.

This story has no people of color. That is a problem in 2023. My guess is that Astrid 
(the female lead) will once again be flipped so that a minority can be cast in that role.

In the land of transitioning to live-action movies in beloved remakes of animated films, Disney seems to be king. But I just read on some of the blogs I follow that How To Train Your Dragon (a DreamWorks franchise) is now going to be remade as a live-action set of three movies (there were three total installments in the franchise), and it makes me think that the story will have a strong tonal shift. I was a huge fan of the How To Train Your Dragon movies which are only a little over a decade old I think. The last one (which came out a few years ago) landed completely flat with me, being mostly a story that seemed like a retread of prior stories. I learned only recently that the fault for this lies with Steven Spielberg. If you're interested in hearing about it, read on. Otherwise skip the next paragraph.

Here's how I understand the events that led to part three being so "meh." The original plan was for Drago (the villain from part two) to return and eventually be redeemed. Although I have no idea how that would play out, Spielberg apparently told them that they didn't have enough screen-time to do it justice. So, they ended up scrapping it. When I consider what could have been versus what I got, I feel like Drago could well have been the missing element that would have made that movie feel like less of a retread. And maybe, it would have been better to cut the Light Fury instead so that we didn't have that whole, "Let's breakup the couple" thing that happened between Hiccup and Toothless. But whatever...it is what it is. I only ever rewatch the first two and just skip part three whenever I see it is playing.

So, back to a live-action adaptation. I don't see how they are going to be able to film this without making some of the main characters radically different to fit within the mold of how Hollywood does things these days. Representation matters, and I get it. But Hiccup would be radically different if he was a black trans woman, and they needed to make that decision in order to maintain diversity. The animated show doesn't have any non-white characters, and that's just not going to fly anymore. They could flip Astrid (the female lead) and cast a black actress, but that seems like it is becoming a cliché. For example, the CW's Flash and Iris (black), or Spiderman's Tom Holland and Mary Jane (played by Zendaya who is black), or Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and Chani Kynes (Zendaya again). Those are just three examples. Don't get me wrong. Both of these examples work well. However, people may wonder "why is it always the female lead who gets flipped race-wise and why doesn't it happen to the guy?" It's a good question, and it's probably going to crop up when they start casting for How To Train Your Dragon the live action adaptation. Who knows? This kind of cliché could continue for years before activists demand that Hollywood change. But there already has got to be mounting pressure for studios to break the cycle of always making the woman lead a minority.

Anyway, I will more than likely be excited to watch these live action adaptations. I just wonder what's going to happen with the casting, because (as I see it) these shows are going to be problematic to adapt, because no one wants an all-white cast anymore. Lord of the Rings got away with it, but that wouldn't happen in 2023. If Peter Jackson was casting that show these days, half of his cast would need to be minorities and feature some non-binary or trans characters. Gandalf would probably be a black man. And that's just the truth of it. That wouldn't have bothered me, but it would be a tonal shift from the character I read about in the books and saw in so many art pieces done by John Howe and Alan Lee. If Hiccup ends up being played by a young minority, it's going to be a tonal shift, so same thing. And if they don't cast a minority, then the same problem crops up that has always been present: why does the hero of these fantasy stories always have to be white? I have no answers other than this: writers who make new characters for their fictional worlds need to make their stories more diverse to begin with. They need to start featuring people of color in main roles, so as to avoid adaptation issues when a beloved property becomes adapted for television or movies. If people had done this all along, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all, and I'd have no reason to write this blog post.

Dragons: Riders of Berk

Did you watch the one-hour premiere last night of Dragons: Riders of Berk on the Cartoon Network? If not, here's the teaser for it (from io9).

This weekly animated series follows the continuing adventures of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless on the island of Berk, along with the band of dragon trainers, all of whom now have dragons of their own! Through their training, the kids are finding out the cool things dragons can do. Not only will they learn more about their dragons, they'll also discover new ones and battle against enemies as they explore worlds they never dreamed existed. In addition, the talented cast from the feature film - Jay Baruchel (Hiccup), America Ferrera (Astrid), Christopher Mitz-Plasse (Fishlegs) and T.J. Miller (Tuffnut) - will lend their voices to the series.

Cartoon Network is doing what Fox did with "Touch." That is, they are airing just this one episode, letting it percolate with the viewers for a while, and then launching into more episodes of the series this Fall.

So what did I think? Well how could you go wrong with an episode title like, "How to start your own Dragon Academy?" LOL All the voices are back. Astrid, Hiccup and crew start off with a flying competition and of course, Hiccup and Toothless steal the show. And dragons are still being dragons. Which in this show means they are "adorable" yet "destructive".

But you can't have a story without conflict. One concerned villager shows up with a fat sheep under one arm and complains about the dragons. Hiccup tells his dad, "I'm the best man to take care of the dragons." His dad responds, "You're not a man yet." And that kind of sets things up as a coming of age story. It's time for Hiccup to grow up and become the man he's supposed to be. And he's going to start by helping humans to coincide peacefully with the dragons.

Behold the face of the ORIGINAL dragon trainer!

At first it doesn't work so well, and all the teenagers are in danger of losing their beloved dragons. But one annoying villager lets drop the precious knowledge that a tiger never changes its stripes, and a dragon will never go against its nature. So Hiccup comes up with a plan to use the dragon's nature to aid the village, by terrifying fish into the fishing nets, by scaring wild boars out of the forest and into the slaughter houses of the villagers, and by raining dragon poop onto fields to fertilize them.

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode. The animation wasn't quite as good as in the movie but *almost there. I can't wait to catch more episodes later this year.