How to Train Your Dragon · reception & legacy

2010 · Chris Sanders

How How to Train Your Dragon has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A hit with critics from day one (it lost the Animated Feature Oscar to Toy Story 3), but its stature has only grown — it's now routinely called the moment DreamWorks stopped chasing Shrek-style gags and made its masterpiece.

What's debated

The evergreen fight: did Toy Story 3 rob it at the Oscars — and was John Powell's score the real crime of the night — a debate reignited by the 2025 live-action remake and whether it needed to exist at all.

Its footprint

Toothless became a merchandising and meme juggernaut — the dancing-Toothless clip is a TikTok staple — and Powell's 'Test Drive' cue is the internet's default music for anything soaring, from trailer edits to rocket launches.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd darling and the consensus pick for DreamWorks' best film — the 'actually great' animated blockbuster people cite to prove the studio could hang with Pixar.

★ Did you know? Legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins served as a visual consultant on the film, helping give its flight scenes and lighting a live-action naturalism unusual for animation at the time.