Toothless is my spirit animal. I never read the 2003 children’s books, but I saw the entire How To Train Your Dragon series which began in 2010, and fell in love with Toothless, Hiccup, Astrid, and the whole gang. And now that there is a live-action remake, I really wanted to see it. And since we’d shown the animated movies to our daughter and she enjoyed them, we thought it might be a good movie for the whole family (even our youngest, who had never seen them).

As it happens, the whole family was home from school and work to celebrate No Kings Day on Friday, July 4. So we decided to go to an extremely early morning show (8:45am) both so we’d then have the whole day to do things as a family, but also because if the kids turned out not to be captivated, the theater would likely be empty.

I loved the remake. It is by the same writer/director who co-wrote and directed the original, and it’s extremely faithful. He’s changed the ages of the main characters, amped up some of the stakes/action, improved some of the dialog (while keeping the great lines). Amazing production design. Wonderful acting on the part of the mostly unknown young cast, Gerard Butler, Nick Frost, and others. Fantastic score (also by the original composer), just a knockout of a movie.

The story of How To Train Your Dragon was left nearly untouched: the Viking outpost of Burke revolves around hunting dragons, however the son of the chief, named Hiccup, not only can’t kill a dragon, but ends up befriending a dragon he names Toothless. The relationship between Hiccup and Toothless is one of the most touching, magical, and at times edge-of-your-seat exciting “boy and his companion” relationships in film. We all need a Toothless in our lives.

Of course, the “anti-woke snowflakes” were deeply upset that some of the Vikings (including the main female protagonist, Astrid) were not white. First of all, the movie does a really good job of explaining why the Viking outpost of Burke had representatives of tribes from all over the globe, which was a nice touch and a very positive change. But also, even in the original 2010 movie, while the animated character of Astrid was white, she was played by a Latinx voice actor; so from the very beginning, this was a diverse franchise.

My wife shared my extremely positive view of the movie. I think that had we just taken our four-year old, she also would have loved it—she spent much of it glued to my side, asking questions in rapt attention. However, our two-year old son decided after a while that he’d had enough, and asked his sister to come play with him. As I said, we went when the theater was empty, so they walked up and down the aisles entertaining themselves for the final third.

As an added bonus, at a booth outside the theater to sign up for a free anime showing, the women tending the booth had a poodle, Garlic, who loved our kids, and they loved Garlic. So we ended up spending quite a while there, just watching our kids roll around with Garlic, happy as could be.

Anyway, I’d recommend the movie to anyone who’s enjoyed the original franchise, or is looking for a gorgeous, well done, exciting movie for older kids. And don’t be surprised if those kids leave the theater wishing they had a Toothless of their own. I sure wish I did.