Latest news with #Hiccup
South China Morning Post
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet How to Train Your Dragon's Mason Thames: the 17-year-old plays opposite Nico Parker, and came to prominence in The Black Phone starring Ethan Hawke – but which of his co-stars is he dating?
When he was only seven years old, Mason Thames dreamed of one day portraying his hero Hiccup, from the animated series How to Train Your Dragon (HTTYD). Now at the age of 17, his dream has come true, with Thames starring as Hiccup in the new, top-grossing live-action film of the same name, and quickly becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after young actors. 'I never thought that I'd be given the chance to step into his shoes and maybe affect kids the way Hiccup affected me,' said Thames in an interview this month with The Hollywood Reporter. Hiccup, portrayed by Mason Thames, riding Toothless in the new live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon. Photo: Universal Pictures/TNS Advertisement HTTYD, which hit theatres in the US on June 13, is a remake of the 2010 animated version, and tells the story of a 15-year-old Viking who goes against his family's centuries-old dragon-hunting tradition and befriends a dragon instead. Thames made his screen debut in the Apple TV+ show For All Mankind when he was 11, and shot to fame in the 2021 supernatural horror film The Black Phone, starring opposite Ethan Hawke . He also had roles in the 2024 films Monster Summer and Incoming. Here's everything to know about Mason Thames. His breakout role: The Black Phone Mason Thames' breakout role was as 13-year-old Finney Blake in The Black Phone, also starring Ethan Hawke. Photo: Universal Pictures Mason Thames made his mark on Hollywood as Finney Blake, a 13-year-old boy held captive in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer (played by Hawke) in The Black Phone. He will reprise the role in the film's sequel, due to be released in October. Interestingly, it was Thames' performance in The Black Phone that led to him earning the role of Hiccup. HTTYD's director Dean DeBlois watched the supernatural horror on a plane, and was so impressed by the young star that he long listed him for the role of the 15-year-old Viking in his own film, per The Hollywood Reporter. Mason Thames is a trained ballet dancer Mason Thames toured with a professional ballet company in The Nutcracker as a child. Photo: @masonthames/Instagram Thames began training in ballet at the age of five with his sister, Brooke-Madison Thames, who is now a professional ballerina. He toured with a professional ballet company from 2013 to 2016, performing in The Nutcracker.
New York Times
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Watch Hiccup and Toothless Connect in ‘How to Train Your Dragon'
In 'Anatomy of a Scene,' we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel. In the live-action version of 'How to Train Your Dragon,' expressions can speak louder than words. That's the case in this early scene from the film, in which Hiccup (Mason Thames) has caught a Night Fury dragon and is conflicted about what to do. He comes from a line of Vikings who kill dragons as part of their warrior tribe, but when Hiccup gets close to the Night Fury, he connects with the dragon (whom he later nicknames Toothless) and can't muster the will to kill the creature. Narrating the scene, the director Dean DeBlois (who also directed the 2010 animated film), said, 'This is one of the scenes that follows quite closely the animated movie. It's a handful of scenes that I wanted to recreate almost shot for shot. But in this case we realized we didn't need a lot of the dialogue that we gave Hiccup in the animated version. So much of it could be played on Mason Thames's face.' DeBlois said he spoke with his actor about the emotional way to play the scene. 'I remember on the day talking to Mason before we started rolling cameras, and I said, 'Don't forget, this is the moment you reference later in the movie when you looked into his eyes and you saw yourself.' It seems like a moment of weakness but this is that strength in disguise that causes Hiccup to be a new thinker that can usher in an era of peace that nobody saw coming.' Read the 'How to Train Your Dragon' review. Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics' Picks and more.
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Magical UK park next to 4-mile long beach gets a '10/10′ from visitors and stars in new How To Train Your Dragon film
Plus, five filming locations in the UK you can visit with movie tours, quaint villages and £49 stays PARK UP Magical UK park next to 4-mile long beach gets a '10/10′ from visitors and stars in new How To Train Your Dragon film THE magical world of How to Train Your Dragon has once again hit our screens, but now as a live action film - meaning actual places that you can visit are used in the film. One of those places is Tollymore Forest Park in Northern Ireland. 8 Tollymore Forest Park in Northern Ireland features in the new How to Train Your Dragon film Credit: Alamy 8 Foley's Bridge (above) features in the film Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk Around an hour from Belfast Airport, the park is home to an amazing landscape that viewers get glimpses of in scenes of the film. In fact, Tollymore was used as the setting for the first meeting of Hiccup and Toothless. As Hiccup lifts his dagger into the air to supposedly kill Toothless, the viewer can see extensive greenery behind with tall towering trees. The park features a combination of impressive trees that tower just like those in the scene - particularly the giant redwoods and Monterey pines. In fact, Tollymore arboretum is the one of the oldest known arboreta in Ireland and planting originally began back in 1752, as a Georgian landscape feature. Also filmed in the park is a scene on a bridge, featuring the main characters. This is actually Foley's Bridge, which is one of 16 bridges in the park. The bridge looks mythical and straight out of a fantasy movie - particularly in the autumn when the colours turn to more earthy tones. The bridge has also even been used in Game of Thrones. The forest park also boasts a nature-inspired wooden play area called the 'Big Deer' play area. Top 10 Enchanted Forests & Nature Reserves in the UK The area is designed specifically for children aged four to 11-years-old and even includes a giant timber Fallow Deer structure, a castle turret, a folly tower and a hollow tree. The park also has its own grassy campsite, with 71 pitches from £27 a night. The park has an impressive 4.8 stars on google reviews, with almost 5,000 people leaving remarks on its 'magical', 'stunning' and 'grand' feel. One person said: "10/10 would highly recommend, perfect scenery, perfect coffee hut, amazing walks and amazing for camping with great facilities, also very dog friendly." Another said: "Such a beautiful place. A lovely walk along a river with enough history to make it interesting, and a hermitage I wanted to live in." Eight minutes from the park is Murlough Beach that features 6,000-year-old sand dunes and a number of paths that navigate through the dunes, woodland and heath. The beach stretches four-miles in total, and features both golden sand and pebbles. Above the beach, the mystical-looking Mourne Mountains tower. For those who fancy a longer walk, there is a the Dundrum Coastal Path which boasts views across Dundrum Bay and to watch the coastal wildlife. 8 Tollymore Forest Park also has a wooden play area Credit: Alamy 8 There are plenty of medieval-looking nooks and crannies to explore Credit: Alamy 8 Eight minutes from the park is Murlough Beach that features 6,000-year-old sand dunes Credit: Alamy In Newcastle - the town that sits between Tollymore Forest Park and Murlough Beach - there are also more things to explore if you want to extend your stay. The town is home to Coco's Children's Adventure Playground and Pleasurelands - a small theme park - ideal for kids. There are also a wide variety of shops, cafes and restaurants. The town also offers a great place to stay with many different options including Enniskeen Estate - a boutique natural retreat that even Hugh Jackman has stayed at. If you don't mind a short drive, Castlewellan Park is also nearby with a dramatic lake. 8 The scene where Hiccup and Toothless meet is based in Tollymore Forest Park 8 Other locations in Northern Ireland were used for the film as well The forest surrounding the lake has a number of bike trails and hiking trails too. The new How to Train Your Dragon film features other parts of Northern Ireland including Dunseverick Castle and Giant's Causeway. In the film, Duneseverick Castle is used to represent the Isle of Berk - which is the fictional home of the characters. The castle's ruins provide a dramatic backdrop, along with the cliffs sloping into the sea. Other notable filming locations include the Faroe Islands and studios in Ireland. You can also visit the top UK filming locations from Harry Potter to James Bond for 25p next month. Plus, five filming locations in the UK you can visit with movie tours, quaint villages and £49 stays.
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Magical UK park next to 4-mile long beach gets a '10/10′ from visitors and stars in new How To Train Your Dragon film
THE magical world of How to Train Your Dragon has once again hit our screens, but now as a live action film - meaning actual places that you can visit are used in the film. One of those places is Tollymore Forest Park in Northern Ireland. Advertisement 8 Tollymore Forest Park in Northern Ireland features in the new How to Train Your Dragon film Credit: Alamy 8 Foley's Bridge (above) features in the film Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk Around an hour from Belfast Airport, the park is home to an amazing landscape that viewers get glimpses of in scenes of the film . In fact, Tollymore was used as the setting for the first meeting of Hiccup and Toothless. As Hiccup lifts his dagger into the air to supposedly kill Toothless, the viewer can see extensive greenery behind with tall towering trees. The park features a combination of impressive trees that tower just like those in the scene - particularly the giant redwoods and Monterey pines. Advertisement Read more on parks In fact, Tollymore arboretum is the one of the oldest known arboreta in Ireland and planting originally began back in 1752, as a Georgian landscape feature. Also filmed in the park is a scene on a bridge, featuring the main characters. This is actually Foley's Bridge, which is one of 16 bridges in the park. The bridge looks mythical and straight out of a fantasy movie - particularly in the autumn when the colours turn to more earthy tones. Advertisement Most read in News Travel The bridge has also even been used in Game of Thrones. The forest park also boasts a nature-inspired wooden play area called the 'Big Deer' play area. Top 10 Enchanted Forests & Nature Reserves in the UK The area is designed specifically for children aged four to 11-years-old and even includes a giant timber Fallow Deer structure, a castle turret, a folly tower and a hollow tree. The park also has its own grassy campsite, with 71 pitches from £27 a night. Advertisement The park has an impressive 4.8 stars on google reviews, with almost 5,000 people leaving remarks on its 'magical', 'stunning' and 'grand' feel. One person said: "10/10 would highly recommend, perfect scenery, perfect coffee hut, amazing walks and amazing for camping with great facilities, also very dog friendly." Another said: "Such a beautiful place. A lovely walk along a river with enough history to make it interesting, and a hermitage I wanted to live in." Eight minutes from the park is Murlough Beach that features 6,000-year-old sand dunes and a number of paths that navigate through the dunes, woodland and heath. Advertisement The beach stretches four-miles in total, and features both golden sand and pebbles. Above the beach, the mystical-looking Mourne Mountains tower. For those who fancy a longer walk, there is a the Dundrum Coastal Path which boasts views across Dundrum Bay and to watch the coastal wildlife. 8 Tollymore Forest Park also has a wooden play area Credit: Alamy Advertisement 8 There are plenty of medieval-looking nooks and crannies to explore Credit: Alamy 8 Eight minutes from the park is Murlough Beach that features 6,000-year-old sand dunes Credit: Alamy In Newcastle - the town that sits between Tollymore Forest Park and Murlough Beach - there are also more things to explore if you want to extend your stay. The town is home to Coco's Children's Adventure Playground and Pleasurelands - a small theme park - ideal for kids. Advertisement There are also a wide variety of shops, cafes and restaurants. The town also offers a great place to stay with many different options including Enniskeen Estate - a boutique natural retreat that even Hugh Jackman has stayed at. If you don't mind a short drive, Castlewellan Park is also nearby with a dramatic lake. 8 The scene where Hiccup and Toothless meet is based in Tollymore Forest Park Advertisement 8 Other locations in Northern Ireland were used for the film as well The forest surrounding the lake has a number of bike trails and hiking trails too. The new How to Train Your Dragon film features other parts of Northern Ireland including Dunseverick Castle and Giant's Causeway. In the film, Duneseverick Castle is used to represent the Isle of Berk - which is the fictional home of the characters. Advertisement The castle's ruins provide a dramatic backdrop, along with the cliffs sloping into the sea. Other notable filming locations include the Faroe Islands and studios in Ireland. You can also Plus, Advertisement 8 Tollymore National Park is just an hour from Belfast Credit: Alamy
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Despite the 98% audience score, the live action 'How to Train Your Dragon' is a misfire – here's why you should stream the original on Prime Video instead
How to Train Your Dragon is literally the best movie of all time. There's no question about it. I've seen is so many times that I've got most of the script memorized. I listen to the soundtrack a little too often. I have 4 Toothless plushies and a Toothless onesie. When the remake came out last week, loads of my friends messaged me asking if I'd seen it. Unfortunately, I have. I was so excited for the How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake that I pre-booked my tickets for the first showing on release day. But when I left the movie theater, I was disappointed and (most importantly) sad. However, not all is lost. The original How to Train Your Dragon is streaming on Prime Video, one of the best streaming services right now. You can even get Prime Video for free right now. So, if you ask me, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon isn't worth your time, and you should just watch the OG over and over again. Here's why I think the new How to Train Your Dragon is a misfire. If you don't already know, I'll give you a quick run-down of the beloved kids' movie. So How to Train Your Dragon is set on Berk, an island some unspecified location in Scandanavia, and follows the story of Hiccup, a young Viking. Hiccup's an outsider — he's not strong, bloodthirsty, or violent like the rest of the Vikings. Berk is tormented by dragon attacks, and the other Vikings are hell-bent on eradicating all dragons. So when Hiccup befriends the most dangerous dragon of all, he starts to realize killing dragons might be is wrong. Check out the live-action trailer above. Let me explain myself by discussing what made the original "How to Train Your Dragon" so magical. In the OG, Hiccup's personality is flawed. He's sarcastic, jaded and lonely. At the start of the movie, he's a Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf, desperate to be accepted and will lie to his peers to achieve that. He's an outcast because he's different: he's weak, scrawny and a bit of a wimp. By the end of the movie, he's rounded, tolerant and adored because of this uniqueness. In the remake, though, he comes off more petulant. His line delivery is different: gone is the tentative, witty jabs of Jay Baruchel's Hiccup, replaced with an unpleasant snark. Sure, this is probably more accurate to real life (you'd definitely hate everyone if they hated you), but it doesn't accurately reflect the character we were introduced to in the original. Hiccup's not charmingly unique, he's standoffish and whiny. Hiccup's interaction with the other characters feels flat, too. The barbed jokes that went over the others' heads are few and far between, and when they are there, they're not funny, they're whinge-y. I'd like to see more intelligence from Hiccup in future remakes (if they make them, of course). Not just cruelty, but wit and charm, because that's the Hiccup we were introduced to in the original movie. This brings me onto the humor. The OG "How to Train Your Dragon" is stuffed full with jokes, quips, and vibrancy. However, most of this was either cringeworthy or nonexistent in the remake. In the scene where Astrid finds Toothless and Hiccup says, "I'm through with the lies—I've been making outfits..." (etc etc), there's no life at all. The line delivery is rushed and bland, like the actors just wanted to get the scene finished so they could go home. It's missing energy, and it's not just this scene. The scenes during dragon training are perhaps the only parts of the movie that I thought improved on the original. But the secondary characters (Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut) were just awful. Cringeworthy delivery and mismatched humor resulted in a stilted and awkward watch. I'm not sure if others will have noticed this issue, but seeing as I've got 90% of the OG script memorized, I sure did. In the original movie, a lot of dialogue is interrupted. It makes the characters feel real, and the world feel lived in. For example, in the scene where Hiccup and Toothless are making friends in the cove, Hiccup says: "Toothless. I could've sworn you had—" Toothless cuts him off by snapping his teeth and chomping the fish. Hiccup hurriedly finishes with a perplexed, "Teeth." But in the live-action, it's like the actor was waiting for the CGI dragon to extend his teeth, and the delivery fell flat. This happened multiple times throughout the movie, and it wasn't just Mason Thames — other actors stumbled with this, too. This weird delivery makes the world feel like a set, not a truly immersive experience. I felt like I knew the actors were acting, and they knew they were acting, so I felt distant from the characters. I'm not saying the remake is unwatchable (98% of the Rotten Tomatoes audience disagree with me, clearly) but these are just a few of the reasons why the OG "How to Train Your Dragon" is infinitely better. Gerard Butler played Stoic, Hiccup's chief dad, in the original "How to Train Your Dragon". And he also played Stoic, Hiccup's chief dad, in the live-action "How to Train Your Dragon" remake. I think that was a major shot in the foot. Because Butler absolutely bodied his role as Stoic, it showed up every other actor. I couldn't help but compare Butler to everyone else in the scene. Unsurprisingly, Butler always came out on top. Gerard Butler was one of the only 100% positive parts of the How to Train Your Dragon remake. Everything about him was perfect: his delivery, his wit, his costume, his vibe. As a result, that made the lack of perfection in the rest of the movie all the more obvious. Maybe if they'd cast a different actor as Stoic, the stark difference wouldn't have been so bad. (But, then again, Butler wouldn't have owned his role even more.) Because Gerard Butler absolutely slayed his role — pun kind of intended — it just showed up everyone else. Particularly Nick Frost as Gobber. Now, I love Nick Frost. I think he'll do an amazing job as Hagrid in the new HBO Potter. I love Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. But I can't lie — I think he was horrendously miscast in this movie. Most of his line delivery was flat, like the actor himself was bored during production. I'm not sure if this was due to direction, perhaps if DeBlois wanted to show Gobber in a different light. But in my opinion, it simply didn't work. Craig Ferguson as Gobber in the OG is tenacious, snarky, and kind of brutal, and that's why you should just watch the OG "How to Train Your Dragon" on Prime Video. Now, this last point is kind of an occupational hazard. There was no way around this. DreamWorks and Universal set up "HTTYD" to fail. Toothless, the deuteragonist (secondary character to the protagonist, aka Hiccup), is literally a dragon. Dragons, if you haven't noticed, don't exist. So Toothless would have to be brought to life by CGI, regardless of the movie being live-action or animated. The whole time when I was watching the "HTTYD" remake, I couldn't help but think: Who asked for this? Because it wasn't me, "HTTD"'s number one fan. I wanted to love it. I wanted to love it so bad. I would have loved it if the new "HTTYD" had managed to capture the magic of the original. But it just... didn't. I'm not sure if it's miscasting secondary characters, the screenplay, or the direction. As the "HTTYD" remake has the same director and writer as the original, I doubt it's the latter. Even so, I think Mason Thames (live-action Hiccup) did a wonderful job of embodying the character he was given. These issues aren't acting — my best guess is direction. I think most of the problems lie in a combination of script, direction and a two-dimensional supporting world. I'll be the first person to admit that the OG How to Train Your Dragon isn't perfect. Rewatching as an adult makes me realize that Astrid's character was mishandled. However, the live-action completely rectified that. The only part of the remake that outshone the OG is Astrid. Now, I don't have anything against America Ferrerra, who voiced Astrid in the original — she did an amazing job with the script she was given. This is completely a writing issue. In the OG, Astrid is kick-ass, sure. But she doesn't have agency. She doesn't have personal motivations — she's there to be Hiccup's antagonist, and then his love interest. However, in the remake, Astrid has a purpose. She's dead-set on being the best — she wants to be the village chief one day — and she has to work hard because she doesn't come from money. Hiccup cruises along, the son of the chief, never having to worry about money. But Astrid is from a less privileged background, so she has to work harder to get to the same place. It's kind of ironic that Astrid's actress Nico Parker is a nepo baby, but I digress. Parker did a fantastic job bringing the new-and-improved Astrid to life. While, yes, she's a nepo baby, she's a nepo baby who definitely shone in her first major movie. I'll fight anyone in the comments who disagrees with me — go on, I dare you. Me and my Toothless plushies are ready.
