We discuss 10 Movies like How to Train Your Dragon you must watch. Add these well-recommended to your watch list.
It’s been over a decade since the first How to Train Your Dragon film was released in theaters, and two sequels and a live-action remake in development later, the film is still capturing the hearts of many fans worldwide. If you are a fan of the movie and are looking for similar stuff to watch tonight, here are ten recommendations for you!
10 Movies like How to Train Your Dragon
Dragonslayer (1981)
We kick off this list of similar movies to How to Train Your Dragon with a dark fantasy ’80s film directed by Matthew Robbins and set in a fantasy world in the 6th century, where a dragon is terrorizing the medieval land of Urland and the kingdom has asked a wizard to deal with him so that they can live in peace.
It was one of the first non-Star Wars films that ILM developed visual effects for.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Another Dreamworks Animation film, Kung Fu Panda, follows Po, the laziest panda in the Valley of Peace, who must one day fulfill an ancient prophecy and defeat the dangerous snow leopard Tai Lung, who is threatening his people. To do that, he must train under the guidance of Master Shifu in the art of Kung Fu.
Avatar (2009)
While there are no young Vikings or dragons in James Cameron’s Avatar, the truth is that the movie shares quite a few themes with How to Train Your Dragon, particularly when it comes to protecting wildlife and rethinking how the way we’ve been living may be affecting other creatures around us.
Of course, Avatar took the fantasy element of How to Train Your Dragon to another planet and in the distant future instead of the past and envisioned a situation where humans have left Earth and are looking to colonize a planet named Pandora, no matter what that means for anyone living down there.
The Good Dinosaur (2015)
This film might be one of Pixar’s most overlooked movies, perhaps for good reason, but if we are talking about a fantasy world featuring characters from ancient civilizations, we might as well talk about this film, where dinosaurs were not extinguished 65 million years ago, and where young Arlo is estranged from his family and befriends a Neanderthal boy who offers to help.
The Jungle Book (2016)
When trying to come up with similar movies to How to Train Your Dragon, we must ask ourselves what the true themes of the animated film are and what other movies explore them.
Themes of animal rights and the separation between animal and human life are very present in the 2010 animated film, and they are also at the core of Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, a revolutionary movie in terms of visual effects; even if the story is an adaptation of another animated film from 1967.
Pete’s Dragon (2016)
David Lowery’s live-action remake of the 1977 film was very well received the summer it came out. The story follows Pete, an 11-year-old orphan who befriends a dragon named Elliot and later deals with the consequences once the residents of his town find out.
Moana (2016)
We cap off our section of films from 2016 similar to How to Train Your Dragon with a modern animated classic (which is also being remade into live-action). Moana also shares a few themes with Toothless movies, specifically those concerning changing the path of what has been established if you think it’s not the right fit for you.
It does so by traveling to the Polynesian islands, where strong-minded little girl Moana thinks there are adventures waiting for her outside of the perimeter of her village, and one day, she sets out to discover them.
Coco (2017)
Pixar’s Coco was a beautiful film from 2017 that explored Mexican traditions through the eyes of young Miguel, who ventures into the Land of the Dead to unlock his family’s history as he continues to explore his aspirations of becoming a musician.
Onward (2020)
We move on to another fantasy animated film from Disney/Pixar, 2020’s Onward, which sees teenage elf-brothers Ian and Barley embark on a quest to spend one more day with their late father. And as with any road trip movie (and this is a special one), they will also discover something about themselves along the way.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
The most recent entry in this list of similar movies to How to Train Your Dragon is the 2021 film from Disney Animation Studios Raya and the Last Dragon, led by Kelly Marie Tran.
She voices Raya, a human character living in a world that used to be co-inhabited by dragons and humans. However, 500 years earlier, when sinister forces attacked this fantasy land, dragons sacrificed themselves to protect humans. Now, that same evil has returned, and Raya must seek out the last dragon to stop it for good this time.
Do you have any other recommendations for Movies like How to Train Your Dragon? Let us know in the comments below!
