How to Train Your Dragon: Creating Toothless for the Live-Action World

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Go behind the scenes to see how filmmakers brought one of cinema’s most beloved dragons to life in How to Train Your Dragon, soaring into theaters on June 13, 2025. In this in-depth featurette, the VFX team, animators, and director Dean DeBlois reveal how they transformed Toothless into a lifelike creature full of personality, emotion, and awe-inspiring movement. From early concept art to final renderings, discover the groundbreaking techniques and subtle details that made Toothless feel real—and kept his charm intact in the transition from animation to live action.

Transcript

00:00Toothless

00:07Toothless really started from Cressida Cowell's books.

00:09He was the pipsqueak runt of the dragon world.

00:17When we decided to reimagine Toothless,

00:20we thought we should probably make that dragon powerful and elegant.

00:24And also kind of cuddly and cute.

00:37We wanted people to see their pets in Toothless.

00:42They initially looked at salamanders as his design,

00:45but very much Black Panther in terms of his behavior.

00:54A lot of the stuff we're looking at is cat videos.

01:03And my dog is a reference for me all the time.

01:10The hope was that as people watched the movie,

01:12they would realize, oh, my cat does that.

01:17Or I've seen my dog do that exact same thing.

01:19Who's a good boy?

01:20Oh, who's a good boy?

01:21Yeah?

01:23Luigi?

01:24Is that the spy?

01:28By the end, you feel like,

01:29wow, I really want a Night Fury myself.

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