Adapting a beloved story from page to screen is never easy. And, as we’ve seen with Disney’s mixed results with their own attempts, remaking an adaptation is another difficult challenge. After all, there’s a lot that can go wrong when you start reimagining something that is beloved a few times over.

The live-action How to Train Your Dragon can feel hemmed in by its faithfulness to the animated original, but it’s re-creating that film’s sense of heart and soul as well as its entire plot and most enduring images.