You get more out of the characters... you can feel their souls

The cast of live-action remake How To Train Your Dragon - including Gerard Butler and Nick Frost - on taking the popular children's story to the next level. By ELLA WALKER

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"You get more out of the characters because they’re more relatable, they’re real, you're looking in their eyes, you can feel their souls,’ he says, arguing the originals are now 15 years old and technology has moved on.

“We really can create a whole other world now,’ he says. “That's the power of cinema, the places it can take you visually and emotionally, and this movie is really a testament to that.”

Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz actor Nick Frost, 53, who plays Gobber the Belch - who trains young recruits to fight dragons - says it was really important to be “respectful” to the animations, but “as long as you can work within the parameters the original films set down, I don’t think it can do anything but deepen the lore.”

Having three-time Golden Globe winner Dean guide the way on the whole shebang makes that possible.