Pete’s Dragon is a remake of the 1977 musical film of the same
name. It tells the story of a young boy
named Pete (Oakes Fegley) who was orphaned in a car accident nearby a forest, who was then found and befriended by a green dragon named Elliot. Six years after Pete and Elliot met, Pete is
found by forest ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), her boyfriend Jack (Wes
Bentley), and Jack’s daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence). Grace initially doubts Pete’s claims of
having a dragon for a best friend, but her father (Robert Redford), who is
well-known for telling tales of how he encountered a dragon in the forest when
he was a young man, encourages her to trust Pete and help him reunite with his
dragon. Meanwhile, Elliot finds himself
being hunted by a party of local lumberjacks led by Gavin (Karl Urban), Jack’s brother.
This remake is easily superior to
the original. But only because the first
one was forgettable and bland. Thus,
anything that Disney decided to make at this point out of the concept was guaranteed to be
better. I have some vague memory of
being able to see it in someone’s Betamax, and even as a kid with minimal
standards, I found it wacky but in a strangely boring sense.
Pete’s Dragon, the remake, is a good family movie. But it’s pretty safe and standard one at that. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the
movie wields its familiar narrative beats to tell an effectively heart-warming
and pleasant story. However, it also doesn’t
offer anything of profound merit to become a Disney favorite.
As for the visuals, the CGI work
on Elliot is nigh immaculate. The original’s fusion of hand-drawn animation
and live-action has its charms, of course (I love the technique; for the
record, of all the movies that employed it, my favorites are Marry Poppins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Space
Jam), but it’s incomparable to the near realism of bringing a mammal-like
dragon to life (it’s kind of refreshing to see a mammalian dragon instead of the usual reptilian; it’s the first I’ve seen in a movie since The NeverEnding Story). Based on the company’s recent
accomplishments, especially on Jungle Book, I think it’s only appropriate to conclude that Disney does the best CGI work in movies today.
Anyway, Pete’s Dragon may be one of Disney’s lesser works, but it’s another
victory, though a small one, for its ongoing venture of remaking/reinventing
its old movie properties.
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