Review of Disney’s Pete’s Dragon

Angela was granted admission to this movie for purpose of review.

My family had the opportunity to see Pete’s Dragon, a remake of a film from the late 1970s. This modernized live action version features an updated look, feel, and story line to create quite a different tale from the original, which was a live action/animation hybrid musical. It was great to have it as all live action and set decades ago, a nice change of pace and a chance to see how times were different then.

It has all of the ingredients of the Disney greats- adventure, mostly likeable characters you want to root for, sadness, danger, suspense, excitement, and a happy ending. There are several quite tense and sad moments that may frighten or upset some young children, and a handful of somewhat yucky moments, but neither takes away from the overall positive messages about valuing nature and other’s feelings, friendship, family, the family you sometimes make for yourself, bravery, loyalty, honesty, perseverance, and in true Disney style- believing in magic.

The cinematography is just beautiful and the CG effects are so well integrated, especially considering it was in 3D, that you may even be able to temporarily forget the lovable gentle giant of a dragon isn’t real. Having recently seen E.T. at home, we can’t help but make some comparisons to that beloved classic and we are glad something with a similar feel and message has hit the screens again, albeit with a bit of Jungle Book style. This movie felt deeper than many family films with well-developed characters and relationships which gave us plenty we can talk about, while standing on its own as a grand fairy tale adventure everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Angela