A forest ranger, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), finds a mysterious boy alone in the woods, named Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete has no home or family, but says that he was raised by a giant, green dragon. Pete's description of the dragon reminds Grace of the stories that her father (Robert Redford) tells, and with the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl who befriends Pete, and her fiancée Jack (Wes Bentley), Grace sets out to discover what happened to Pete, and learn the truth about his dragon.
Pete's Dragon is the latest Disney animated film to be remade in live-action, which Disney has really been on a roll with lately. I haven't seen Cinderella or The Jungle Book, and I have absolutely zero knowledge of the original Pete's Dragon film, so I didn't quite know what to expect in terms of quality. But Disney has a tendency to produce consistently good films in any of their departments, and they put particular care when revisiting their classic properties. I may not know how it compares to the original, but this Pete's Dragon really works on its own.
Pete's Dragon isn't the best movie I've seen all year, but it didn't really need to be. I think the film accomplishes what it sets out to do; be an entertaining, heartwarming family film. I really hate when people say "oh, it's just a kids movie", because why shouldn't we want kids to have quality entertainment too? Pete's Dragon is the kind of movie that I wish all family films were like.
And not like Minions.
When the film needs to be emotional, it's emotional, when it needs to be uplifting, it's uplifting. And while it doesn't present the most original story or complex characters, it works for what it is.
One of the greatest strengths of the film is that they actually manage to make the dragon (named Elliot) feel real. I didn't know if they could achieve that, especially because the dragon has a more cartoonish design, but when people interacted with him, it looked real. Whether they were riding on his back or just running a hand along his fur, the special effects looked great. The relationship between Pete and the dragon also felt very real, which is a credit to Oakes Fegley. The scenes where Pete and the dragon are just running around the forest and interacting with each other are some of the most entertaining in the whole film. Considering that these scenes were mostly comprised of Fegley acting off of nothing, he did a really good job (especially for a child actor).
Pete was the only character who was really interesting, but everyone else was intended to be normal people, which is where the contrast can be seen. Pete was isolated for a long time, so to see him experience the world outside of the forest, and how he interacted with different people was interesting. Despite the initial unsurety, the bond that forms between the human characters is believable, and there isn't really any forced drama for the sake of conflict. The only character who was a "villain" was Gavin, played by Karl Urban. But even then, he's not a cartoonish villain; he still acts like a real person when the situation calls for it, and the movie even addresses that his "plan" to capture the dragon doesn't really make sense. I guess they needed some conflict, but Gavin as a character was just so generically "kids movie evil" that it might have been better to just change the story. But maybe it's accurate to the original, I don't know.
The major theme of the movie is family, and all of the forms that it takes. We see Pete go through a variety of situations that are anchored by the people around him, and because those people feel like people, it's easy to connect to. The characters, in their simplicity, are always consistent. Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, Robert Redford, and Karl Urban all do a good job, and that's really all there is to say. The relationships between characters do feel authentic, and the actors fit their roles very well.
The trademark Disney feeling of adventure and wonder is very much a part of Pete's Dragon. The emotional beats of the film really do hit home, and as generic as the story can be at times, it is engaging enough. The relationship between Pete and his dragon is really the core of the film, and the movie excels when that's being explored. It also delivers some sequences that are visually fantastic. The rest of it is fine, and perfectly serviceable.
I don't think that Pete's Dragon is destined to be a classic, but in a summer full of disappointments and general "meh-ness", it was nice to watch a movie that made me feel anything. Only a handful of films have managed to do that this year (so far, at least), so I'm happy with Pete's Dragon. I'm now much more interested in the live-action Disney films that are on the way, because there's clearly a lot of care and love put into making them. And you can't really go wrong with that.
Pete's Dragon is the latest Disney animated film to be remade in live-action, which Disney has really been on a roll with lately. I haven't seen Cinderella or The Jungle Book, and I have absolutely zero knowledge of the original Pete's Dragon film, so I didn't quite know what to expect in terms of quality. But Disney has a tendency to produce consistently good films in any of their departments, and they put particular care when revisiting their classic properties. I may not know how it compares to the original, but this Pete's Dragon really works on its own.
Pete's Dragon isn't the best movie I've seen all year, but it didn't really need to be. I think the film accomplishes what it sets out to do; be an entertaining, heartwarming family film. I really hate when people say "oh, it's just a kids movie", because why shouldn't we want kids to have quality entertainment too? Pete's Dragon is the kind of movie that I wish all family films were like.
And not like Minions.
When the film needs to be emotional, it's emotional, when it needs to be uplifting, it's uplifting. And while it doesn't present the most original story or complex characters, it works for what it is.
One of the greatest strengths of the film is that they actually manage to make the dragon (named Elliot) feel real. I didn't know if they could achieve that, especially because the dragon has a more cartoonish design, but when people interacted with him, it looked real. Whether they were riding on his back or just running a hand along his fur, the special effects looked great. The relationship between Pete and the dragon also felt very real, which is a credit to Oakes Fegley. The scenes where Pete and the dragon are just running around the forest and interacting with each other are some of the most entertaining in the whole film. Considering that these scenes were mostly comprised of Fegley acting off of nothing, he did a really good job (especially for a child actor).
Pete was the only character who was really interesting, but everyone else was intended to be normal people, which is where the contrast can be seen. Pete was isolated for a long time, so to see him experience the world outside of the forest, and how he interacted with different people was interesting. Despite the initial unsurety, the bond that forms between the human characters is believable, and there isn't really any forced drama for the sake of conflict. The only character who was a "villain" was Gavin, played by Karl Urban. But even then, he's not a cartoonish villain; he still acts like a real person when the situation calls for it, and the movie even addresses that his "plan" to capture the dragon doesn't really make sense. I guess they needed some conflict, but Gavin as a character was just so generically "kids movie evil" that it might have been better to just change the story. But maybe it's accurate to the original, I don't know.
I don't think that Pete's Dragon is destined to be a classic, but in a summer full of disappointments and general "meh-ness", it was nice to watch a movie that made me feel anything. Only a handful of films have managed to do that this year (so far, at least), so I'm happy with Pete's Dragon. I'm now much more interested in the live-action Disney films that are on the way, because there's clearly a lot of care and love put into making them. And you can't really go wrong with that.
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