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Without their beloved founder, the Walt Disney Studios fell into some rough times during the 1970's. Much of their output was going downhill and lacking the magic touch that made them so memorable, and a lot of promising projects ended up misfiring. The studio did have a few successes during this era, though, but even then, such hits were a double-edged sword. One of these was 1977's Pete's Dragon, which came at a time when the demographic for family films was not resonating with the kind that Disney was putting out. George Lucas's Star Wars had conquered both the box office and imaginations of moviegoers alike, so much so that this movie as well as Disney's other release that year, The Rescuers, paled in the light of the competition.
Pete's Dragon was never really meant to be the live-action/animated musical hybrid it ended up becoming. Originally, it was supposed to be a psychological drama in which the title character is a figment of an abused orphan's imagination. It would have been an edgier story that would have appealed to then Disney animator Don Bluth, who ended up with the job of animating the title character (more on that later). But somehow it got decided that this movie could work as another Mary Poppins. It even received a similar marketing campaign and premiered at Radio City Music Hall. Unfortunately, as with Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Pete's Dragon, while commercially successful, had nowhere near the same impact as its far superior "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" predecessor achieved.
The film opens in Maine where we see a runaway orphan named Pete (Sean Marhsall), escaping from his mean adoptive family, the Gogans (their leader portrayed to shrill extremes by the late Shelley Winters). His only companion is Elliot (voice of Charlie Callas), an animated (by Bluth) emerald skinned dragon who can reappear and disappear at will. The pair end up at Passamaquoddy, where Pete gets into trouble with the townsfolk as a result of his dragon friend's clumsiness. Eventually he finds a home in a lighthouse kept by the tipsy, alcoholic Lampy (the late Mickey Rooney) and his daughter, Nora (Helen Reddy), while Elliot is relocated to a nearby cave. Unfortunately, the Gogans are still on the hunt for Pete and will stop at nothing to get him back. Matters become further complicated when a fraudulent "medicine man" referring to himself as Dr. Terminus (Jim Dale) and his sidekick Hoagy (the late Red Buttons), appear in town, learn about the dragon's existence and set up a trap to capture the beast for exploitation, using Pete as bait. When an approaching ship on the harbor gets caught in a storm which takes out the lighthouse wick, it's up to Elliot to save the day.
The major selling point of Pete's Dragon is the animated title character. Perhaps because he's animated, Elliot comes across as much more interesting and engaging than most of the human cast. He's genially sweet, behaves like a puppy dog, possesses a childlike innocence and playful nature. Communicating only with a series of grunts and gibberish talk, he is endearing from the start, in major part because of the chemistry he shares with Marshall. It helps that Marshall actually believes that the dragon is actually there since he was animated in post-production. Although Bluth expressed dissatisfaction with working on the picture, his work here is commendable, as he does succeed in breathing fire to a character who blends in well with the rest of the atmosphere. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when a drunken Rooney and superstitious Buttons venture into his cave, describing a horrible monster of sorts, and an unsuspecting Elliot, tiptoes along with them and gets terrified of his own shadow! Another sweet moment is when he plucks a tear from Marshall and holds it up to his eye. Not only is this a great technical achievement, it exudes genuine heart.
Technically, the movie cannot be faulted for its effects. Aside from Bluth's animation, the movie generally succeeds in its technical wizardry of giving the illusion of an invisible dragon treading across town, making footprints in wet cement, knocking over a fence, colliding with strangers, and whooshing underwater like a torpedo to demolish an approaching boat of opposing bullies. The scenes where he picks up Pete and rocks him around during a musical number are also well executed; never once does the viewer spot anything in the way of visible wires that would destroy the illusion. Most impressive is a climactic showdown at a warehouse where Elliot's would-be-captors drop their nets on the dragon and try to bound him. The dragon's figure is flawlessly rendered in the tangle of nets, even when we don't see him, to the point that where he's turning around, we genuinely believe that he is there.
Despite all this, however, something is missing from Pete's Dragon. Although the scenes between Elliot and Pete are memorable, the storyline, as mentioned, could have used more interesting, fully fleshed out characters. The villains are one-dimensional, and a potentially neutral character like a harsh schoolteacher is too nasty to be believable, especially in the unsympathetic manner she runs her class and strikes students unfairly for punishments they don't deserve. Lampy serves more as comic relief with only a few moments where he's allowed to exude other warmer emotions, and Nora is too bland a character to truly register with audiences.
The primary problem with Pete's Dragon is that it drags at an unnecessarily overlong two hours. Its plot lacks depth and emotional sophistication to justify its length, with many scenes coming across as padding more than anything else. In particular, the sidestory involving Terminus feels unnecessary, and frankly, is not very interesting, especially since his character little more than just a mustache-twirling buffoon. A similarly pointless subplot involve Nora's long lost boyfriend Paul, which, if not for the aforementioned lighthouse climax, otherwise feels superfluous.
The songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, although pleasant for the most part, are also guilty of stalling the momentum and add very little to the movie. The only songs that resonate are a gentle duet between Pete and Nora "It's Not Easy" as well as Reddy's "Candle on the Water", which was lucky to get an Oscar nomination. "Brazzle Dazzle Day," although catchy, feels both irrelevant to the movie and out of place with the narrative. The remainder of the songs, which include the Gogans' intolerably obnoxious "Happiest Home in These Hills", Terminus and Hogey's "Every Little Piece" are not particularly memorable, or frankly, even engaging. I think Pete's Dragon would have worked better if it was portrayed as its initial concept, because the end results of making this a musical feel tacked on instead of genuine, unlike Mary Poppins.
Another fault is that too much of the movie is played primarily for shrill comedy. Part of this is down to a majority of the acting, which, for the most part, borders on ridiculous hamminess to the point of caricature. This is especially true of Winters, Dale, and Buttons, who spend so much time chewing scenery or mugging that they never come across as genuinely menacing, nor frankly, even funny. They're just too goofy to be believable baddies. Rooney is genuinely likable when he is down-to-earth and warm in scenes such as where he is teaching Pete to paint and in a few moments of intimate discussion with Nora. Otherwise he is required to do little more than overact, which unfortunately is the majority of his screen time. Only young Marshall's sincerely believable turn as Pete rings true, in part because of his scenes with Elliot, but also because he plays it mostly straight for the most part. Reddy is pleasant enough as Nora and she at least brings some warmth, but her specialty is in singing, not acting (although her actual performance isn't as bad as declared).
Pete's Dragon is by no means a bad movie. It's pleasant enough for the most part and has its share of charming moments. Kids will certainly enjoy it, particularly ones who don't demand sophistication when it comes to family movies. Sadly though, it's no Disney classic.
Without their beloved founder, the Walt Disney Studios fell into some rough times during the 1970's. Much of their output was going downhill and lacking the magic touch that made them so memorable, and a lot of promising projects ended up misfiring. The studio did have a few successes during this era, though, but even then, such hits were a double-edged sword. One of these was 1977's Pete's Dragon, which came at a time when the demographic for family films was not resonating with the kind that Disney was putting out. George Lucas's Star Wars had conquered both the box office and imaginations of moviegoers alike, so much so that this movie as well as Disney's other release that year, The Rescuers, paled in the light of the competition.
Pete's Dragon was never really meant to be the live-action/animated musical hybrid it ended up becoming. Originally, it was supposed to be a psychological drama in which the title character is a figment of an abused orphan's imagination. It would have been an edgier story that would have appealed to then Disney animator Don Bluth, who ended up with the job of animating the title character (more on that later). But somehow it got decided that this movie could work as another Mary Poppins. It even received a similar marketing campaign and premiered at Radio City Music Hall. Unfortunately, as with Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Pete's Dragon, while commercially successful, had nowhere near the same impact as its far superior "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" predecessor achieved.
The film opens in Maine where we see a runaway orphan named Pete (Sean Marhsall), escaping from his mean adoptive family, the Gogans (their leader portrayed to shrill extremes by the late Shelley Winters). His only companion is Elliot (voice of Charlie Callas), an animated (by Bluth) emerald skinned dragon who can reappear and disappear at will. The pair end up at Passamaquoddy, where Pete gets into trouble with the townsfolk as a result of his dragon friend's clumsiness. Eventually he finds a home in a lighthouse kept by the tipsy, alcoholic Lampy (the late Mickey Rooney) and his daughter, Nora (Helen Reddy), while Elliot is relocated to a nearby cave. Unfortunately, the Gogans are still on the hunt for Pete and will stop at nothing to get him back. Matters become further complicated when a fraudulent "medicine man" referring to himself as Dr. Terminus (Jim Dale) and his sidekick Hoagy (the late Red Buttons), appear in town, learn about the dragon's existence and set up a trap to capture the beast for exploitation, using Pete as bait. When an approaching ship on the harbor gets caught in a storm which takes out the lighthouse wick, it's up to Elliot to save the day.
The major selling point of Pete's Dragon is the animated title character. Perhaps because he's animated, Elliot comes across as much more interesting and engaging than most of the human cast. He's genially sweet, behaves like a puppy dog, possesses a childlike innocence and playful nature. Communicating only with a series of grunts and gibberish talk, he is endearing from the start, in major part because of the chemistry he shares with Marshall. It helps that Marshall actually believes that the dragon is actually there since he was animated in post-production. Although Bluth expressed dissatisfaction with working on the picture, his work here is commendable, as he does succeed in breathing fire to a character who blends in well with the rest of the atmosphere. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when a drunken Rooney and superstitious Buttons venture into his cave, describing a horrible monster of sorts, and an unsuspecting Elliot, tiptoes along with them and gets terrified of his own shadow! Another sweet moment is when he plucks a tear from Marshall and holds it up to his eye. Not only is this a great technical achievement, it exudes genuine heart.
Technically, the movie cannot be faulted for its effects. Aside from Bluth's animation, the movie generally succeeds in its technical wizardry of giving the illusion of an invisible dragon treading across town, making footprints in wet cement, knocking over a fence, colliding with strangers, and whooshing underwater like a torpedo to demolish an approaching boat of opposing bullies. The scenes where he picks up Pete and rocks him around during a musical number are also well executed; never once does the viewer spot anything in the way of visible wires that would destroy the illusion. Most impressive is a climactic showdown at a warehouse where Elliot's would-be-captors drop their nets on the dragon and try to bound him. The dragon's figure is flawlessly rendered in the tangle of nets, even when we don't see him, to the point that where he's turning around, we genuinely believe that he is there.
Despite all this, however, something is missing from Pete's Dragon. Although the scenes between Elliot and Pete are memorable, the storyline, as mentioned, could have used more interesting, fully fleshed out characters. The villains are one-dimensional, and a potentially neutral character like a harsh schoolteacher is too nasty to be believable, especially in the unsympathetic manner she runs her class and strikes students unfairly for punishments they don't deserve. Lampy serves more as comic relief with only a few moments where he's allowed to exude other warmer emotions, and Nora is too bland a character to truly register with audiences.
The primary problem with Pete's Dragon is that it drags at an unnecessarily overlong two hours. Its plot lacks depth and emotional sophistication to justify its length, with many scenes coming across as padding more than anything else. In particular, the sidestory involving Terminus feels unnecessary, and frankly, is not very interesting, especially since his character little more than just a mustache-twirling buffoon. A similarly pointless subplot involve Nora's long lost boyfriend Paul, which, if not for the aforementioned lighthouse climax, otherwise feels superfluous.
The songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, although pleasant for the most part, are also guilty of stalling the momentum and add very little to the movie. The only songs that resonate are a gentle duet between Pete and Nora "It's Not Easy" as well as Reddy's "Candle on the Water", which was lucky to get an Oscar nomination. "Brazzle Dazzle Day," although catchy, feels both irrelevant to the movie and out of place with the narrative. The remainder of the songs, which include the Gogans' intolerably obnoxious "Happiest Home in These Hills", Terminus and Hogey's "Every Little Piece" are not particularly memorable, or frankly, even engaging. I think Pete's Dragon would have worked better if it was portrayed as its initial concept, because the end results of making this a musical feel tacked on instead of genuine, unlike Mary Poppins.
Another fault is that too much of the movie is played primarily for shrill comedy. Part of this is down to a majority of the acting, which, for the most part, borders on ridiculous hamminess to the point of caricature. This is especially true of Winters, Dale, and Buttons, who spend so much time chewing scenery or mugging that they never come across as genuinely menacing, nor frankly, even funny. They're just too goofy to be believable baddies. Rooney is genuinely likable when he is down-to-earth and warm in scenes such as where he is teaching Pete to paint and in a few moments of intimate discussion with Nora. Otherwise he is required to do little more than overact, which unfortunately is the majority of his screen time. Only young Marshall's sincerely believable turn as Pete rings true, in part because of his scenes with Elliot, but also because he plays it mostly straight for the most part. Reddy is pleasant enough as Nora and she at least brings some warmth, but her specialty is in singing, not acting (although her actual performance isn't as bad as declared).
Pete's Dragon is by no means a bad movie. It's pleasant enough for the most part and has its share of charming moments. Kids will certainly enjoy it, particularly ones who don't demand sophistication when it comes to family movies. Sadly though, it's no Disney classic.