Rated: Rated PG. Contains disturbing thematic material, action, peril and brief strong language. Playing the husband and wife who find Pete, and who hope to take him in and civilize him, Wes Bentley and Bryce Dallas Howard are one-dimensional caricatures of loving parental concern.
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In their place is a symmetry of canonical themes – friendship, love, and sacrifice – and a simplistic yet heartfelt story that effortlessly elicits smiles, giggles, and even tears. The pair live hidden away in the thick, verdant forests of the Pacific Northwest, aided by Elliot’s ability to turn invisible.
Speaking at the film’s world premiere at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California, on Monday night (10.08.16), she revealed: “The same way I was affected by “Pete’s Dragon” as a kid, that can still exist today with this film”.
Then one day, while spying on a construction crew tearing down trees near his forest home, Pete (Oakes Fegley) comes face to face with a girl, Natalie (Oona Laurence), and everything changes.
The 1977 film was mostly live-action, of course, except for the key element of the mischievous giant reptilian creature itself, who was visually very cartoonish. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley).
So you can add “Pete’s Dragon” to the long list of titles – Steven Spielberg’s “BFG”, Pixar’s “Finding Dory”, the delightful “Zootopia” and “The Jungle Book” – that’s making 2016 one of the best years for family movies ever. Lowery, whose other credits include writing and directing the indie romance Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and editing Shane Carruth’s rapturous Upstream Color, frames the story as conflicting dynamics of unconditional love – between parents and children, between siblings, and ultimately between a child and his pet… though it’s never clear whether Elliot sees himself as Pete’s pet or Pete’s owner, which is the beauty of it. Early teasers for Pete’s Dragon suggest a coyness that the full movie happily rejects: We see Elliot in his full, fuzzy glory, undisguised by camerawork or by staging. First, he’s feeling abandoned by his best friend and only family he knows.
Once that life is interrupted by modern society (“modern”, in the context of the film, means “the 1980s” in the purposefully vaguest sense of the phrase), Pete is in a position where he must either choose a new existence with Grace, Natalie and Jack, or his old one with Elliot, his dearest friend in the whole world. And since it’s a small role, Redford as Meacham serves double duty: a narrative bookend to the story, framing the film as a wild story that just might be true. The opportunity for a dragon do-over in the era of lifelike CGI must have been irresistible. “But at its core, it’s a very emotional, relatable human story that needs to be shared”. If you require a tissue or two during a Pixar film, come equally prepared for similar gut-wrenching moments.
Which dragon babe makes your libido soar: Bryce, Emilia or Evangeline?
Her grandmother imparted on her a love of classic Disney animated films through repeated viewings and trips to Disneyland.
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And as an engaging and utterly honest blockbuster capping this summer of disappointments, it’s welcome relief.
