Keep in mind that there will spoilers. Skip past the synopsis if you don't want to know the ending.
Well, here we go again...Another favorite childhood classic of mine gets the Disney remake treatment. When will you learn, Disney? When will you learn??
Upon hearing the announcement for this film, I was immediately worried. For one, you have to understand that Pete's Dragon is an extremely silly movie. I mean, it's really great, but still silly. The main plot centers around an orphan boy who is running away from his abusive "adopted" family with his pet green and purple dragon named Elliot. He then goes to a town called Passamaquoddy where a evil conman who sells faulty medicines wants to capture and kill Elliot so he can use his various body parts to put in his remedies. All the while, its a musical. So you can see what I mean when I say it's kinda silly. As a result, I wondered how it would be possible to adapt such a film to today's audience. Did this remake succeed in making a serious and current take on the Pete's Dragon story? Or did it fail in more ways than one?
Synopsis
Orphan Pete is found at the age of four by a humongous green, fury dragon named Elliott. Fast forward six years later, Grace, a forrest ranger, finds Pete and takes him home. Elliott goes looking for him. He finds Pete and Grace's boyfriend Jack's brother Gavin wants to capture him. Pete, Jack's daughter Natalie, and Grace's father Meacham rescues him. A chase ensues. Elliott, thinking he is protecting Pete, tries to burn down the bridge they are crossing. When Pete informs him that that will kill Grace and Jack, Elliott stops. Much to his dismay, they fall down into the cavern below. Elliott saves them and takes Pete back to the forrest just to take him back to Grace's home later. Elliott leaves only for Pete to go looking for him at an indeterminable time later. Low and behold, he does find Elliott in the mountains, not alone, but with an indeterminable amount of other dragons.
Overview
If any of you have ever seen the original 1977 film, you absolutely know that the plot I just described had not only nothing to do with it, but almost the exact opposite of the original film. I cannot begin to tell you how completely pointless this movie was. It just simply did not need to be made. It was cheep, generic, and has an insulting amount of disregard to the source material. All of the characters were bland. The story lacks any signs of originality. This film shares no resemblance to the original in any way other than Pete's name, Elliott's name, and the fact that Elliott can turn invisible. That's it. That's all the two had in common. Now, I know it couldn't be exactly like the original, but absolutely none of the plot was followed through. While it continually tries to be serious and realistic it ends up being just plain idiotic. It tries to be heartwarming, but ends up being completely cheesy and generic. The effects were sub-pare, the acting is nothing special, and the music okay, but unmemorable. I could go on much much more, but I think you got the idea.
Basically the only things I can say that were good about this movie were that the boy that played Pete looked like the boy from the original and the end credits song "Something Wild" featured one of my favorite musicians, Lindsey Stirling.
Absolutely nothing about this movie works for me. It especially hurts because Pete's Dragon is one of the three movies I watched constantly as a kid and still love even today. So, much to me dismay, I cannot recommend this movie to anyone. Come on Disney, you can do much much better than this.
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Story- 1/10
Main Characters- 2/10
Side Characters- 1/10
Villain- 1/10
Effects/Animation- 3/10
Songs/Score- 4/10
Entertainment Factor- 2/10
Total Score- 20%
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If you want to see a good movie about a boy and a dragon, check out the original 1977 film: the real Pete's Dragon
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