Disney’s live action remakes could be cash grabs, but because Disney is a machine, the remakes are better than they have any right to be. In addition, these live action updates can be a nice opportunity for Disney to improve upon its misfires (like Mowgli’s update this year). Pete’s Dragon will end up as one of the successes of the live action films. This movie transforms the forgettable original story and makes it a charming emotional family bonding experience that can be loved by all. Plus Robert Redford narration and Disney are a match made in heaven.
After a terrible event, 5 year old Pete (Oakes Fegley) finds himself alone in the forest in the Pacific northwest. He survives by buddying up with Elliot, a green dragon with some magical powers. 6 years later, their friendship gets threatened benevolently by Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), a forest ranger who loves live outdoors. Grace introduces Pete to the real world, including her family: boyfriend Jack (Wes Bentley), his daughter Natalie (Oona Laurence), and her father Meacham (Robert Redford). Elliot is left missing his friend, and also scared because Jack’s brother Gavin (Karl Urban) is on the hunt for the giant animal he’s only heard stories about.
Pete’s Dragon touches you emotionally in the way only Disney can, right from the get go. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Pete ended up with a dragon because of a horrible event. David Lowery (the writer director) shows the sadness through this poor kid walking through a giant forest by himself, and then talking to a dragon that cannot speak. After being brought to tears, Pete and his dragon then pick us back up to turn those tears joyful with their frolicking fun in the forest. The settings (the woods, small town, and cute family homes) lend the movie an intimacy, wonder, earnestness, and simplicity to the story that draws the audience into its whimsy. Lowery uses family as his thematic backbone, and he gives each character some version of it so they can lose, win back, or join a new family, something pretty ubiquitous for each audience member.
The acting goes a long way to sell the material. Oakes Fegley nails Pete’s wonder at the modern world and his combination of joy and longing for companionship. Bryce Dallas Howard is as comforting as I have seen her play, expressing warmth that must emanate from her red hair. Oona Laurence is the pivotal character, and she sells the connection to Fegley that would make him question his previous life. Wes Bentley and Karl Urban are decent add ons, if pretty largely underwritten. And Robert Redford is the rock that only he, Julie Andrews, and few others can play. Redford simultaneously has to play a little kooky, a little old wise man, and a little hopeless romantic while voicing over the movie. Redford plays it with ease and finds the right tone for everything Meacham says or does.
Pete’s Dragon is a movie a family should watch on a Friday night with each other. A warm feeling will wash over you as Pete and his dragon grow up, make friends, and search for their happy endings. It is also yet another property that proves dragons make every story just a little bit better.