Pete's Dragon

The remake of Pete's Dragon is not quite what I expected.  It's quiet, thoughtful and intelligent.  These are qualities that the original 1977 film, which was a loud, silly and overly slapstick musical, lacked.  This new version is also as sentimental as a movie can get, though in a good way.  At times it seems like co-writer and director David Lowery was making an art film for children.  The movie uses muted colors, a gentle and unobtrusive soundtrack, and an overall sense of mysticism and wonder that not only captures the imagination, but helps flesh out the characters and makes them more interesting than they were before.

This is what a remake should be.  It takes the basic ideas of the original, expands upon them, and then goes off in its own new direction.  There are no distracting cameos or callbacks from the original.  It is its own creation, and stands on its own.  Will kids like it?  Well, audiences largely rejected the last thoughtful and intelligent family film we got this summer, Spielberg's The BFG, so I have my suspicions about its chances at the box office.  However, I have hope, as the kids at my screening seemed enthralled by the film.  So did the adults, and I was right there along with them.  This is not so much an exciting special effects spectacle (although the effects used to bring Elliot the dragon to life are impressive), as it is a simple fable that never once talks down to the audience, and asks them to choose mystery and wonder over logic.  I also love that Lowery has set his story in an unspecified time.  It seems modern, but there are no hi-tech devices anywhere.  Like the best stories, it could take place in any point of time.

Parents should be advised, however, that the first five minutes of Pete's Dragon may be rough for very young viewers.  As the film opens, five-year-old Pete (the wonderfully named Oakes Fegley) is riding in the car with his parents down a forest road, enjoying his favorite storybook.  But then a deer runs across the road, causing an accident.  Pete is the only survivor, and finds himself lost in the woods.  But he is not lost for long, as he quickly comes across Elliot, a moss-green dragon who can make himself invisible and who seems to be lost in this world himself. (It's hinted that there are others like him somewhere in the world.) Flash forward six years later, and Pete has been living alone in the forest all this time, with Elliot his constant companion and protector.  But when a logging crew led by a man named Gavin (Karl Urban) begins to make its way into the forest for a job, Pete is thrust into human society for the first time in years.

The first human that Pete happens to meet is fortunately the sweet natured forest ranger, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who takes an immediate liking to the boy, as does her preteen daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence from the recent Bad Moms).  Grace is mystified that this child has survived in the forest for so long on his own, and when Pete begins to describe his dragon friend, she can't help but think of the stories her father (Robert Redford, giving a warm performance here) used to tell her when she was a child about the day he encountered a dragon while in the woods.  Pete takes his new friends out to meet Elliot, and soon the whole town knows of his presence, which leads to Pete having to protect the dragon from those who would wish to hurt or study him.  The basic structure of a boy having to keep his extraordinary friend safe from the world is not far removed from films like E.T. or The Iron Giant, but Lowery gives the film enough of its own tone and identity that it doesn't feel like he's lifting from popular material. 

Pete's Dragon is helped out tremendously by a cast that knows how to sell this sentimental material without going into silly and sappy territory, a warm music score by Daniel Hart which mixes folksy songs with a gentle underscore, and of course, the lovable dragon itself, who despite his size and impressive wings seems to have a lot of the same personality as a friendly dog.  I'm sure this will help the creature appeal to children and sell merchandise, but the dragon itself really is likable.  It has a personality of its own that immediately creates sympathy within us.  It's the kind of quiet and good natured movie where even the bad guys are sorry about what they've done by the end, and aren't really all that bad to begin with.  But it's also smart and knows what it's doing.  It never once seems like its forcing us to fall for its charms.  The appeal of the characters and the story are subtle, and by the final moments, the tears that will be in the eyes of certain audience members are well-earned instead of manipulated.

It would seem as if the Disney Studio has figured out a way to create not only remakes that audiences want to see, but are generally able to stand out on their own.  Even if I haven't been a fan of all of them (The Jungle Book from last Spring disappointed me), I still admire the effort put into them.  For the most part, they hire filmmakers who are right for the material, and find a way to not only expand on the original film, but also add their own style and cinematic vision.  And isn't that what a remake should be doing in the first place?  It's amazing how few studios realize that, and instead either give us an uninspired carbon copy of what worked before, or spend too much time throwing in references to the original, which only make audiences wish they were watching the original instead.  I believe the studio has stumbled upon a winning formula here, and hopefully future remakes will be made with the same amount of care.

This is the kind of movie that asks you to remove all cynicism and asks you to believe in the friendship of a boy and his dragon.  It is highly successful at that.  This is an uplifting little movie that hopefully will find an audience during the late summer, and taps into a certain innocence that we don't see very often from Hollywood.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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