Sorry for the delayed review but this week I'm reviewing Disney's original 1977 incarnation of Pete's Dragon to coincide with the rebooted Pete's Dragon. Next week I will be beginning my series of Harry Potter reviews with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone where I will be rereading the books and reviewing each Harry Potter film every two weeks till the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The following week I will close out my reviews of the Dark Knight Trilogy with my Throwback Thursday Review of The Dark Knight Rises. New reviews you can expect in the next two weeks include Pete's Dragon (2016), Sausage Party, Kubo and the Two Strings, and War Dogs.
'Pete's Dragon' (1977) Review
Nominated For: Best Original Song "Candle on the Water" (written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn) and Best Original Score.
Pete's Dragon tells the simple story of the kindred companionship of a boy and a dragon. The film doesn't really explore much outside that premise and stays quite self-contained.
Pete's Dragon was released in 1977 so naturally the effects are quite dated and a lot of the special effects looked extremely fake. One exception was the animation for Pete's Dragon Elliot. However, anytime Elliot interacted with any tangible onscreen it just didn't seem authentic. This probably lies with the performances though as the acting ranges from minimal effort to grossly over exaggerations. At the time acting opposite animated characters in a live-action film had been scarcely done and so few actors had ever experienced such an experience, something that's very evident from the film's portrayals.
Sean Marshall plays Pete and never really captivated me in the scenes that should have been connected with the viewer emotionally thanks to his stale or quickened line delivery. Helen Reddy's Nora was a nice mother figure but almost all her line delivery felt very bland. Micky Rooney felt extremely cartoonish as the sailor Lampie and Jim Dale's Dr. Terminus is the classic con-artist. All around there weren't really any standouts with an extremely lackluster cast and they weren't given any favors with a abysmal screenplay featuring lines ranging from forced to downright stupid and a bore of a story.
The film also boasts quite a few songs, albeit generic music. It's no surprise that I had practically never heard of any of these songs. There's little to salvage out of Pete's Dragon, but Elliot is definitely one aspect as a lovable green dragon who's well animated and persona makes for a charming presence. Elliot has minuscule screen time in a film entitled Pete's Dragon though.
I don't have much else to say about Pete's Dragon because there honestly isn't much else to say about Pete's Dragon. It's a straightforward film that has little successes and abundant failures. I wouldn't consider Pete's Dragon a classic Disney film as it lacks any memorable songs, characters, or story and in fact falls in line with the lesser Disney films.
Pete's Dragon tells the simple story of the kindred companionship of a boy and a dragon. The film doesn't really explore much outside that premise and stays quite self-contained.
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