Pete's Dragon

Pete's Dragon videos

Cast & Crew

Bryce Dallas Howard

Grace

Oakes Fegley

Pete

Wes Bentley

Jack

Karl Urban

Gavin

Oona Laurence

Natalie

Robert Redford

Meacham

Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Sheriff Gene Dentler

Marcus Henderson

Woodrow

Aaron Jackson

Abner

Phil Grieve

Bobby

David Lowery

Director

David Lowery

Screenwriter

Toby Halbrooks

Screenwriter

James Whitaker

Producer

Barrie M. Osborne

Executive Producer

Bojan Bazelli

Cinematographer

Lisa Zeno Churgin

Film Editing

Daniel Hart

Original Music

Jade Healy

Production Design

Malcolm Marmorstein

Screenwriter

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Critic Reviews for Pete's Dragon

Audience Reviews for Pete's Dragon

• Jun 10, 2018

  Lovable, exciting and well done fantasy adventure for kids of all ages. Sure, here even the bad guys aren't that evil and there are some tropes from the long history of The "friends with a mysterious creature" genre, but The likable cast and great effects make for a thoroughly entertaining and touching film. The ending is particularly beautiful.

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  Super Reviewer
• Feb 20, 2017

  Disney's retelling efforts post-Maleficent continue to be worthwhile. Does what the original did only better, and though it's not a brilliant movie, it is well made for the most part, and I found myself quite endeared to the titular dragon.

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  Super Reviewer
• Jan 25, 2017

  A new vision of a Disney classic, Pete's Dragon is an entertaining and heartwarming family film. After his parents are killed in a car accident a young boy named Pete is taken in by a dragon and raised in the forest, until one day when he runs into a forest ranger and a group of loggers who attempt to return him to civilization. Child actors Oakes Fegley and Oona Laurence are really good and are backed by a strong supporting cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, and Karl Urban. And the character design for the dragon does an extraordinary job at making him cute and playful while also being fierce and dangerous. Additionally, the score has a wondrous and magical element to it that compliments the film extremely well. Though it doesn't really follow the original that closely, this new Pete's Dragon has its own charm.

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  Super Reviewer
• Jan 23, 2017

  Oh boy! another live action remake/reboot type scenario from Disney, because that's what we want and need (ugh!). Well at least they took an old forgotten movie which wasn't really too good, because at least that makes some sense (glances at the movies in the queue awaiting their turn...I feel your pain, I really do). So the original 1977 movie was a musical with a classic cast and is commonly known to be Disney's attempt at riding on the coattails of its earlier success 'Mary Poppins'. Its at this point I will admit that I have never actually seen the 1977 movie of Peter and his dragon, so I cannot compare. Essentially I'm going into this franchise remake/reboot blind which makes a change, primarily because I can't rip this new version apart compared to the original (bugger). So the story goes like this. A young boy is orphaned when his family are involved in a car crash whilst driving though the forest, somewhere in the pacific north west I believe. Its at this point that the young Peter accidentally meets a mysterious dragon who decides to take Peter in and care for him, for some reason. Six years later and Peter is found by Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), a park ranger, her boyfriend Jack (Wes Bentley), Natalie (Oona Laurence), Jack's daughter, and Gavin (Karl Urban), Jack's brother. They take Peter in and try to care for him but naturally Peter has difficulties coping without Elliot (Peter named the dragon Elliot after a character in his favourite book). Eventually Elliot the dragon is discovered and captured by Gavin and his work colleges (after tricking Grace). So Grace, Natalie and Pete must help Elliot escape the authorities, long story short. So this movie isn't an original premise, in fact you could look at it as a complete rip-off of a few other genres and ideas. Firstly, this could so easily have been a Steven Spielberg movie, its basically 'E.T.' for Pete's sake (ahem). A young boy finds a mysterious creature, they make friends, they get discovered and the boy must help the creature evade the authorities. Not only that but this movie is set in the 80's, coincidence? The entire set up of this movie is your standard emotional ride with all the familiar beats that we've seen a million times before (usually with animals, aliens or whatever). Kid finds a family, unique friend is an added extra. Then you have the [i]Tarzan[/i] aspect of the film, yes that's right, Tarzan. The young Pete lives in the forest with Elliot the dragon. He runs around in just some ripped pants, no top, no socks, no shoes, long hair, barefoot, very grubby. Both he and Elliot leap, bound and fly around the forest without a care in the world. At no point do either of them ever get seen, even when flying through the skies in broad daylight and the fact there's a lumberjack work crew not so far away, but whatever. When young Pete comes across a young Natalie it might as well be a young Tarzan meeting a young Jane, literally. Its also weird how Pete has seemingly never ever thought about finding help after the car accident. Just ran off into the woods with a large mythical creature, who cares about my folks right. The funny thing is Elliot the dragon isn't really in the film all that much. He's there at the start when we get the Tarzan sequences and he's there for the climatic finale of course. But for much of the middle section Elliot is not around because we are dealing with Pete and his new family (Grace and Jack who find him). Is that a problem? no, it shouldn't be, but alas here I do think we needed to see more hijinks with Pete and Elliot. More actual fun happy moments of tomfoolery perhaps. The film looks great with its woody setting, small American as apple pie town (with 80's visage), and the cast act well, but again there are problems. There are too many big names here methinks. Bryce Dallas Howard is perfect as Grace the caring mother type. Wes Bentley is fine as the bearded outdoors father type. Oona Laurence is maybe too good as the daughter who befriends Pete because she simply doesn't act like a child. Dunno if Laurence is like this is reality but its like a mature woman trapped in a child's body, weird. Then you have Karl Urban as the brother who initially seems fine, then becomes the bad guy, but is then forgiven for everything it seems. Urban is too bigger name for this role if you ask me. Maybe they should have swapped Bentley and Urban around, have Urban as the father and Bentley as the brother/baddie (he has that look). But then on top of all that you have Robert Redford shoehorned in as Grace's father, the old man who knows about the dragon but no one believes (couldn't get more cliched if you tried). Bottom line there are too many characters and the movie can't decide which character you should be following. Considering the movies title is 'Pete's Dragon' you'd think it would focus completely on Pete, well no, no it doesn't. But that might be a good thing because the kid playing Pete (Oakes Fegley...Oakes??) isn't that good. His performance just isn't very compelling. He's always looking miserable, always pulling a scowling face and looks stupid with the wig. I never really got any kind of fun vibes from him. Elliot the dragon isn't the best looking dragon I've ever seen to be frank, but it does the job. Obviously the movie is supposed to be a serious take but at times it doesn't look that way with a daft looking, big green furry dragon that can become invisible. The plot is as old as the hills, its not exactly a fun filled film, its a tad dull, not enough dragon action and there are too many protagonists. OK OK look, this film is fine, its your standard emotional, heart-string tugger with lashings of your standard CGI fluff. Its completely and utterly as safe as houses for the family to watch, no doubt about that. I just think its too safe, literally paint by numbers.

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  Super Reviewer