Pete’s Dragon (1977)

Do you remember when Disney experienced its period of stagnation in the 1970s and 1980s? It primarily emerged after Walt Disney died in 1966 from lung cancer. In an attempt to keep the Disney name and brand alive in the wake of his death, the Disney artists did their best to release a string of films that would have continued what Walt Disney would have achieved had he been alive to oversee them. Unfortunately, many of them had become hit-or-miss. A few classics came about from this attempt, such as Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and The Rescuers, among others, while the rest fell under the radar and became dismissed as middle-of-the-road flicks. However, it was not until the mid-1980s that Disney began to slowly gain its footing and develop more groundbreaking techniques to push the envelope in its film library.

Of course, during the late 1970s, one of Disney’s bigger hits was Pete’s Dragon, which sought to recreate what Disney had accomplished with Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks shortly before. But what Pete’s Dragon achieved might have been a little too much on the lighter side.

Let me explain what I’m talking about.

In this movie, a young orphan boy named Pete was on the run from his adoptive family, the Gogans, who wanted to do nothing more to him than make a servant out of him. Fortunately for him, however, he did not escape alone, for accompanying him was, beyond all logical explanation, a magical green dragon named Elliott, who could have turned invisible at the slightest whim.

Although Pete and Elliot’s attempts to settle there went south on the first go, they eventually found shelter in the nearby seaside town of Passamaquoddy, Maine. There, Pete suddenly found himself in the company of a young woman named Nora, the daughter of the local lighthouse keeper, Lampie. Touched by Nora’s kind offers, he’d accepted her offer to stay with her and Lampie for a little while. Yet, Lampie was unnerved by having Pete around because the first time they met in town, he had also seen Elliott, who was not invisible at that moment. So, he wasn’t sure what to make of Elliott other than that he was real and possibly a threat, despite his warnings falling on deaf ears, even those of Nora. As Pete spent more time with them, he began to gradually appreciate what Nora and Lampie meant to him and exactly what kind of family they were becoming. Could it have been that Pete might have found his way into his real family after all?

Meanwhile, back in Passamaquoddy, a sleazy con artist named Doc Terminus and his sidekick, Hoagy, blazed into town with a new slew of fraudulent medicines and tonics that Doc Terminus claimed would have been the proper cure for any designated disease. However, things started to take a turn for the worse when two things occurred. One, the Gogans made it to Passamaquoddy next and began searching the town for Pete. And two, after some random circumstances and Lampie’s insistence opened Hoagy’s eyes to there being a live dragon in town, he and Doc Terminus discovered from one of his medicinal books that each part of a dragon’s anatomy would have provided guaranteed cures for any disease. And knowing that the Gogans were out for Pete, and thus, the dragon, Doc Terminus and Hoagie eventually worked together with them to track them both down.

Would Elliott have avoided being hunted down by Doc Terminus and Hoagy? Would Pete have escaped the Gogans’ clutches yet again? Could Pete have kept Elliott a secret for very long? And could Pete have found any semblance of hope through Nora and Lampie after they took him in?

I remember being drawn into this movie when I was a kid and liking it for its bright atmosphere, pleasant energy, soothing seaside shots, and the over-the-top nature of its villains. However, upon revisiting the film, I can see that many things worked against this movie’s potential as a long-term Disney classic, especially when compared to what Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks achieved.

To begin, let’s look at its story again. It was about a young boy who fled from his abusive adoptive family as he attempted to settle in a nearby town, all while trying to keep the existence of an actual dragon under wraps. That premise alone would have guaranteed many engaging possibilities for how Pete would have adjusted himself, no matter where he went or who he encountered. It was also a bigger deal when he travelled around with a mythical creature that nobody would have believed had ever existed. So, it did beg the question, what chances would Pete have had in finding a true family if his last one was after him?

And in terms of claiming that he was with a dragon, this begged another question or two. How would Pete have validated his friendship with a dragon without making it come across as pure imagination? And if the townspeople did catch on to Elliot’s existence, how would they have responded to it? There’s a lot of potential here that would have made for some juicy storytelling fit for Disney.

Unfortunately, this leads us to the first big problem with the movie. I feel that, because this movie was intended for families, particularly the younger crowd, there were times when I thought it wasn’t taking the story’s potential seriously enough. For one thing, it barely delved into how Pete and Elliott met, or even his past before the Gogans adopted him and before he met Elliott. The closest that it’s ever been touched upon is in the song ‘Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)’, in which Pete said,

Remember the night when you first confided

Things went so right that we both decided

Now we’re together, and life is perfect

Don’t ever disappear

And that’s all it touched upon as far as that was concerned. So it makes the idea of just running around with a pet dragon on your side look like a worthwhile adventure when it was nothing more than just the tribulations of an orphan trying to make his way into the world and away from people who meant to harm him.

And as far as the existence of a dragon was concerned, it was no surprise that by the time Pete got settled in Passamaquoddy, a lot of chaos erupted behind him when that was just an invisible Elliott being at his most mischievous when they first got settled. In response, the residents believed Pete to be a cuckoo because of his claims that he was with a dragon. Additionally, due to the unusual events that have occurred around Passamaquoddy since his arrival, they have always regarded him as a source of bad luck waiting to happen.

The idea of Lampie being the only person in town besides Pete to have seen Elliott guaranteed a slightly engaging angle, as it showed how he, the town drunkard, saw what many other people would have scoffed at because of him being, well, the town drunkard. In that case, Pete, who was perceived to have had a wild imagination, and Lampie, who was dismissed by the town for what they thought were random ramblings, both knew they saw the real deal in terms of Elliott. And as for how everybody reacted to how he existed, the closest that was ever touched upon of that was by Doc Terminus when he said:

The existence of a dragon would have an impact of gigantic proportions. Mythology and legend would become history and science. One could really make a quick buck with it.

And throughout the last half of the movie, while most of the town citizens of Passamaquoddy caught on to Elliot’s existence, starting with Doc Terminus and Hoagy, they were not very much concerned about what the existence of a dragon meant. Doc Terminus’ antics instead talked them into hunting down Elliott as a means to bring back all the fish that somehow went missing in their docks, probably since having Pete around supposedly led to some havoc going on about town.

To some extent, it did tap into its potential. But the way it did so seemed too out of the ordinary and not primary enough, even for Disney.

Of course, let’s talk about the characters and the performances.

Starting with Pete, we know he’s an orphan who did his best to avoid the last people he wanted to share a home with and stay safe no matter where he went. The fact that he seemed to be the more mature half to Elliot’s more childish, playful side at times did tell me that he’s had a lot of experience as an orphan in terms of what impressions to make and known when to ask for help if it had to be asked for, especially with people like Nora and Lampie. While it’s generally unclear how he felt about finding a new home, it’s clear that the bigger focus was on how he tried to pass himself off as a decent guy when not having to deal with Elliot’s shenanigans, especially when he was invisible.

As for Pete’s dragon himself, Elliott, he’s a very bubbly, cheerful, upbeat dragon who had Pete’s best interests at heart and was quick to come to his aid when he was in any danger, such as with the Gogans. There were times when Elliot’s tendencies to pull pranks on unsuspecting people, like in Passamaquoddy, led to more trouble than it was worth. However, when it came to looking out for those who needed help, I could’ve sensed his devotion and faithfulness, as seen in his actions towards Pete or even Nora, like when he sought out Paul on her behalf. I’ll explain who he was.

At first, Nora seemed slightly uninteresting, but the more I got to know her, the more intrigued I became with her, mainly on account of the emotional baggage she was carrying. For one thing, just like everyone else in Passamaquoddy, she had to tolerate the times when Lampie began to lose himself, especially concerning a dragon that he claimed he saw. I could tell she tried to be the level-headed, responsible head of the family as she attempted to tend to the lighthouse, her father, and Pete when he showed up in her world. However, when it came to Paul, who was her long-lost fiancé, a part of her couldn’t have borne the thought of losing him. The last time they saw each other, Paul had gone out on a ship a year before and was said to have sunk at sea. Yet, Nora held on to the hope that Paul would somehow have returned to her despite her belief that the chances of that happening were very remote.

Her father, Lampie, was a fun character, though not the strongest. He was somewhat respected in town but also a laughingstock because of the stories he told about what he saw on land, the coasts, or out at sea, even if they were half dismissed as random ramblings of a local drunkard. Because he developed that kind of reputation outside of upholding his duties at the lighthouse, the idea of Lampie, despite his constant intoxication, being the only guy in town besides Pete who knew that Elliott, a dragon, was real made him feel more respectable and enjoyable, thanks to what he believed he saw of Elliott and how his relationship with Pete would have grown in light of it.

Doc Terminus was a very crafty showman-like figure, though he and Hoagie seemed more notorious than they let on. When he and Hoagie showed up, they were outrunning someone, so it’s possible they were avoiding either the cops or an angry mob until they ran into another one in Passamaquoddy. Of course, given how the residents of Passamaquoddy knew him and Hoagie before, they knew that their medicines, tonics, and potions did more harm than good. Only this time, after Terminus and Hoagie played their hand, they managed to get the residents to repurchase their medicines. So, as to what Terminus and Hoagie meant to do, it made the circumstances surprisingly unpredictable. Did they mean to refine their trickery on the residents and sucker them into buying their medications? Or did they mean to improve their medicinal practices and become more legit with Passamaquoddy? Doc Terminus was unethical enough as a swindler, but when Elliott caught his attention, that’s when he went from being a charming con artist to a threatening bad guy who’s willing to do anything to make a name for himself and legitimize his profession as a physician.

Now his sidekick, Hoagie? He was obviously the excitable and easily emotional sidekick for Doc Terminus to have around. He followed Terminus’s plans and ideas, aside from helping him pronounce the town’s name. Sometimes, he had his moments of wisdom, but most of the time, he was just a scaredy cat when it came to Elliott, especially after he and Lampie approached him at his insistence.

It’s hard to put my finger on the Gogans. Usually, I’d find people like them utterly contemptible, since they tried to hunt Pete down and drag him back to their family to use and abuse him. Plus, whenever they talked about adopting Pete, they treated him less like a new member of the family and more like a commodity on the farm grounds, like a slave in the Confederacy. At the same time, however, these guys were so inept and dysfunctional that they always left me uncertain whether to fear them, hate them, or mock them. It’s actually amusing to watch them fumble when it looked like they were just within reach of snagging Pete. They partially reminded me of Jessie, James, and Meowth from Pokémon or Bulk and Skull from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. You know that they’re intimidating and not good people, but the hijinks they ended up in, mostly of their own making, were pitifully humorous.

Now, let’s move on to the performances. They’re mostly adequate, but there were some stronger performances here and there that helped add some meat to the movie.

Returning to the Gogans, the actors who played this family felt committed to conveying the Gogans’ noncommittalism, despite their threatening presence and backstory, when connecting them with those of Pete. To start, the actors playing the father and sons didn’t sound like themselves half the time. Although I can tell that the actors playing the two sons, Gary Morgan and Jeff Conaway, sounded as immature and untidy as can be, while Charles Tyner, as the father figure, tried to maintain his hold and authority within the family. Finally, Shelley Winters, who played Lena Gogan, there’s something about her voice that seemed delightfully over the top, like she could easily have played a good witch if she were doing a voice role. Every time I saw her reactions in the movie and heard her voice whenever she spoke, she helped her character become more fearful, enjoyable, and pathetic all at once, which was pretty impressive, if only by a small margin.

Red Buttons, who played Hoagie? Every time I saw him play his character, I could tell that he was having fun conveying his goofiness and scaredy cat antics whenever he ended up in scenarios he wasn’t prepared for, whether it was with Doc Terminus or other circumstances beyond his comfort zone, like Elliott. Because he went so over the top while in character, however, the result made Hoagie look too wimpish as a character for me.

Of course, as over-the-top and silly as I found his performance to be, Buttons’ most convincing performance was when his character dressed up as the patients who came to see Doc Terminus. As a kid, I thought these were actual residents who relied on Doc Terminus for his medical services and proclaimed his medications as genuine articles.

That is, until I listened closely to their ‘voices’.

That’s when I learned that these were not people relying on Doc Terminus for medical assistance, but rather Hoagie as he played the residents so he’d help hone the illusion of the medicines’ supposed validity. I would not have suspected that it was all for show when I was younger, but now that I listened closely to the tenor in his voice, I can tell right away that it was Hoagie in disguise. That, to me, was where Buttons hit it out of the park. Plus, it made seeing Hoagie go out in drag feel slightly funnier.

Mickey Rooney brought dignity to his role as Lampie and infused his character with a level of theatricality that made him an absolute joy to watch whenever he was around. Lampie seemed to have a ton of lighthouse experience, while also navigating his social involvement in Passamaquoddy, both humorously and dramatically. And I felt all those struggles thanks to Mickey Rooney’s more modest, reflective, and even hyperactive expressions, which made me look at Lampie as someone more than just a town drunkard, and also the lighthouse keeper.

Pete was Sean Marshall’s first role, even before The Small One. And for what Marshall played in Pete, his ragged yet kindly demeanor helped contextualize Pete as he encountered people who were either escorting him because of his unyielding nature or were trying to help him in this time of grave need. Even when he seemed to have honed Pete’s more childlike qualities, he also subtly infused some borderline savviness in him, which displayed his self-confidence and hinted at his experience as an orphan. It was modest, but it still worked. But that’s nothing compared to what I will elaborate on shortly regarding his other accomplishments.

However, in my opinion, the next two performances might have been the strongest that I’ve seen in the whole movie.

The first one was Helen Reddy as Nora. With her mere tenderness and hidden yet firm disposition, she made me buy into Nora trying her hardest to keep things in order around the lighthouse and among her family, not just because of her father being the town drunkard, but also because of the disappearance of her boyfriend, Paul. Given the issues Nora’d been struggling with, I can tell, thanks to Reddy’s performance, that she tried all the time to keep her head held high under such distress. Yet, as she grew more comfortable with Pete, her motherly tendencies began to emerge and define the kind of positive influence Nora was becoming for Pete, especially when compared to the Gogans.

And whenever she partook in the musical numbers, she was the most musically forthright on that front as well. The vocal tenors she expressed convinced me that she had some musical experience, and it helped her dearly in a movie like Pete’s Dragon. Even in the silliest of songs, her musical performances seemed to lift them a bit.

The other actor whose performance I found surprisingly compelling and colorful was Jim Dale as Doc Terminus. I felt him upholding his position as a physician and his tendencies as a con artist, but not so much where he came across as too flashy or hammy in his villainy. With his agile movements, theatrical presentations, and charismatic impressions, Dale helped his character come alive as Terminus became more crafty than ever, drawing on his experiences as a con artist and his supposed profession as a doctor. Everything Terminus said, whether it was for show or regularly spoken, was all delivered by Dale with evident enthusiasm, to a point where I felt Terminus’ background and dreaded whatever he planned to do next to get his way. I just found him that mesmerizing.

But now, let’s focus on the musical numbers, of which there were ten. While it’s clear they’re doing their best to help the film be the next Mary Poppins, especially considering how phenomenally successful it was when it  came out in 1964, it’s clear that the songs were attempting to replicate that but came up very short. That’s not to say that no song in this movie worked, however. Sure, some had missed their mark, but there were others that I found surprisingly intriguing or fun to listen to.

Now, let’s start with the songs that didn’t work for me.

The first song I should address is ‘Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)’. While it’s a sweet song about Pete and Elliot’s friendship, it may have indulged in its overtones too much and came across as too schmaltzy for my taste. Some of the melodies were nice to listen to, but I still think the song could have dialed back on the sweetness and focused on the song’s dignity first and its positivity second.

’Passamashloddy’ carried a harmonious serenity to it as Doc Terminus and Hoagy tried to sway the townsfolk into buying their medicines, even though they would have had none of it and were desperate to see the two of them pack up and leave town. And the longer the song went on, the more the townspeople elaborated on Terminus’ misdeeds with them and what his last attempts at medicine did to them. Besides, who would have thought that one of the residents was unfortunate enough to have had his hair go from gray to pink because of Terminus’s medicine? Although I’m willing to let it slide since the song felt like a proposed promotion, the kind that any showman would have put on to rope people into buying his services. I just can’t get behind the song because of how sorry I felt for the poor residents of Passamaquoddy, who, after distrusting him due to past experience, were swayed into buying his medications all over again, whether Hoagy’s convincing performances had anything to do with it or not.

You know what they say: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The song, ‘Bill of Sale’? It may be the silliest song in the movie, for it felt misplaced in terms of what it meant to convey melodically. It’s a back-and-forth banter from the Gogans to Nora about their quote-unquote ownership and adoption of Pete in musical form. Here, the Gogans boasted about how Pete was as good as theirs since they adopted him fair and square, complete with the bill in question as their proof, only for Nora to retort and argue that Pete deserved a better family than what the Gogans decided to be. So, because this was the Gogans versus Nora we’re talking about, the song could have benefited from a more heated melodic essence to make it feel more like a gradually intense battle of wits between the Gogans and Nora as to who Pete should’ve stayed with.

But this leads to the following two songs that I thought missed their mark, and that would be the Gogans’ song, ‘The Happiest Home in These Hills’, and Doc Terminus and Hoagy’s song, ‘Every Little Piece’. These two songs fell flat as villain songs because their music choices were particularly inappropriate.

With ‘The Happiest Home in These Hills’, what the parents sang about what they would have done to Pete felt like straight-up lies, while the adult sons’ plots with Pete were straightforward and alarming. Yet, it seemed too enthusiastic about what the Gogans planned to do to Pete. And since it was Pete’s Dragon’s first song, it already got the movie off to an awkward start.

And ‘Every Little Piece’? This song was about Doc Terminus and Hoagie’s discovery of the dragon’s medicinal benefits and their plot to take Elliott down. But the excitability they felt was too rampant throughout the song. Judging from the music, it would have led me to believe that I was supposed to sing along with who were supposed to be the villains in their proposition to take Elliott down, as if it invited a musical connection to them. But no. It used the wrong choice of melodies to accompany such characters as Doc Terminus, Hoagie, and the Gogans.

Much like ‘Bill of Sale’, both this song and ‘Happiest Home in These Hills’ would have taken the right path if the melodies were made more threatening; it would have flowed more smoothly with the characters’ instincts and motivations. When I think of villain songs, I think of songs like ‘Be Prepared’ and ‘Hellfire’, where the melodies sounded just as threatening as the villains who performed them.

However, ‘The Happiest Home in These Hills’ was too whimsical, and ‘Every Little Piece’ too upbeat, for me to take them seriously as villain songs.

Better yet, compare these two songs to ‘Cruella De Vil’ and ‘Gaston’. Despite its lightheartedness, ‘Cruella de Vil‘ still painted its subject in a negative light and reminded us why she was bad news. And while it’s still an upbeat villain song, ‘Gaston‘ sank into its boastfulness to sneak in a sense of mockery of the character, and not just his charm.

And sure, ‘Every Little Piece’ did make a quick reprise shortly after. But if there’s one thing I remember the most about the song outside of its misplaced tunes, it’s how its reprise wrapped up. I’m not even kidding when I tell you that almost every time I reach it, what happened by then left me crying from laughter. I don’t even want to give away what it is. It is just hilarious!

Fortunately, the rest of the movie’s songs were its most decent.

Starting with ‘It’s Not Easy’, this song felt more like a pleasant duet compared to ‘Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)’. It highlighted the values of friendship as life gets you down. It was also fitting because it helped establish the blossoming mother-son relationship between Pete and Nora.

The other song, ‘There’s Room for Everyone in This World’, expressed a very mellow tune as Nora, Pete, and his classmates soaked in the values of there being room for even the most unusual people in this world because of the values each of them could have brought with them.

’It’s a Brazzle Dazzle Day’ was more appropriately enthusiastic and indulged in the joys of being part of a newfound family, and just what that would have meant to those involved. It was also exceptional due to a particular tactic it employed in terms of musical techniques, which I’ll also explain shortly.

As for the following two songs, I’ve had the softest spots for these, not just because of how I felt about them when I was a kid, but also because of how strong they felt even as an adult.

The first song is ‘I Saw a Dragon’, which is also my favorite. It was fun watching Lampie go on all those supposedly wild theories about what he thought Elliott, shortly after he saw him for real, could have done to Passamaquoddy, only to later be joined by Nora as she tried to talk some sense to Lampie’s peers for belittling him as they dismissed his frantic claims as just hogwash. Outside of the whole banter feeling realistic concerning someone’s claims of having seen a dragon in real life, partially because of Lampie being the town drunkard, the song was just downright catchy. Whenever Lampie and the others sang about what Lampie knew he had seen, I found myself tapping my foot along to the rhythms as Lampie tried to explain what he had seen, while also putting up with the ignorance of those who seemed to know better.

And whereas ‘Every Little Piece’s’ reprise ended on a surprisingly sidesplitting note, ‘I Saw a Dragon’s’ reprise felt just fantastic. This time, the song went all out with the townspeople reevaluating Elliott for not just how real he was, but also for how heroic he turned out to be rather than how dangerous they feared he’d be. With that kind of tone, it somehow made one of the movie’s catchiest and most fun songs feel and sound even better.

The second song, ‘Candle on the Water’, was hands-down the best in the movie. It’s safe to say that this song was close to being to Pete’s Dragon what ‘Feed the Birds’ was to Mary Poppins.

This song was about Nora bemoaning the year-long disappearance of her boyfriend, Paul, and expressed her willingness to be on his side, no matter what happened or where he might have ended up. Even if the song wasn’t specifically about Nora and Paul, it was heartfelt about lovesickness, carrying a slight tragedy that came with missing someone you genuinely love. Frankly, it reminds me a bit of ‘When Love is Gone’ from The Muppet Christmas Carol. It was generally slow, and in some cases, it was cut out of the movie for that reason. However, when added into the film, from an adult perspective, it provided the movie with more character and depth that would have gone missing without it. Maybe the song’s themes of undying loyalty and hope were the key factors that drew me in.

Helen Reddy was already remarkable as a singer in the movie, but this song was where she sounded and felt the most committed, and her vocal prowess here helped elevate this song into something truly special. Not only that, but I found the song to be the most visually striking, too; most of the song was nothing but Nora standing in front of the lighthouse lights as she looked out into the ocean and sang her woes. It seemed so simplistic yet so profound that I almost found it entrancing.

Of course, it’s one thing to discuss what the songs did wrong melodically or in terms of their messages, but here’s another aspect of the songs that felt a little off.

While they attempted to emulate a Broadway style with the songs, the singers seemed casual when engaging in the musical numbers, making the accompanying dance numbers within them feel disjointed. The musical portions were generally very subdued and comfortable. At the same time, the choreography was mostly extravagant and energized, making the musical portions of the songs and their accompanying choreography not mesh very well together. And it’s a shame because the choreographer, Onna White, also did splendid work on films like Gigi and Oliver, which were among the all-time greatest musical films.

The one song I knew of that came the closest to having these two work in more evident harmony was ‘It’s a Brazzle Dazzle Day’. It was not just because of how energetic the musical number was, but also because of how appropriately energetic the choreography was. It seemed to match the tone and style of the song for me.

As impressive as that all was, of course, and for all the mixed messages concerning the musical numbers in this movie, the real tipping point from this movie lies in the visuals.

Whenever Pete moved about town or did so with Elliott by his side, especially when he was invisible, Pete behaved as if Elliott were around, which helped me feel his presence. Part of that may be thanks to Sean Marshall’s performance, and this is where his acting in the film was at its strongest. He made me buy into the possibility that Elliott was standing beside him, whether he was visible or invisible. And whenever Elliott was visible, whenever Sean Marshall or any of the actors so much as confronted or touched him, I could’ve felt the actors giving it their all in making their characters believe that Elliott was there and look like they were talking to an actual, live, animated dragon. The fact that they performed in such a way that it made me believe that the characters were seeing what they knew they were seeing is probably the best part of the film’s acting, outside of Helen Reddy and Jim Dale.

And it’s not just the actors communicating with Elliott. Look at the scene where Elliott walked on the wet cement with Pete while invisible. I don’t know how they did the footprints that left imprints on the sidewalk, but that told me right away that Elliott was standing right beside Pete and unintentionally wreaking havoc wherever he went.

And I will give the movie credit for this: the animation on Elliott was just sublime. The movie was live-action, but whenever he came on screen, he moved about in his bubbly, enthusiastic manner no matter where he was, whether out in the countryside or the cave. I felt his positivity, energy, and even the gracefulness of his movements whenever he was not at his most cartoony. And even then, the cartoony moments from him did not feel too out of place. It seemed very fitting for Elliott since he was a cartoon dragon.

But for my money, the icing on the cake was the chief animator behind Elliott, and that was Don Bluth. He animated this character before he and his fellow animators left Disney to help Bluth make his own films. And while the line of films he would have mastered differed from what he started with under Disney, Bluth’s visual touch was most apparent with Elliott here. I can tell because I would have recognized a good portion of Elliot’s dragon anatomy in the Dragon’s Lair games.

Working with famed animator Ken Anderson, Bluth worked diligently to bring Elliott to life in a way that felt true to the spirit of genuine Disney. Outside of feeling Elliot’s presence when he was visible or invisible, I can read Elliot’s emotional facade and know what he was thinking or how he felt during his more tense, quiet, or over-the-top moments. It served as a good hint of what we would eventually see and appreciate in Don Bluth’s work when he started as an independent animator. And judging from how well the effects worked with Sean Marshall as Pete, I would say it paid off.

Around the same time—and I don’t think this was a coincidence—Bluth did his directorial project under Disney, The Small One, which was much like Pete’s Dragon. Tis time, the relationship was between a boy and a donkey, with, once again, Sean Marshall playing the boy’s role. The devotion to the craft felt just as evident with the boy and The Small One as it did with Pete and Elliott. That’s how strong the collaborative efforts between Don Bluth, Sean Marshall, and the visual team ultimately became.

For all the movie’s faults, the visuals were where the film earned its reputation as a Disney classic, even if it did not achieve as much of it as Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks did.

Speaking of Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and returning to the movie’s themes, I can tell just how overtly lighthearted Pete’s Dragon was when I compare how it handled its subject matter to how the two films I often spoke of handled theirs. Mary Poppins was powerful because it delicately portrayed the hard-edged reality of a struggling family, with Mr. Banks, the stubborn father, attempting to make amends with his wife and children despite being potentially more devoted to his work. And with Bedknobs and Broomsticks, it highlighted the severity of World War II, despite it occurring in the background, especially since Miss Price, a witch, sought to contribute to the war effort in the long run. Both films acknowledged the weight of the circumstances at hand and expressed them accordingly.

With Pete’s Dragon, it leaned a little too far into the kid side of the family scale, because the movie did not acknowledge the idea of an orphan running away from an abusive adoptive family or the possibilities of the townspeople’s reactions to there being an actual dragon enough to exploit them for its own benefit. If it devoted more time to diving into those dramatic angles, Pete’s Dragon would have become stronger and more resounding.

But as is, Pete’s Dragon came across as mere junk food with some valuable merits, but not enough to save it as a film. It was still fun getting reacquainted with Pete’s Dragon and what it accomplished. But whether I caught on to it then or now, it’s evident that for all my appreciation of what Pete’s Dragon did right, it still was not enough for me to enjoy it as a full-on Disney classic. The musical numbers were hit and miss, the performances were generally standard, and the film didn’t take itself very seriously. However, it came closest to earning its reputation as a classic with the songs and performances that did work, as well as the animation that Don Bluth enlivened Pete’s Dragon with when he was still working for Disney. I can tell that Disney was doing its best to regain its footing when it was uncertain of its own future and was lucky enough to have left behind a few hits every once in a while.

And from the looks of it, Pete’s Dragon might have been one of those hits, and even ‘Candle on the Water’, the song, became a hit on its own as a single. It ended up in the Adult Contemporary Hits list once upon a time, so that says something about its and the movie’s hidden appeal. If you’re looking for a film that is a little more on the fun side, especially concerning dragons, then I think this is not a bad one to go by. But if you’re looking for a family film that carries a much richer, more profound understanding of the dilemmas of a boy and his dragon and achieved it with the same dedication, love, and talent as some of Disney’s all-time greatest classics…

Well, I have five words for you: How to Train Your Dragon.

This movie may not be among Disney’s best, but it still had enough going for it to save it from staying invisible.

My Rating

A High B-

Additional Thoughts

– During Doc Terminus’ and Hoagy’s first attempt to negotiate with Pete about handing Elliott over to them, get a load of what Terminus attempted to compensate him with in return.

Deliver Elliott to me and the fiver is yours, plus a bottle of my medicine that's guaranteed to bring on puberty two years ahead of time.

Something about that just felt creepy.

– As Lampie, Nora, and Pete talked about Elliott as Pete was settling in their lighthouse, Nora proposed cleaning the lamp and getting some nice clothes for Pete. What was Lampie’s response?

Yes. We’ll clean Elliott and eat the lamp. I mean, clean the lamp.

Works Cited

Bluth, D. (2022). Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life. Smart Pop Books, an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc.