When it was announced that Disney would be re-imagining it’s beloved live action/animated 1977 “Pete’s Dragon” for a new generation, it was met with some trepidation by many, including myself. Although not one of the blockbusters in its vaults, over the years “Pete’s Dragon” nevertheless found its way into the hearts of kids and adults alike around the globe as folks fell in love with the story of a young orphan boy named Pete whose best friend is a dragon named Elliott. Populated with classic stars like Mickey Rooney, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, Jim Backus and one of the top recording artists of the day, Helen Reddy, it was always a “brazzle dazzle day” watching the adventures of Pete and his animated pink haired dragon Elliott (who bears a striking resemblance to Madame Mim in Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone”), and still is today for many, including Bryce Dallas Howard, one of the stars of the new PETE’S DRAGON.
No longer located on the early 20th century coast of Maine with lighthouses and lobster fishermen, Disney has completely reimagined the tale thanks to writer/director David Lowery and co-writer Toby Halbrooks, taking us into Pacific Northwest logging country and the sleepy town of Millhaven, delivering a family film filled with heart, imagination and a lot of love. PETE’S DRAGON is the very best of Disney and the old-fashioned, wholesome storytelling values that Walt Disney infused into the heart of every film all those decades ago.
We first meet Pete on a road trip with his parents. Sitting in the back seat of the car, he is quietly engrossed in his picture book about a boy and his dog named Elliot. But then this idyllic picture is shattered as a deer leaps in front of the car, causing a devastating accident, killing Pete’s parents and leaving him alone on en empty stretch of road in the middle of a forest. (Perhaps one of the darkest openings for a Disney film since “Bambi”, one wonders if it is more than a touchstone that a deer is the catalyst for this story.) Alone and afraid, yet curious, Pete wanders into the forest where he is chased by wolves. Just when it appears he’s going to be their supper, a wonderful magical thing happens. As if coming from the trees themselves, a very green and large, very very large, creature appears, scaring the wolves away. But for some reason, Pete isn’t afraid. And neither is this large creature, whom Pete calls “Elliot” after the dog in his storybook. The connection between the two is undeniable.
Fast forward six years and we are reintroduced to Pete and Elliot who are now clearly the best of friends. They are inseparable as this little “jungle boy” and his big green dragon run through the forest playing hide and seek, fetch and tag, but above all, soaring higher and higher above the clouds. (Trust me. This is why you want to see the movie in 3D.) Of course, Elliot always seems to have the advantage over Pete because as it turns out, he can make himself invisible!
In the meantime, we meet the people of Millhaven, starting with the lovable woodcarver Mr. Meacham who loves to tell stories about his time in the woods when he met a dragon that breathed fire! Although long a town myth, Meacham insists the dragon is real while his daughter Grace, a forest ranger, gently dismisses his tale as folly since she has never seen a dragon in all her years walking the forests in her efforts to preserve the region from destruction by a local lumber company, ironically operated by her environmentally conscious fiancé Jack and his money-hungry brother Gavin. So, if Grace has never seen a huge dragon within the trees, imagine her surprise when she sees Pete.
The real adventure begins as Grace and Jack try to ascertain Pete’s past while Pete tells them stories of his friend Elliot who has helped him all these years. Offering to introduce Elliot to them all, Pete, Grace, Mr. Meacham and Jack’s daughter Natalie venture to Pete and Elliot’s treehouse/cave condo a la Swiss Family Robinson deep in the woods. And while Grace is in awe and Natalie curious and excited, it’s Meacham who has the biggest smile of all. Elliot is his dragon, too.
But the joy of meeting Elliot is cut short when Gavin learns of Elliot’s existence and sees him as a big game trophy that will make him millions and make him famous. With Gavin and his posse after Elliot, can Pete and his new friend Natalie, with a lot of help from Mr. Meacham, save him.
With a resume that includes “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”, David Lowery is not the obvious choice as writer/director for the family friendly PETE’S DRAGON, yet he proved to be the right choice. What Lowery has done is nothing short of magical. Developing a world that is timeless not only in its values but with its visuals, the story rises and falls on the relationship between Pete and Elliot. Calling on the visual effects talents of Weta, Elliot is beyond believable and a friend that anyone and everyone would want to have. Opting for a furry dragon, Elliot has 15 million individual hairs covering his body, each one wafting in the wind as he flies high. Why a furry dragon? As Lowery admits, “I wanted to have a 20 foot tall version of one of my cats. . .If I was living in the woods with some sort of creature that was 20 feet tall, I’d really hope he was furry because I’d want to snuggle up with him.” And that’s exactly what Pete does. But as any cat owner knows, sleep typically wins out over hours of play, which means we also see a lot of dog-like qualities to Elliot.
Real joy comes not only with his lumbering movements on ground but a fluid grace when flying; once he gets airborne that is. Realizing that it would be difficult to achieve a “real world believability” for take-off given Elliot’s body structure, the team looked to seagulls for flight patterns, landing and take-off. And the sounds that Elliot “speaks”? Yes, it’s as believable as one sitting at home talking to their own dog or cat. But the real magic comes from eyeline. The eyeline created between Elliot and Pete is flawless and provides the film with its most emotional moments. We are looking into Elliot’s eyes as well, establishing that intimate connection. It’s the technical effects of Elliot that fuel the believability of emotion within the story. Beautifully rendered.
A key thematic of PETE’S DRAGON is family and the idea that a “traditional” family is no longer the only kind of family. Here we have Pete who’s an orphan and Elliot who has been his family for six years, Grace and her dad with her mother having passed away, single dad Jack and daughter Natalie alone after the passing of her mother, and brothers Jack and Gavin. As the story develops, we see the family dynamic take shape as a strong blended unit of family and community. Family doesn’t have to be defined by blood, but by connection. A powerful message in this day and age.
The other half of the emotional thread at the heart of PETE’S DRAGON is Pete played by Oakes Fegley. Oakes is going to rule the world one day. Confident, exuberant, talented, he is perfection as 10-year old Pete, embodying the fun of being a kid, but also the gravitas of loss and sorrow, and the importance of friendship and love. Oakes’ gift for displaying emotional range is off the charts. And for Oakes, one of the biggest thrills of PETE’S DRAGON is that he got to do his own stunts. However, not only is the relationship between Pete and Elliot critical, Oakes’ ability to mesh with “humans” like Bryce Dallas Howard and Oona Lawrence and a legend like Robert Redford. He does so seamlessly.
Every maternal instinct in Bryce Dallas Howard comes out in her performance as Grace, a woman on her own journey of self-discovery as she tries to discover and uncover Pete’s journey. Howard is at her best when opposite Oakes Fegley or Oona Lawrence, but at the top of her game in moments with Robert Redford. A little rough is the chemistry between Howard and Wes Bentley’s Jack, and while both individual performances work, together the emotion doesn’t quite make the cut.
Oona Laurence is another shining star in PETE’S DRAGON. Many may have already seen her in “Bad Moms”. Her character of Natalie here is nothing like that in “Bad Moms” but for the inherent confidence that naturally flows from Lawrence. She and Fegley together are a dynamic duo as Natalie helps bring Pete into the real world while believing as much in Elliot as Pete does. Nice balance from Laurence.
When it comes to villains, Karl Urban soars as Gavin. Ranking up there are one of the best villains in the Disney cadre, the over-zealous approach Urban takes fits both the character and the film.
And then there’s Robert Redford. Although voicing a horse in the 2006 live-action “Charlotte’s Web” some years ago, Redford is not known for his work in family films; which is exactly why he elected to do PETE’S DRAGON. Globally recognized for his environmentalism and conservation activism, given the very nature of the thematics of the film which also tackle deforestation, one would think that was the attraction to the film and his role of Mr. Meacham. It wasn’t. I spoke with Redford about making PETE’S DRAGON and broached that very subject with him. His response, “The magic [of storytelling]. That’s what it was. When I was a kid I grew up with that word being paramount. That word was huge as a child growing up, ‘cause you were little and the world and the world was bigger than you were. So anytime you saw that word, it meant that it was touching something larger than your life. So you loved that idea. The word ‘magic’ was very paramount when I was a kid and then you outgrow it. Pretty soon you’re living a life where there’s no magic any more and you kind of regret it. . .So the idea that I could play a part in a project that really has to do with the word magic and you keep that alive . . .the idea of being in a project that could bring that back, I liked that.” Of course, Redford’s own passions for the environment also came into play, especially given the film was being shot in New Zealand.
New Zealand is more than an adequate substitute for the United States Pacific Northwest, particularly with the forest scenes. Shooting in Rotorua’s Redwood Forest for Pete and Elliot’s home is beyond stunning, allowing Lowery and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli to really deliver some visual magic. With the Rotura location, one gets a sense of “Middle Earth”; akin to the Pacific Northwest but with a heightened magical realism. Thanks to the towering nature of these redwood trees, one is subconsciously made to feel very small, like when a kid and the entire world felt very big. Lowery and Bazelli tap into the kid within each of us, letting us believe once again in the magic and wonder of the world and our imaginations.
Making the most of camera dutching and upward pans, light softly filters through the majestic tree line, creating an almost mystical haze. As director Lowery told me, “We wanted to shoot this whole movie in the real world. We wanted it to feel real and at the same time feel gorgeous and beautiful and slightly heightened. . . to make it look epic.” Because Bazelli is a believer in reliance on natural light for lensing, “we would just go out into these places and wait for the right time, wait for the sun to be in the right place and shoot.” Interesting is that according to Lowery, “A lot of times when you’re watching the scenes in the woods, the characters on a shot by shot basis are moving from one place to the next. Because it’s in the forest, you can’t tell. But we just moved them around the world based on what the sun was doing in the sky. That was sort of how we shot the entire film. It was really based on what the sun was doing.” Although wanting to shoot on film, because of no more film labs in New Zealand, PETE’S DRAGON is digitally shot, but Cooke and Zeiss anamorphic lenses are used, giving the film that timeless palette and texture.
Similarly, the city of Tapanui is transportive with its small town, Main Street, USA feels and serves the film well as the “hub” of Millhaven.
Scoring by Daniel Hart is sweeping, soaring perhaps a bit too much at times, leading the emotional beats instead of following or serving as an undercurrent. On the whole, however, it is beauteous, particularly during playful scenes in the forest between Elliot and Pete or soaring higher and higher above golden pink and peach tinged lavender-blue wispy clouds.
A remake or reimagination that surpasses the storytelling and imagination of the original, a lifetime of love, laughter and joy awaits you in PETE’S DRAGON.
Directed by David Lowery
Written by David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks
Cast: Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oakes Fegley and Oona Laurence
