WASHINGTON — Let’s not kid ourselves; Disney’s original “Pete’s Dragon” (1977) was not some sacred territory that should never be touched. Sure, it boasted heart and some Oscar-nominated tunes, but its blend of live action with hand-drawn animation hasn’t aged all that well over the past four decades.
It would be another 11 years before the mix was perfected by Robert Zemeckis in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988), an undisputed masterpiece that still holds up today. While “Roger Rabbit” belongs in the “untouchable” category; “Pete’s Dragon” was just waiting for a digital revival.
And so it’s with open arms that moviegoers can embrace Disney’s new update of “Pete’s Dragon,” blending a live action cast with a state-of-the-art CGI dragon shot on-location in New Zealand.
The film opens by showing how Pete became an orphan. In a reverse “Bambi” scenario of parental loss, a deer causes his parents’ car to crash into a forest. Pete escapes the back seat to roam the Pacific Northwest, where he encounters a green dragon named Elliot, who becomes his best friend.
Six years later, 10-year-old Pete (Oakes Fegley) is a feral child roaming the woods when he is spotted by a girl named Natalie (Oona Laurence) and ultimately taken in by a wildlife ranger named Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose storyteller father (Robert Redford) swears he saw a dragon years ago. The rest of the town is far more skeptical, including Natalie’s father Jack (Wes Bentley), who runs the local lumber mill, and her uncle Gavin (Karl Urban), a selfish hunter who would love to capture Elliot.
While the 1977 original boasted Hollywood legends in Mickey Rooney, Shelley Winters and Jim Backus, the new “Pete’s Dragon” has its own brand of starpower, namely Robert Redford as the wise sage who doubles as the film’s de-facto narrator. After last year’s hiking comedy “A Walk in the Woods” (2015), Redford maintains a sort of spiritual connection with nature, not to mention a fondness for tall-tale storytelling that recalls the best elements of Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” (2003).
Rounding out the adult cast are a trio of familiar faces. Bryce Dallas Howard is the film’s rock as the nurturing park ranger, swapping her “Jurassic World” high heels for more effective hiking boots. Wes Bentley continues to be that guy you swear is in everything from “American Beauty” (1999) to “The Hunger Games” (2012) to “American Horror Story: Hotel” (2015). And Karl Urban shows a darker side from his comedic Bones in the “Star Trek” reboot (“Damn it, Jim, I’m a villain, not a doctor!”).
Of course, the whole thing wouldn’t have worked without a strong child actor playing Pete. Enter the talented Oakes Fegley, who straps the film on his back and carries it quite effectively. The “Boardwalk Empire” alum got his big break when he was cast as Michelle Monaghan’s son in “Fort Bliss” (2014), directed by American University professor Claudia Myers. WTOP caught up with Fegley at the 2014 G.I. Film Festival in Alexandria, Virginia, and even then you could tell this kid was going places:
Despite the deep human cast, the real star of the picture is obviously the dragon Elliot. The jolly green giant is majestic when he takes flight, heartbreaking when he peers into windows, menacing when he breathes fire at his foes, and adorable when he cuddles up with Pete to stay warm in the woods. Who says dogs are man’s best friend when you have dragons? Just ask Khaleesi from “Game of Thrones.”
The impressive visual effects are done by Peter Jackson’s New Zealand digital effects company Weta Digital, which has already won five Oscars for the “Lord of the Rings Trilogy” (2001-2003), “King Kong” (2005) and “Avatar” (2009). In “Pete’s Dragon,” the graphics allow Elliot to disappear in the forest with an invisibility trick, while soaring above the clouds to composer Daniel Hart’s music.
Cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (“The Ring”) seamlessly weaves the CGI into the Pacific Northwest setting, while director David Lowery infuses the perfect magical tone. It’s the first blockbuster for Sundance darling Lowery, who co-writes the script with his “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (2013) producer Toby Halbrooks. Aside from the title and basic characters, Lowery and Halbrooks smartly take the story in a different direction than 1977, freeing themselves to tell the story they want to tell.
It’s hard to find flaw in the optimism on display here, except to say that a lot of it feels familiar — and not just compared to the original. At times, the title should be “Pete and Repeat,” recycling the man-cub sprints of “The Jungle Book” (2016); the “toothless” grins of “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010); the idea of corrupt adults hauling away the child’s unique friend like “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982); and a feral child re-acclimating to the human world like Jacob Tremblay in “Room” (2015).
But this movie isn’t trying to be “Room.” It’s a whimsical fairy tale spun into solid summer family entertainment, magical enough for kids and smart enough to keep parents engaged. It asks us to believe in legends, reminding us that just because we can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
