I've heard it said that it takes two women to raise a man: his mother and his wife. Hence, I'm taking the advice of my wife to abandon the war movie theme and instead go with random movies. In terms of random movies, Pete's Dragon ranks up there is zany stunts and plot. It's also my wife's favourite movie, mostly due to the fact one of the main characters is a dragon. While Elliot doesn't instill fear like the Hungarian Horntail and has a wing to mass ratio similar to Heimlich, he's still a dragon, and unlike typical dragons, he can make himself invisible.
While Elliot is an animated dragon, keep in mind director Don Bluth headed the animation for this memorable character. His number of projects at the time was not that impressive, but he did go on to produce the video game Dragon's Lair six years after the 1977 release of this movie. Working for Disney, it had to be cute, but Elliot had some fearsome attributes to him as well.
Having an animated character interact with a live action environment was not a new idea in 1977. One of the first movies to do so was the 1925 classic The Lost World. (I prefer to claim ignorance regarding the Jurassic Park sequel) I would like to say this was Erini's introduction to animated characters interacting with live action footage, but technically it would be Happy Feet. Hard to say if that counts, not because the interaction is limited to people watching the animated characters, but rather she slept through it. And she was about a month old at the time.
Nevertheless, she did pick up the emotional link between Pete and Elliot. She could see they were friends, and it wasn't good for them to be separated. When Pete was being held by the Gogans being used as bait, she made the comment, "That's not good!"
There is reason to believe that my daughter didn't quite understand the drunk scenes, which for some odd reason slipped my mind. Two of the main characters are heavy drinkers, and when they got to see Elliot by themselves, they are completely intoxicated. There's also a musical number done in a saloon, which ends with the entire patronage being showered with beer. I'm quite sure Disney wouldn't be able to get away with that today!
With all the reboots and remakes going on today, I really hope they leave Pete's Dragon alone. It was a classic for its time, and should remain so. Sprucing it up for the digital age by remastering the image and sound is fine, but the story, characters, plot, and most especially the music is excellent and timeless.
Erini wasn't quite as enthused about the songs as I thought she would be, but I guess she hasn't listened to Simply Sinister Songs that much. Only one of the songs from Pete's Dragon is on the CD, but it's still a catchy tune. Caitlin and I were singing along with all the songs from "The Happiest Home in These Hills" to "Brazzle Dazzle Day" despite not having seen the movie in over ten years, possibly twenty. Wow. I feel old now.
That's just the spirit of this movie. It's the kind of fun that you remember and treasure, and like all treasures, they increase in worth when they are shared.
I still have a hard time believing my coworkers have not seen this movie, but have seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Maybe once they have their own children, they'll think about sitting down and watching this with them.
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