Pete's Dragon (1977 Film)
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''Pete's Dragon'' is a 1977 American live-action/animated
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...
fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...
directed by
Don Chaffey Donald Chaffey (5 August 1917 – 13 November 1990) was a British film director, writer, Film producer, producer, and art director. Chaffey's film career began as an art director in 1947, and his directorial debut was in 1953. He remained acti ...
, produced by Jerome Courtland and Ron Miller, and written by Malcolm Marmorstein. Based on the unpublished short story "Pete's Dragon and the USA (Forever After)" by Seton I. Miller and S. S. Field, it stars
Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...
, Jim Dale,
Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...
,
Red Buttons Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and Golden Globe for '' Sayonara''. He was nominated for awards for his work such as ''Harlow'' (1965), '' They Shoot Ho ...
, and
Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ' ...
. The project was initially conceived in 1957 as a two-part episode of the ''
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
'' television series, but it was shelved until it was revived as a musical film in 1975. The film was released on November 3, 1977, to mixed reviews from critics, though some praised the animation. The film received two nominations at the 50th Academy Awards, for musical scoring and original song.
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
released a single of Reddy performing " Candle on the Water" (with a different arrangement from that in the film) that reached #27 on the
Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
charts. The film spawned a
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...
made by
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...
and released in 2016.


Plot

In
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
in the early 1900s, an orphan named Pete flees from the Gogans – a horrible and abusive farm family that had previously purchased him – with the assistance of an unseen force he calls Elliott. They call for him to return and promise they will treat him better, while also intending to punish him severely. After they abandon their search, he falls asleep. The next morning, he awakens and Elliott is revealed to be a green
dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
that can turn invisible. Pete and Elliott visit
Passamaquoddy The Passamaquoddy (Maliseet-Passamaquoddy language, Passamaquoddy: ''Peskotomuhkati'', Plural: ''Peskotomuhkatiyik'') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American/First Nations in Canada, First Nations people who live in northea ...
, where the invisible Elliott's clumsiness causes Pete to be labeled a source of bad luck. Lampie, the lighthouse keeper, stumbles out of a tavern and encounters him. Elliott makes himself visible and Lampie, terrified, runs to the townspeople. They dismiss his claims as a drunken rant. In a seaside cave, Pete reprimands Elliott for causing trouble. As they make up, Lampie's daughter, Nora, appears, warning that Pete is not safe there because of the incoming tide. After realizing he is an orphan and not from the area, she offers him shelter at the lighthouse, and they bond. He learns the story of her fiancé, Paul, whose ship was lost at sea the year before, and promises to ask Elliott to try to locate him. Itinerant quack Dr. Terminus and his assistant, Hoagy, win over the gullible townspeople, who are angered by their return. After Lampie takes Hoagy to the cave where Elliot resides to prove that he is real, their encounter with him goes awry and they flee. Hoagy tries to tell Dr. Terminus about Elliott, but he does not believe him. The next day, the local fishermen complain about the scarcity of fish, believing it's Pete's fault. Nora says the fishing grounds shift from time to time and Pete should be welcomed into town. That night, Nora and Lampie argue over Lampie's claims of seeing Elliott and Nora's belief that Paul will return. Nora takes Pete to start school, where the teacher, Miss Taylor, punishes him for Elliott's antics. Enraged, Elliott smashes into the schoolhouse, leaving his shape in the wall and frightening the townspeople. Dr. Terminus, now convinced Elliott is real, discovers from a book that any physical property from dragons can be used for remedies and tonics, and conspires with Hoagy to exploit Elliott for medical profit. Pete accepts Nora and Lampie's invitation to live with them. When the Gogans arrive in town and demand he be returned, they brandish a document proving they had legally bought him for fifty dollars (plus fees), but Nora refuses to surrender him. As the Gogans chase them in a boat, Elliott sinks it, saving Pete. Dr. Terminus makes a deal with the Gogans to capture Pete and Elliott, even convincing the townspeople that capturing Elliott will solve their problems. That evening, a storm blows in, while at sea, a ship approaches Passamaquoddy with Paul on board. Dr. Terminus lures Pete to the boathouse while Hoagy does the same to Elliott, who gets caught in a net, but frees himself. He retrieves Pete in a confrontation with the Gogans, who finally accepted defeat and flee after he destroys their document. Dr. Terminus attempts to harpoon him, but his leg gets caught in the rope and he is sent catapulting through the ceiling, ending up dangling upside down near a utility pole. Elliott saves the Mayor, Miss Taylor, and the members of the Town Board from a falling utility pole, revealing himself to them. At the lighthouse, the lamp has been extinguished by a
rogue wave A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American in ...
. Elliott lights it with his fire, revealing himself to Nora and saving the ship. The next morning, the Mayor and townspeople praise Elliott for his help, and Nora is reunited with Paul. He explains he was the sole survivor of a shipwreck at
Cape Hatteras Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina. As a temperate barrier island, the landscape has been shaped by wind, waves, and storms. There are long stretches of beach ...
and suffered amnesia, but something knocked him out of bed and restored his memory. Elliott reveals to Pete that since he has a new family now and is safe at last, he must move on to help another child in trouble. Soon accepting this, Pete says goodbye to him as he and his family watch him fly away, with Pete reminding him that he is supposed to be invisible as he disappears into the sky.


Cast

*
Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...
as Nora, the kind daughter of the local lighthouse keeper. * Jim Dale as Dr. Terminus, a scheming quack and showman. *
Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...
as Lampie, the local lighthouse keeper and Nora's father. *
Red Buttons Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and Golden Globe for '' Sayonara''. He was nominated for awards for his work such as ''Harlow'' (1965), '' They Shoot Ho ...
as Hoagy, the assistant of Dr. Terminus. *
Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ' ...
as Lena Gogan, the
matriarch Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of power and privilege are held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, ...
of the Gogans. * Sean Marshall as Pete, an orphan escaping the cruel Gogans. * Jane Kean as Miss Taylor, the strict, no-nonsense, and abusive teacher. * Jim Backus as the Mayor of Passamaquoddy. * Charles Tyner as Merle Gogan, the
patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...
of the Gogans. * Gary Morgan as Grover Gogan, Merle and Lena's older sadistic son. * Jeff Conaway as Willie Gogan, Merle and Lena's younger sadistic son. * Cal Bartlett as Paul, a sailor who disappeared at sea and Nora's fiancé. * Walter Barnes as the Captain of the ship Paul returns home on. * Charlie Callas as the vocal effects for Elliott, a dragon who befriends Pete.


Music

The film's songs were written by
Al Kasha Alfred Kasha (January 22, 1937 – September 14, 2020) was an American songwriter, whose songs include "The Morning After (Maureen McGovern song), The Morning After" from ''The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film), The Poseidon Adventure'' and "We May ...
and Joel Hirschhorn.
Irwin Kostal Irwin Kostal (October 1, 1911 – November 23, 1994) was an American musical arranger of films and an orchestrator of Broadway musicals. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kostal attended Harrison Technical High School, but opted not to at ...
composed the score. " Candle on the Water" was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...
.


Production


Development

In December 1957, Walt Disney Productions optioned the film rights to the short story "Pete's Dragon and the U.S.A. (Forever After)" that was written by Seton I. Miller and S.S. Field, in which Miller was hired to write the script. Impressed with his performance in '' Old Yeller'',
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
had child actor Kevin Corcoran in mind to star in the project as a feature-length film. However, Disney considered the project to be more appropriate for his ''
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
'' anthology program, by which it was slated to be filmed as a two-part episode in the following year. In February 1958, '' Variety'' reported that filming was scheduled to begin in October. By the following spring, veteran screenwriter Noel Langley had completed his draft of the script. However, Disney was still unsure of how to approach the project, and the project was placed in turnaround. In 1968, writers Bill Raynor and Myles Wilder were hired to write the script, and completed their outline in October. They submitted their outline to the studio for review, but the project continued to languish in development. In 1975, producer Jerome Courtland re-discovered the project and hired writer Malcolm Marmorstein to write the script. For his script, Marmorstein revised the story from being in contemporary time into a period setting, and had the dragon changed from being wholly imaginary into a real one. In earlier drafts, Elliott was mostly invisible aside from one animated sequence, in which Dr. Terminus would chop up the dragon for his get-rich scheme. However, veteran Disney artist Ken Anderson felt the audience would "lose patience" with the idea and lobbied for Elliott to be seen more in his visible form during the film. In retrospect, Marmorstein conceded that "We tried a completely invisible dragon, but it was no fun. It was lacking. It's a visual medium, and you're making a film for kids." He also named the dragon "Elliott" after actor
Elliott Gould Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. Gould's breakthrough role was in the film ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The ...
(who was a friend from his theater days), and named the town "Passamaquoddy" after the real Native American tribe in
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
. In October 1975, the songwriting duo of
Al Kasha Alfred Kasha (January 22, 1937 – September 14, 2020) was an American songwriter, whose songs include "The Morning After (Maureen McGovern song), The Morning After" from ''The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film), The Poseidon Adventure'' and "We May ...
and Joel Hirschhorn were assigned to compose the musical score. The production was directed by British filmmaker
Don Chaffey Donald Chaffey (5 August 1917 – 13 November 1990) was a British film director, writer, Film producer, producer, and art director. Chaffey's film career began as an art director in 1947, and his directorial debut was in 1953. He remained acti ...
, who had made two smaller films for Disney in the early 1960s between directing larger fantasy adventures ('' Jason and the Argonauts'', ''
One Million Years B.C. ''One Million Years B.C.'' is a 1966 British Adventure film, adventure fantasy film directed by Don Chaffey. The film was produced by Hammer Film Productions and Seven Arts Productions, Seven Arts, and is a remake of the 1940 American fantasy f ...
'') for others.


Locations

The
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...
for the film was built on Point Buchon Trail in Montana De Oro State Park located south of Los Osos, California, substituting for Maine. It was equipped with such a large beacon that Disney had to get special permission from the Coast Guard to operate it, since doing so during filming would have confused passing ships. Pacific Gas and Electric opened the Point Buchon Trail and allows hikers access to where filming took place ().


Animation

The film is the first involving animation in which none of the Nine Old Men—Disney's original team of animators—were involved. One technique used in the movie involved compositing with a yellowscreen that was originally used in ''
Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...
'' and similar to today's greenscreen compositing, whereby up to three scenes might be overlaid together – for example, a live foreground, a live background, and an animated middle ground containing Elliott. Ken Anderson, who created Elliott, explained that he thought it would be appropriate to make him "a little paunchy" and not always particularly graceful at flying.
Don Hahn Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer. He served as a producer for the Disney films '' Beauty and the Beast'' (1991, the first out of three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture) ...
, who was an assistant director to
Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth ( ; born September 13, 1937) is an American filmmaker, animator, video game designer and author. He came to prominence working for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions before creating his own film studio in ...
on ''Pete's Dragon'', gained some experience working with a combination of live-action and animation before later going on to work on ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
''.


Release

''Pete's Dragon'' premiered on November 3, 1977 at the
Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...
, in which the film ran 134 minutes. For its general release, it was edited down to 121 minutes. It was later re-released on March 9, 1984, shortened from 121 minutes to 104 minutes. The film's movie poster was painted by artist Paul Wenzel.


Soundtrack

A soundtrack recording (Disneyland 3138) was released that told much of the story and added a narrator, but unlike many other Disney book and records, used the actual dialogue recorded for the film, which the book presented in script format. The inclusion of story led to the omission of several songs, including "The Happiest Home in These Hills," "There's Room for Everyone," and "Bill of Sale," while "Brazzle Dazzle Day" is included only in instrumental.


Home media

The film was released on VHS in early 1980. It was re-released on VHS on October 28, 1994 as a part of Masterpiece Collection. It was originally slated to be released in the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line-up on December 5, 2000, but it was pushed back to January 16, 2001. The DVD includes bonus features such as two animated shorts ''Lighthouse Keeping'' and ''Man, Monsters and Mysteries'', two vintage excerpts from the '' Disney Family Album'' episode on Ken Anderson and "The Plausible Impossible" from ''
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
'', and both theatrical trailers for the film. The film was re-released in a "High-Flying Edition" DVD on August 18, 2009. The DVD includes a half-hour documentary feature, a deleted storyboard sequence, original demo recordings of the songs, and several bonus features transferred from the Gold Classic Collection release. It was released on the 35th-anniversary edition Blu-ray on October 16, 2012.


Reception


Critical reaction

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' praised the film declaring it "the most energetic and enjoyable Disney movie in a long while." She noted, "Sean Marshall doesn't sing well, but Helen Reddy does, so she often accompanies his vocals. Miss Reddy is serviceable but undistinguished as an actress—she has a tendency to behave as if she were a very bright light bulb in a very small lamp—but she so often finds herself in the company of Messrs. Rooney, Dale or Buttons that her scenes work well." However, she was critical of the film's length and the excessive alcohol consumption. Kathleen Carroll of the ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' gave the film three stars out of four, criticizing the score and the live-action footage, but praising the animation of the dragon and the performances, writing "Sean Marshall, as Pete, looks and acts natural on camera which makes him a refreshing change from those sweet little cherubs usually cast in Disney movies. Miss Reddy plays her role with crisp efficiency and fortunately receives strong support for the rest of the cast, particularly Dale, so slick and funny as the conniving medicine man he nearly upstages the cuddly dragon." '' Variety'' wrote the film was "an enchanting and humane fable which introduces a most lovable animal star (albeit an animated one)." They praised the combination of live-action and animation as "never before more effectively realized" and commented that the film suffered "whenever Elliott is off screen." John Skow of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' wrote the film was "likeable fantasy", but dismissed the musical numbers as "a good opportunity to line up for more popcorn."
Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' wrote, "At 2 hours 7 minutes it is a trying span for small sitters. The animated excitements keep stopping for songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, but they are not showstoppers in the grand sense. Bland, perfunctory and too numerous is more like it."
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that "we get the same tired Disney formula: a gooey-faced kid in a phony sound-stage world populated by old actors required to perform ancient vaudeville routines ... Compared to the great Disney animation classics, 'Pete's Dragon' is just TV fare on the wide screen." Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' wrote that the film "was apparently meant to be a big, rousing musical comedy-fantasy, but it's staged and photographed without musical-comedy energy, flair or coordination ... Perhaps children can be counted on to enjoy Elliott's mugging and the slapstick interludes that occasionally interrupt the tedium, but parents will see this one more as a chore." Critic
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...
observed that Disney made several attempts to recreate the appeal and success of ''
Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...
'' (1964), and that ''Pete's Dragon'' did not come close on that score. However, he added that it might please children, and that "the animated title character is so endearing that it almost compensates for the live actors' tiresome mugging." Thomas J. Harris, in his book ''Children’s Live-Action Musical Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography'', heavily criticized the story as well as the compositing of the animated Elliott; he also found the "Mary Poppinsish ending" to be "thoroughly unmotivated", because Pete's life before meeting Elliott is never fleshed out. In 2006, Elliott was ranked fifth on a top 10 list of movie dragons by Karl Heitmueller for
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
Movie News. On the review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's consensus states: "Boring and slow, this is a lesser Disney work, though the animation isn't without its charms."
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
gave film a score of 46 based on 5 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


Box office

During its initial release, the film grossed $16.1 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada, which was ranked sixteenth on ''Variety''s box office hits list of 1978. However, the returns were considered disappointing for Disney who were hoping for a ''Mary Poppins''-sized blockbuster. The film has a lifetime domestic gross ranging from $36 to 39.6 million.


Accolades


Remake

In March 2013, Disney announced a remake of the film, written by David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks, the director/writer and co-producer (respectively) of the Sundance hit '' Ain't Them Bodies Saints'' (2013). It re-imagines a venerable Disney family and is presented as a straightforward drama as opposed to a musical. Principal photography commenced in January 2015 in
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, with Lowery directing, and subsequently released on August 12, 2016.


References


Bibliography

*


External links

* * * * *
''Pete's Dragon'' at DVDizzy.com


{{Authority control 1977 American animated films 1970s buddy comedy films 1970s children's animated films 1970s children's fantasy films 1970s English-language films 1970s fantasy adventure films 1970s musical fantasy films 1977 films 1977 children's films 1977 comedy films 1977 musical films American buddy comedy films American children's fantasy films American fantasy adventure films Animated films about dragons American films with live action and animation American musical fantasy films Films about child abuse Films about children Films about dragons Films about orphans Films directed by Don Chaffey Films produced by Ron W. Miller Films scored by Irwin Kostal Films set in the 1900s Films set in lighthouses Films set in Maine Films shot in California Films with screenplays by Malcolm Marmorstein Walt Disney Pictures films English-language musical fantasy films English-language fantasy adventure films English-language buddy comedy films