Pete's Dragon (1977)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

A throwaway Disney film, "Pete's Dragon" is distinguished only by strong performances from its adult cast. Helen Reddy brings a sly intensity to her performance, elevating it above what is actually written. Shelley Winters and Jim Dale are entertaining in way over-the-top roles, and Mickey Rooney gives an enjoyable performance as a Disnified alcoholic. Unfortunately, not much good can be said for any other element of the movie. The songs are not only boring, but go on twice as long as they should, since almost all of them have interludes. Surprisingly few of them have anything to do with the matters at hand, and could easily have been rejects from other musicals. For example, the love song Pete sings to his dragon at the beginning manages to be both generic and awkward, sounding exactly like something that would appear in the middle of a musical romance. The animation was probably nothing to write home about even in 1977, and its integration into the live action is far less seamless than what had come before in "Mary Poppins" (1964, mind you!) and what would come again in the future.

What a surprise! Much better than I remembered it. Great songs and cast with great performances by Red Buttons and Mickey Rooney. Shelly Winters plays a wonderfully-horrible villain with "blackout" teeth. A simple story about a magical dragon that only Pete can see (at first) and clever dragon mechanical effects: Pete riding Elliott, toasting apples, dragon footprints, his "outline" on the schoolhouse wall, thrashing around inside a whale-sized net. The dragon animation by Don Bluth is fanciful, which is good because this is a children's' movie. Some technical glitches, as the "yellowscreen" (sodium vapor) process renders Elliott the Dragon somewhat prone to minor color-"timing" shifts. But this is not something that kids care about anyway. Some of the songs are way too long or are there just too many songs? When shown on "broadcast" TV it was often abridged. Like "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" it attempted to become the next "Mary Poppins" and we will have to see how that works out when its upcoming sequel appears. My two favorite segments are Helen Reddy rolling around on exploding beer barrels (ridiculously fun!) in the town pub, and the "Professor's 3-part musical "rant" "using every little piece" of Elliott the Dragon in potions and powders Although "Candle on the Water" is the Oscar-nominated song, Red Buttons and Mickey Rooney round out a great cast I bet your kids start humming "Brazzle-Dazzle Day" as the movie ends! Remade in 2016 with a friendly, furry, green (CGI) dragon.

This is one of the best musicals of all time, right up there with The Sound of Music. Yes, I have a lot of nostalgia as I had this on Betamax growing up and wore it out... but now I'm watching it with my own kids and they love it just like I did. This movie holds up and translates well to all generations.The songs are fantastic, but my least favorite is the one it may be most known for (Candle on the water). Lampie... Doc Terminus... they're all just really, really good performances of well written songs.It has everything a musical needs. Great acting, great singing, great choreography, great story, and a lot of heart. The live action/animation is really good for the time, so there's no reason to get hung up on that. Plus Elliot is awesome.I honestly can't understand how this is under 9 stars.

Pete is a small boy running away from slavery with an abusive hillbilly family who have "bought" him. He falls in with an invisible dragon and a lighthouse keeper and his daughter, and assorted good and bad things happen.This Disney offering is one of the more forgotten live action movies despite the fact that it has quite a lot going for it. It is colourful, daft, has a good moral heart, some excellent villains, decent songs, and decent effects (both physical effects and traditional animation).The performances are all good, with Helen Reddy doing well in her only movie lead role, and young Sean Marshall's sincerity outweighing his winsome cuteness.This is still a good family film.