Memorable, crazy movie

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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.

Sunday,Feb. 21st, I took out an old copy of Pete's Dragon, that i have on VHS and decided to watch it. It had been a few years since I'd looked at it. I watched it in the company of my significant other, who being a few years younger, had not yet seen it. Well, not only did she like it but I was reminded why I liked it in the first place. For a few of my so called 'grown up years, I'd dismissed it a great deal as 'not Disney's best work'. I also didn't have a nice word for Sean Marshall's (Pete's) singing voice. (I'd roll my eyes during the 'I Love You Too' song.Now this past Sunday also, was the Disneyland 60th anniversary show on ABC, in which a preview trailer of the NEW 'Pete's Dragon was shown. I had no idea that a 'new' version of this childhood favorite was coming out soon or was even being made. What I can tell anyone who is thinking of going to see the new version is, as I always say about remakes, see the original version first. Sure, it was made in 1977 and the special effects aren't the same as what we're used to today....but that's what they had to work with then and what movie goers were used to then as well. Yes, that includes 'green-screen'effects. More importantly, what makes Pete's Dragon engaging is that it 'is' so very simple and child-like in most of it's telling. There's a few things said & done by adults in the film that are not up to today's Politically Correct do's & don't's, where kids films are concerned. They're a product of the time it was made and by a different generation, so it's best to just consider the era they're from.The film over the years has been called things from kiddie-fair, to overly sentimental to emotionally disturbing. None of which are fair labels, nor are they grounded in anything but certain scenes taken out of context. I would say that maybe, since it's a movie with a dragon, people then possibly expected Elliot to do more fantastic things than he actually did. He's a funny character with a funny way of talking and uses 'some' of his magic. I'm sure it was expected he'd use that magic on a greater scale. Anyhow,the story is this. Pete's an orphaned boy between 10 & 12 who is 'purchased' by the despicable 'Gogan' family, who are dirty, filthy and lazy and use Pete as child slave labor back home. They even have a 'bill of sale'. Pete's been befriended by Elliot, a usually invisible but sometimes seen, green Dragon (with little wings) that's helped him escape from the Gogans. He and Pete have come upon the quiet seaside town of Passamaquoddy, Maine. (Circa 1910s) Where in no time at all, Elliot makes the possibility of Pete living (and hiding out) there almost impossible. Enter Nora (Singer Helen Reddy) and 'Lampie' (Mickey Rooney), who operate the local lighthouse. (It's never made clear if they're co-workers or Father & daughter).Lampie is a drinker & former sailor, who actually sees Elliot and is frightened like crazy. Nora (and the boys at the bar) doubt him completely. Soon, because of Elliot's antics, it seems the town (except for Nora) is against Pete. Nora takes him in and thinks that Elliot is just something Pete made up. As the story goes on, there's other baddies to worry about besides the Gogans. Doc Terminus a snake-oil (fake medicine) salesman and his shill Hoagie arrive also. not just to take money from the townspeople but, when finding out about Elliot, want to get hold of him to use his parts in the things they sell. How will all of this turn out? Watch and see. In the meantime, I can tell you the songs here are pretty good. Reddy's 'Candle On The Water' is a great number, so much so it w released as a single for radio in1978. All of her numbers are good, as before this she'd had many top selling records. "Brazzle Dazle Day' is also an unforgettable & very catchy number sung by her, Roony & Marshall, as the paint the lighthouse.The Gogan's "Bill Of Sale' song is as grungy as they are. not note perfect but they're not perfect either, so it's fitting. Other songs by other characters are sung , 'in character'. To be fair to Pete, Marshall is actually a good singer but is singing as a regular boy like Pete could only be able too. So, I feel it was meant to happen that I ended up watching the original the same day as that special. Meaning, I may just go see the new version but it's still good to know that the original's always there. Not just to give an idea of what the new version may be like or how it'll be different ..but also, if someone may just like something from a time that was simpler and more easy going. 9 out of 10 from me, only one off for,again, some questionable dialog and actions from the grown ups in the film. (END)

During its original cinematic release, I recall kids in the audience dancing along with the colorful songs, and hooting over Elliot the dragon. The adults just loved Doc Terminus and bumbling Hoagie, not to mention the near scene-stealing Gogan clan. The entire film is just plain enjoyable and quite entertaining.Now some have mocked this film as dull, silly animation, with a laughable "dragon". However they forget that, like Mary Poppins, Bedknobs, Gullivers Travels, etc - this is partial animation - not the sophisticated modern CGI, the younger audiences are more familiar with. For its time, partial animation was a brilliant film-making invention incorporation. It spawned the Who Framed Roger Rabbitt? franchise into movie credits history.The entire cast here is perfectly delightful in their roles, and very entertaining. And how better fitting for Helen Reddy to portray a liberated lighthouse keeper, following the 1970's Women's Liberation movement, and her respective contemporary music hits, "I am woman", and "No way to treat a lady".Of course, fans will argue that Elliot the dragon is the ultimate scene stealer. Decent job, production delivered, with interacting Pete, realistically, with the animated Elliot. And Sean Marshall was gold as young Pete.

This takes you back to the era of invisible friends, kids who talked to Martians through their lunch boxes, and pure imagination where we had to create our own games rather than turn on a switch or pick up a remote control. Yes, this is typical Disney silliness, but there's a lot to enjoy in it in spite of all that goody-goody happiness.Sean Marshall is Pete, the troublesome adolescent who is truly lonely and finds a friend in an animated dragon who sings, although not very well. He's run away from his foster family (Ma Shelley Winters has the bill of sale to prove it), and ends up living with the eccentric Mickey Rooney and his sweet daughter (Helen Reddy). One of the top singers of the 1970's, Reddy was a very charming actress, and her solo, "Candle on the Water", is one of the sweetest movie songs ever written. When Marshall, Rooney and Reddy break down and declare, "It's a Brazzle, Dazzle Day!", you're back in movie musical heaven, reminding you that Rooney was once the Sean Marshall of his era, singing and dancing with Judy Garland and conducting an orchestra where the members and their instruments were pieces of fruit or a huge slice of cake.Jim Dale takes over the villainy here as the carny man who wants to get his hands on Pete, and when he joins up with the over-the-top Winters and her brood, it's a mud-flying moment of fun with Elliott the Dragon being just as mischievous as Pete when confronting his new best friend's foes. Other professionals like Red Buttons and Jim Backus add to the fun here, with a musical score that threatens to top both "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" in originality and some spot on choreography that may have you applauding.This was Disney's last live action/partially animated musical, a bit past their golden era, but showing that they were concerned about the state of film as America transfered from one turbulent era into another. Some critics might call it dated, and it even may be slightly similar in theme to "Finian's Rainbow" (a dragon instead of a leprechaun), but it's still a ton of fun and filled with magical entertainment that pretty much everybody can enjoy.

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.