Pete's Dragon (1977)

Overview via IMDB.com

An orphan boy and his magical dragon come to town with his abusive adoptive parents in pursuit.

Brazzle Dazzle Brilliance!

His name is Elliott. He's 20 feet high, 40 feet long. He can become invisible at the drop of a hat, or spew red hot flames. In fact, there's only one way to bring this awesome beast under control... rub his tummy.

(should’ve just used the last writeup, who can outdo a line like “brazzle dazzle brilliance!”?)

Then:
I recall thinking of Pete’s Dragon as a cool movie due to its incorporation of both live action and animated characters. Growing up in the 80's all movies that I remember were either live action, or cartoons. This live action kid had a freaking dragon freaking cartoon dragon.

In the mind of a child, worlds were colliding! The fact that the dragon was a cartoon versus being a live action dragon (I know dragons are probably not real) softened him and made him seem almost attainable for a little kid. In addition, Pete seemed to be around my age when I first saw the movie, and while he sported some rad freckles as I did/do, Pete, unlike me, was a little fucking ragamuffin—dirty from running amok outside in his suspenders, which I dug. Elliot (aka the dragon) was cool because, well, he was a goddamn dragon. He flew around on preposterously small wings, chowed down on apples instead of children, breathed fire, etc., etc. He was a dragon, people. A nice, friendly dragon. I don’t need to go into why I thought that was cool, you did too, admit it. Hell, I would still watch a movie about a kid and his dragon (frantically adding How to Train Your Dragon to my Netflix account….)

Now, I can’t move on without mentioning the Gogans.

WELCOME TO MY EFFING NIGHTMARE

Let me be honest with you, reader. The Gogans scared the poo right out of my little white ass when I first saw this movie. They had more dirt on their faces than anyone I had ever seen, they were missing teeth, and they just kept trying to steal Pete. Fuck the Gogans.

Undoubtedly, these were all key ingredients that worked to attract my little kid brain. It incorporated animation, a young kid, and allowed my imagination to run a bit wild.

Those damn Gogans really almost ruined it for me though.


Now:
The movie opens with Pete running from the Gogans!

Already this is losing rad points because I’m a little irked by them still. They’re as dirty as ever and Pete hides while Elliot takes care of them, throwing them in mud and making them even dirtier.

Moving on.

Wait a freaking minute, this is a musical? I honestly completely forgot that Pete’s Dragon was a musical. Hmph, ok, well I guess it is.

There are a few songs throughout, none very memorable but the actors have some chops, the sets are legit and so are the costumes; kudos, PD.

Throughout the movie there’s a fair amount of drinking, mostly it’s Lampie (Mickey Rooney) getting obliterated and blowing the cover on the kid that has a dragon to anyone who will listen.

I forgot about Dr. Terminus trying to KILL Elliot and chop him up for parts. This movie was way more adult than I recall with the drinking, kidnapping, and attempted murder of the coolest character, Elliot (or maybe Lampie now that I’m older, but that’s for another day).

Finally, Elliot has to leave once Nora (Lampie’s daughter, she lives in the lighthouse with Lampie), Paul (Nora’s husband), and Lampie take him in because Elliot says that other kids need his help. That’s nice, right? A happy ending. Screw that, I’d want to keep my dragon, I don’t need a home! I “get” the ending but I don’t like it thus my judgement below.

HOW RAD WAS IT?! Not Rad.

*I hate to have to put an asterisk next to the first posting but Pete’s Dragon was nominated for 2 (yes 2!) Oscars. They were for the songs, which I directly said were not memorable in the post (get used to mistakes here, we’re not Wikipedia or something!).


eds. note: Stephen B. posted this because, well, Ryan is dumb and didn't know how. Ryan actually wrote this fine piece of American Literature. Keep an eye out for Stephen's upcoming addition.