One of the sad aspects of adulthood is the effect time and real-life experience has on the sense of imagination and fantasy that defined our early years. There are few things more beautiful than the entanglement of a child’s daydreams with the physical world around them. That feeling of freedom and fantasy is what permeates Disney’s Pete’s Dragon remake and makes it one of the most delightful children’s films you’ll see at the cinema this year.
The movie’s magic emanates from Elliot, the creature from the title. While he is indeed distinctively a dragon, this updated version of the character from the 1977 original has got flowing, grass-green fur, a dog-like snout, and an ever-playful disposition. Essentially, the artists have imbued a dragon — the coolest, most iconic fantasy creature — with all of the adorable trappings of the baby animals so many people enjoy watching on YouTube, a winning combination that’s even more whimsical onscreen than it is on paper.
It’s not long before we see the digital marvel in motion. Shortly after a fatal tragedy leaves young Pete (Oakes Fegley) orphaned and lost in the forest, he’s found by house-sized Elliot, sparking a lifelong companionship. We then jump ahead six years and are given a glimpse into the pair’s everyday life as they rollick through the timberlands. Pete tumbles and leaps off of high branches Tarzan-style as Elliot snatches him out of the air whenever he thinks the boy is headed for a nasty spill. The actor/screen-creature interplay is exhilarating, and that’s because director David Lowery keeps the focus on the emotion of the moment rather than the CGI spectacle.
The Dallas-based filmmaker’s last film, inky outlaw drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, exists on a decidedly darker side of the storytelling spectrum than Pete’s Dragon, but the striking similarity between both stories is that they revolve around outcast duos whose bonds remain unbroken despite the world threatening to tear them apart. Pete and Elliot’s happy existence is thrown into disarray when a good-intentioned park ranger named Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) attempts to integrate Pete back into society. Since she was a girl, she’s rolled her eyes at a tall tale her father (Robert Redford) has spread around town, about a magical encounter he had with a dragon in his childhood. Understandably, she’s rattled when Pete tells her about the fuzzy green friend he left back in the woods.
Pete’s internal tug-of-war between his new, civilian life and forest home with Elliot is ripe with dramatic potential, and that potential is realized in full not just by Lowery and co-writer Toby Halbrooks, but by the show-stealing Fegley. The physicality of his performance is remarkable; a moment late in the movie sees him expressing concern, frustration, suspicion, anger, and defeat, all without uttering a word. He’s got a wonderful onscreen partner in Oona Laurence (she plays Grace’s daughter and Pete’s first human friend), but what’s really stunning is that, most of the time, Fegley’s acting opposite a non-existent, digital creation. WETA Digital did a phenomenal job on Elliot, but ultimately, what makes him feel so utterly convincing and real is the way Fegley looks at him.
The adult actors lend their fair share to the proceedings, though they’re loosely handcuffed by the underwritten character work (a common kid-movie misstep). Howard and Redford have some sweet moments together, but co-stars Wes Bentley and Karl Urban are dealt bad hands. The former plays Grace’s husband Jack, whose hot-headed brother Gavin (Urban) serves as the closest thing to a villain the movie offers. Gavin is little more than a plot-propeller, but Urban’s cartoonish reactions to Elliot are far and away the film’s funniest moments. There’s a brotherly love story that develops between he and Jack, but it’s so painfully cursory that one wonders if the movie would be better off without Jack in it at all.
A lot of the secondary-character shallowness is alleviated, however, by the movie’s easy-flowing rhythm. The scenes dovetail into and out of each other like butter, and whenever the characters start to sink a little, the larger narrative — centered squarely on Pete and Elliot’s pure, timeless friendship — sweeps us up and carries us onward and upward. Unlike most major studio productions, the film never seems to be in a hurry; Lowery has a steady hand, and he makes no attempt at adult-pandering or plot-twist trickery.
Pete’s Dragon is a fun, unabashedly kid-friendly film that makes old-fashioned, simple storytelling cool again.