Trailer Unavailble

     Pete’s Dragon

1977  G  FANTASY  2h 14min

CAST— Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters

MUSIC— Irwin Kostal  DIRECTOR— Don Chaffey

     Another of Walt Disney’s sing along extravaganzas, but unfortunately nary a song is memorable. Pete is a young urchin boy doggedly pursued by a hillbilly clan that claims to own Pete. On the run he’s accompanied and protected by a devoted, animated dragon named Elliott, a beast not of the village-razing variety but more along the lines of the gentle giant. Oh, and he can become invisible on a whim, which causes all manner of mischief. As Pete befriends the local lighthouse keeper and her lovable sot of a father (Mickey Rooney) the hillbilly clan moves closer, as does Dr. Terminus, a roving snake oil peddler, purveyor of all manner of dubious cure and suspicious sundry. Whereas everyone in the hamlet of Passamaquoddy sees this so-called invisible dragon as a figment of Rooney’s rum-soaked ramblings, Terminus sees dollar signs and convinces the populace to capture this supposed beast in a song-filled, slapstick-laden misadventure. Though far from being one of Disney’s classics there’s very little to object to from a parental standpoint. More modern audiences, kids included, may be quickly disillusioned by the sappiness herein but hey, it was the 70s.

OUR RATING— **

REMADE AS— Pete’s Dragon (2016)