It has to be said I am not the target audience for his film so my opinion is very much moot. Had I been about the same age as the child protagonists I would probably have really liked the film a great deal more than I did.
The first big stumbling block for me was the sense of belief in Elliot himself. A furry cat-like dragon, that chases his tail, he looks very much like Shrek but even more troubling was he dumbish animal or a more sentient being? It seemed to vary from scene to scene. The effects of Elliot were as usual top notch.
Any film with best frowner in the business, Karl Urban, certainly couldn’t be all and bad and overall the cast, including the children, certainly put the effort in – even Bryce Dallas Howard an actor that I have problems felt more accessible and likable in this movie.
Despite the tear-jerking premise and the desperate appeal to children the makers were creating there was something slight and soulless about the film. It felt more industrial, churned out of a Disney conveyor belt.
With a stellar adult cast and good child actors, competent special effects it must be said Disney missed the target. Mainly the characterisation of the dragon is the grit in the gears seemingly unsure of his behaviour from moment to moment. A simple error to correct and disappointing more detail seemingly was not given to the main character.
Children of a certain age will like Pete’s Dragon, they will laugh at the sneezing and be scared by the bad adults and cry at the sad scenes – most adults will yearn for home soon after the opening credits.
Review by SerenaBlockedParent2016-11-24T22:10:36Z
After a terrible accident Pete ends up in the woods, only to make a very interesting new friend...
This is what I would call the perfect family movie. I have two young nieces who are basically scared of everything that happens in movies, and this is the first film that made me think "hey, I could totally watch this with them". It's a very nice and quite "friendly", that's how I would describe it. The visuals are absolutely amazing, Elliot looks so real. I can't figure out how they get it done so well but I love it. It took some time for me to get used to Elliot his appearance though, it sometimes felt a bit like he was part dog, part dragon. Also because I was imagine a friendly "Smaug" so a fluffy Elliot was a whole lot different, but I was diggin' it in the end fo sho. Oakes Fegley his performance as Pete was so good as well as Bryce Dallas Howard her performance as Grace. Those two really stood out for me in this movie, so they deserve the praise. (Oona Laurence and Robert Redford were really cool as well) I really liked the storyline, although it was all kind of predictable and I must say, a bit simple, I really enjoyed it. The only thing that bothered me a bit about this movie was that it felt like everything was taking quite long, it's kind of a slow movie but very enjoyable nonetheless.
I can't wait to watch this with my nieces because I'm sure they are going to love it :-)