Normally, I've very vocally against remakes. They tend to just copy what came before but like a copy just isn't as good as the original. But every once and awhile, there will come one that takes the same premise, but rebuilds the film from the ground up and at the same time strengthens and improves on what came before. Pete's Dragon, without a doubt, is one of those exceptions.
Pete (played by Oakes Fegley) is an orphaned boy who lives deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest with only the companionship of a large, friendly dragon he named Elliott, who saved Pete when he was the lone survivor of a bad car crash that killed his parents. He is discovered by a Park Ranger, Grace (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), who is overseeing logging in the area by a company owned by her boyfriend Jack (played by Wes Bentley) and his brother Gavin (played by Karl Urban). She and Jack take him back to town, shocked that a young boy could survive so long in the woods while apparently being alone. Elliott is distraught when he finds Pete missing and while searching, Gavin catches sight of him and goes hunting for him in the woods with some of the other loggers.
Meanwhile, Grace talks with Pete, wanting to know more about where he came from and how he was able to survive on his own for so long. Pete tells her about Elliott and shows her a drawing. She recognizes it immediately as matching the dragon her father (played by Robert Redford) used to tell her stories about (and stories he continues to tell the neighborhood kids). When she matches the drawing Pete made to ones her father made years earlier she realizes that the tales both her father and Pete have been telling may be true after all. Around this same time, Gavin and the hunters discover Elliott. After initially being scared off by Elliott, Gavin begins to scheme to capture dragon for himself.
This new rendition of Pete's Dragon was directed by David Lowery, who also co-wrote the film with Toby Halbrooks. They took the basic premise of the original film and carefully updated it with style, intelligence and a lot of heart, crafting a set of three dimensional and fully formed characters as well. The cinematography was fantastic and may well be the best looking family film I've seen since The Black Stallion. There were shots that literally took my breath away. I also have to single out the musical score by Daniel Hart, which complimented the film quite well and I found myself really digging it and how it strengthened the film.
They managed to assemble a great cast, with Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Wes Bentley, and Karl Urban all doing solid work. Oakes Fegley as Pete is quite a find, acting wonderfully alongside the CGI dragon. The effects work is top notch as well as they created the utterly convincing and endearing title character that not even once had me thinking I'm looking at a CGI creation, which is high praise indeed. The design of Elliott is quite unique and is the most adorable dragon this side of Falkor from The NeverEnding Story. The design choices make sense since Elliott's type of dragon is indiginous to Northern parts of the U.S and Canada (if not further north), so given that climate it makes sense he would be fuzzy.
Overall, the new version of Pete's Dragon is a definite improvement on the original, with a reworked and stronger story backed by great performances and some stellar effects work supporting the story of a boy and his loyal and protective dragon. I sat there in the dark, popcorn in hand, tears of joy welling up in my eyes and a big dopey grin on my face as this fantastic and heartwarming film unfolded before me. There's some real magic here.
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