Mi amigo el dragón

The 1977 'Pete's Dragon' was a favourite as a child. As far as by today's standards, while not a great film and not as good through adult eyes (plus there are better live-action Disney films, especially the timeless 'Mary Poppins'), it's still well worth watching.

Despite having some really talented names on board, expectations were both of great interest but feeling dubious. It did have potential to be better than the 1977 film, and still stand very well on its own, or it could have been a lazy and pointless cash-grab. While it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it proved to be a better film than anticipated.

Not one of the best live-action Disney re-imaginings like 'Cinderella' and 'The Jungle Book' (much better than 'Maleficent' though), but still for a re-imagining 'Pete's Dragon' was a good one. It is let down by the final act, where the darker and more action-packed tone jars with what was happening before in the film and at this point the film starts to feel rushed. The villain just felt very shoehorned in and out of place, for the sake of "needing" an "obligatory" villain for conflict (that to me wasn't necessary), not helped by the hammy performance of Karl Urban that just feels out of kilter with the rest of the cast.

Where 'Pete's Dragon' especially soars is in the very charming and touching friendship chemistry between Pete and Elliot, essentially the heart of the film. Speaking of Elliot, he is a very lovingly crafted creature with not just beautiful details to him but also with a personality that wins one over in how endearing he is.

'Pete's Dragon', apart from some overly grim lighting in places, looks great visually, the splendid scenery being especially good complemented beautifully by cinematography that's atmospheric and picturesque. The music is lovingly whimsical and fits the film well when it could easily have not done.

Scripting serves its purpose well and doesn't hurt the atmosphere or the central friendship at all, weakening only with the villain and when the film gets darker. David Lowery directs very capably and balances the various elements well. Although it won't work, and hasn't worked, for some (with criticisms of it being thin narratively, slow-moving and either too sentimental or cold), for me the story (radically altered with a more sombre tone for example) was immensely charming and appreciated the calmer, straightforward, more gentle and deliberate nature of the story which allowed the friendship to resonate. Never found it mawkish and thought that there was enough emotion without it overshadowing things, though admittedly there is not much that is particularly new.

Urban aside, the acting is good. Oakes Fegley and Oona Laurence are very appealing, while Bryce Dallas Howard is luminous and compassionate and, while not being on screen for long, Robert Redford achieves the right balance of the grizzled and the sympathetic. But essentially it is Elliot and the friendship between him and Pete that carry the film, and, as they should, captivate most strongly.

In summary, while with its foibles 'Pete's Dragon' was a much more impressive re-imagining than expected after mixed expectations. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Pete's Dragon' because it made me remember that there is magic if you dare to believe!

To be fair, there were a few things that were not too great (like some of the actors), but for some reason I could see beyond that. Thanks to the beautiful story itself, the magnificent cinematography, the lifelike CGI animation of Elliot (the dragon) and the superb acting of Oakes Fegley as Pete.

David Lowery did a good job directing the movie, and casting Robert Redford as Meacham was a smart choice.

I can only recommend this movie - and not only to families and kids, but to everybody who's open to fairy tales and magic.

I haven't seen the original yet, but this is a real family movie. And yes some may be surprised by the fact that the voice of the Crypt Keeper (Tales from the Crypt) is "speaking" the Dragon, but that would mean you are not familiar with the versatility of the guy behind the voice and also his body of work (no pun intended).

But apart from the good effects and some good family story, you also have some heavyweights in front of the camera. Redford alone is amazing, but he gets support (literally) by everybody else. A story with highs and lows and while it is predictable, it is also exactly what family entertainment should be. Nothing more but certainly nothing less

Love, Just a one syllable four letter word. So simple yet so powerful. Hatred, a two syllable word, complex but powerful. Both the words are powerful enough in their ways. Both resides on us, but it's us, humans, who have to decide which side we will take, on which word we will act on! Animals are primitive, ferocious, vicious and wild, but it's ours, men's point of view. May be they think of us the vice-versa. We fail to see the beauty of them, beauty of this planet. It's because we look upon them with our greedy eyes and filthy souls. But what of a child, who looked in a different way, . He saw them kind, naive and innocent. He could see the goods in them because he acted on the first word, Love! The message was great. To talk about the direction, it's overall an average, sometimes down to the marks direction! The boy is a brilliant actor, with some help of a good director, he can deliver the goods.

I watched the original movie when I was kid, and my brothers and I still consider it one of our fav children movies ever. You can imagine my excitement and also my apprehension when I learned that this film was being filmed.

This is a very enjoyable family film that has lovely moments of tenderness, wonderful special effects (the design of Elliot, flying scenes, etc.), it has fun and plenty of action, and Redford and Howard are good in their roles and seem to believe in magic because I thought they were the best thing in the film.

However, the movie lack the most important thing to me -- magic. All the characters keep speaking about magic, but the actors playing them don't believe in magic, the film does not create magic, so it feels a lovely fantasy film not a magic children's film. I didn't feel it in my heart. And that being the case, the film is not memorable to me.