Pete's Dragon (2016) [Blu-ray]
Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Tagline: Some secrets are too big to keep.

When a mysterious 10-year-old boy, Pete, turns up, claiming to live in the woods with a giant green dragon, it's up to a forest ranger, Grace, and young Natalie to learn where the boy came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this magical dragon.

Storyline: Pete, a boy is found in a forest. Apparently he's been living there for six years after an accident took his parents. A ranger named Grace decides to take him in and when she asks him how he survived all by himself, he says he had a friend, Elliot, with him. He draws a picture of Elliot and it's a picture of a dragon. Grace takes the picture to her father who claims that years ago, he encountered a dragon in the forest. Grace takes Pete back to the forest and he shows them where he lives and Elliot. A man saw Elliot and when he tells about his experience and is not believed, he sets out to prove it by capturing the dragon. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, November 28, 2016 Disney continues to revisit its older films in the live-action realm with much success. Pete's Dragon follows up on Cinderella and The Jungle Book (and precedes Beauty and the Beast) and it's the best of them so far. While not exactly the same as the others -- the original Pete's Dragon was a blend of live action and animation rather than straight animation -- the formula holds tightly enough to lump it in the same category. It's a beautifully simple film, polished but allowing the wonder and raw emotion rather than spectacle and special effects to dictate the movie's cadence. It's subdued and sublime and portends great things for its Writer/Director, David Lowery, who is currently attached to a future live-action re-imagining of Peter Pan.

A young, five-year-old Pete (Levi Alexander) is tragically separated form his parents and left alone in the woods. Unable to fend for or protect himself from the dangers around him, he's rescued, reassured, and raised by a large, hairy, green dragon he comes to call "Elliot." Several years pass. Pete (Oakes Fegley) and Elliot live a quiet, serene life together, but things change when Elliot wanders a little further from home and comes across a logging camp. He's spotted by a young girl named Natalie (Oona Laurence) who chases and quickly befriends him. But before Pete can reveal the truths about his life, he's swept away into the care of her father Jack (Wes Bentley) and his girlfriend Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard). Pete's stories of a tender and caring caretaker dragon largely fall on deaf ears, save for those attached to Grace's kindly father (Robert Redford). As the families sort out Pete and his claims, Natalie's uncle Gavin (Karl Urban) sets out to capture the dragon and make a pretty penny on introducing it to the world.

Wow. Pete's Dragon begins with a sudden, emotionally charged, and dramatically effective opening scene. It's simple and honest, raw but thematically refined, and captured and presented with a grace that balances difficulty and beauty extraordinarily well. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie, a tone the viewer can only hope it can maintain, and it does. The film thrives on simplicity and an organic feel and flow. Every shot is gracefully composed. No moment is wasted. Every shot means something, every scene a story, every sequence a well-versed and complete piece of the larger whole. Music is key to the movie. As with its visual construction, there's a simple elegance to it and a purpose to every lyric and note. Whether contrasting a sense of adventure with a lurking anxiousness or playfulness with a feel of peril, there's always a balance in play and, perhaps more than any other single element, shapes the film by enhancing the sense of wonder, character details, and that adventurous spirit within, which the movie reveals as its driving thematic force in the wonderfully composed opening moments. This is cinema at its most contemporarily genuine, approachable, agreeable, honest, and lovable.

For as well made as it may be, none of it would matter without an entertaining story to tell. As with everything else, the film thrives on its narrative simplicity, eager only to move the story forward and without the sort of flash and filler that contaminate other modern movies. It's soulful and pure, an exercise in how massaging and enhancing the core, as well as crafting the movie with an obvious passion, clear voice, and purpose, are the most important pieces to almost any successful cinematic venture. Acting is terrific, again more natural and relatable than overblown or unrealistic. Characters are believable human beings who respond, react, and evolve with a pure, relatable cadence. Special effects are excellent, never the focus but seamless in presentation. The movie builds from its heart and soul outwards, with everything firmly attached at the middle and lovingly enveloping the whole. Modern movies, sadly, usually don't get as honest, sweet, sincere, lovingly composed, and expertly executed as this.

Pete's Dragon may not wind up nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, or any of the other major categories, but it's every bit as deserving as anything else to come out this year. It's a wonderful movie, composed and executed in a way that emphasizes its heart and soul rather than its cruder mechanics. It's uniquely simple, beautifully scored and supported by popular music. Touching, tender, graceful, and a joy to watch and feel, this is moviemaking as it should be, and usually isn't. Disney's Blu-ray release of Pete's Dragon features high quality video and audio. A nice little allotment of extra content is included. Pete's Dragon earns my highest recommendation.

[CSW] -2.3- I loved the acting and the animation but the whole story-line was a bit depressing. The movie was beautiful to look at, and the actors did a good job, especially the kid who played Pete, but the story was just too dark for me. The grownups seemed to make a lot of bad decisions when it came to the well-being of Pete and Elliot and the whole town just didn't seem to have the cohesiveness that is typical of a small town. All in all it just seemed to lacked character. Pete, Elliot and Natalie were the only bright spots.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box


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