Amid all the hype for How to Train Your Dragon, I thought I'd watch a different live-action remake of a family flick about a boy and his nonverbal, flying, fire-breathing, reptilian secret friend. It's not the most popular Disney remake, but it may be the only one more popular than its predecessor.
When Pete is five years old (and played by Levi Alexander), he loses his parents in a car crash on a woodland road. He wanders and meets a curiously friendly dragon (grunt-voiced by John Kassir) who can turn invisible at will. For the next six years, Pete (now played by Oakes Fegley) lives with Elliot in the woods, healthy but only slightly more civilized than another feral boy from a Disney remake that year. Fellow preteen Natalie (Oona Laurence) discovers Pete, and her lumberjack father Jack (Wes Bentley) and his ranger girlfriend Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) try to give Pete a more normal life, by adopting him if necessary. They don't readily believe in Elliot, who doesn't take well to separation from Pete. And when Jack's unruly brother Gavin (Karl Urban) and coworkers see the long-rumored dragon of the area, they plan to capture Elliot for some means of profit.
This plot bears almost no resemblance to the original movie. Just as well, IMO. I saw the '77 version once in childhood and didn't dislike it, but if not for an audiobook, I could have forgotten it. The replacement may be simpler and more hackneyed, but I find it more emotionally engaging, and not just because the CGI is more convincing than the old cel animation.
I'm uncertain of the remake's setting. It might still be '70s Maine. We eventually see a record player, tho nothing else (e.g., hairstyles) screams that era.
Given the lumberjacks, I was expecting a FernGully-type message against deforestation. Instead, nobody objects. Elliot fells a few trees himself, if only by accident. (We never do find out what he eats; could he be a herbivore?) There doesn't appear to be any particular moral in mind.
I have mixed feelings about Elliot. He's usually gentle, and even his aggression is not what humans normally fear from his kind, but sometimes I perceive it to be insufficiently provoked. He's remarkably furry and doglike in behavior, albeit not as shaggy as Falkor from The NeverEnding Story. He's about the size of two adult elephants, so neither as cute as Toothless nor as awe-inspiring as larger wyrms I could cite. And he doesn't show as much personality as many talking examples.
Really, Pete remains the star. He's soon open to befriending fellow humans but has a lot to (re)learn about society. He still thinks of himself as five. And yes, he has developed physical prowess, especially in climbing.
PD still isn't the kind of gem kids will want to rewatch many times, and there will surely be no sequel. Nonetheless, it's not a bad way for the young or young at heart to spend 103 minutes.
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