So at its best and worst, Pete's Dragon...Disney's latest live action adaptation from their back catalogue of films is an earnest by the numbers family film experience.
The general plot of the film focuses upon Oakes Fegley's character Pete who as a five year old child is involved in a car accident with his parents who unfortunately are killed in said accident, scared and alone Pete runs into the forest where he happens upon a large furry green dragon who recognising maybe a similar isolation to himself takes Pete into his care where they spend the next few years together, we then have a 'six years later' cut which takes us to the next stage of the film and from here we hit all the marks, the discovery of Pete by regular society, followed by the misunderstood hunt of the rather friendly dragon by selfish individuals, pretty standard stuff I think it's fair to say.
It's capably performed by the likes of the parent figures of Bryce Dallas Howard and Wes Bentley, Karl Urban who becomes the foe/nemesis of Pete and his Dragon, Robert Redford as the wise old sage and newcomer Oakes Fegley playing the titular Pete.
When the film employs it special effects or action sequences they are pretty well done. The pacing of the film could certainly be accused of being quite pedestrian and this is a film that only clocks in at around 105 minutes.
My main issue with the film is that we've pretty much seen this archetype of a family film many a time before and although like I've stated previously that pretty much all the components are satisfactory...that is all they are, there's not too much to jump up and down about and it doesn't really offer up anything new to genre or the cinematic viewing table in general.
So this is hard review really because it reasonably entertained me at the time but for any casual viewer it could be easily forgotten, maybe this is why the film hasn't hit the right notes in terms of it's financial returns? Who's to say...
When I've recently seen The BFG as well, a film that is going for exactly the same target demographic yet that film charmed the hell out of me and in part because it was offering us up something slightly different to what we are used to seeing and I still do consider The BFG to have problems but having seen Pete's Dragon I think I now appreciate those positive aspects of The BFG in a much stronger light.
So to sum up, Pete's Dragon is an affable & likable family film if too by the numbers & slightly lacking in inspiration at times.
The general plot of the film focuses upon Oakes Fegley's character Pete who as a five year old child is involved in a car accident with his parents who unfortunately are killed in said accident, scared and alone Pete runs into the forest where he happens upon a large furry green dragon who recognising maybe a similar isolation to himself takes Pete into his care where they spend the next few years together, we then have a 'six years later' cut which takes us to the next stage of the film and from here we hit all the marks, the discovery of Pete by regular society, followed by the misunderstood hunt of the rather friendly dragon by selfish individuals, pretty standard stuff I think it's fair to say.
It's capably performed by the likes of the parent figures of Bryce Dallas Howard and Wes Bentley, Karl Urban who becomes the foe/nemesis of Pete and his Dragon, Robert Redford as the wise old sage and newcomer Oakes Fegley playing the titular Pete.
When the film employs it special effects or action sequences they are pretty well done. The pacing of the film could certainly be accused of being quite pedestrian and this is a film that only clocks in at around 105 minutes.
My main issue with the film is that we've pretty much seen this archetype of a family film many a time before and although like I've stated previously that pretty much all the components are satisfactory...that is all they are, there's not too much to jump up and down about and it doesn't really offer up anything new to genre or the cinematic viewing table in general.
So this is hard review really because it reasonably entertained me at the time but for any casual viewer it could be easily forgotten, maybe this is why the film hasn't hit the right notes in terms of it's financial returns? Who's to say...
When I've recently seen The BFG as well, a film that is going for exactly the same target demographic yet that film charmed the hell out of me and in part because it was offering us up something slightly different to what we are used to seeing and I still do consider The BFG to have problems but having seen Pete's Dragon I think I now appreciate those positive aspects of The BFG in a much stronger light.
So to sum up, Pete's Dragon is an affable & likable family film if too by the numbers & slightly lacking in inspiration at times.