Pete is an orphan who has been “bought” by the hideous Gogan family (Shelley Winters, Charles Tyner, Gary Morgan and Jeff Conaway), a grotesque clan of hillbillies who look like they’ve wandered in from a Texas Chain Saw Massacre film. Field that Disney had bought in December 1957, the film follows the misadventures of the two title characters, young boy Pete (Sean Marshall) and his often invisible, sometimes animated friend Elliott (vocalised, not in any recognisable language, by Charlie Callas) through early 1900s New England. At 128 minutes it’s far too long, padded to the hilt with unnecessary and instantly forgettable songs and far too reliant, like so many of the 70s Disney live action films, on slapstick and pratfalls.īased on an unpublished short story titled Pete’s Dragon and the USA (Forever After) by Seton I.
For those of us who were already fifteen when it opened, and so obviously above such childish things, or worse still, coming to it as an adult, it’s a challenge. If you meet it in that sweet spot when films are still new and before cynicism sets in, then it might just be for you. Perhaps even more than most Disney films, your appreciation of the animation and live action hybrid Pete’s Dragon is going to depend greatly on when you first saw it.
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