Pete's Dragon (2016)
Directed by David Lowery
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
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What critics compared Pete's Dragon to
Director David Lowery (“A Ghost Story,” “Pete’s Dragon”) has pulled off a real coup here; he’s created an utter original that’s redolent of ancient themes, myths and legends.
Similarly, those with deeper knowledge will recognize the themes with which writer/director Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) plays.
By blending his abstract sensibilities seen in 2017’s A Ghost Story with the grand fantasy of his live-action Pete’s Dragon, Lowery has crafted a breathtaking, titillating adaptation of folklore with a denouement that carries real-world weight.
In Pete’s Dragon , it was the cave-child taking flight with his felt-covered best pal in defiance of the modern world’s drudgery; for A Ghost Story , it’s the haunting image of a childhood Halloween costume honestly representing itself for the first time, stalking loved ones and surging through the ages; and in The Old Man and the Gun , his least successful work before this, it’s Robert Redford’s on-screen persona that an affectionate tribute to an era of cinema slowly ebbing from this world takes shape.
David Lowery, the writer-director of “The Green Knight,” has an impressive and impressively varied filmography: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (2013), “Pete’s Dragon” (2016), “A Ghost Story” (2017), “The Old Man and the Gun” (2018).
Written and directed by the gifted maverick David Lowery (“A Ghost Story,” “The Old Man & the Gun,” “Pete’s Dragon”), it’s a somberly majestic medieval death trip with moments of true enchantment.
That small spark of originality makes it the best of the Disney remakes so far (unless you count David Lowery’s winsome take on Pete’s Dragon ).
And, disappointingly, the more personal, more experimental entries, like Tim Burton's Dumbo and David Lowery's Pete's Dragon — the ones I like best — have fared the most poorly of the bunch.
Considering the critical and box office success of 2010's family friendly "How to Train Your Dragon" (to the tune of just shy of half a billion dollars worldwide), it makes one wonder why it took another three years before Disney announced they were giving the reboot treatment to their old property "Pete's Dragon."
The story skips ahead several years to show Pete (now played by 10-year-old Oakes Fegley) still roughing it with Elliot, their world a happy, scruffy cross between "Tarzan" and "How to Train Your Dragon."
As in DreamWorks Animation’s splendid “How to Train Your Dragon” series, the filmmakers have studied what endears humans to their pets and amplified those qualities into the realm of fantasy.
Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast is the fourth entry in Disney’s recent spate of live-action “reimaginings” of their older animated films, following Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2014), Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (2016), and David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon (2016).
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The more modern, coming-of-age adventure has young Oakes Fegley ("Pete's Dragon") running away from a single mom (Michelle Williams) and small-town Minnesota to find the father he's never known.
He also directed Pete’s Dragon for Disney, which dealt with similar themes of death, family and transcendence but with a young audience in mind.
Following his remake of Pete’s Dragon, Lowery reteams with Affleck and Mara for A Ghost Story; another lyrical piece that discretely tackles questions of a cosmic, spiritual nature played out on an intimate level.
The novelty of having the ghost appear in the traditional cartoon form of a bedsheet with two eye holes wears off very quickly and the mournful direction by David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon) can’t really punch his deeper points about closure and moving on with enough impact to overcome an idea that must have looked good on paper, but which just doesn’t work in feature film.
Writer-director David Lowery, making a return to indie cinema following the underrated Pete’s Dragon , foregrounds the melancholy possibilities of life after death in this sensitive and profound tale.
There's no way of knowing what, if anything, is waiting on the other side, but writer-director David Lowery (2016's " Pete's Dragon ") has imagined a provocative possibility as devastating as it is astonishing.
Directed and written by David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon), it was also one of the most acclaimed films of the festival.
Aside from a few inspired deviations (2016’s Pete’s Dragon is still an underrated gem), most of these slapdash remakes rest far too much on the pedigree of their inspired predecessors.
Capturing the charm of the originals has proven elusive (2015’s Cinderella being the exception) and the few unique takes have fallen flat (this exception being 2016’s Pete’s Dragon ).
David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon is one of them, Tim Burton’s Dumbo is as well, and Craig Gillespie’s Cruella is another.
I had a blast, and much like 2015’s Cinderella and 2016’s Pete’s Dragon , this is one Disney live-action remake worth getting excited about.