by TheLionPrince » June 26th, 2016, 9:15 pm
I did not grow up with Pete's Dragon, but I have been wanting to see it for a number of years after reading about it and seeing trailers of it. I finally did watch it on New Year's Day 2016 on Blu-Ray. What I came away from it was a less-than-stellar second attempt to recreate the success of Mary Poppins; Bedknobs and Broomsticks was the first attempt. It had over two hours of running time, which was much too long for a family movie that it became quite tedious towards the ending. The songs did not really further or deepen the narrative as much, but I did love "Candle in the Water" which was beautifully sung by Helen Reddy. Speaking of her, I felt she gave the best performance in the movie but her talents weren't enough to save the movie. The integration of animation was not as impressive as it was in Mary Poppins, but as an animation enthusiast, it was nevertheless a treat though the sodium vapor process by which it was produced shows its dated efforts. Overall, it was a very sentimental and maybe cheesy film with a heart-warming center of friendship, but it definitely could have been better in a few areas.
Concerning remakes in general, I am usually fine with remakes of original films that didn't properly use its source material to its advantage (as in a film adaptation of a novel) or just were just downright awful. Looking at the trailers for the remake, it definitely has the vibe from The Iron Giant with the animated companion being viewed as a threat by the community and the flying scenes reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon. That said, I won't watch it in theaters.