Pete’s Dragon series

(Youtube Streaming, September 2020) Not every Disney film is created equal, and while I had decent-sized expectations for Pete’s Dragon, they were quickly punctured by the result. The story of a boy who befriends a sometimes-invisible dragon and tries to fit in a small New England coastal town, it’s not a film that has aged gracefully at all. The most visible aspect of its production date has to be the animation of Pete’s Dragon: while the live-action/animation integration must have been amazing at the time, it looks flat and, well, cartoonish to anyone after Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (which was admittedly inspired by this film.) But even excusing the charming rough-hewn animation doesn’t quite take care of the other disappointing aspects of the production, from a kind of comedy that’s not particularly interesting for the entire family, to musical numbers that struggle to produce even one memorable song out of the bunch. There are a few good moments here and then, but they’re nullified by the more embarrassing ones. (Never whitewash a lighthouse like those characters whitewash a lighthouse…) Watching this original Pete’s Dragon is a powerful argument that not all live-action remakes undertaken by The Mouse are bad—the 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon is far superior to the original, and not merely in terms of effects. You can safely skip this one.