After having found success in earlier films such as Mary Poppins and Bedknobs And Broomsticks mixing live action with animation and musical numbers, Disney foisted this tale of a boy named Pete(Sean Marshall) and his Magic Dragon on us. They should have stopped with Mary Poppins.
Pete is a young lad who's run away from the family that bought him(I think it may have been from an orphanage, details are sketchy)as their own personal slave. It seems Pete has taken up residence in a cave with the animated Dragon, Elliot(voice by Charlie Callas), who is also Pete's best and only friend. Only Pete can see the dragon because Elliott has this habit of making himself invisible whenever anyone but Pete is around. This also helped conveniently cut down on animation costs as well. I mention this because Pete's Dragon is also notable for the film that caused Don Bluth(animation director), who wasn't too pleased with the restraints of working on Pete's Dragon, to leave Disney and strike out on his own. Then again it could be Elliott just wants to hide from this mess of a film.
Nora(Helen Reddy), owns and operates a nearby lighthouse with her father Lampie(Mickey Rooney). Her husband, you see, has been lost at sea, so owning and operating a lighthouse is a good occupation for her if he ever decides to journey home. The lighthouse also enables songwriters Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn to throw in a song, so when Nora sings "I'll be your candle on the water" we are aware of it's double meaning. Cute.
Of course, Nora finds Pete, and takes him into her home. Since she can't see Elliott, we know that Nora will spend most of the film thinking Pete's invisible dragon is an imaginary playmate made up by Pete because he has no real family. Stir into all this the villainous Dr. Terminus(Jim Dale), who believes there is a dragon and wants to capture him for his own nefarious purposes. If that's not enough villainy for you, there's the Grogans headed by Lena Grogan(Shelley Winters) who "owns" Pete and comes looking for their lost property.
Having made her big screen debut three years earlier in a silly role as a nun in Airport 75, Helen Reddy tries to extend her acting chops in this film. She doesn't extend them very well, and the less said about it the better. As for her vocal talents, Reddy managed some good pop hits with songs like I Am Woman, Delta Dawn and Angie Baby, but her range is limited, and the awful songs she is given here only emphasize that fact.
The adults aren't the only offenders in this film. Sean Marshall as Pete demonstrates no acting ability, no singing ability, and isn't cute enough that we care to let those deficiencies slide by. In a duet called "Boobob bobbob bob (I love you too)" that he sings with Elliot, Elliot clearly overshadows him even though he's only required to sing the "Boobob bobbob bob" line.
Jim Dale is wicked enough as "Dr. Terminus" I suppose, though he plays it way over the top which seems to be a prerequisite of being a villain in a Disney film. You'll find his shtick more than a little annoying after a few minutes of his screen time.
There are a few good things in this film. The animated Elliot steals every scene he is in. When he is on the screen is about the only time the film comes alive. The film would have been a lot more fun and immensely more whimsical if they had done away with the invisibility bit and given the dragon more screen time. Since the film is called Pete's Dragon, one would have thought that would be a no brainer.
Shelley Winters seems to be having a lot of fun as the villain Lena Grogan. Next to Elliot, she gives the best performance of anyone associated with this production. She also has the best musical number in the film with a little ditty called "Bill of Sale". I would have voted to can Dr. Terminus and just have the film center around Lena and the Grogans as being the villains. Mickey Rooney as Lampie isn't too awful, playing the kind of outlandish character Mickey Rooney can do well. Let's face it, if it were Mickey Rooney playing Mickey Rooney we wouldn't have minded because that would have been infinitely more fun than anything else going on in this debacle. Maybe Lampie should have told his daughter Nora to get out of the house and get a life before the film started. Red Buttons as Hoagy, plays the same Red Buttons character he plays in almost every film since Sayonara. Everybody else in this film is there for window dressing.
As for the rest of the musical numbers, besides the ones I mentioned earlier, they are painful to listen to and sit through. How painful? They would make a Barney song sound like Beethoven.
If you have a child watching this film, they'll be entertained during those few moments when Elliot is on the screen. When he is not, they may become restless and revolt. Come to think of it, that about sums it up for adult viewers too.
My Grade D
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