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Pete's Dragon (first released on November 3, 1977) is a live-action/animated musical feature film from Walt Disney Productions. It is a live-action film but its title character, a dragon named Elliott is animated. It is about a young boy named Pete (played by Sean Marshall) who enters a small fishing community in Maine in the early 20th century. His only friend is a dragon Elliott (voiced by Charlie Callas and animated by Don Bluth), who also acts as his sentinel. Elliot can make himself invisible and is generally visible only to Pete, which occasionally lands Pete in trouble with the locals.
Also featured in the film are Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney, Jim Dale, Red Buttons, and Shelley Winters. The film was directed by Don Chaffey, and the songs are by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. The song "Candle on the Water" received an Academy Award nomination, and Helen Reddy's recording (with a different arrangement than the one her character sings in the film) was released as a single by Capitol Records, reaching #27 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
Plot outline
Pete's Dragon is a heartwarming combination live action/animated Disney musical about a unfortunate nine-year-old orphan boy named Pete (Sean Marshall) and his gibberish-speaking, oft-invisible dragon Elliott.
The story takes place in early 20th century Maine.
Pete runs away from his adoptive family, the Gogans, who mistreat him to no end. As they are looking for him (Happiest Home In These Hills), they are confronted with an invisible Elliott who knocks them into the mud. Mama Gogan (Shelley Winters) tells her boys that unless they find the “little twerp”, they will have to start working the farm by themselves, because they can’t afford another orphan.
The next morning, Pete thanks Elliott for everything he has ever done for him (Bop Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You Too)). They arrive at Passamaquoddy, a small fishing town. Pete tells Elliott that he needs to be invisible so that they would not scare the people. Elliott reluctantly agrees. Even still, Elliott makes his presence known by knocking over things, making footprints in wet cement, breaking fences and eggs, etc. Pete is immediately labeled bad news and is forced to hide while the town looks for him.
A drunken Lampie (Mickey Rooney) comes out of the bar and sees Pete and Elliott (who has since come out of his invisible state). When Lampie realizes that Elliott is a dragon, he runs for his life… and back into the bar (I Saw a Dragon).
No one believes that Lampie saw a dragon, especially his daughter, Nora (Helen Reddy). That night they go back to their home, the Maine lighthouse, and Lampie tells Nora exactly what he thought he saw. Nora tells him to go to sleep. She goes outside and she sees Pete go into the cave right next to the water.
Pete is really scared and upset with Elliott. He doesn’t know what to do or where to go. It’s right then that Nora comes into the cave and asks him if he wants to spend the night there. He agrees and tells Elliott to wait for him in the cave.
Nora brings Pete up to the lighthouse, and he tells her about how he is running away from the Gogans. She promises that he would be safe in the lighthouse. He sees a picture of a man and he asks who he is. Nora answers that it was her fiancée Paul and as far as they know, his ship went down and nobody has heard from him since. Pete tells her that he’ll ask Elliott about him since “he has a way of knowing things”. He explains that Elliott is his dragon, and Nora is instantly interested. (It’s Not Easy).
The next morning a con “doctor” by the name of Doc Terminus (Jim Dale), and his sidekick Hoagie (Red Buttons) comes into Passamaquoddy again. The town is immediately upset by his appearance, and he tries to sway them back into buying his phony medicines for a dollar apiece (Passamashloddy).
That day Nora buys Pete a new suit. That night he wants to show Elliott his suit and Paul’s picture, so that Elliott can help look for Paul. After Pete goes, Nora thanks her dad for pretending about Elliott with Pete. He is still convinced he saw it, and she tells him to be realistic. He snaps that she isn’t the one to talk about being realistic because she’s been waiting a year for someone to come back who isn’t coming back. He apologizes and goes to the hardware store, while she climbs the lighthouse to sing Candle on the Water, a haunting and romantic song metaphorically linking her lost love to the light.
Instead of going to the hardware store, Lampie goes to the bar and asks Doc. Terminus what he knows about dragons. The Doc takes him as a drunken lunatic, but Lampie says he can prove that there is a dragon. Hoagie says he wants to see it, so Lampie takes him
However accepting Nora is, the town is not, and the next morning when Pete goes to school for the first time (and not liking the idea), he is shunned by nearly everyone, except the kids, and especially the fishermen and the teacher. Noticing that the fishermen are overly superstitious, Nora tells them to calm down and that there is no connection between Pete and Elliott and the fishing grounds (There’s Room for Everyone).
The teacher thinks Pete has quite some imagination and she punishes him. To save Pete, Elliott walks through the school to the amazement of the whole town, and Doc Terminus who is now convinced that the dragon is real. Anxious to make a profit, he is hopeful that Pete will sell him Elliott. He plans to kill him and cut him up for medicines (Ev’ry Little Piece).
Doc Terminus goes to the lighthouse the next morning to find Pete and Nora painting it. He gives Pete an offer and Pete claims that Elliott isn’t his to sell. They are chased away, and Nora and Lampie tell Pete that they want him to live with them, since its time for him to stop running. He agrees. And they continue to clean the lighthouse (Brazzle Dazzle Day).
The Gogans are still looking for Pete, and they come into Passamaquoddy. When they mention the dragon, several people are scared, and they know that they’ve come to the right place. Hoagie realizes that after Pete, and he warns the Doc. Pete, Nora and Lampie are fishing, and the Gogans find him. They try to convince Nora that Pete is there because they have a (Bill of Sale), and that he is theirs. Pete is really scared because Elliott went to look for Paul and he isn’t there. To his surprise, he is, and he is invisible. He kicks the Gogans and the bill of sale into the water.
Doc Terminus and the Gogans make a deal to catch Pete and the Dragon. And come very close, but don’t you worry… there’s a happy ending.
Different versions
This film has had a difficult release history. In its original roadshow theatrical release, the film ran 134 minutes. Shortly after, the film was re-edited to 121 minutes. For its initial home video release, the movie was cut again to 104 minutes, severely edited and time-compressed, eliminating the "Candle On The Water" number. When it was re-issued to video, the film was restored considerably to 128 minutes—the most notable change being an alternate version of the musical number "I Saw A Dragon", different from the one that was seen in the premiere version—this has become the version most widely seen today on video and DVD. For its 1984 theatrical re-release, the film was further cut to 101 minutes, and finally the network television version was cut down to just 94 minutes. It is not known whether or not the original 134-minute cut still exists in the Disney archives or if the complete version could be reconstructed.
Trivia
- The story was acquired by the Disney studio in the 1950s, originally intended for the Walt Disney anthology series on TV.
- Pete's Dragon was the first Disney film to be recorded in the Dolby Stereo sound system.
- The first ever official Disney video release, being released October 1980.
External links
1977 films | Disney films | Musical films | Live-action/animated films
Elliot, das Schmunzelmonster | Дракон Пита (фильм) | Peter och draken Elliott
"Pete's Dragon"