To say that Disney’s recent obsession with remaking their animated classics in live-action has been disappointing would be a massive understatement. Tim Burton drew backlash for his decision to remake Alice in Wonderland for Disney with ugly CGI visuals, but at least he actually did something original with the source material. In recent years, remakes of The Lion King, Aladdin, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Mulan, and several others have done nothing more than recreate their same story, dialogue, and script beat-for-beat with little changes; it’s nothing different from what Gus Van Sant did with Psycho. While the whole notion of revisiting these animated classics seems like a doomed cause going forward, the 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon showed that Disney could do live-action remakes correctly if there was talent, vision, and purpose behind them.
The original Pete’s Dragon from 1977 tells a relatively simple story about the young orphan boy Pete (Sean Marshall) whose only companion is a friendly animated dragon. While the friendly lighthouse keeper Nora (Helen Reddy) and her idiosyncratic father Lampie (Mickey Rooney) initially doubt Pete’s wild claims, they learn to invest in him after sinister bad guys try to take the dragon away. It’s a film best remembered for its inventive hybrid of live-action and animated characters, and for a few memorable songs such as the Oscar-nominated “Candle on the Water.” It’s a charming film, but certainly not an all-time classic like The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast.
Since the original film didn’t leave behind a significant cultural legacy, there was room for a remake to improve the material and update it with modern themes. Sure, getting a refurbished computer-generated dragon helped, but what makes the new Pete’s Dragon so much better than its predecessor is the personal touch of writer/director David Lowery. Retaining the gorgeous visual aesthetics and thematic depth that made films like The Green Knight and A Ghost Story so profound, Lowery carves out a heartfelt family story that connects to modern concepts of broken families and environmentalism. If the best remakes either significantly improve the original story or take a radically different approach, Pete’s Dragon succeeds on both fronts.
A New Direction
If there’s anything that the original Pete’s Dragon really nailed, it was the empathetic interpersonal relationships between the different characters that become an odd family unit. Unsurprisingly, this is something that Lowery draws heavily from, but he chooses to completely revamp the story. There’s a beautiful new introduction with a younger Pete (Levi Alexander) that actually explains how an orphaned child was raised by a dragon after the tragic death of his parents in a car accident. It’s not just an emotional gut punch intended to hook in the audience; the film wrestles with pain, love, and healing throughout as each of the characters reflect on the people that they’ve lost. An older Pete (Oakes Fegley) names the dragon “Elliot” in remembrance of a favorite childhood character from a book his parents left him; this shows how he’s preserving their memory in his mind.
After this stunning opening, the viewer is already connected with Pete when he grows up. In the original, Pete’s connection to Elliot is largely skimped over and played for laughs by showing goofy, befuddled adults. However, Lowery successfully makes a family film that respects audiences of all ages. The introduction of park ranger Grace Meachum (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her boyfriend Jack Magary (Wes Bentley) gives the viewer two interesting heroes with strong ethical beliefs; Grace is a park ranger determined to stop tragedies like what happened to Pete’s parents, and Jack is a lumberjack who mourns for the death of his wife. Grace, Pete, and Jack all are missing someone in their lives, and the joy of the film is seeing them all come together.
The more mature approach to the characters doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for fun; the insertion of the legendary Robert Redford as Grace’s father adds a wholesome bit of wit and whimsy to the story. As Conrad tells stories about his own experiences with a dragon as a little boy, it shows a childlike spirit that exists within everyone. It’s great to see a veteran actor put to good use in one of the Disney live-action remakes. While Kevin Kline in Beauty and the Beast or Tom Hanks in Pinocchio does nothing more than read off lines from the animated script, Redford gets to add his own personality to the character.
Nature and Balance
You wouldn’t think that Lowery’s themes of existentialism and respect for nature in A Ghost Story and The Green Knight could also apply to a live-action Disney remake, but Pete’s Dragon has a beautiful message about the sanctity of wildlife. The conflict that arises is one that ties into larger issues like pollution and the protection of wildlife. Rather than making the villains wacky goofballs that are purely malicious, the film introduces a personal threat in Jack’s brother Gavin (Karl Urban), who's willing to destroy elements of nature for personal gain. His personal connection to Jack gives him a reason to be involved in the story, and he represents the very real threat of hunters who are disproportionately devastating natural ecosystems.
It’s odd that a film with a giant CGI dragon could show such reverence for natural environments, but on an aesthetic level, Pete’s Dragon is leaps and bounds ahead of the other Disney live-action remakes. There was clearly an emphasis on using real forest settings and practical sets, and even the design of Elliot himself feels hand-crafted and personal. Disney often hires interesting auteur filmmakers to helm their live-action remakes, but any personal touches that Guy Ritchie (Aladdin), Robert Zemeckis (Pinocchio), or Jon Favreau (The Lion King) tried to make were washed out by bland storytelling and an unoriginal script. Lowery is clearly able to add his own stamp to the film.
The lesson of Pete’s Dragon is that there’s no point in remaking a Disney film that’s already beloved. There’s no reason to remake films like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, or Aladdin, because they’re all already perfect to begin with. However, a property like Pete’s Dragon has room to be improved, and allowing a passionate filmmaker to take another stab at it replaced a forgettable film with a modern classic.