Pete's Dragon (2001, VHS)

Several times my father has told me that he used to love taking me to the movies when I was little because I took him to better movies than my mother did. I don't know if that's true, but I certainly have wonderful memories of sitting next to dad, holding his hand while the whale ate Pinocchio and while the witch gave Snow White that poisoned apple. As I got older we sat together watching James Bond - our first was Octopussy - and Indiana Jones. When I was in college we even saw Beauty and the Beast together for old times sake, and a year and a half ago we saw Tomorrow Never Dies. When my dad.

Pete's Dragon is a movie set in turn of the century Maine. The costumes are very relevant to the time period as is everything about this movie. One other thing I liked was that being not far from where I lived when I was in high school, Cape Cod, there were some places from Cape Cod mentioned like Buzzards Bay. The movie opens with Pete escaping from the hillbilly family that bought him, the Gogans. They bought him from an orphanage to be a slave on their farm in the hills. Pete makes it away from the Gogans with the help of his dragon, Elliot. Now no one can see the dragon except for Pete,...

Growing up, my brother and I often had a hard time finding a movie we'd both agree to watch. There were a few, however, we'd almost always agree upon. One such movie was this Disney musical. And I find I enjoy it just as much today as I did growing up. Pete (Sean Marshall) is a poor orphan. He's been adopted by the mean Gogan family run by the matriarch Lena (Shelley Winters). The Gogans make him work from morning til night and beat him for the slightest thing. So, naturally, he runs away. He's tried it before and been caught, but this time he has help in the form of Elliot. Elliot is a...

This is one of many live action Disney movies employing the tactic of mixing animated characters with real actors. "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "Mary Poppins" each have a scene in a magical land in which the main characters are the only ones who aren't cartoons. In "Pete's Dragon," Elliot the dragon is the only animated character, but he appears throughout the whole movie. He also disappears. At many points in the movie all we see of him is the havoc that he wreaks. I don't know which came first, "Pete's Dragon" or the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon," but both are based on the same basic...