I know I loved this movie as a child, but I can't really understand why. Of course, it is meant to appeal to children, so perhaps it's only natural that it's lost its ability to charm me. On the other hand, there are plenty of kids' movies that are fun for the grown-ups in their lives. I think the main problem with this one is that it just seems awfully dated. And creepy. Now that's one thing about it that has never changed.
For starters, there are the Gogans. I can watch Deliverance without breaking a sweat, but years after I first saw Pete's Dragon the Gogans still make me feel all icky. They are impossibly dirty hill-folk who want to enslave a young child. Their antics, I'm sure, are meant to have a cartoonish quality to them, but they fall short of that goal and land squarely in the realm of "unsettling."
The same is true of the way-over-the-top medicine show duo of Dr. Terminus and Hoagie. For example, Dr. Terminus offers Pete a potion that will "bring on puberty two years early" if he turns over the dragon. That proposition is just loaded with ick factor, not to mention the fact that the word "puberty" is vile and should be used in a clinical or classroom setting ONLY.
Finally, there's the abusive school teacher who humiliates and beats her pupils. I realize that a lot has changed in the field of education, but I don't think there was ever a time when that was considered funny.
Actually, any of these plot elements could be funny, if handled correctly. Here they have too much of a inappropriate or nightmarish quality to pass as such. A person who is especially emotionally fragile would do well to steer clear of this one.
It is fun to play "film school" with Pete's Dragon, trying to figure out what the director/producers were thinking and trying to figure out what it was about that era that led to the birth of such a bizarre bit of movie-making.
For starters, there are the Gogans. I can watch Deliverance without breaking a sweat, but years after I first saw Pete's Dragon the Gogans still make me feel all icky. They are impossibly dirty hill-folk who want to enslave a young child. Their antics, I'm sure, are meant to have a cartoonish quality to them, but they fall short of that goal and land squarely in the realm of "unsettling."
The same is true of the way-over-the-top medicine show duo of Dr. Terminus and Hoagie. For example, Dr. Terminus offers Pete a potion that will "bring on puberty two years early" if he turns over the dragon. That proposition is just loaded with ick factor, not to mention the fact that the word "puberty" is vile and should be used in a clinical or classroom setting ONLY.
Finally, there's the abusive school teacher who humiliates and beats her pupils. I realize that a lot has changed in the field of education, but I don't think there was ever a time when that was considered funny.
Actually, any of these plot elements could be funny, if handled correctly. Here they have too much of a inappropriate or nightmarish quality to pass as such. A person who is especially emotionally fragile would do well to steer clear of this one.
It is fun to play "film school" with Pete's Dragon, trying to figure out what the director/producers were thinking and trying to figure out what it was about that era that led to the birth of such a bizarre bit of movie-making.