In Professor Furner’s Moving Image Cataloging course we were given the opportunity to contribute to the AFI’s Catalog of Feature Films in the form of the Summary and Note for a film.
Click here to see it on AFI’s official site.
Pete’s Dragon Summary
Pete’s Dragon is a musical set in Maine in the 1900s. The main character is Pete, a young orphan with a sometimes invisible pet dragon named Elliott. The film opens with Pete running away from the Gogans, the family who bought him for $50 to do menial labor on their farm. After escaping the Gogans and spending the night in the woods, Pete decides to head to the town of Passamaquoddy, but warns Elliott to stay invisible so that he doesn’t frighten the townsfolk.
As they walk into town Elliott wreaks havoc such as spooking a horse and knocking down a fence, which Pete is then blamed for. Lampie, the drunken lighthouse keeper sees Elliott and runs terrified into the tavern to tell everyone what he has seen. Naturally no one believes him, and his daughter Nora takes him home. Up at the lighthouse Nora sees Pete walking on the beach below. She follows him into the cave and when he won’t tell her where he’s from or where his parents are, she convinces him to come back to the lighthouse for warm food. Nora tells Pete about her fiancé Paul who was lost at sea and Pete tasks Elliott with finding him.
Doctor Terminus, an elixir salesman, and his assistant Hoagy arrive to a hostile welcome in Passamaquoddy, but win the townsfolk over in a song and dance number claiming to be able to cure all of their woes for $1. Nora enrolls Pete in school despite the teacher’s protests. Still invisible, Elliott rings the school bell while Pete tries to stop him. Pete is blamed for disrupting the class and hits Ellioit with a yardstick. Enraged, Elliott bursts through the schoolhouse wall, as a result the whole town now knows that he is real. Doctor Terminus decides that he wants the dragon to use as ingredients for his elixirs and tries to buy him from Pete who declines. The Gogans arrive in town and join forces with Doctor Terminus to catch Pete and Elliott after Nora refuses to give Pete back to them. Doctor Terminus lures Pete into town to use as bait for Elliott. The fishermen trap Elliott in their nets while Doctor Terminus lights the fuse on the harpoon. The Gogans grab Pete, but Elliott frees himself, recues Pete, and drives the Gogans out of town. Back at the lighthouse a storm has rolled in and doused the lamp, which Paul was using to guide his ship back to Passamaquoddy. Pete and Elliott fly back to the lighthouse where Elliott uses his ability to breath fire to relight the lamp. Paul and Nora reunite on the shore and Paul recounts how he got amnesia in the shipwreck that was assumed to have killed him. Elliott breaks the news to Pete that there is another kid in trouble who needs his help and that he has to go away. Pete says a tearful goodbye to Elliott who flies away leaving him with his new family.
Pete’s Dragon Notes
The November 9th Variety quoted the film’s budget at $11 million, making “Pete’s Dragon” the most expensive Disney Studio production up to that date.
In American Cinematographer Bob Fisher explains the choice of shooting on Eastman color negative II 5247 emulsion because it was good with skin tones and didn’t have the contrast problems of its predecessor.
Bob Fisher recounts that principal photography began in June of 1976 in Morro Bay, California, where the studio had a mid-19th century lighthouse built. Later in the summer shooting moved onto Disney’s Burbank back-lot, used as a fishing village.
Rather than an initial wide-release pattern that Disney had mostly been following in that era, Variety noted that the films initial release would only be in dense metropolitan areas where high profits were more easily assured. In the following months exhibitors were able to bid on the films in the traditional manner and reach full market saturation throughout the United States.
Contemporary critics were of two minds when it came to the critique of the film. As a character and technical achievement Elliott the dragon received high praise, Variety calling him “the most lovable animal star…since Benji.” In his Village Voice review, Tom Allen admits, “it’s the human factor that let down its end.” Despite the film’s flaws when Elliott is off screen, most reviewers were able to look past its failings, except for Films in Review, which called it a “banal and rather vulgar script.”
The film received the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song Score and its Adaptation or Adaptation Score – Song Score by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn; Adaptation Score by Irwin Kostal. Also, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn’s “Candle On The Water” was nominated for best Original Song.
Bibliographic Sources Date Page
AmCin Oct 1977 pp. 1026-9+, 1032-3+, 1036-37.
Films in Review 28 Dec 1977 p. 632.
NYT 4 Nov 1977 Section C p. 6.
Time 5 Dec 1977 p. 105.
Var 23 Feb 1977 p. 4.
Var 9 Nov 1977 pp. 16+.
Village Voice 14 Nov 1977 p. 45.
