'Pete's Dragon' Trailer: There's Magic In The Woods If You Know Where To Look
It's been a great year for Walt Disney Pictures with success in both live-action and animation. Zootopia is one of the most successful movies of the year, Finding Dory was a huge box office hit, and the live-action remake of The Jungle Book may be the best revision of their classic animated movies yet. But the studio isn't done bringing magic to movie theaters just yet.
Pete's Dragon is yet another remake of a classic Disney movie. However, as we've seen in the trailers so far, this new take on the 1977 live-action and animated hybrid could not be more different from the original. Basically, the only thing they share is a camaraderie between a young boy and a dragon in the woods. And the more we see from Pete's Dragon, the more excited I am to see it, and you just might feel the same way after watching a new trailer from across the pond.
Watch the Pete's Dragon trailer from the United Kingdom after the jump.
The vibe I get from all the marketing so far is that this will be a family adventure along the lines of Where the Wild Things Are. With director David Lowery at the helm, this feels like a movie for kids that has some indie film sensibilities that adults will enjoy as well. That might be why Robert Redford, the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, was so interested in the project.
The only part I don't buy into entirely so far is Karl Urban as the antagonist who wants the dragon dispatched with for some reason. It just seems like he's overselling it. But maybe his clips are just strange out of the context of the rest of the film.
The early reviews on Pete's Dragon have mostly been positive, with many praising just how far removed the remake is from the original. There are even some that say the movie accomplishes was J.J. Abrams' Super 8 set out to do, but it's just pulled off much better.
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales...until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Pete's Dragon opens on August 12.