a sneak peek into the magical world of PETE’S DRAGON

It’s not every day that a movie can be soulful, magical and a tear-jerker while still being full of both wonder and action.  Pete’s Dragon definitely does all that and more.

On my most recent mommy-son date night, I took my eight-year-old to a sneak peek of Pete’s Dragon.  The movie begins with a bit of a backstory of the young orphan, Pete.  The five-year-old is shown going on an adventure in the woods with his parents when a deer gets in the way of their car.  The car is shown, crashed, and Pete is shown getting out of the car, alone.  The death of his parents is implied, but not shown (this was a bit of a worry for me, so I thought I’d calm your fears if you were curious about how this was shown).  Pete is then rescued by a dragon (Elliot) who raises him for the next six years.  Sound crazy?  But somehow it’s not–it’s heartwarming. Pete and Elliot have fun, play games and become their own little family.

All is well until the local loggers start cutting deeper into the forest and the pair are discovered.  The rest of the movie follows Pete and his relationships with Elliot as well as the human world.  I felt so many emotions just watching the movie–sad, happy, scared, heartbroken, angry.  I was surprised at how engaged I was in a children’s movie–especially when comparing it to the old 1977 “Pete’s Dragon” (though, really, the two cannot be compared).  I really did love this movie–and I want to take my daughter to see it now, too!

***Note the PG rating of this movie. I am so glad I didn’t bring my three-year-old son. While I’m sure most of the sad parts of the movie would be way over his head, I have to say that Elliot the dragon isn’t always so nice. So if you have a child who frightens easily, you might want to wait until it’s out on DVD so you can turn down the sound or even move past some of the scarier parts.