Pete's Dragon

Pete's Dragon is a 1977 live-action/animated musical feature film from Buena Vista Distribution, based on the short story by S.S. Field and Seton I. Miller. It is a live-action film, but its title character, a dragon named Elliott, is animated. It is about a young orphan named Pete (Sean Marshall), who enters a small fishing town in Maine in the early 20th century. His only friend is Elliott (voiced by Charlie Callas and animated by Don Bluth), who also acts as his protector. He can make himself invisible and is generally visible only to Pete, which occasionally lands him in trouble with the locals. It was released on November 3, 1977.
Also featured in the film are Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney, Jim Dale, Red Buttons, Jeff Conaway, and Shelley Winters. It was directed by Don Chaffey, and the songs are by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn.
The song "Candle on the Water" received an Academy Award nomination, but lost to "You Light Up My Life" from the film of the same name. Helen Reddy's recording (with a different arrangement than the one her character signs in the film) was released as a single by Capitol Records, reaching #27 on the adult contemporary charts. The film also received a nomination for Original Song Score and Adaptation or Adaptation Score, losing to A Little Night Music.
==Synopsis==
A young dusty-haired orphan named Pete is fleeing his abusive foster family, The Gogans. As they pursue him ("The Happiest Home in These Hills") an unseen force, which Pete calls Elliott, distracts them. Lena, her husband, Merle, and their sons, Grover and Willie, are determined to find Pete because (in Lena's own words) "We paid $50 for that kid, and we ain't got fifty more." The lazy, inept, and constantly-bickering Grover and Willie are told by their equally-heelish parents that "If we don't get him back, you two boys are gonna have to start working on the farm with your own two hands."
The next morning, Pete and Elliott, revealed to be a dragon, share breakfast ("Bop Bop Bop Bop Bop (I Love You, Too)") and decide to visit a nearby town called Passamaquoddy. Due to the clumsy antics of the invisible Elliott, Pete is labeled a source of ill luck and runs away to avoid being detained by the furious townspeople. Lampie, the lighthouse keeper, stumbles out of a tavern and encounters Pete. A mischievous Elliott makes himself visible to him and he, terrified, runs into a saloon to warn the townspeople ("I Saw a Dragon"). His capable daughter, Nora, takes him back to their home, Passamaquoddy Light, settles him down, and puts him to bed.
Meanwhile, in a seaside cave, Pete rebukes Elliott for causing trouble. Just as they make up Nora appears, having spotted Pete earlier. She offers him shelter and they talk ("It's Not Easy"). He is inquisitive and soon learns the story of her fiancé, Paul, whose ship was reported lost at sea. He promises to ask Elliott about Paul and she accepts, believing Elliott to be an imaginary friend.
The next morning, Dr. Terminus, a medicine showman, and his assistant, Hoagy, haphazardly arrive and manage to win over the gullible townspeople, who are initially angered by their return ("Passamaquoddy"). That evening Pete visits Elliot and Nora thanks Lampie for pretending that Elliott exists. He insists he actually saw him and she tells him to be realistic, to which he retorts that her hoping for Paul's return is just as unrealistic. He apologizes for his outburst and excuses himself, giving her time to think ("Candle on the Water"). At the tavern, he tells Dr. Terminus and Hoagy about Elliott. Dr. Terminus dismisses the tale, but Hoagy agrees to go to the cave. After an encounter with Elliott (in which all three, including Elliott, become frightened) Hoagy offers him some liquor as a gesture of peace, which triggers a fiery belch that chases them away.
The local fishermen complain about the recent scarcity of fish and believe Pete is the cause. Nora reminds them the fishing grounds shift from time to time, and that "There's Room for Everyone" in town. She takes Pete to start school, where he is punished unfairly by Miss Taylor, the strict town teacher, as a result of Elliott's antics. He, enraged, smashes into the schoolhouse.
Dr. Terminus, now convinced of Elliott's existence and having learned that dragon anatomy has many medicinal uses ("Every Little Piece"), makes Pete an offer for Elliott, to which he refuses. He gladly accepts Nora and Lampie's offer to live with them ("Brazzle Dazzle Day"). The Gogans arrive in town and confront them ("Bill of Sale"), only to be firmly defied by Nora and thwarted by Elliott. Dr. Terminus makes a deal with them and convinces them that helping him capture Elliott will solve their problems.
That evening, a storm begins to blow. Pete tries to tell Nora the good news that Elliott found Paul and he's on his way home. However she, still believing that Pete has imagined Elliott, replies that he has no more need to believe in him. Even Lampie begins to doubt that he saw him. Undeterred, Pete helps Nora prepare the lighthouse for the storm. Out at sea, a sailing ship is approaching Passamaquoddy, its captain assisted by Paul.
Dr. Terminus lures Pete to the boat house, while Hoagy does the same to Elliott. Once there, Elliott discovers Pete but is caught in an immense net. He frees himself and rescues Pete from the Gogans before they can escape. He incinerates their bill of sale, then douses them all with a barrel of tar before chasing them off. As Pete and Elliott celebrate, Dr. Terminus aims a harpoon gun at the latter, but its rope is looped around his ankle and he is sent flying through the ceiling. After rebuking Dr. Terminus and Hoagy, Elliott saves the mayor and other townspeople from a falling telegraph pole, revealing himself to the grateful townspeople.
Back at the lighthouse, the lamp has been extinguished by a storm-driven wave. Elliott comes and tries to relight it with his own fire. As he is doing so, Nora finally sees that he is real. After several failures, the lamp is re-lit and the ship is saved. As a reward for doing this, Nora gives Elliott a kiss. He is scared that he will become invisible after being kissed and he does.
The next morning the townspeople praise Elliott for his help and Nora is reunited with Paul... who, as it turns out, was the sole survivor of a shipwreck at Cape Hatteras. However, he suffered total amnesia due to his ordeal in the storm. Then, one day recently, his bed suddenly tipped over (courtesy of an invisible Elliot), he bumped his head, and got his memory back.
Sadly, now that Pete is safe and has a loving family of his own, Elliott reveals that he must go. He and Pete say their goodbyes and he flies off to help other children in need.
==Cast==
*Sean Marshall as Pete, an orphan boy whom the Gogans treat like a slave
*Helen Reddy as Nora, Lampie's determined, headstrong daughter
*Mickey Rooney as Lampie, the town lighthouse keeper and Nora's father
*Jim Dale as Dr. Terminus, a scheming quack 
*Red Buttons as Hoagy, Dr. Terminus' assistant
*Shelley Winters as Lena Gogan, the matriarch of the Gogans and Merle's wife
*Jane Kean as Miss Taylor, the town's strict teacher
*Jim Backus as the Mayor of Passamaquoddy
*Charles Tyner as Merle Gogan, the patriarch of the Gogans and Lena's husband
*Gary Morgan as Grover Gogan, Merle and Lena's younger son
*Jeff Conaway as Willie Gogan, Merle and Lena's older son
*Cal Bartlett as Paul, Nora's boyfriend and a sailor who has disappeared at sea
*Charlie Callas as the voice of Elliott the dragon
*Walter Barnes as the Captain of the ship on which Paul is returning home
Al Checco, Henry Slate, and Jack Collins appear in the film as local fishermen. Robert Easton plays a store proprietor, and Roger Price is seen as a man with a visor. Robert Foulk plays an old sea captain. Ben Wrigley plays the egg man and Joe Ross plays the cement man. Dinah Anne Rogers has an uncredited role as one of the townspeople, as does Dennis Stewart, who plays a fisherman, and Debbie Fresh is also uncredited as a child/dancer/singer.
==Production==
===Development===
In December 1957, Walt Disney Productions optioned the film rights to the short story "Pete's Dragon and the U.S.A. (Forever After)" that was written by Seton I. Miller and S.S. Field, in which Miller was hired to write the script. Impressed with his performance in Old Yeller, Walt Disney had child actor Kevin Corcoran in mind to star in the project as a feature-length film. However, Disney considered the project to be more appropriate for his Disneyland anthology program, by which it was slated to be filmed as a two-part episode in the following year. In February 1958, Variety reported that filming was scheduled to begin in October. By the following spring, veteran screenwriter Noel Langley had completed his draft of the script. However, Disney was still unsure of how to approach the project, and the project was placed in turnaround.
In 1968, writers Bill Raynor and Myles Wilder were hired to write the script, and completed their outline in October. They submitted their outline to the studio for review, but the project continued to languish in development. In 1975, producer Jerome Courtland re-discovered the project and hired writer Malcolm Marmorstein to write the script. For his script, Marmorstein revised the story from being in contemporary time into a period setting, and had the dragon changed from being wholly imaginary into a real one. In earlier drafts, Elliott was mostly invisible aside from one animated sequence, in which Dr. Terminus would chop up the dragon for his get-rich scheme. However, veteran Disney artist Ken Anderson felt the audience would "lose patience" with the idea and lobbied for Elliott to be seen more in his visible form during the film. In retrospect, Marmorstein conceded that "We tried a completely invisible dragon, but it was no fun. It was lacking. It's a visual medium, and you're making a film for kids." He also named the dragon "Elliott" after actor Elliott Gould (who was a friend from his theater days), and named the town "Passamaquoddy" after the real Native American tribe in Maine.
In October 1975, the songwriting duo of Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn were assigned to compose the musical score. The production was directed by British filmmaker Don Chaffey, who had made two smaller films for Disney in the early 1960s between directing larger fantasy adventures (Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years B.C.) for others.
===Locations===
The lighthouse for the film was built on Point Buchon Trail in Montana De Oro State Park located south of Los Osos, California, substituting for Maine. It was equipped with such a large beacon that Disney had to get special permission from the Coast Guard to operate it, since doing so during filming would have confused passing ships. Pacific Gas and Electric opened the Point Buchon Trail and allows hikers access to where filming took place.
===Animation===
The film's animators opted to make Elliott look more like an oriental, rather than occidental, dragon because oriental dragons are usually associated with good. The film is the first involving animation in which none of the Nine Old Men—Disney's original team of animators—were involved. One technique used in the movie involved compositing with a yellowscreen that was originally used in Mary Poppins and similar to today's greenscreen compositing, whereby up to three scenes might be overlaid together – for example, a live foreground, a live background, and an animated middle ground containing Elliott. Ken Anderson, who created Elliott, explained that he thought it would be appropriate to make him "a little paunchy" and not always particularly graceful at flying. Don Hahn, who was an assistant director to Don Bluth on Pete's Dragon, gained some experience working with a combination of live-action and animation before later going on to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
==Song list==
*"The Happiest Home in These Hills"
*"Bop Bop Bop Bop Bop (I Love You, Too)"
*"I Saw a Dragon"
*"It's Not Easy"
*"Passamaquoddy"
*"Candle on the Water"
*"There's Room for Everyone"
*"Every Little Piece"
*"Brazzle Dazzle Day"
*"Bill of Sale"
==Gallery==
Petes_Dragon_movie_poster.jpg|1977 original release poster
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==Trivia==
*This was the first Disney film involving animation in which none of the Nine Old Men were involved.
*This is the first Disney film to be recorded in Dolby Stereo. Dolby System had also been tested by Disney for the release of The Rescuers in the summer of the same year.
==Copyright info==
A copyright renewal for the film was registered on August 24, 2005.Online Copyright Catalog search (form autofilled, pressing "begin search" brings up the entry)
==References==
==External links==
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pt-br:Meu Amigo, o Dragão
Category:Disney films
Category:1977 films
Category:Live-action films
Category:Hybrid films
Category:Pete's Dragon
Category:G-rated films
Category:Academy Award nominated films
Category:Films based on books