Dragons' World

Many people remember 1977 as the year Star Wars was born. Disney also released The Rescuers, one of the first animated films in the ’70s to gain considerable acclaim. That same year, Disney slipped in an oft-forgotten but charming entry to the world of dragons in fictionPete’s Dragon.The film’s plot is a now-familiar take on how a child (unsurprisingly an orphan) retreats into imagination to deal with his difficult surroundings. Even Alice in Wonderland featured a similar premise, so it’s not hard to believe that the film was based on a short story written at least twenty years before the release. What makes Pete’s Dragon so fun to watch is the interaction between the real-life child star Sean Marshall (Pete) and his animated dragon, Elliot (voiced by Charlie Callas). (more…)