Pete's Dragon 2016

     Pete is a young boy traveling with his parents in a car going through the forest.  There is an accident and the car turns over killing his parents.  Pete climbs out of the wreckage and he’s very scared but he finds a pal right away.  A dragon named Elliot lives in the forest and he takes care of Pete.  They are living happily together for six years until men come into the forest to log the trees.  Pete meets Grace and she’s a forest ranger.  She takes him to the hospital and then to her home with her husband and her daughter Natalie.  They don’t know about Elliot but they find out when one of the loggers shoots Elliot with a tranquilizer dart.

     Elliot definitely does not like it when he awakens in a large garage building.  Pete and Natalie are going to drive the truck that brought Elliot to the building but Natalie’s grandfather Meacham takes over.  It’s not easy but they get Elliot back to the forest and away from the men.  The logger who shot Elliot just wants to use him as money making attraction.  In a short time, you forget that Elliot is CGI because of the way he feels about Pete.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

102 min, Adventure, directed by David Lowery with Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Oona Laurence, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban Isiah Whitlock Jr., Marcus Henderson, Aaron Jackson, Phil Grieve.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 87% critic 74% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 420 reviews

Special Note:  Filmed in Otago, Lower Hutt, Wellington, Waikato and Rotorua, New Zealand.  David Lowery is married to Augustine Frizzell and she plays Mrs. Swanberg.  This is the second time they have worked together.  The year of this film is supposed to be 1983 but some of the cars are 1990 or later models.  There is an animated version of Pete's Dragon from 1977.