Ya know, for a soulless, corporate Hollywood super-production, David Lowery's Pete’s Dragon sure doesn’t feel like a soulless, corporate Hollywood super-production. It looks, feels, and sounds like a low-budget indie film. If not for the ginormous CGI dragon, it could easily be mistaken for such. Sadly whatever indie roots it might claim are quickly shoved aside for a humdrum environmental message featuring a humdrum evil land developer who wants to capture/kill the dragon. It made me long for the introspective storytelling and plotting of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. But the ending still made my throat swell up and my eyes moisten. The story may be contrived, but it's still a good film. Between the two 2016 Disney remakes featuring little boys in even littler pants, I still prefer Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (2016). But I think that mostly comes from the fact that Favreau had richer source material to draw from: one of the greatest works by one of the greatest writers in the history of the English language.
7/10
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