It has been a couple of weeks since I watched a movie on weekday, so when my wife and I had the opportunity to watch something yesterday, it was decided that we would watch this film as it was already playing for a week and it may get more difficult to watch it in our favorite theaters. As usual, the tickets were for 7PM show and I was able to reach location nicely. It was quite odd though that when we were so on time to sit in the theater after it opened at 6.45PM, the trailer only began 5 minutes before the movie should have started. It only made sense later the reason was there was just 1 trailer to be shown. I guess there were not that many family friendly movie playing soon. Anyway let's get on with the story.
Brief Story Line
A very young Pete befriended with a funny looking green dragon in the forest of Millhaven in the US. He named the dragon Elliot as per the name of a dog in the children story book that he was holding. Six years later, a bigger roughly 11 years old Pete (Oakes Fegley) had become very accustomed to the life at the forest. He had built a tree house very high with the help from Elliot, while Elliot himself stayed in a cave inside the forest. The two of them were very close and Elliot was very protective of Pete.
However, their peace was a little bit distracted when 1 day during their trip quite far from their home, Elliot and Pete saw Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard - Spiderman 3, Jurassic World etc) identifying trees that should not be chopped down. Elliot was able to camouflage himself and made him seemingly invisible (just like a chameleon). Pete took away Grace's locket and hid himself when Grace heard something.
The following day, a group of lumberjack crew led by Gavin (Karl Urban - Dredd, new Star Trek trilogy, etc) were chopping down trees and the noise awaken Pete. He was curious and looking from quite nearby. Meanwhile, the owner who was also Gavin's brother, Jack (Wes Bentley - The Hunger Games, Interstellar etc) came to see the location with his girlfriend Grace and also his daughter Natalie (Oona Lawrence - Bad Moms). Natalie saw Pete and was curious so she went to the forest. Like children they were, soon they were running around and climbing trees. But when she climbed too high, she fell down and screamed. Gavin, Jack and Grace immediately ran into the woods and finally saw Pete.
Grace tried to persuade Pete to calm down, but when he tried to run away, he was accidentally knocked unconscious by Gavin. He was later on brought to the hospital and taken care by Grace, Jack and Natalie, despite Pete's insistence to go home to the forest. He tried to explain that he had to go back to find his friend Elliot, which seemed very much like a dragon after he drew it. Grace was curious and asked her father Mr. Meachem (the veteran Robert Redford) on what he saw years ago. He asked Grace to open her mind about something she had never seen.
Meanwhile, Gavin who got suspicious of the sound in the forest went in and spotted a very big footprint and started to investigate with his crew. It was indeed Elliot who was worried when he could not find Pete after he woke up. He had no choice but to camouflage himself to avoid being seen by Gavin and his crew.
So what would happen next? Would Gavin & crew able to find what they were looking for? Could Elliot find Pete again? Would Pete return to the forest to be together with his best friend Elliot? Find them all in this lovely & touching family movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As a typical Disney movie, you should expect to see a family friendly story. This one is no exception. It had all the ingredients of a lovely family drama movie, with touching odd relationship between a boy and his friend (who happens to be a dragon) and also family relationship. I quite enjoyed the movie, as apart from having those moments, it also had some funny moments (but not very hilarious ones) and I also enjoyed the good CGI special effect on the creation of Elliot. So please do not compare this with other kids movie where the aim was to make you laugh out loud.
It was a little bit funny looking at Elliot as he did not look like the usual dragon that we have pictures of, but his expression seemed more like a dog, especially when he loved to sniff around. He also sometimes sounded like a horse. At some points I even saw similarity of the popular Shrek's face, especially since Elliot's skin was green. Anyway it was hard not to root for him as the closest thing to a father to Pete and also his loving & caring for Pete. It was no doubt the greatest thing about this movie was their relationship. Elliot also pictured as a dragon in the real world where he could not speak. So this is not one of those movies where the animals can speak.
The movie also had some tension moments, especially in the final third of the story. But please do not expect a story about dragon eating people, or dragon killing people. This is not that kind of movie. Please remember that this is family drama movie. If people are expecting fast paced & many plot twist, then this movie is really not for you. It is a movie that you can sit back and enjoy & watch it together with your family. It is also very safe for kids to watch.
Enjoy watching it while still playing in theaters.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Note:
I just found out that this movie was actually a remake of 1977 musical animated movie of the same title. That one also received good review and even got an Oscar nomination for the original song titled "Candle on the Water". So this was not an original movie, although it was also done by Disney in the 1977 version.
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