Pete's Dragon Remake

Disney is making a remake of Pete's Dragon. The director is known for Ain't Them Bodies Saints. It won't be a musical and the dragon will be done in CGI.

I'm not against the idea of the remake. Frankly, the original Petes Dragon has it problems and seeing another version of the story would be interesting.

edited 20th Sep '14 8:57:14 PM by DS9guy

I never saw the original, but I had a picture book retelling of it for many years.

All I know about the original movie is what I've seen of it in Doug Walker's Disneycember reviews.

It does seem like it could use an update, but what would be the best way to go about it?

Not whatever way they choose to go about it, that's for damn sure.

Why a remake? Why not a sequel? After all, Eliot could simply go to help another child. Dislike the CGI angle. I don't want Eliot to look any different. (Yes, I know and love the movie).

edited 21st Sep '14 12:05:06 AM by Swanpride

Because a sequel would require people to put thought into a story. And God forbid the Hollywood execs put thought into anything. If they're even capable of that anymore.

For more obscure movies, a remake makes more sense than a sequel. Requiring the audience to recognize a continuation of a plot that they might not have even heard of is a bit problematic.

I'm ambivalent towards this, with the exception that they better keep the song Passamaquoddy in the finished version. Even if it's not a musical any more.

Hollywood, stop fucking around with my childhood. Pete's Dragon was fine as it is. Leave it alone.

Pete's Dragon is not that obscure. For many it is a beloved memory of childhood.

The only good thing of a remake would be that there is a chance that I might finally get the stuffed Eliot I wanted for years.

The original is a pretty serviceable fantasy with no real problems except that the dragon spends a large part of the plot invisible and the kid and the "good guys" who adopt him are pretty boring-the only human characters anyone remembers are the evil redneck(?) types who used to keep the kid as a servant, basically, and want him back, and the smarmy medical quack/sidekick team played by Jim Dale and Red Buttons. Not coincidentally, those two sets of characters get the best songs. They are *not* gonna find a better Dr. Terminus than Dale, and yet it's the only role A-listers are likely to want in the film.

I could see some kind of cell-shaded CGI yielding an Elliott who looks pretty authentic to the original.

There is no replacement for Shelley Winters, either. She is certainly enjoying herself in the movie.

I think that the main problem with the original is that there are too many filler scenes...The German version of it is much shorter, because the cut some of the musical numbers, and it certainly makes for a better movie if you are not forced to stare for minutes at Nora, who is just standing there and singing, to suffer to way too over-the-top dances over kegs. I call it the Portobello Road effect...there is the point at which even the best musical number stops being fun.

Well, the remake came out. It was a critical success, but a commercial flop.

Disney didn't exactly support it well. I suspect they assumed it would fail and thus didn't bother giving it a lot of traction - not in the same way they pushed, say, the Jungle Book remake.

edited 5th Feb '17 9:53:43 PM by KnownUnknown