Pete’s Dragon – 1977
Brazzle Dazzle Brilliance!
Director
Don Chaffey

Writers
S.S. Field story
Malcolm Marmorstein
Seton I. Miller story

Producers
Jerome Courtland producer
Ron Miller producer

Cast
Helen Reddy – Nora
Jim Dale – Dr. Terminus
Mickey Rooney – Lampie
Red Buttons – Hoagy
Shelley Winters – Lena Gogan
Sean Marshall – Pete
Jane Kean – Miss Taylor
Jim Backus – The Mayor
Charles Tyner – Merle
Jeff Conaway – Willie
Gary Morgan – Grover
Cal Bartlett – Paul
Charlie Callas – Elliot (voice)
Walter Barnes – Captain
Al Checco – Fisherman #1
Henry Slate – Fisherman #2
Jack Collins – Fisherman #3
Robert Easton – Store Proprietor
Roger Price – Man with Visor
Robert Foulk – Old Sea Captain
Ben Wrigley – Egg Man
Joe Ross – Cement Man
Debbie Fresh – Child/Dancer/Singer (uncredited)
Dinah Ann Rogers – Townsperson (uncredited)
Dennis Stewart – Fisherman (uncredited)

Review by Theo Robertson

Pete’s Dragon (1977)

In my review of THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE I mentioned that that the Disney studio were chugging out a lot of rather poor family orientated movies in the mid to late 1970s and PETE’S DRAGON is another example What struck me is once again relatively poor production values . Watch 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA to see a Disney movie made by master craftsmen who love their art and compare it to this movie which feels like it was churned out in order to simply fill some Summer schedule .

The film is too brightly lit for one thing and as for the cast …. well Mickey Rooney was a big name but that was when no one made movie in colour , equally Red Buttons had been appearing in not very good disaster movies while Jim Dale as a con man selling snake oil to gullible customers isn’t exactly the most memorable villain seen in a Disney film . It should also be pointed out that a movie that has a friendly dragon seems doomed from failure from the start . Say what you like about REIGN OF FIRE but at least in that film we saw dragons do what dragons are supposed to do and that’s burn people to death with their fiery breath .

PETE’S DRAGON can’t be described as being charming or innocent , it can only be described as naive and that’s not a compliment