10 Most Over-Rated Movies Of 2016

The latest movie to join the long list of remakes and reboots moviegoers have been subjected to this year alongside Ghostbuster, Cabin Fever and Ben-Hur, Pete’s Dragon is director David Lowery’s take on the original 1977 Disney film of the same name. Part of Disney’s current tactic of re-producing live-action, CGI-upped versions of their older films presumably to cash in on nostalgia while introducing their films to an entirely new market, the film was released this summer to rave reviews.

Is it better than the original? Most likely yes, but it’s such a different film that it’s hard to say for sure. The original 1977 Pete’s Dragon isn’t exactly a favourite, though unusually for Disney it’s main protagonist had a particularly dark backstory, Pete having been sold to an abusive family as a child slave. This new take still has Pete as an orphan child but here it’s done via the deliberately heartstring-twanging plot device of having his parents die in a car crash.

Scenes brimming with saccharine emotion are a theme than runs throughout the movie and just in case you aren’t aware of the moments when your eyes should be filling up with tears, Daniel Hart’s swelling score handily kicks in to not-so-subtly nudge you in the right emotional direction. It’s Disney at its most schmaltzy, and it’s perplexing to see how many critics still fall for its blatant emotional manipulation.