Pete's Dragon Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

1. It's Actually Better Than The Original

Young audience members likely won't even know that Pete's Dragon is a remake of a cult classic 1977 animated musical of the same name, but given that this new take is a major improvement over the original, it's just as well really.

The original movie has received mixed notices from audiences and critics alike ever since release, criticised for being slow and overlong at 134 minutes, even though the combination of animation and live-action was generally praised, and the film nevertheless received two Oscar nominations for the song Candle on the Water and its musical score.

Ultimately, the new movie is a lot less indulgent and weird, and more streamlined towards being a simpler, sweet, fun adventure movie, totally outdoing the original in that regard. It's about half an hour shorter, there aren't any creepy hillbilly stereotypes, and the ending is a lot more satisfying. An easy win, then.

What did you think of Pete's Dragon? Shout it out in the comments!