Pete's Dragon (35th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD]

Love the movie. Great price for a classic

I just received my blu-ray copy and watched it. Very good picture and sound. I was in kindergarten when this was a new movie and I loved it. Kind of felt that it was made just for me! Saw it in the theater new back then. My young nephews love it too, and they are used to movies like "Bolt" and "Cars". It's been many years since I had seen it and I was surprised that I didn't remember a single scene or plot in the movie while watching it recently, except maybe a brief memory of the lighthouse. Remarkably, I think it affected me more now than it did back then. I cried secretly when Elliot left at the end and wished I could have had a dragon. Pretty scary how much re-watching it took me right back to being a kid, though I don't remember being so affected by it back then, I just remembered I liked it a lot. Great incidental instrumental music too, I didn't watch or listen to this movie for the songs that were sung. The song "Candle On The Water" won the 1977 Academy Award for best movie song, but I didn't think it was that great. I did like the song "It's A Razzle Brazzle Day", however. I wish they would add this to their Legacy collection of full soundtracks. You can go to the Disney website and they have a feedback email address that is easily found where they are encouraging feedback on their new soundtrack releases. Blu-ray 35th edition includes two trailers, a couple of other bonus features, and a little overview of the making of the film, narrated by the kid who played Pete! Some have said that this was a little heavy for a kid's movie. Well, we didn't think so when I was a preschooler and in grade school. Many Disney movies have a lesson presented at some time during the movie. I still liked "Rascal" even though it was also about family responsibility. I still liked "Thomasina" even though the cat dies at one point, there are others too, but the point is there are sometimes lessons to be learned like all good things come to an end (as in Pete's Dragon), or life will be life and is not always what you hope for or expected. I have reaffirmed this as my favorite Disney movie, just based on how it affected me in more than just a nostalgic way. It really resonated for some reason. Probably number two is "The Black Hole". Anyway, check it out, your kids will love it and you probably will too even if you weren't fortunate to have been born during the golden age of Disney. I at least was at the tail end of it. They never made another one like this again. Now to get that expanded full soundtrack...

Was worried that it wouldn't include that song, Candle on the Water, but it's there. Fun movie

Our family comes back to this over and over. The Gogans are the best lovable/hateable villains, and the music is just so good.

This is my all time favorite movie -and I'm 48 yrs old! I remember my parents taking me to see "Pete's Dragon" on my 9th Birthday -along with all my slumber party friends! We all just loved it! (As for the negative 'content reviewers'? I mean sheesh, Bambi's mom died!) Me and my friends bombarded my parents with questions the whole ride home that night after my dad said "So girls, what did ya think of the movie?" After glowing reports of how great having a dragon would be, we changed the subject to "Dad?How could they have let the Gogans adopt Pete? Why would Doc want to cut Elliot up -just to make money?, Etc. My dad explained to us girls that, sadly and unfortunately, bad things happen -even to good people. That's why we need emulate the the way Nora lives; kind, finding joy in tasks and live our lives with a heart like Nora THATS exactly what the world needs now. We could ALL do things like she did; be non-judgmental, opened our heart to those in need and get involved. I STILL remember that uplifting drive home that night!That Christmas I got the Soundtrack Record to Pete's Dragon....well it wasn't just a sound track,,,, With the record came a large book that had EVERY line of the movie and songs!!! (Like a DVD without video! hahaha!) I Still have that record and paperback script sleeve! Also, the VHS tape; so my boys could enjoy and now I own it digitally in my Amazon library so I can watch it on any device!! I truly agree with others that this is a hidden gem that was under-marketed! I myself found it a great movie to watch with my boys when they were younger and had the same take with them after it too. They remember it fondly and I hope they share it with their children too someday. ;)

Always great to see older movies of the past.. This was such a good movie.. lots of music and fun to watch

Old VHS has to be replaced and some classics hard to come buy

Pete's Dragon is another project from Disney's wilderness years in the 70s when audiences were running a mile from their films, nothing ever worked out quite as intended and management fell back on the mantra "What would Walt do?" In this case they ended up doing what Walt wouldn't, turning a story that had been considered in the 50s for his TV series into a big budget musical with an animated character, in this case a runaway orphan and his invisible dragon Elliot (who only he can see most of the time) who become part of New England lighthouse keepers Helen Reddy and Mickey Rooney's family while on the run from Shelley Winters and her inbred kin who want to bring him back in chains to do the chores on their homestead. And, just to add to their woes, the local fishermen blame Elliot for their poor catch while Jim Dale's travelling quack and his sidekick Red Buttons want to catch the dragon and chop him up for ingredients in their patent medicines.It's the kind of thing that the Mary Poppins team of director Robert Stevenson and composers the Sherman Brothers could have pulled off, but it doesn't quite work - all the potential elements are there but many of the songs aren't quite good enough, the choreography not quite there, some of the performances a tad off-key and the look of the film at times more like TV than film. Of the cast only Jim Dale really sells any of his numbers as a travelling medicine man who's a cross between P.T. Barnum and J. Worthington Foulfellow, and is at least rewarded with the film's only real showstopper, Every Little Piece. Elsewhere, director Don Chaffey doesn't always seem comfortable with the musical numbers. He's fine with the more intimate ones but during the big numbers he doesn't always seem too sure where to put the camera to best showcase them.One of the last things Don Bluth animated at Disney before leading many of the other animators who worked on the film out to form their own company to produce The Secret of NIMH, the paunchy Elliot feels more like a character from one of Bluth's lesser films than a classic Disney creation. Based partially on Wallace Beery with a more overtly loveably stupid persona, he's not always as well integrated into the live-action as earlier Disney animated crossover characters either, leaving the feeling that somewhere along the way someone decided that it was good enough for a kid's film when you suspect had Disney been running the show himself he'd have pushed harder to get it right (that said, even he had trouble recapturing the Poppins magic with films like The Happiest Millionaire). Not that that's a problem limited to the animation. At times it feels like they're aiming down at the family market too much with none of the smartness that would widen the appeal of later animated features to adults as well, which can make parts of it awkward watching for anyone approaching puberty let alone those having passed it. It picks up as it goes and has some good moments but never really gels as much more than a guilty pleasure or a bit of nostalgia for those who saw it as kids.A box-office hit but far from the Mary Poppins-style blockbuster they were hoping for, the film had a chequered release history. Premiering at 134 minutes it was constantly trimmed down, initially to 121 minutes for its general release in the US, but by the time it was released overseas it had lost 27 minutes including, inexplicably, the Oscar-nominated song Candle on the Water which served as a lynchpin for the film's score, while some TV prints were slashed to 91 minutes (Disney would do the same thing with their international release of Popeye a few years later, trimming the film by half an hour and losing several songs en route).Luckily, the `High Flying' DVD edition is the longest surviving version (though still missing some six minutes) and comes with a heftier package of extras than is listed on the packaging - among them a deleted storyboard sequence, a 25-minute documentary about the development of integrating animation and live action, brief profile of animator Ken Anderson, demo versions of four songs, pop promo re-recordings of four others, art galleries and a reissue trailer (though the 1973 short Man, Monsters and Mysteries featuring an animated Loch Ness Monster that was on the first US DVD of the shorter version of the film has been dropped).Disney's 35th anniversary US Blu-ray edition loses most of the extras, keeping only the deleted scene, storyboard promo, the 25-minute animation documentary and a couple of trailers - but is the 129-minute version and is region-free. However, in another backward step, Disney's international Bluray release available in the UK is the cut 106-minute version, which seems particularly nonsensical when a restored master exists.

I'll say this, then I'll review the movie. Yes, this version (Pete's Dragon [Blu-ray][1977][Region Free] is the edited version (it's 106 minutes, or 1hr 46, whereas the other version is 124 minutes, or 2hrs 4). Does this bother me? No. This is the version I watched on VHS when I was younger (for years I didn't know that there was a longer version available - it was only when I looked this movie up on Wikipedia, and it was talking about some scenes and songs that I didn't recognise that I found out). Also, I know that a lot of people on here have been complaining that this version does not have "Candle on the Water" in it and, whilst it's true that that scene does not appear, the song is played over the title/credits at the beginning of the movie (it's the actual song, not just an instrumental version).Anyway, now that's over with, onto the movie. I like it. It has a great storyline, great characters, good songs, and one of the most loveable dragons in movie history! As for the actors, for the most part they do a good job (especially the late Mickey Rooney as Lampie, Jim Dale as Doc. Terminus and Helen Reddy as Nora).Elliot (the dragon) is so loveable and so funny, you just can't help smiling whenever he's around, even when he's causing havoc in Passamaquoddy. I was a little unsure about buying the blu-ray instead of the DVD, as I thought that Elliot might not have aged well (being a traditionally animated character in a live action movie that's now in a HD format), but he looked as good as he ever has done. I once read a review of the movie (not on Amazon) that said that Elliot's colour was always changing hue, which to them was distracting. This is true, but if you look closer, you can see that it changes whenever Elliot moves into or out of the light.Even though he's one of the villains, I can't help but love Doc. Terminus, as he's so funny (and he gets to sing one of Disney's best villain songs EVER). It's clear that Jim Dale had a lot of fun with this role - he takes a character who could have been a classically Disney villain i.e. evil personified, and make him human, but still evil at times. Also, Red Buttons as Hoagy makes a great villain's sidekick/foil.Now onto the blu-ray. The movie looks really good on blu-ray. I do wish, however, that there were more special features - there's a "making of" featurette, trailers, the original version of "I love you too" and the storyboard for a deleted scene, so there's about the same as you'd expect on an average DVD release, not a blu-ray.All in all, I think it's worth it.

One of my favourite films from my childhood. The songs are brilliant (although my throat always hurts as the young Sean strains to hit those high notes), and while the acting may be a little wooden at times, the fairytale 'happily ever after' gets me very time. The humour and the loving presence of Elliot makes this wonderful family viewing. What's disappointing, though, is that the UK version is the cut version, while the US version is the original version. Although I already have this one, I've just gone and ordered the uncut one.

Please don't buy this, it's not the full film. The overture is missing at the start, instead it is substituted with Helen Reddy singing Candle in the Water' over the titles. And the scene where she sings it in the lighthouse is cut entirely, as is the opening song 'Happiest Home in These Hills' Then, later 'I Thought I Saw A Dragon' is cut very short.What a shame. We bought this to replace an old VHS, so the full version was released n the UK. No idea why It should be so edited. We bought an American version, (in a pack with a DVD) the blu ray plays fine on our standard blu ray player. It arrived quickly, no customs to pay.It is a lovely film, and we in the UK deserve to see it all!

Not a day goes by when this film isn't thrust into the DVD player. My 2 year old loves it and because of it, he can now say "I love you too". Gawsh.Anyhoo, I was raised on this film too and the songs are great and the storyline is fab too. What with a stellar cast and a great big green dragon - you just can't go wrong. Elliott the dragon is pretty cute too.I'm not sure why, like the other films in this ilk (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks etc) this one gets passed over. I would recommend it if you enjoy these kind of Disney films and not the boring full animation kind.