Don Chaffey and Don Bluth direct Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy and Jim Dale in this Disney kid’s film where an orphan and his animated dragon cause chaos in a fishing village.

Nostalgia covers up a lot of cracks here. The film is sweetly innocent (even when often accidentally dark as fuck) and Elliot the clicking invisible best friend is an extremely loveable creation when visible. But aside from that the plot is all over the shop, the overlong movie is a showcase for various light entertainers many of whom’s disjointed musical interludes have a tenuous relationships with the main hook. And yet this is a fine menagerie of daft and flighty personas: Dale, Red Buttons, Shelley Winter and Mickey Rooney. Watching them ham it up in a ramshackle but good natured enterprise is its own reward. If you didn’t grow up with Pete’s Dragon it is possibly best advised to just give it a pass but we had a giggle-filled evening revisiting it.

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We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/