My dad and I went on a tour of Boston Light in July. It's the last remaining staffed lighthouse in the U.S. (It was also the first lighthouse in the U.S.) It sits on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor, a tiny little rock of nothing practically, with the lighthouse, the keeper's house and a boat dock.
We were allowed to climb up the lighthouse and check out the lamp from the very top. When I wrote my review of the tour after receiving a prompting email from the company where I had purchased the tour tickets, I had a flashback to a movie I couldn't recall the name of involving a dragon, a kid, and a lighthouse. I wrongly referenced "Puff the Magic Dragon" in the review and then did a search to find the right movie, which I quickly found was "Pete's Dragon".
I went straight to my netflix queue and added the film. I just received it on Friday and I watched it yesterday. It was every bit as good as I remember from when I was a kid. I even remembered the songs. Seriously. We must have watched the movie a number of times, as I remember it being shown on Channel 38 often (along with The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and The Apple Dumpling Gang).
I remembered that Mickey Rooney was in it, but not that Red Buttons was or Helen Reddy. This film was actually Helen Reddy's first foray into film after achieving major success as a recording star in the 1970s. Apparently, "Candle on the Water", one of the songs from Pete's Dragon is one of her best known songs. I'm pretty sure that's I am Woman, but whatever. She left the U.S. after the 2004 election debacle and returned to her native Australia where's she's now a licensed practicing hypnotherapist. (Facinating.)
Anyway, for those of you who don't remember or are too young or too old to remember, Pete's Dragon was about a little orphan boy who is befriended by a dragon after being bought by a bunch of hillbillies to be a slave on their farm. He escapes them (the woman being played by Shelly Winters) and finds the little seaside town of Passamaquoddy, where he befriends Nora the daughter of the lighthousekeeper Lampie. She offers to keep him and make him a home, and together, with the help of Elliot the Dragon, fight off the hillbillies (who want Pete back) and the evil Dr. Terminus and his bumbling assistant Hoagy (who want the Dragon for parts in medicines). Meanwhile, the magical Elliot finds Nora's long-lost-at-sea love Paul and brings him home. Everyone is happily singing and dancing at the end as Elliot departs to help some other needy little child elsewhere in the world.
Here's a clip: (I had no idea you could watch whole movies in pieces on youtube!)
There are a few things in it that are unbelievably 1970s and could never possibly appear in a contemporary movie today. Child slavery and the very clear and seemingly acceptable alcoholism of Lampie are two. I couldn't tell in the film what year it was meant to be. There aren't any cars, and the Dr. Terminus show travels by cart powered by a sail because they had to sell their horses. Are we in the 1800s? Also, not sure where in the world we are, except my New England knowledge of words like Passamaquoddy, until there's mention of Bar Harbor and Cape Hatteras, which leads me to Maine. A quick check of Wikepedia just now tells me I was right on one count (Maine) and slightly off on the other (early 20th century).
Anyway, it's a touching, funny story of a boy looking for love and finding an unlikely friend to help him find it. Elliot has the ability to be invisible and visible at will, and some adults see him and others don't, depending on the situation. It's not a Snuffleupagus situation (wherein no adult can see Elliot and everyone doubts his existence) but those who have seen him up to a certain point have done so under questionable circumstances (ie. being completely blotto drunk). In the end, he's visible and helpful at just the right moment, saving the day. Just what we all expect from Disney.
I know I'm a dork. I can't help it. But I loved this movie yesterday as much as I loved it when I was 12. I wonder what other ones I can watch again?
2 comments:
For a while, Disney made a bunch of creepy puppet movies like The Gnome Mobile and Darby O'Gill that were so bizarre I can't imagine what the plots really were. I think they were trying to ried the Mary Poppins coattails. I would see them again, but I only just got over the nightmares.
But Pete's is a good one.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks you will like.
Maybe 3 Cabarellos, from the "make friends with South America before they go Nazi" period.
Now I'll have to rent the movie because for the life of me I cannot recall it. I do remember the Apple Dumpling Gang with Don Knotts, though.
Post a Comment