Reception
The film was successful to some degree; in 1978, Pete's Dragon was ranked at seventeen on Variety's hit list. Thomas J. Harris, in Children’s Live-Action Musical Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography, heavily criticizes the story as well as the compositing of the animated Elliott; he also found the "Mary Poppinsish ending" to be "thoroughly unmotivated", because Pete's life before meeting Elliott is never fleshed out. In 2006, Elliott was ranked no. 5 on a top 10 list of movie dragons by Karl Heitmueller for MTV Movie News.
Critic Leonard Maltin observed that Disney Studios made several attempts to recreate the appeal and success of Mary Poppins (1964), and that this was one of their least successful endeavors. However, he added that it might please children.
Pete's Dragon currently has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 50%.
Read more about this topic: Pete's Dragon
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