'Pete's Dragon': A Pint-Size Tarzan Befriends a Magical Beast in the First Trailer
Bryce Dallas Howard spent last summer running away from ferocious dinosaurs in Jurassic World. This August, she’ll again find herself facing a titanic reptilian monster, albeit one that seems far more protective than predator, by the looks of the first trailer for Disney’s new take on Pete’s Dragon (watch it above).
The beast in question is a dragon named Elliot, and he’s the magical center of attention in the modernized remake of the 1977 Disney film that used a Mary Poppins-style blend of live-action and animation, and featured original songs. In the 2016 update, which won’t be a musical, the winged creature comes alive via CGI. And despite the new dragon’s more photo-realistic appearance, it appears the new shaggy Elliot will still boast his predecessor’s slightly pudgy frame—if not, alas, his purple hair.
Elliott in ‘Pete’s Dragon,’ 1977 (Sean Marshall)
Pete’s Dragon will chart the inspiring odyssey of forest ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who discovers—alongside a lumber mill owner (Wes Bentley), his daughter (Oona Laurence), and her father (Robert Redford)—that a young boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley) has been living in her national park for six years. The feral child, who resembles a pint-sized Tarzan, has managed to survive in the wild through his friendship with Elliot—whose existence, per convention, is doubted by Howard and Co. (at least until they get a good look at him emerging from his cave), and feared by a meanie (Karl Urban) whose knee-jerk reaction is to hunt and kill it.
Playing like a cross between 2013’s Jessica Chastain-headlined horror hit Mama and Brad Bird’s hand-drawn The Iron Giant, Pete’s Dragon arrives in theaters on August 12.
Watch Bryce Dallas Howard explain how the 2016 version of ‘Pete’s Dragon’ will differ from the 1977 original:
