Friday, 21 June 2013

Pete's Dragon

So, I suspect that I'll be watching a lot of old Disney films with Arya-Rose over the years. Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, The Three Lives of Thomasina, Darby O'Gill and the Little People; you know, the terrifying ones.

Pete's Dragon is the tale of a yougn boy and his friendship with a magical dragon named Elliot, whose ability to become invisible makes most people assume he's imaginary. Pete and Elliot stumble into a quaint little town, where Pete is taken in by the lighthouse keeper and his daughter, while being pursued by the violent redneck family who in some means purchased him and wish to assert their ownership. Meanwhile, Dr Terminus is in town, a quack doctor looking to go 'legit' by selling remedies made from slicing up Elliot.

Both the child slavery angle and the violent dismemberment of a sentient being are, of course, discussed through the medium of jaunty, upbeat singing.

At the end, Pete has a family, and so Elliot goes off to help the next child in need, as magical friends in disney movies of the era were wont to do.

It's not terrifying like any of those others I mentioned, but it is weirdly dark given the tone of the songs, or possibly vice versa. In particular, We Got a Bill of Sale right here - and the fact that no one seems to question this on legal grounds, worries me. Hannah suggested that the bill was in fact adoption papers, but they certainly never refer to them as such.

70s Disney; it's its own brand of messed up.

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