Film

Pete's Dragon

Name: Pete's Dragon
Genre: Fantasy, Animation, Comedy, Family
Released: 1977
Cast: Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons

Other titles called Pete's Dragon: the 2016 film.

Fairy tale
Light-hearted

Pete's Dragon is a live-action-and-animation hybrid from 1977 where a runaway boy finds refuge with a small-town lighthouse keeper and his magical, mischievous dragon. It's achingly earnest, operatic in scope, and genuinely interested in loneliness and found family. A fairy tale for people who still believe in them.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you grew up on old studio fantasies with hand-drawn creatures and don't mind a big, goofy, sentimental heart that plays its wonder straight.

Skip it if you bristle at slapstick-leaning pranks and a two-hour runtime that stretches a simple, gentle story thinner than its welcome.

What it asks of you: Two hours and eight minutes of patience, with a leisurely pace and a light, sweet tone rather than sharp edges, and the songs and quiet passages take their time.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The NeverEnding Story1984

A boy enters a magical book to save a dying fantasy world, mixing live action with puppet work in ways that feel both handmade and boundless. It shares Pete's Dragon's conviction that imagination is survival.

But Slow pacing and a genuinely disturbing villain might test younger viewers' patience, and the film's melancholy does not apologize.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks1971

Animation bleeds into live action as children discover enchanted objects during wartime. Like Pete's Dragon, it's a Disney hybrid that commits to whimsy without condescension, full of inventive set pieces and real heart.

But Over two hours and the tone shifts wildly between comedy and genuine darkness about the Second World War.

The Black Stallion1979

A boy and a wild Arabian horse form an unspoken bond after a shipwreck. It has Pete's Dragon's quiet belief in childhood wonder and its willingness to let sequences breathe without dialogue or conflict.

But Long stretches of pure atmosphere with minimal plot may feel slow if you want constant narrative momentum.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pete's Dragon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Tale of Despereaux2008

Both center on a small, vulnerable creature whose love for an outsider becomes the plot's moral axis. Both trust that tenderness, not triumph, is what matters.

A small mouse and a princess form an unlikely bond across castle walls. Like Pete's Dragon, it uses animation to tell a story about outsiders finding love in a world designed to reject them, with genuine stakes beneath the fairytale.

But The animation is inconsistently beautiful, the narrative strains under multiple timelines, and it feels more like a picture book than an adventure.

Willow1988

A small person and a warrior protect a baby from dark forces in a fully realized fantasy world. It has Pete's Dragon's earnest commitment to adventure and its sense that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

But The pacing is sometimes lumpy, and some of the practical effects have aged into camp.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang1968

A magical car brings joy and danger to a resourceful family, mixing live action, animation, and song numbers with genuine inventiveness. It shares the same theatrical optimism and crafted-by-hand quality as Pete's Dragon.

But Nearly three hours, a terrifying child-catcher, and musical numbers that demand patience from modern viewers.

Charlotte's Web1973

A pig and a spider navigate friendship, loss, and legacy in a film that trusts animation to convey real emotion. Like Pete's Dragon, it takes its young protagonist's inner life seriously without sentimentality.

But The ending is genuinely sad, and some animation sequences feel static by modern standards.

The Secret of NIMH1982

A widowed mouse ventures into danger to save her children, animated with stunning detail and an emotional core that refuses easy answers. Pete's Dragon's earnestness about love and sacrifice is here, darker and more complex.

But Violence is surprisingly intense, the plot becomes convoluted in the second half, and it assumes viewers can follow abstract visual storytelling.

Dragonslayer1981

A young wizard and his apprentice face a fire-breathing dragon and a tyrannical king in a film that treats fantasy as real consequence, not play. It has Pete's Dragon's commitment to meaningful stakes and moral choice.

But Genuinely bleak in places, with a dragon that does not behave like a friend, and violence treated with weight rather than adventure-movie gloss.

The Last Unicorn1982

A unicorn searches for her vanished kin in a world forgetting magic, mixing animation, philosophy, and genuine sorrow. Like Pete's Dragon, it asks whether wonder can survive in a place that no longer wants it.

But Slow, abstract, deeply sad, and the animation is deliberately stylized in ways that feel distant rather than warm.

My Neighbor Totoro1988

Both films reject the idea that a magical creature must prove itself through action. Both suggest that simply existing together, in the same space, is enough.

Two sisters encounter a benevolent forest spirit in postwar rural Japan. Animation of extraordinary grace, wholly concerned with childhood wonder and the quiet companionship between children and something magical and non-threatening.

But Essentially plotless—a series of moments rather than a story arc. Slow, meditative, and utterly unconcerned with conflict or resolution.

Come and See1985

Pete's Dragon asks what happens when a child finds love and safety. Come and See asks what happens when those things are stripped away. Together they frame childhood as the essential battleground of the human story.

A boy joins Soviet partisans in WWII and encounters the machinery of evil. Photographed in searing color, visceral and unbearable, it asks what innocence looks like when it's destroyed. A masterpiece of cinema about childhood's end.

But Absolutely devastating and graphic—one of the most difficult films ever made. Not an evening's entertainment; a trial you undertake.