A 9-year-old orphaned boy named Pete is running away from his cruel caregivers who promise to treat him better. However, they also intend to punish him.

Pete meets up with his loving dragon, Elliott. They spend some quality time together.

The next morning, Pete wakes up and learns that Elliott can turn invisible. The 2 go to a local town called Passamaquoddy. But Pete needs to warn Elliott to behave himself.

Once the 2 are in the town, though, crazy things happen thanks to Elliott’s inability to control himself while invisible. Not only that, he shows himself and scares an old man named Lampie.

People there turn on Pete. Poor Pete is mortified and disappointed in Elliott.

The 2 hideout in a cave by the ocean. Pete puts Elliot down for what he’s done. But when Elliot feels hurt, Pete apologizes to him and acknowledges that he loves him.

Shortly after that, a woman named Nora finds Pete. Concerned about his safety due to an incoming tide, she gives Pete shelter in the lighthouse.

The next day, a showman who once served time in prison comes to Passamaquoddy. His name is Dr. Terminus. But the townspeople are very unhappy to see him and want him to go back to jail.

And when there is not enough fish for the fisherman, Dr. Terminus decides to blame Pete for it. Yet Nora defends Pete and claims that he should be welcome into the town.

She also has Pete go to school, where his teacher is none other than the harsh Miss Taylor – whom Pete had previously met when he first went to Passamaquoddy. Even worse, she keeps punishing Pete for mishap’s cost by Elliott.

If that’s not bad enough, Elliot’s safety is at risk. Both Dr. Terminus and his assistant, Hoagy, want to destroy him.

Can Elliott be saved?

The opening was quite promising in terms of setting up what Pete wanted. Not only was the song, “The Happiest Home in These Hills,” sung by his cruel caregivers catchy, but Pete knew not to fall for their fake promises.

His bond with Elliot was particularly sweet, even when Elliot did the wrong thing at times. I also admired Nora as an older friend and mentor to Pete. The song she sings in the middle of the film, “Candle on the Water,” was quite pretty.

Unfortunately, after the beginning, the film became less exciting. The moments with high levels of tension did make it a bit, though.

I will admit that I wasn’t a big fan of Elliot’s sounds. They sounded quite annoying.

And the scene where he was rocking Pete back-and-forth, looked quite awkward from a modern day point of view. I know this movie is a hybrid live- action one, and hand-drawn animation was pretty much the only type back then.

But the way the animated Elliott was rocking the real actor playing Pete looked very clunky. In addition, when Elliott breathed fire on a treat for Pete and Pete ate it, I found it unsanitary.

However, I did read that in the original myth of dragons, the fire that they breathed contained no germs or bacteria. And that was because all the scientific awareness of it didn’t exist back then, like it does now.

But I did read that mythological dragonfire is so hot that it would kill off anything unhygienic, anyway. And Elliott was a 2D-animated dragon. Plus, movies get away with unrealistic moments all the time.

Overall, I thought Pete’s Dragon was just okay. Certain changes would have made it better.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.