Pete's Dragon

Disney's 1977 original, about a boy and his guardian dragon, blended live-action humans with a very cartoonish green-and-purple creature. Forty years on, their thrilling and thoroughly entertaining re-imagining uses cutting-edge CG technology to make dragon Elliot look rather more realistic. Yet he pleasingly retains his goofily cartoonish characteristics. Elliot now looks like a kindly dog, albeit a huge, green, winged and intermittently invisible one. The plot, though, is radically altered. Pete is no longer an orphan fleeing physically abusive foster parents, but a kid lost in the woods after a car crash that kills his parents. Found living feral six years later, his survival remains a mystery until supportive forest ranger Bryce Dallas Howard and her eco-minded dad Robert Redford strike up a relationship with him, and are introduced to Pete's unusual forest friend. But Elliot gives a warmer, dragon-style welcome to pursuing hunters. By turns funny, sad, scary and exciting, this is terrific family entertainment, though children who are easily upset may be disturbed by some of the intense action scenes.