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Sean Marshall, Mickey Rooney, Helen Reddy, Shelley Winters, Jim Dale, Red Buttons

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Statmanjeff

Since you recently mentioned films one of you saw but not the other, I look forward to seeing Joe watch Drowning Mona and seeing Kevin watch Batman Returns.

dys

Too late to start this tonight but this was another one I grew up with like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, more of a staple even, even though this came out like a decade before I was born.

Erica

I haven't seen this movie in probably 30 years? Can't wait to revisit when i get home from work in the morning!

Lisa

They filmed a lot this movie at Montana d’Oro State Park in San Luis Obispo County, California. Fun movie.

dys

As a New Englander, Passamaquoddy always felt very familiar to me, even though my Massachusetts hometown is about 100 miles west of Boston so not that near the coast- closer to where Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls is probably located. But I went to old New England fishing towns like this many times as a kid. Like I said this was a childhood staple, so I was very interested to see how this movie I haven't seen in probably 30 years holds up. You can see how this is an intermediate step between Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where in Mary Poppins they were very careful about limiting how the animated characters physically interacted with the live actors vs. in Roger Rabbit the animated characters are completely seamlessly present with the live action. Here Elliot physically interacts with Pete a lot but you can see the seams a lot more than in Roger Rabbit. It puts this in a bit of an uncanny valley where everything in Mary Poppins looked great because they knew their limits, and everything in Roger Rabbit looked great because they pushed the state of the art past those limits, and here they were trying something still relatively novel. Not at all saying it looks bad, lot of clever artistry in this film. This is all stuff I would never have picked up on watching this as a kid in the 90s, I wouldn't have even subconsciously noticed the difference between the technical execution of this vs Roger Rabbit then.

Jonathan

For everyone who hasn’t watched this movie in years this is a cut of the movie you haven’t seen. Disney+ put the full version of the film on there (Unlike Bedknobs which was still a cut down version). This movie has had as much as 45 minutes cut from it to make it lighter for various audiences.

Jonathan

The dislike of the Bedknobs reaction may be someone who still protests Disney movies that support witchcraft, because they see it as a gateway to Satanism (I had to change the channel repeatedly watching that as a kid)

Jonathan

This was Disney’s most profitable film of the 70s, which was a low bar. The film got some abuse from critics for casting a current pop singer as Nora but I thought she did a great job and should have done more films.

Jonathan

I grew up watching a lot of the Disney live action movies at least once a year. Since live action movies other than Poppins did not get rereleased in theaters they were more available on tv for my parents to record on the VCR

Statmanjeff

Okay, now I’ve seen it. Gorgeous sets, lots of story elements not well integrated, forgettable songs, long run time, strong performance by Jim Dale, over the top performances from Shelley Winters and Mickey Rooney and Red Buttons (acting their tales off, almost desperately so), almost complete under-usage of Jim Backus. Didn’t appeal to me enough in my younger days to see it. Doesn’t appeal to me now as an adult. Probably appropriate for very young kids. About as forgettable as Bedknobs and Broomsticks (but maybe a little better). Falls short of hopes and expectations. The kid lead was all right. Doesn’t seem to have a theme. And you still haven’t reviewed the musicals “The Court Jester” (1955) or “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1968)? You’re missing out.

Youtalkingtome

I would love to see witch Drowning Mona with Joe. It’s so funny!

Youtalkingtome

Beautiful location. It looks very Nee England to me, so I was way off.

Youtalkingtome

Great observations. I noticed there were a couple of times Elliot went partially off-screen when he was the focus of shots, which felt like the coverage shot underestimated how much space they would need when animating, which would be incredibly different to estimate when shooting empty space.

Youtalkingtome

Interesting. This definitely feels longer (I think it was around 1:45) than many of Disney’s earlier animated films, so it makes sense that a theatrical release might be trimmed down to gets extra viewings in for kids.

Youtalkingtome

Oh, that’s a really good point! Satanic Panic is still very much alive and well (we heard some grumbling when we watched the Harry Potter movies).

Seth Walker

This is one of my childhood favorites. Wonderful music and animation. Helen Reddy and Mickey are wonderful in it. Jim Dale was so wonderfully wicked as Doc Terminus. He did the British versions of the Harry Potter audiobooks and IMO his is the best version. Even better then the Stephen Fry American recordings. Mickey Rooney was acting well into the 2000s. He was in the Night at the Mueseum movie with Dick Van Dyke.

Lisa

I raised my kids in Los Osos, California in the 1990s. My kids and their friends got a kick out of wandering through Montana d’Oro and recognizing where many of the scenes had been filmed.

danzthename

I used to think we had outgrown the Satanic Panic. The 2020s continue to affirm for me that I was incorrect.

danzthename

One of my friends had the record and story book of Pete's Dragon when we were little kids. I always remember that Candle on the Water song getting stuck in my head.

Mithroch

My gosh... it's probably been 40 years since I last saw this and I still remember almost all the lyrics. When I was 5 or 6... before the days of VCRs... my mom got me a collection of about a dozen Disney storybook LPs. My two favorite were Robin Hood and Pete's Dragon. I wore them both out.

Allison O

This was one of my all time favorites as a kid, along with Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. I must have watched it fifty times. Haven’t seen it in years so this was so much fun.

Allison O

PS ours was taped off tv for the Disney Sunday Night movie, which always had an intro from Disneyland with probably Michael Eisner, so I have this image of a scene with light up Elliot from the Electric Parade at Disneyland leading into the movie ❤️

Youtalkingtome

That's fun! My favorite part of taped-from-TV movies: old commercials.

Erin Mileur

Jim Backus was also the voice of Mr. Magoo.

Erin Mileur

It’s funny you mention The Land Before Time because the animation director for Pete’s Dragon is Don Bluth who directed The Land Before Time along with The Secret of Nimh and An American Tail.

fire12wife

Thanks guys, for watching my movie! My husband and I both grew up watching it, and then we passed it down to our son. The role of Pete was actually given to Matthew Labyorteaux, who played Albert Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie! At the last minute they casted Sean Marshall, instead. Jeff Conaway played one of the brothers, Willie Gogan, and went on to play the role of Kenickie in the movie Grease (1978), a year later!

Youtalkingtome

This has such similar vibes to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. What a double feature they would make!

Youtalkingtome

Oh that's cool. I wish I saw this as a kid. I would have loved it!

Youtalkingtome

That's so awesome. Glad you guys get to bond over this. It was such a fun time