Oakes Fegley is quite charming here as the eponymous orphan who has managed to survive, alone, in the forest following an accident that killed his parents. One day, this mini-Mowgli is spotted by park ranger "Grace" (Bryce Dallas Howard) who tries to introduce him to society - and school. How did he survive, though? Well he tells her all about "Elliott" - a dragon! Sceptical, well yes - but when she mentions this to her own father "Beacham" (Robert Redford) he seems to support the boy's story and on returning to the wilderness together, they encounter his not-so-imaginary friend. They have to be wary, though - there are some not so nice folks out there who want to capture "Elliott" and the kindly dragon is ill-equipped for conflict with the nasty logger "Gavin" (a distinctly out-of-sorts Karl Urban). This is a perfectly watchable feature that is well made, stays reasonably faithful to the original story - with a few obvious updates, but it is essentially a short story and stringing it out for 1¾ hours is just too much of a challenge. That said, it is a touching film about a boy's love, lonelines, kindness and imagination - and it's about growing up and learning to evolve as a person too. The visual effects are good, the narrative flows well with engaging performances and dialogue that allow the characters and imagery to immerse us in "Pete's" world. I enjoyed this.
