YMMV / Pete's Dragon (1977)

• Angst? What Angst?: Pete is certainly sad to learn that his beloved dragon friend whom he specifically hoped would never disappear is going to disappear and never, ever come back. But he gets over it in a literal instant.
• Audience-Alienating Era: This film is usually pointed at when people bring up Disney being out-of-touch with movie audiences of the day, especially following the juggernaut that was Star Wars, which was released the same year. In Disney's defense, this film (released in November of 1977) would have been at the very least greenlit and filming, if not in the can and finishing animation and special effects, when Star Wars was released in May.
• Awesome Moments: Elliot blasting the Gogans' boat clean out of the water. This is the moment that best shows how powerful he really is.
• Awesome Music: "Candle on the Water", a beautiful song of hopeful longing, with Helen Reddy's strong vocals giving it a huge emotional wallop. Anneliese van der Pol's version takes it up to eleven.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Doc Terminus. Jim Dale was obviously having fun with his part and gives a performance so hammy that it can't be kosher.
• Harsher in Hindsight: After the Gogans get dunked in the water by Elliot, Lena comically shows cold-like symptoms and claims to have "p'monia." Jeff Conaway, who plays her son Willie, died of drug-related pneumonia in 2011.
• Heartwarming Moments: In another story like this, Elliot might have been upset to see Pete bonding with Nora and Lampie, but he's never anything but happy about it, which makes sense in hindsight since his whole M.O. is protecting and nurturing a child to the point where they no longer need him, then moving on to the next.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The scenes with Elliot are generally considered the only memorable parts of the film. Even worse is that his scenes only take up 20 minutes of a movie that's over 2 hours.
• Moral Event Horizon: "Every Little Piece (Money, Money, Money By The Pound)" is a lyrical crossing of this and the moment where Doc Terminus goes from comically harmless Snake Oil Salesman into genuine villain. For the sake of money Doc Terminus gleefully proposes butchering Elliott and selling his organs ("Every little piece, every little piece / I can take a scissor and clip him up, rip him up") in possibly the otherwise-tame film's biggest case of Lyrical Dissonance.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The opening number has the Gogan clan looking for Pete, singing about torturing and killing him.
  • "Every Little Piece" sounds cheerful, but it's all about murdering Elliot and ripping his corpse apart purely for profit.
  • Even the beautiful “Brazzle Dazzle Day” can be unsettling for viewers who suffer from fear of heights.
• No Yay: "Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You Too)" is supposed to be a platonic friendly ballad between Pete and Elliot, but the lyrics paint a much more romantic picture, not helped by how Elliott cradles Pete in his arms. The lyrics about them waking up beside each other don't help one bit.
  We don't match in size, but we fit so neatly...
• Padding: All of the songs go on forever. And there are a lot of them. It is a musical, after all.
• Retroactive Recognition: The last film Don Bluth did in his tenure at Disney. Elliott's movements and facial expressions are very obviously of Bluth design.
• So Okay, It's Average: It has its admirers, but even they'll agree that it's pretty corny. Of course, for some people, that's the charm.
• Special Effect Failure: The FX are pretty rough throughout, with a lot of obviously fake backgrounds. One glaring issue is that the film was shot with the intention of Elliot being a quadruped before they decided to draw him as bipedal, and it shows, most especially when his shape is outlined by a tarp in the third act.
• Tear Jerker: Pete and Elliot saying good-bye. The fact that Pete will never, ever see Elliot again is very insistently driven home. Then becomes Mood Whiplash when Elliott sneezes comically.

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