https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Oz0X37Qsg
Pete (Oakes Fegley – where DO they get these names?) is in the back seat of the family car when it crashes in a pine forest (set in America, the film was shot in New Zealand). Both of his parents are killed and four-year-old Pete runs terrified into the woods. We meet him again six years later and he has evolved into a New World Mowgli with a bad wig and a bit of little Jackie Paper about him. His unlikely survival is owing to the kind nature of the enormous green dragon that has befriended him. So yes, it is a kids’ flick, but it has so much more heart and intelligence than you would find in most run-of-the-mill mainstream blockbusters – I’d rather watch this than Mad Max: Fury Road or a kill-athon any day of the week. Pete’s fairytale existence will come to an end – that is a given. It’s part of growing up, but dare any of us abandon the magic that is always out there? Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard – Ron’s daughter), the local park ranger, encounters Pete and takes him with her back to town. The dragon, Elliot, goes looking for his mate, setting in train the awful confrontation that you know is coming between ‘civilisation’ and ‘the other’. The bad guys are the loggers who are making ever deeper encroachments into Elliot’s pine-forested environment. When they become aware of Elliot’s existence they hunt him down with a view to making big bucks from exhibiting him. With her dad, the wise elder (Robert Redford), Grace and Pete must somehow save Elliot from entrapment and crass exploitation. The CGI creation of the dragon – it has friendly fur, not reptilian scales – is absolutely convincing, particularly when the often intrusive soundtrack is cut so that you can hear his grunts and hoary sighs. The dramatic climax is not as harrowing as King Kong atop the Empire State building, and its outcome is less tragic, but I was blinking back the tears. Wonderful.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
