Pete's Dragon is a 1977 American live-action/animated musical fantasy film directed by Don Chaffey, produced by Jerome Courtland and Ron Miller, and written by Malcolm Marmorstein.

Based on the unpublished short story "Pete's Dragon and the USA (Forever After)" by Seton I. Miller and S. S. Field, it stars Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons,and Shelley Winters.

Capitol Records released a single of Reddy performing "Candle on the Water" (with a different arrangement from that in the film) that reached #27 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

In Maine in the early 1900s, an orphan named Pete flees from the Gogans – a horrible and abusive farm family that had previously purchased him – with the assistance of an unseen force he calls Elliott.

When the Gogans arrive in town and demand he be returned, they brandish a document proving they had legally bought him for fifty dollars (plus fees), but Nora refuses to surrender him.

Dr. Terminus attempts to harpoon him, but his leg gets caught in the rope and he is sent catapulting through the ceiling, ending up dangling upside down near a utility pole.

[3][4] Impressed with his performance in Old Yeller, Walt Disney had child actor Kevin Corcoran in mind to star in the project as a feature-length film.

[3] For his script, Marmorstein revised the story from being in contemporary time into a period setting, and had the dragon changed from being wholly imaginary into a real one.

However, veteran Disney artist Ken Anderson felt the audience would "lose patience" with the idea and lobbied for Elliott to be seen more in his visible form during the film.

The lighthouse for the film was built on Point Buchon Trail in Montana De Oro State Park located south of Los Osos, California,[4] substituting for Maine.

It was equipped with such a large beacon that Disney had to get special permission from the Coast Guard to operate it, since doing so during filming would have confused passing ships.

It was originally slated to be released in the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line-up on December 5, 2000,[15] but it was pushed back to January 16, 2001.

The DVD includes bonus features such as two animated shorts Lighthouse Keeping and Man, Monsters and Mysteries, two vintage excerpts from the Disney Family Album episode on Ken Anderson and "The Plausible Impossible" from Disneyland, and both theatrical trailers for the film.

Miss Reddy is serviceable but undistinguished as an actress—she has a tendency to behave as if she were a very bright light bulb in a very small lamp—but she so often finds herself in the company of Messrs. Rooney, Dale or Buttons that her scenes work well."

[17] Kathleen Carroll of the New York Daily News gave the film three stars out of four, criticizing the score and the live-action footage, but praising the animation of the dragon and the performances, writing "Sean Marshall, as Pete, looks and acts natural on camera which makes him a refreshing change from those sweet little cherubs usually cast in Disney movies.

Miss Reddy plays her role with crisp efficiency and fortunately receives strong support for the rest of the cast, particularly Dale, so slick and funny as the conniving medicine man he nearly upstages the cuddly dragon.

"[19] John Skow of Time wrote the film was "likeable fantasy", but dismissed the musical numbers as "a good opportunity to line up for more popcorn.

"[21] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that "we get the same tired Disney formula: a gooey-faced kid in a phony sound-stage world populated by old actors required to perform ancient vaudeville routines ...

"[22] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film "was apparently meant to be a big, rousing musical comedy-fantasy, but it's staged and photographed without musical-comedy energy, flair or coordination ... Perhaps children can be counted on to enjoy Elliott's mugging and the slapstick interludes that occasionally interrupt the tedium, but parents will see this one more as a chore.

"[23] Critic Leonard Maltin observed that Disney made several attempts to recreate the appeal and success of Mary Poppins (1964), and that Pete's Dragon did not come close on that score.

[28] During its initial release, the film grossed $16.1 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada,[29] which was ranked sixteenth on Variety's box office hits list of 1978.

[2] In March 2013, Disney announced a remake of the film, written by David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks, the director/writer and co-producer (respectively) of the Sundance hit Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013).