Pete’s Dragon opened this past weekend to great reviews, and I was lucky enough to see the World Premiere last week, and then interview the two young people who starred in the film!
A reimagining of Disney’s cherished family film, “Pete’s Dragon” is the adventure of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon.
Oakes Fegley plays Pete, an orphaned boy who grows up alone in the woods, except he is not alone, he has his best friend with him, Pete, the dragon! Oona Laurence who plays Natalie, the daughter of the local lumber mill owner. I am teasing the tension from the movie, if the lumber mill owner cuts down the forest, where will our poor dragon live?
We dove right in and asked the kids about their auditions. Oakes had three auditions and got the part, then came Oona who had a few auditions as well, and then finally, a chemistry audition with Oakes. Clearly the chemistry was working! Neither child had seen the original movie before working on this one. Oakes knew this would be very different then the animated version, so he would not need to view it to prepare, and has still not seen the old version. Oona saw the original after filming wrapped on this version, so she was not influenced at all.
My first question for Oakes was, how many times did you have to fling yourself off of the cliff to get the take right? This is from a scene where Pete throws himself off the ledge of a cliff, and Elliot the dragon, swoops down and catches him on his back. We all know that the dragon is CGI’d, so Oakes was not really going over the cliff!
He shared that he must have done this stunt over 10 times. He worked with the stunt men a lot, and never felt unsafe. That is always good to hear!
We enjoyed a fun moment with Oakes when we asked about the long hair he was sporting in the movie when he was in his pre-civilization mode. His hair would only grow so much, so they had to put semi-permanent extensions in! That means he had them in for many weeks, we laughed when he said how light his head felt when they finally came out!
Chatting with these kids was almost the same as chatting with adults. They were prepared and quite at ease as we asked our questions.
Both children agreed that the movie illustrated how family is very important, and that you cannot give up on family. Pete has to find his family, and so does Elliot,the dragon. After all, that is the lesson in the book that Pete has had since the fatal car crash at the beginning of the movie, over five years earlier in Pete’s life.
On a lighter note, Oakes shared that one of his favorite scenes was when Elliot came upon a cow in a field, and they just ended up staring at each other! We did ask what dragon snot was made of, since Elliot did have a couple of untimely sneezes in the movie, water and some other substance was all we found out, and it was a big yuck!
We had to ask about the acting, how does one act against something that isn’t there? The CGI dragon is added later. Oona shared that it was very tough to cry when Elliot was leaving, because she was crying to a green screen. Oakes became very good at it, he said in the end, acting to a ball on a stick, or a piece of tape on the wall (hopefully green tape!), had become quite easy! These kids had to imagine that a tennis ball was leaving them and they had to have a lot of emotion over that! These kids are good actors!
Lastly, both children agreed, “Robert” was like a father to everyone. And that it was especially incredible to see the finished film, “After imagining for so long, it was just incredible.” The kids couldn’t believe how different it was to see the CGI’d dragon in the finished product!
Get Social With The Film:
Like PETE’S DRAGON on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPetesDragon
Follow PETE’S DRAGON on Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneypetes
Follow PETE’S DRAGON on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disneypetesdragon/
Visit Disney Animation on Tumblr: http://disneyanimation.tumblr.com/
Visit the official PETE’S DRAGON website here: http://movies.disney.com/petes-dragon-2016
Disclosure: Disney invited me on this press trip and paid all of my expenses. No other compensation was received. All opinions are always 100% my own and honest.
I attended the World Premiere of Pete’s Dragon, please read all about that experience as well!
And as always, the celebrity picture with these two young stars:
looks like a fun movie,it’s the live animation is getting old
I have to go see this movie your description is amazing