'Pete's Dragon': A huge surprise treat from Disney

Wait, how did this happen? How did a remake of the 1977 Disney animation/live-action hybrid Pete's Dragon, a pushy mediocrity from tip to tail, become the most soulful film of the summer, and one of the best of the year?

In terms of story, director David Lowery's version shares only two things with the '77 model. Pete's an orphan and the title is still Pete's Dragon, which indicates there's a dragon (beautifully, digitally realized this time, as opposed to animated). So, all right, make that three things.

Lowery's dragon is an achingly expressive and unexpectedly furry one with a little bit of bulldog in him. And his movie means business, right from the start.

Then, seconds after that, in the woods, the orphan boy hears a rustle: This is the fabled Millhaven dragon of local folklore, who comforts his newfound friend.

Narrator Robert Redford, relaying some dragon lore to a group of children, clues us in to this maybe-world of dragons lurking in the Pacific Northwest forest (the movie was shot in New Zealand).

Named after the puppy in Pete's treasured memento of his old life, Elliot Gets Lost, he names the dragon Elliot, and six years later, the boy is 10 and living like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, in a tree house borrowed from The Swiss Family Robinson.

This largely wordless first third is magic. The rest of Pete's Dragon concerns how Pete is discovered, and what happens when Pete and Elliot are confronted by the civilized human world populated by the citizens of the logging community.

I know, it sounds dorky. Lowery and his co-writer, Toby Halbrooks, don't treat it that way. There's an unusual pace and a quiet focus to the best of Pete's Dragon, and because the dragon growls and purrs and grunts, but, thankfully, doesn't speak, the relationship between boy and winged serpent is conveyed largely through brief, one-sided conversations.

We lean into this movie. At a recent preview screening, full of kids, the atmosphere was exceptionally quiet and engaged, until the applause greeting various moments in the action climax, with its attendant reunions and farewells.

A few caveats: After a seriously transporting first half, the second half is more conventional in its narrative beats. By design, the cruelest moment arrives right on top of an exceptionally tender one, and it's exploitative in a way the rest of the movie isn't.

Still, compared with the old Pete's Dragon and its miserable slapstick and peppy songs sung by abusive parents, this is another, higher realm of emotional engagement. Ideas and motifs borrowed from Bambi, E.T., The Jungle Book, The Iron Giant, and many more float through the film.

Lowery's designers locate the action two or three decades ago, without overdoing it. Just a few choice visual details. LP records on a hi-fi and land line phones that go BRRRINNNGGG! and a close-up or two of an old box of Crayolas. It all works, as does the restrained and mellow sentiment of Daniel Hart's folk-tinged score.

This is one of the season's most heartening surprises.

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Pete's Dragon

***1/2 (Out of four stars)

• Directed by David Lowery. With Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

• Running time: 1 hour, 43 mins.

• Parent's guide: PG (action, peril, brief language).

• Playing at: Area theaters.

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