1977 American musical fantasy comedy by Don Chaffey
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 Based on the unpublished short story "Pete's Dragon and the USA (Forever After)" by Seton I. Miller and S. S. Field, it stars Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, and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.
The project was initially conceived in 1957 as a two-part episode of the Disneyland television series, but it was shelved until it was revived as a musical film in 1975. The film was released on November 3, 1977, to mixed reviews from critics, though some praised the animation.
The film received two nominations at the 50th Academy Awards, for musical scoring and original song. 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.
The film spawned a remake made by Walt Disney Pictures and released in 2016.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.