To death the little Pete parents is “adopted” by a huge green dragon, the child called Elliott in homage to the protagonist dog of his book favorite tales. From that moment Pete and Elliott will wander together to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, hiding in the eyes of the inhabitants of a community of woodcutters with the ability to become invisible, which in the case of Elliott is not just metaphorical. But the forester Grace, orphan of mother and daughter of a sculptor who for decades tells the children of the country his encounter with a flying dragon, Pete will notice and will try to bring it to the (so-called) also civilizations through the intermediary of Natalie, daughter Grace of man does not decide to marry.
The invisible dragon is inspired by Elliot invisible dragon, the Disney film of 1977 that mixed cartoons and live action, and it rewrites history (director David Lowery, who comes from indie film and preserves sensitivity Seventy years, is also co-writer) updating it to contemporary issues, starting with the difficulties of extended families to integrate their missing pieces: and suspected that Elliott has invented an imaginary friend Pete to overcome the trauma of the loss of parents underlies the whole narrative.
To enjoy this fairy tale in 3D you have to resort to the suspension of disbelief especially as regards the behavior of the dragon, which in times of danger seems to forget how to fly, become invisible and breathe fire. To help the viewer there are very convincing special effects, which make the dragon a concrete and captivating presence, and interpretations: not those of the most famous members of the cast, by Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of Grace in a Robert Redford carved in wood in those of his father, as those of the small Oakes Fegley, a very credible Pete for physical and emotional depth agility, and Elliot, where the CGI gives an expressiveness that needs no words.
More than on the original memory of 1977, The Invisible Dragon 2016 version builds on the collective imagination, drawing on The Wild Child as The Jungle Book, in The Neverending Story as King Kong, and revisiting the very special mixture that Disney, especially in movies for families recited by actors in the flesh, has always been able to create between reality and fiction, contemporary everyday life and fantastic adventure. The “high” point concerns the ability to see what is before our eyes, invisible only because it conceptually reject the existence: a listed capacity of the elderly and children, natural allies in the desire to indulge in a less rational existence , open the imponderable and the magical dimension. Too bad for the underlines Hollywood, especially the excessive and disharmonious musical accompaniment than subtle and multifaceted interpretation of the young protagonist.