Pete's Dragon is a remake in all the right ways, taking cues from the original but reimagining the story for a very different audience living in a very different era. A film for children that isn't afraid to deal with real issues in honest ways, but also steeped in magic and whimsey, the David Lowery-directed movie refrains from hewing too closely to the 1977 live-action and animated musical hybrid of the same name to great success. The new Disney film rebuilds the story of Pete's Dragon from the ground up.