They say there’s nothing sweeter than a boy and his dog … except maybe for a boy and his dragon. In “Pete’s Dragon,” we get a story of a fiery friendship. One of the stars of the movie, Bryce Dallas Howard, was in SoFlo today and she sat down with Deco’s fire-breathing correspondent Chris Van Vliet.
And I breathed fire all over … and by that, I mean I ate buffalo wings for lunch before talking to her. “Pete’s Dragon” is a classic story about friendship and finding yourself. Today, I found myself on South Beach chatting with Bryce Dallas Howard, or BDH as I call her.
Bryce Dallas Howard (as Grace): “Hi. Wait, wait, wait. Do you know where your parents are? Your family?”
That’s Pete … you know, the guy from the movie’s title. He’s lived in the woods for six years with a giant magical dragon.
Oakes Fegley (as Pete): “You’ll see. I have Elliot.”
Bryce Dallas Howard (as Grace): “Who’s Elliot?”
Disney has taken the classic 1977 film and revamped it for a new generation.
Chris Van Vliet: “I love that it’s a Disney movie, because I grew up watching Disney films.”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “For sure. Same.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Which ones did you grow up watching?”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “‘Little Mermaid’ was like a paradigm shift for me because I have red hair, so I’m Ariel obviously and I would sing that scale non-stop.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Can you give me a little bit of it?”
Bryce Dallas Howard (sings): “The like, ‘Ah ah ah.’ I’m not gonna do it.'”
Chris Van Vliet: “That was good though.”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “I don’t want anyone to think I sing in ‘Pete’s Dragon.’ I don’t want to do anything misleading. This is a very serious interview.”
Chris Van Vliet: “It has now become very serious, I will even cross my leg to demonstrate. This hurts too.”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “Yeah”
Chris Van Vliet: “But this demonstrates how serious it is now.”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “Yeah, yeah.”
In the movie, Bryce is a forest ranger who finds Pete and his dragon. Her father, played by Robert Redford, told her stories about dragons when she was a kid, but she never believed him. Considering Bryce’s dad is legendary director Ron Howard, you’ve got to wonder what kind of stories he told her…
Chris Van Vliet: “Your father is obviously an incredible story teller, did you hear any great stories growing up?”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “Yes. He would tell us the stories of the films he was working on during the drive to school. It was like a 20 minute drive and I remember him telling us the story to ‘Willow’ when I was really young. I remember the story to ‘Parenthood.’ The story of ‘Far and Away.'”
Chris Van Vliet: “That’s so cool.”
Bryce Dallas Howard: “It’s really cool. It’s really cool because he’s a great story teller.”
The story that’s told in “Pete’s Dragon” is really cool too … and it’s a simple one.
Bryce Dallas Howard: “I think that for me, this movie represents that magic is possible and that anything is possible.”
Oakes Fegley (as Pete): “Shh.”
Oona Laurence (as Natalie): “That’s a dragon!”
“Pete’s Dragon” is in theaters Aug. 12.
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