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Spoilers (2)
Director David Lowery explained why Elliott is a furry dragon in an IGN article, saying that he'd rather have "the kind of dragon you really want to give a hug to" than a Game Of Thrones type dragon, which he described as "cool, but scaly and cold".
Despite the fact that this a remake of the original 1977 film, director David Lowery described his version of Pete's Dragon is to be more of a "re-invention", rather than a straight-up remake. His ambition for the film was to distinguish itself from the 1977 film as much as possible and also that he wanted to reinvent the "the core story of a venerable Disney family film". Lowery even watched the following films: The Black Stallion (1979), Yume to kyôki no ôkoku (2013), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001), and The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015), for artistic and visual inspiration.
World renown violinist, singer, composer, dancer, and performance artist Lindsey Stirling marks her film debut in Pete's Dragon (2016), as one of the film's composers.
In the 1977 musical, Grace's name was Nora, and her father's was Lampie. Pete was a runaway orphan from his abusive foster family, he at first had no human friends, and everyone in the town hated him. There was also a pair of penny-pinching doctors that tried to kill his dragon, Elliott.
Levi Alexander, who plays Young Pete in the prologue, and Gareth Reeves, who plays his father, are actually related. They are first cousins, once removed.
At one point while Pete is running through town, he runs into a man holding a stack of cardboard boxes. This may be a reference to a scene in Pete's Dragon (1977) when Pete bumps into a man holding a large stack of cardboard egg cartons.
Director David Lowery is married to Augustine Frizzell, who plays Mrs. Swanberg in this film. This is their second collaboration on a feature film.
Robert Redford's character lives in the woods. Ironically, a previous movie Redford starred was called "A Walk in the Woods" (2015).
This film features four actors that has been in a Marvel Comics Movie before. The first being Karl Urban as Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). The second Wes Bentley as Blackheart in Ghost Rider (2007). The third Robert Redford as Alexandra Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The fourth Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3 (2007).
Spoilers
In the movie don't appear cell phones nor computers, indicating the possibility that the movie sets in late 70's, as nod for the original movie Pete's Dragon (1977), released in 1977.