This lively musical comedy, which was released on this day in 1977, was originally conceived to be an episode of the Disneyland TV series, but was shelved until 1975 when producer Jerome Courtland asked screenwriter Malcolm Marmorstein to adapt a screenplay. Pete’s Dragon tells the story of a young orphan named Pete and a mischievous dragon named Elliott, who wreaks havoc on the quaint Maine town of Passamaquoddy. Eventually Pete escapes the clutches of his evil foster parents and finds a home with Nora and her father in their lighthouse. Originally, the character of Elliott the dragon, was not going to be seen in the film; however, animators lobbied for Elliott, and the character ended up getting 22 minutes of screen time. The town of Passamaquoddy was constructed on the Western set on the old Disney Studio Lot, and the lighthouse for the film was built near California’s Morro Bay. The lighthouse was equipped with an authentic lighthouse lens and wickstand that cast a beacon between 18 and 24 miles, according to Dave Smith’s Disney A to Z. It worked so well, in fact, that Disney had to gain permission from the U.S. Coast Guard to operate it.
