Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Elliott: A Boy's Best Friend!

Today we received images of three (3) more non-member releases for 2008. Due to work and school obligations, will get each release uploaded to the blog once completed to discuss and then do our normal presentation to showcase the 1st Quarter in it's entirety.

Up first, from Pete's Dragon is Elliott! Pete's Dragon (first released on November 3, 1977) is a live-action/animated musical feature film from Walt Disney Productions. It is about a young orphan named Pete in a small fishing community in Maine in the early 20th century. His only friend is a dragon, Elliott, who also acts as his sentinel. Elliott can make himself invisible and is generally visible only to Pete, which occasionally lands Pete in trouble with the locals.

Elliott ("A Boy's Best Friend"), sculpted by Ruben Procopio is a Numbered Limited Edition (NLE) of 750 with a SRP of $275.00 US. Take the Elliott Poll.


Trivia:

  • Originally, Elliott the dragon was not to be seen at all in the film and remain invisible throughout. However, members of the studio animation department gradually lobbied studio heads to increase the amount of visible screen time. At first it was decided he would be only seen at the end of the film, but ultimately the character's screen time was increased to 22 minutes.
  • Animators opted to make Elliott more of an oriental (rather than occidental) dragon because oriental dragons are usually associated with good.
  • There were plans to move the lighthouse, specially constructed for the film, to the Disneyland theme park. Unfortunately, the building had deteriorated beyond repair before this could be done.
  • Elliot the dragon and Pete appear in the Main Street Electrical Parade in the Disney theme parks and the version of Elliott from the parade was an open edition release in 1999.
  • Pete's Dragon was the first Disney feature film to be released on VHS home video, in October 1980.

For those unfamiliar with Elliott and/or Pete's Dragon, I've included a short clip from the live-action/animated film (courtesy of YouTube.com) below:


Pete's Dragon ©Disney

5 comments:

Darcy said...

Another sculpture that I will be picking up for 2008!

Matthew said...

This is a wonderful piece! I particularly love Elliott's face and the nice base!

I will also be buying this one!

DC Pop Fanatic said...

Darcy & Matthew, count me in too! Elliott is fantastic! My favorite of the non-member releases!

Herc said...

A definite must for me.

Love the coloring. As his expression is priceless.

DC Pop Fanatic said...

Love both the coloring of Elliott and the detail in his base. Not only is his expression priceless but love how Ruben sculpted his hands.

Looking forward to this one very much!