Pete's Dragon is showing in several places around the Valley now, include the Edwards Boise Downtown Stadium 9, Stadium 21 and IMAX, and Village Cinema.

It's awesome, right?  If you've seen it, see if these three things surprised you too.

The first shocker was the opening scene that shows how Pete becomes an orphan.  My 4-year old didn't quite understand where Pete's parents went, so be prepared to explain it if you have little ones.

Next surprise.  I kept thinking Grace the forest ranger looked familiar, and I finally Googled her and discovered it's Bryce Dallas Howard, and she's Ron Howard's daughter.  I was late to the party on that one.

It's not a surprise that the dragon is so lovable, but it was a shocker to me when humans got involved and sucked everything warm and fuzzy right out of the movie for about ten minutes.  It makes you want to punch the screen and scream "NOOOO!!!"  That's another sequence that takes some explaining if you have little ones that don't understand tranquilizer darts.  They buried their heads into my armpits on that one.

Another surprise.  That I would cry!  Not just that my eyes would be a little misty, but that there would be enough tear volume to actually drip out over the eyelid and down my cheek.  I spent most of the movie with my 4-year old and 6-year old sitting on my lap, and they didn't cry, but one of my tears might have dripped onto them and it made them look wet.  The connection between Pete and the dragon is powerful, and then they play that powerful instrumental orchestra movie music and it's over for us moms!  Turn on the waterworks.

Pete's Dragon is really good and the girls want to own it on DVD when it comes out.  Ok cool, I loved it that much too.  But I'm drawing the line on the stuffed animals, bed sheets, toothpaste, t-shirts, and dragon-themed birthday party plates.  We're still trying to dig out from Frozen.

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