Pete's Dragon

Pete's Dragon is a 1977 American live-action animated musical fantasy comedy film which was based on an unpublished short story of the same name, written by classical Hollywood writer Seton I. Miller. It stars Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters, and Charlie Callas. It revolves around an orphaned boy raised by an abusive hillbilly family who is friends with a dragon named Elliott.

In the Parade
In 1977, a float of Elliot (which replaced the Dragon Maleficent float) debuted in both the Disneyland and the newly opened Magic Kingdom versions (well, 2 versions were built for both parks) and was only meant to last one year as the film was released. The float had Pete on the top (for the first season of this float and at the Orange Bowl half-time show, his actor Sean Marshall reprised his role as Pete from the movie) of Elliot's head, the float had smoke machines inside the nose so it looked like Elliot was breathing smoke, and much like with the Elliot from the movie, he could turn invisible with the lights going out and then on again. Even though the film bombed, the float was very popular and has remained ever since.

In 1985, a third model of Elliot was built for the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade which was later destroyed after the parade ended. The version at the Magic Kingdom was sent to Paris in 1992 along with the rest of the floats from that version, this version of the parade currently sits at Hong Kong Disneyland or Even in Either at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California in crates.

In 2001, a new Elliot model was built for Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights which looked similar to the old model. In 2013 this float was replaced with a brand new model never seen before, with Elliot standing up and Pete sitting on his hand.