Pete's Dragon First Look: Elliott's Fuzzy

Elliott the Dragon is fuzzy now.

That's what we learn from this new first look image of Pete's Dragon from EW, that shows the giant green fuzzball in all his glory, looking down at his pal Pete. Gone is the goofy grin and the tiny pink wings and pink tuft of hair of the cartoon character that played Elliott in the original Pete's Dragon.

"We explored pink, just to see what would happen," director David Lowery revealed. "From the get-go, the aesthetic was always to make everything feel as handmade as possible, including effects, to really have it feel like a blur between a very grounded realistic world and a world in which a big green dragon that can turn invisible can exist."

The approach for Disney's remake was to make an Elliott that looks more like domestic pets, a "furry, soft dragon that kids could imagine, when they go into the woods, could actually be there," production designer Jade Healy explained. They watched hours of youtube videos of funny animals to get Elliott's playful movement and looks down, creating a "big animal who just doesn't know what to do with his body."

Pete's Dragon comes to the big screen August 12, 2016.