Family films span generations for Bryce Dallas Howard

What started as pure, sentimental curiosity led to a starring role in Disney's new version of "Pete's Dragon " from indie director David Lowery.

Howard plays the park ranger who stumbles upon this mysterious boy (Oakes Fegley) living in the woods and becomes his protector as they unearth the mystery of this so-called dragon who he claims is his friend.

[...] her first sentence was uttered at a showing of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."

Howard's grandparents, Rance Howard and the late Jean Speegle Howard met as teenagers doing a touring children's production in Oklahoma of classic fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella.

In the films she loved growing up and in this new interpretation of "Pete's Dragon," Howard has always seen the value in family films that don't shy away from trauma and darkness.

While many parents can't wait to inundate their children with the films they loved from their youths, Howard and her husband, actor Seth Gabel, have a little more patience and an overriding theory.

[...] 4 ½ year old daughter, it's still all about Frozen, which has meant a slew of questions about the definition of words like fractal, ''effigy, and unconscious.