“Where’s Elliott?”
“NOWHERE! You’re hokey pokey dragon is out helpin’ Santa Claus pull his sled! BOYS?!?”
“Let me go!”
“Now you’re never gonna get away again! We’re gonna put chains on you when you’re workin’!”
“And when you’re not workin’!”
“And when you’re sleepin’!”—The Gogans threatening Pete, having captured him.
The Gogans are the tertiary antagonists from Disney’s 1977 live-action movie, Pete’s Dragon. They are an abusive gang of nasty hillbillies who treat the orphaned protagonist Pete like a slave and often abuse him both emotionally and physically—eventually Pete can no longer put up with the abuse and flees, with some help from his friend, the titular dragon Elliott.
Lena Gogan was portrayed by Shelley Winters, who voiced Crystal in the Rankin/Bass specials Frosty’s Winter Wonderland and Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, her husband Merle was portrayed by Charles Tyner, and their two sons Grover and Willie were portrayed by respectively Gary Morgan and Jeff Conaway.
Personality[]
The Gogans are a family of wisecracking, violent, quarrelsome, selfish, lazy, cruel, clumsy, and foolish hillbillies (in one scene, Pete’s guardian Nora even asks, “D’you want to be stupid when you grow up, like the Gogans?”, to persuade him to attend school). Of the four, Lena Gogan is the most intelligent. She is a wild and mean old mother, who usually makes plans, recalls the others when they become distracted, and asks fruitful questions. She is also the only one to show any courage, as in the scene where she confronts Elliott the dragon with the “Bill of Sale” authorizing her to keep Pete (only to have Elliott burn it on the spot); but spends most of her time complaining to her sons and husband about every little discomfort. Her greedy husband Merle serves only to carry out her orders, and as a crude disciplinarian over their grown, lazy sons, Willie and Grover, who act as a comic duo and pick fights at a moment’s notice, even among themselves. Merle is also said to have been Pete’s overseer, in his time under their control. All four enjoy bullying and tormenting any creature weaker than themselves, of which Pete serves as the chief example. Like all rustic-themed villains, the Gogans pretend to have a great respect for the rule of law, but ignore it whenever they please, and despise education. In keeping with the same motif, they enjoy dirt, especially on themselves, and dislike bathing and forms of cleanliness.
Role in the film[]
The Gogans are Pete’s foster family (formerly) since they have a bill of sale to prove it (formerly) but they are abusive to him and hardly treat him like family, so Elliott found and saved him one day and they ran away together. The Gogans go after him during the night while singing “The Happiest Home in These Hills” as a way of convincing him to come back with them and threatening to hurt him. Luckily, they fail to do so when Elliott (invisible) throws them into a mud puddle with one swing of his tail one by one (except Merle who accidentally gets thrown in by his idiotic sons.) Nevertheless, they just keep looking for Pete because Lena had paid $50 plus 50¢ legal fee for him, and had no more of that left. She claims that unless they find him, they will have to work on the farm with their own two hands.
A few days later, they’re seen looking for Pete in Passamaquoddy in their wagon while asking Hoagy about him who denies seeing him. When Lena mentions Elliott, the townspeople are alarmed, and she tells Merle that they’ve come to the right place. Later, they find Pete, Nora, and Lampie fishing on a raft, and they try to convince Nora to give him back to them through their song “Bill of Sale.” Nevertheless, they fail again when Nora and Lampie refuse, and finally, Elliott (invisible) dives into the water and swims towards their raft, destroying it in the process and forcing them to fall into the water.
They eventually team up with Dr. Terminus and Hoagy to catch Pete and Elliott after getting sick from getting wet. They bring in a harpoon Dr. Terminus ordered from them at sunset to the boathouse. After he tricks Pete into thinking that Elliott is in town and tearing it apart and lures him into the boathouse, the Gogans catch him and hold him as bait for a trap set for Elliott. When they see an invisible force holding Hoagy (after he lures him into the trap) and taking the shape of a dragon after everyone drops nets on him, they are amazed and terrified. They decide that they and Dr. Terminus are both even so they try to bag Pete up and take him away in their wagon. In the end, Elliott, after breaking free from the trap, saves him, burns the bill of sale, and scares them while making them fall into a barrel of tar before having them give up on Pete. After Elliott scares their horse away, they go after him and are never seen again.
Gallery[]
Media Universe Wiki has a collection of images related to The Gogans.