low rating

I agree. It might have some nostalgic resonance for people like me who saw it when I was growing up. But it was terribly written, dumb jokes, though did have some sentimental touches which was nice. However, the main problem is that they were trying to take the topic of sasquatch and make it out to be gentle, misunderstood creatures, and make a children's movie. Yet most eyewitness accounts of these things report them to be highly dangerous, aggressive animals (who btw are not just vegetarians) and nothing like Harry in this movie. Thus the filmmakers tried to force a kids movie from this subject which should have had more intelligence and less shallowness. Essentially they were trying to emulate a different version of E.T. but without good writers or a great director like Spielberg...with which case possibly could have pulled a project like this off. But it obviously was underwritten and not very good.

Though like I said, it still perhaps some nostalgic value who saw it as a kid.

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading!

I saw it at the cinema as an adult when it came out, and just downloaded to watch with my wife who's from China. I was happily surprised to find a version of the substitles in Mandarin, but it's necessary to check for synching problems and incorrect translation. While playing it in my subtitle editing program, it all came back to me, what ruined the movie. That daughter Sara's acting. Most of her lines were so unnatural, on the level of most Nickelodeon teen TV shows. And a lot of Melinda Dillon's lines intended to be funny, flopped, starting with her reply to George when he asked her to get out of the car to look at Harry, who he said was dead. Rolling down the window, she quickly asks, "Are you sure?"
then quickly rolls the window back up, and repeats this action this time asking, "Are you really sure?" The whole scene was ridiculous because she could clearly hear George, and how was Harry going to get up in a flash and jump threw the window? John Lithgow and the others, even the little boy did good with the poorly written lines they had. So yeah, I agree with you, bad writing and bad acting ruined what could've been a movie, as one comment exaggerated, as good as E.T. Actually a sad fact. A "new and improved" remake would be welcomed.