Peter Pan Reviews

Divertida, comedia al puro estilo Disney que se centra la mayoría de sus chistes en lo visual, muy parecido a como lo hacían otras caricaturas como los looney toons o Tom y jerry (quitando el maltrato animal de la último ejemplo). Altamente recomendable.

Peter Pan is a very good movie indeed, which is more to be said for its sequel, which I think is one of the worst Disney sequels. While enormously entertaining especially with Hook and the crocodile, it lacks the complexity of the book. However, the animation is beautiful, especially our first look at Neverland and the Mermaid Lagoon. The songs are also lovely, especially "2nd Star to the Right" and "You can Fly". I loved the characters. Peter and the Darlings were well done, as well as the lost Boys. I also loved Tinker Bell, and Captain Hook, who was a great villain, until the sequel ruined him. If you want a more complex Hook, try Tim Curry's Hook in the animated TV series Peter Pan and the Pirates, which I personally think should be brought back. Captain Hook was wonderful here, in the series, and Jason Issac's interpretation of the character isn't to be missed either. 9/10 Bethany Cox. PS. I loved the crocodile!

Of course, I have seen this movie many times with my kids but, since I have it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again to finally make up my mind about the damned thing. Well, even though it might not be the best adaptation of J.M. Barrie's classic tale, it is still the most famous one and it figures because it was the perfect material for Disney's skillful and amazing  animation. Another interesting thing about this movie was that it introduced so many iconic Disney characters. Obviously, you had Peter Pan who turned out to be one of their most complex leading characters, something quite unusual for Disney. Of course, the guy was charismatic but he was also rather egocentric and sometimes even quite oblivious about what was going around him. These flaws made this character so interesting but, unfortunately, they never took the time to fully develop him which was one of the main issues with this movie. Of course, they also gave us Captain Hook who was easily one of the best bad guys ever delivered by Disney. However, what they did with Tinker Bell was probably even more impressive though as she was so charismatic that she became of one of their most famous characters even though she was completely silent in this movie. Finally, you had also Wendy who was less showy than the other characters mentioned before but, in the contrary to the other female characters that Disney gave us so far, she was quite multi-layered and really interesting to behold. Concerning the story itself, it is a fascinating classic tale, however, this adaption was less than 80 mins long so the end-result felt unfortunately rushed and often pretty messy. On top of that, it didn't help that they were delivering some random joke or some visual gag every 2 mins. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is still a charming classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

One of Walt Disney’s great obsessions was to bring J.M. Barrie’s beloved play/book Peter Pan to animation. He secured the rights to the property in the 30s, intent on releasing the film during the studio’s Golden Era, various setbacks pushed the film into development hell, where it languished before finally arriving in 1951. Strangely enough, a similar thing happened with Alice in Wonderland.

Perhaps the cinema gods were smiling down upon the studio, in some strange way, as the delay eventually brought in Mary Blair’s wonderful perspective. Her contributions to Alice in Wonderland cannot be understated, but her vision of Never-Never Land is even greater. A trip with the Lost Boys through the various jungles of Never-Never Land reveals a series of nearly abstract impressions of various landscapes. In a few brief minutes, we travel with the Lost Boys through an overripe jungle, an African savanna, and into a densely populated North American forest.

Blair’s sense of juxtaposing colors bleeds into the film in a variety of ways. The tropics of Mermaid Lagoon, all bright pinks, oranges, lilacs, and the menace of Skull Island, grays and greens abound there, in such close proximity springs to mind. As does the nearly cotton candy colored skies of Never-Never Land. A battle with pirates or a leisurely stroll through the flora of Never-Never Land always shows a hint of menace lurking around the edges. But not too much menace, as is evident in all of the films in the Silver Era between Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp, Disney suddenly appears gun-shy about unleashing hallucinatory and nightmarish images. He still produces a few scares or unhinged pieces of animation, but not at the same scale that they were unleashed in prior films like Bambi or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

If Peter Pan has one serious flaw as an adaptation of Barrie’s work, it’s that it often too much Disney and not enough Barrie. Granted, it’s a solid adaptation, but some of the darker impulses of the original text are removed to instead play-up slapstick. No film adaptation has found a way to treat the Native American characters in an un-problematic way, and Disney’s indulges too much in caricature. Tiger Lily’s a fierce warrior princess in the book, and is here reduced to helpless, nearly silent victim (her lone line, a stifled cry of “Help!” before a wave silences her) is bad enough, but the song-and-dance number in the tribe’s camp is even worse. It’s an ugly reminder of things that were once deemed perfectly fine, and a distracting segment in an otherwise charming movie.

While the film may shave down a few story elements to become more palatable and “family friendly,” Peter Pan and Tinkerbell remain cold, at times unlikable, and malicious characters. This is a good thing, as it only reinforces the notion that Peter Pan is not truly a hero worth emulating, but a colossal ego frozen in amber. Bobby Driscoll, at the time the first and only boy to play the role theatrically, does great work as Peter. He finds just the right touch between his arrogance, insouciance, pride, and charm to make the character continually engaging. Strange that Tinkerbell eventually became a placid bit of cheesecake for the studio, going so far as to soften her rough edges to the point of dilution. Ah well, her capacity for one emotion at a time, as stated in the text, is shown in a handful of ways. Her rages are more interesting to watch as she burns a hole in a leaf, or changes from flesh colored to blood red.

Where Peter Pan excels is when it indulges in the titanic clash of egos between Captain Hook and Peter. Captain Hook is a delicious villain here, possibly the most pleasing one until Maleficent’s grand bitchery in Sleeping Beauty. At times, he’s an eloquent gentleman, swearing to honor a series of codes and principles, but not opposed to bending them or engaging in prolonged word play to escape it. At other times, he’s a tyrannical monster, happily killing one of his own men for annoying and distracting him, prone to hysterical fits, and coldly calculated seductions. Hook is one of the greatest Disney villains in the canon, even if his encounters with the crocodile play a little hard on the slapstick. In a nice touch, the same actor, Hans Conried, voices Hook and Mr. Darling while the crocodile that chases after him is animated like a dog, owning to the stage tradition of the same actor playing both nana and the crocodile.

Oh, what glorious animation this film has! The various flying scenes, so hard to capture, are rendered here magnificently. Peter truly feels weightless, as he seems to be a constant whirl of motion hovering about the frame. The flight through England into Never-Never Land is an efficient bit of tone changing. While the England scenes were rooted in realistic depictions of actions and character movement, Never-Never Land’s approach sees the background becoming more abstract, and the animation more limber.

Stressing narrative propulsion and a mischievous sense of fun and adventure, Peter Pan is the first classic in the Silver Era. An imperfect one to be sure, but finally one that adheres a stronger narrative to the various unwieldy segments. A little more focus on the darkness hovering over the edges would have been nice, but I can’t complain too much. It’s a decent enough adaptation of the book, and I’ve loved it since childhood. It may be a little too scatterbrained, but it’s also refreshingly simple.

The thing with Wendy and Tinker Bell is priceless. It's like Cinderella only with boys, lol. *Good* boys.

(10/10)

Peter Pan is the most famous work from J. M. Barrie and it has proved itself worthy as one of the best Disney classics of all time. Even though I used to love this film as a child, I still love it now! It is beautifully crafted together with a lot of beauty, magic, comedy and adventure! It shows its audience of what true adventure is and it gives us a beautiful way of using our imaginations. Despite how light hearted this film is, it is quite intense to watch too like the duels between Pan and Hook and the scenes with the crocodile. I was blown away by Peter Pan when I saw it again when I was 12 years old after 4 years of not seeing it. Peter Pan is a masterpiece just like Finding Neverland.


The classic story is set in London. It is about a troubled family called the Darling family. Mr. Darling is a well-intentioned but short tempered man who gets himself into a right state at one point in this film, Mrs. Darling is one of those typical mothers who just works in the house 24/7 and looks after the kids, Wendy (the eldest child) is the main reason for the family believing in Peter Pan because she tells the entire family especially her younger brothers John and Michael the stories of Peter Pan, Captain Hook and the Lost Boys. John and Michael are typical young boys who just have the most incredible imagination who just love to have fun and always want to enjoy themselves! One night, Peter and his pixie and close friend Tinker Bell arrives at the Darling house in search of his shadow which was taken off him by the house dog/'maid' Nana. He inadvertently wakes all of the three children up and they all decide to embark on an adventure to Never Land but when they arrive there, they have to try and avoid Captain Hook and his pirates at all costs!


Walt Disney had a tough time trying to buy the film's rights to Barrie's play since 1935. The studio started the story development and character designs in the early 1940s and Walt intended Peter Pan as a follow-up to Bambi, but World War II put the project on the shelf for the time being. After the war, they went on to release it on February 5th, 1953. There is a sequel to this called Peter Pan: Return To Never Land which was released in 2002 and a prequel called Tinker Bell released in 2008.


Overall, Peter Pan is a classic of my childhood that I will never forget. I would definitely call it one of the best Disney Classics of all time. It shows what Disney does best: all the wonder, all the magic and all the fun!