Peter Pan Discussion

[gregmasciola]

I've always liked Disney's version of Peter Pan, although I like the play with Mary Martin a little bit more. It's not at the top of my list of Disney films, but I just find it fun to watch.

At the start of the film Wendy is resisting having to move out of the nursery, although her reasons are never fully stated. By the time she returns home at the end of the film, she's accepted that she needs to move out. But why? Again the reasons are never stated. Personally I would have thought that the time she was playing "mother" to the lost boys would have made her more convinced than ever that she should be staying in the nursery with her brothers.

2099net, at the beginning of the film, I feel that Wendy doesn't want to move out of the nursery because that has always been the room she lives in. Also, I think that the scene where Wendy sings "Your Mother And Mine" to the boys is what makes her realize that she's ready to grow up. She sees the boys acting so childish and she realizes that you just can't be a kid forever.

[carolinakid]

I love Peter Pan but I'm another one who prefers the London scenes to Neverland. I do like the " What Made the Red Man Red?" sequence. I like Tiger Lily's dance and Wendy getting pissed and telling off the Big Squaw! Captain Hook to me was too silly to be an scary villain, he never seemed really threatening to me like some of the other Disney greats.

jon

[jeremy88]

I love Peter Pan but I'm another one who prefers the London scenes to Neverland.

Yeah, I think your the only one Joking heh.

I like both areas, London was done very beautifully and the flight across it is amazing. But Neverland is full of bright vivid colors that keeps it fresh and vibrant.

While Peter Pan is my second favorite Animated Classic, Peter Pan himself has never been a favorite of mine. His character is just too cold blooded, he's not a likeable character at all. You don't really latch onto him until the very end when they fly the ship back to London, but even then his character isn't wholesome and he happens the star of the show. He has that sort of "I get all the ladies and not one is for me" attitude, with Tink, the Mermaids and even Wendy whose the medicore love interest of the movie. The only other female character he even shows remote interest in is Tiger Lily. She's my favorite character in the entire movie, she doesn't say much(or anything for the matter besides "HELP") but her movements and facial expressions are very explanatory to her character without her having to say anything. The same goes for Carpet on Aladdin, I think thats part of what makes an animator amazing, is to be able to get a character to speak with out saying any words and to have them in full pantomime.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

His character is just too cold blooded, he's not a likeable character at all. You don't really latch onto him until the very end when they fly the ship back to London, but even then his character isn't wholesome and he happens the star of the show. He has that sort of "I get all the ladies and not one is for me" attitude, with Tink, the Mermaids and even Wendy whose the medicore love interest of the movie. .

Ah but you see his attitude is a result of the simple fact that he's a child. He's a child at the beginning of the movie and still is at the end, as a result of being in Neverland so he doesn't grow up, his personality can't evolve if he remains at the same age. He's your typical rough housing boy who thinks that a kiss is gross and shows off in front of girls to get attention, tells tall tales etc. I think that's what some people forget, he's not a teenager or an adult character so he doesn't act like one

[jeremy88]

Oh, that makes a lot of sense! I never thought of it that way, I forget he's still a kid. Chernabog, your posts never fail to impress me.

[PeterPanfan]

I think that's why Peter Pan WAS childish, and naive in the beginning. So you could see the change at the end. Being with Wendy showed him how to love, and taught him there was more to the world than silly games, and fighting Captain Hook. In the end, you can see that Peter doesn't want Wendy to leave. And you know he doesn't just want her to play games with. He has Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys for that. He wants her in Neverland because he does actually love her and want to be with her. I think the only reason he liked Jane was because she was connected to Wendy.

As for the London VS. Neverland scenes, I like the London ones best, too. The most fun scene, in my opinion, is when Peter teaches them how to fly, and they go through the London sky. It's so beautiful. The ending scene, where Peter and Wendy say goodbye, is my favorite scene in the entire movie. It's so heartfelt, and emotional, yet you're happy because everyone made it out okay. A lot of the Neverland scenes I dislike. The only setting in Neverland I enjoy watching is where the Mermaids are.

[jeremy88]

I think that's why Peter Pan WAS childish, and naive in the beginning. So you could see the change at the end. Being with Wendy showed him how to love, and taught him there was more to the world than silly games, and fighting Captain Hook. In the end, you can see that Peter doesn't want Wendy to leave. And you know he doesn't just want her to play games with. He has Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys for that. He wants her in Neverland because he does actually love her and want to be with her. I think the only reason he liked Jane was because she was connected to Wendy.

Well I suppose lol. I still don't like him through out the movie though hehe. Besides, when the end of the movie happens...it's already the end, and we don't see the new Peter I'm just kidding, I know what you mean though. I don't know, I guess because most of the other Disney Characters, or the stars anyways are very likeable.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

Oh, that makes a lot of sense! I never thought of it that way, I forget he's still a kid. Chernabog, your posts never fail to impress me.

Why thank you

I think both of you are right. Peterpanfan, I agree that there was that change in Peter at the end, but Jeremey is right because it's at the end we don't get to really see more of this new Peter or explore it as much.

[MagicMirror]

Not really anything like the book, just a lot of fun. You could make an entire series just starring Hook, Smee and the Crocodile.

[UmbrellaFish]

I never did like Walt Disney's Peter Pan, I can't pinpoint the reason... Maybe it's because it doesn't feel like one story. I know the original story by J.M. Barrie is one of my favorite books. Incindently, so are "Alice and Wonderland","The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", and "Ella Enchanted" (to a lesser extent) and I also hate the movies that they spawned too. It's vice-versa when it comes to "The Little Mermaid" and "Mary Poppins", while I don't exactly hate the Andersen and Travers versions, I don't like them that much compared to the movies. So it's odd...

[blackcauldron85]

Peter Pan to be Showcased in a Special Exhibit at The Walt Disney Family Museum Apr 7 - June 27
http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID10038050.asp

[Avaitor]

It's funny that as around the same time I started a particular discussion on Peter Pan at my animation board, this gets announced. This looks really cool.

[merlinjones]

One resonant idea in Walt Disney's "Peter Pan" (and "Mary Poppins," "Pollyanna," "Song of the South," "The Three Lives of Thomasina")... it celebrates the Spirit of Youth as an anecdote to the coldness of Adult Society -- one of the main recurring themes in Walt's body of work:

http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/arch ... youth.html

[Semaj]

I've fallen into a habit of watching oldtime favorites only once in a rare while. For this, I watched it last night for the first time in almost nine years.

I still enjoy Peter Pan as much as I have when I was a kid, and revisiting it allowed me to pick up on some jokes and story points that I hadn't noticed before. (I LOLed at Mr. Darling's sarcasm when Mrs. Darling told him about Peter Pan's lost shadow.)

I also looked at the bonus material, and a lot of what was considered for the movie. Some of it, like David Hall's concept art is so amazing to look at; that illustrious style never seemed to make it into any of Disney's features. Many storyboard sketches feel like they were inspired by Freddie Moore's work. And like with many movies, there was a slight feeling of what they could've done with this movie.
Other tidbits were a bit surprising, like how John was initially to be left behind for being to nerdy ( ), and the structural similarities with Alice in Wonderland, besides recasting Mrs. Beaumont.

Few other things:

-Captain Hook and Mr. Smee are still among Disney's most charismatic villains.

-There really were a lot of similarities with Alice in Wonderland, two being the pet having been considered to join the kids on their adventure, and the imaginary land not being the paradise as initially envisioned.

-For some odd reason, a lot of people on Neverland seemed to hate Wendy in particular. Tinker Bell of course nearly succeeded in killing her on arrival! There were also the mermaids who tried to "invite her for a swim", the pirates using her as their main decoy to kill Peter Pan, and the unfriendly squaw who made her fetch firewood. It's a given that Neverland has its perils, because her brothers didn't have it so easy either, but I found that a bit weird that Peter's "supreme authority" got the toughest experience.

[monorail91]

-For some odd reason, a lot of people on Neverland seemed to hate Wendy in particular. Tinker Bell of course nearly succeeded in killing her on arrival! There were also the mermaids who tried to "invite her for a swim", the pirates using her as their main decoy to kill Peter Pan, and the unfriendly squaw who made her fetch firewood. It's a given that Neverland has its perils, because her brothers didn't have it so easy either, but I found that a bit weird that Peter's "supreme authority" got the toughest experience.

I noticed that when I saw it recently too! You could make a drinking game out of all the times Neverland natives are mean to Wendy.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yeah, that's part of the reason I could never get into this movie. Mostly because I liked Wendy, and everyone else were jerks to her. I was hoping somebody would punch Peter in the face.

[Linden]

I never did like Walt Disney's Peter Pan, I can't pinpoint the reason... Maybe it's because it doesn't feel like one story. I know the original story by J.M. Barrie is one of my favorite books. Incindently, so are "Alice and Wonderland","The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", and "Ella Enchanted" (to a lesser extent) and I also hate the movies that they spawned too. It's vice-versa when it comes to "The Little Mermaid" and "Mary Poppins", while I don't exactly hate the Andersen and Travers versions, I don't like them that much compared to the movies. So it's odd...

I am a huge fun of Barrie's book (it's my favourite stand alone book besides the Bible). I always liked Walt Disney's Peter Pan, to some extent, but I always had some reservations, due to differences between the book and the movie. Then I noticed that the movie is not based on the book. It's based on the play. I have this little Dover Thrift Edition of a book version of the play that was printed 4 years before the book Peter Pan was printed *goes to look up the title of the book* It's The Story of Peter Pan by Daniel O'Connor. It was authorised by J.M. Barrie. It's actually much more similar to the Disney movie. That helped take some of my reservations away and let me appreciate the movie more. I'm sure reading the actual play would help, too, but I haven't done that, because I haven't seen the play yet, and I don't want it to be spoiled. I want to see it for the first time in London some day.

[Sotiris]

Did You Know? 11 Pixie-Dusted Facts About Tinker Bell
https://d23.com/did-you-know-11-pixie-d ... nker-bell/

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I also read (or saw it on a youtube video) that Marc Davis couldn't give her a figure that was too curvy and voluptuous, so she was given a girlish upper body and a more womanly lower body.

A little more about Peter Pan:

The character first made his appearance in the book The Little White Bird, a non-children’s book in which Pan was only in a portion. However, the character quickly became popular and Barrie penned a play entitled Peter Pan, or the Bow Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, which was first performed, though not published, in 1904.

In 1911, Barrie published another book, this one entitled Peter and Wendy. Then some 17 years later in 1928, Barrie would finally publish the script for the play, which he had been editing and changing the entire time.

Peter Pan found his way into Barrie’s 1902 novel, The Little White Bird. Though Peter Pan was only a minor character, his mischievous presence would not escape Barrie’s imagination. Barrie wrote the play for Peter Pan, and two years later took the stories of Peter Pan from The Little White Bird and compiled them into a separate novel, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which was published in 1906.

After Peter Pan and Wendy’s first run, Barrie continued to edit the play for each subsequent year’s performance.

Barrie wrote and drew out a difficult and imaginative silent film production of Peter Pan that was never produced. Paramount wanted the rights to make a Peter Pan film, but was deterred by the demands in Barrie’s layout.

Makes me wonder if the original and unedited version of the play still exist somewhere.