I have to admit, this one caught me off guard. In fact, I was guilty saying “I will never see Peter Pan, it looks so stupid.” Now, after being talked into seeing it (by a friend who has a huge crush on Jason Isaacs), I am one of Peter Pan‘s staunchest supporters. Watching director P.J. Hogan‘s (My Best Friends’ Wedding) adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan is like looking into a kaleidoscope: always unique and always beautiful. This version of Peter Pan has an admittedly darker tone than any of its predecessors, and its because of these often darker, more mature elements why I think that this is the best version of Peter Pan ever to be committed to screen. Better than the Disney version of the 50’s (much too sugary), and much better than the made-for-TV musical version starring Mary Martin (...let‘s not even go there), and with any luck, it is this version which will inherit the torch as it were, and introduce and delight generations of future children to the majesty of Neverland.
Wendy Darling is the oldest (and most precocious) child of an upper middle-class family in Edwardian London. Wendy entertains her brothers and parents with tales of pirates, including the most evil of them all, Captain Hook. However, Aunt Millicent isn’t quite as impressed, and thinks it time for Wendy to grow up and start acting like a lady, under her tutelage. Coming to her rescue through the bedroom window, is Peter Pan, who can fly simply by thinking happy thoughts, and never grows old. Wendy and her brothers John and Michael, accompany Peter to Neverland, (“second to the right, and straight on till morning”), where you never have to grow up. All is not well in Neverland though, as the evil Captain Hook of Wendy’s tales hunts Peter and the “lost boys” (the children who inhabit Neverland) with a zealous passion. (Of course the story has quite a few more details and story lines, but that was just an overview for the three people out there who don’t already know the story.)
Adult. Although its correct way to describe the latest version of Peter Pan in comparison with its sugary predecessors, I hesitate to use that word; not only because of the obvious contradiction that the word symbolizes (isn’t Peter Pan about not wanting to grow old, and the theme that imagination is lost as you grow? If so, why would the movie be “adult?”), but also because it makes the movie sound like a soft-core porn flick! Yet this version of the classic story does flirt with some mature themes like loneliness, jealously and inevitability that the Disney version chose to drop, making this the more accurate telling of J.M. Barrie’s story. Near the end of the movie, Peter says “I want always to be a boy, and have fun!,” to which Wendy replies “You say so, but I think its your greatest pretend.” Peter has everything most children can only dream about, but the one thing he needs and wants deep down, a family, he can’t have. Continuing along the “adult” (again, I use the word very loosely) path, and also missing from the Disney version of Peter Pan is the sensual (I use the word sensual here instead of sexual, as its still a kid’s movie) undertones, which flow freely beneath the surface. These undertones are never obvious, but they are undeniably there.
Deeper issues are not exclusively explored by Peter and Wendy, but also Captain Hook, who is even, dare I say, sympathetic at times. Hook doesn’t simply exist as a foil to Peter. We see glimpses into the inner sadness of Captain James Hook, stemming from his jealously that he harbors because he craves a relationship, just like Wendy offers to Peter. Symbolic and fitting, the poison that Hook tries to kill Peter with was made from Hook’s “envy, malice, and disappointment.” Another quote from the movie that I would like to share with you says more about Peter’s isolating loneliness and the sensual undertones between Peter and Wendy, and in turn, Hook’s jealously, as well as the overall darker feel to the film than I ever could:
Hook: She was leaving you! Your Wendy was leaving you. Why should she stay?
What have you to offer? You are incomplete. Let's take a look into the future, shall we?
You fly to Wendy's nursery and... what's this? The window's closed.
Peter: I'll open it!
Hook: I'm afraid the windows barred.
Peter: I'll call out her name!
Hook: She can't hear you.
Peter: No!
Hook: She can't see you.
Peter: Wendy!
Hook: She's forgotten all about you.
Peter: Stop it! Please! Stop it!
As I mentioned in my opening, Peter Pan is always beautiful, and that fact can’t be stressed enough. Every scene seems to present the audience with a lush new CGI effect or color scheme to dazzle kids of all ages. (My favorite: the eye-popping caricatures of our solar system.) But director Hogan achieves much more than getting our jaws to drop by using these pictures and special effects; there is a method to his madness as it were. Neverland is a special, mystical place, and analyzing the themes that Peter Pan analyzes in “real world” surroundings would not have the same effect. Neverland is indeed “second to the right, and straight on till morning,” its a dream world, and presenting it as anything less would be a crime.
This may be surprising to some, but this is the first live-action version of Peter Pan to feature a boy as the title character! (I am not counting Hook, in which Peter was played by a man, not a boy, nor am I counting a Russian made-for-TV version that was actually the very first, because “the third version to feature a boy” just doesn’t sound as remarkable.) The boy picked for the role was Jeremy Sumpter (last year’s Frailty) who does a credible job as Peter, but he is at times wooden (am I reviewing Peter Pan or Pinocchio here?), and is consistently upstaged by (not surprisingly) Jason Isaacs as both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook and by (surprisingly!) Rachel Hurd-Wood as Wendy. You might think that she has been working in the business since she was a baby, but actually she was chosen for the role after attending an open casting call. She is fantastic as Wendy, and goes toe-to-toe with Jason Isaacs in their scenes. Its a tough call between Emma Watson (who plays Hermione Grainger in the Harry Potter films) and Hurd-Wood for the most charasmatic British tween award. And it wouldn‘t be a Peter Pan review without mention of Tinkerbell, played by Swimming Pool’s Ludivine Sagnier. She plays the dialogue-less character with amusing flamboyancy, and a with a slightly psychotic twist, which I quite enjoyed!
I went into Peter Pan with a negative mindset. I was already thinking of clever ways to verbally pan Peter Pan as I walked into the theater (“Peter Pan is flatter than a pancake.”). But what I discovered was by far, the best movie for children of 2003. Director P.J. Hogan doesn’t simply rehash the same story which has been told and watched for generations, instead he takes the reigns and leads the story in a completely new (and darker!) direction. With all the negative publicity surrounding Michael Jackson right now, parents should feel completely safe (if not compelled) in letting their children visit this “Neverland.”
Grade: A-
© 2004 Jacob Sproul
December 2003 Archive
2003 Archive
Main Archive