Peter Pan Review: Disney Marathon

Spoilers

Peter Pan is a story about a psychopath who steals children away from their parents before murdering them when they get too old because that’s against the rules. Oh wait, that’s just in the play and novel this film was based on. The film is just as weird to be honest. We got it all here folks, inappropriate behaviour, racism, sexism, and my opinion changing on iconic characters once I have seen the film they actually came from. Does that mean this film is bad? Nah it’s pretty good actually. So, let’s waste no more time, let’s delve into Disney’s Peter Pan.

The opening credits play with the song called “The Second Star to the Right” which does capture the feel of the movie very well.

In London, Mary and George Darling are preparing for a party. George seems like a bit of a twat but I think we’re meant to view him as an angry but loving father. I guess the standards for being a good father have gotten a tad less abusive in recent years. They have three children, Wendy, John, and Michael. John and Michael are re-enacting stories about Peter Pan. Wendy gets told off by her Dad because she told them these stories (don’t know why John and Michael aren’t told off but whatever I guess). There’s also a dog called Nana there, who apparently does all the chores for the family or something. I joke but it’s actually quite charming. George tells his daughter Wendy that she is getting too old to believe in stuff like Peter Pan. He tells her she’ll get her own room in the morning. Now this is meant to be a punishment, she wants to stay with the rest of her siblings and stay young, but in reality, I think most kids would love to get their own room. It’s not like she’s barred from seeing her brothers, she’ll just sleep in another room. I get this symbolises her losing her childhood but maybe they could have come up with a better way to represent this. Anyway, it’s inconsequential so I don’t even know why I brought it up. The siblings go to bed whilst George and Mary go off to get wasted at their party. Oh, and Wendy has Peter Pans shadow locked up somewhere.

Peter and Tinker Bell break into the children’s room to get his shadow back. Wendy wakes up and is very excited to finally meet Peter Pan. Peter reacts by basically just complaining about women before Wendy offers to sew his shadow back on. Wendy finds out that Peter likes to hear her stories. He sits outside her window and listens to her like the little creep he is. Wendy tells him that he won’t be able to hear them again if she grows up and moves to another part of the house so he decides that she’s gonna move to Neverland with him and never grow up. She tries to kiss him out of thanks, which just makes me think no women worked on any Disney films at this point in time. Ah yes, all women think about is kissing boys and will just throw around kisses as rewards. It’s very backwards and the majority of women in earlier Disney films aren’t compelling characters due to Disney’s inability to properly write a female character. There are some exceptions of course but they are just that, exceptions, when they should have been the rule. Tinker Bell gets jealous and prevents the kiss showing us how jealous she is towards Wendy. With all the noise going on, Wendy’s two brothers John and Michael wake up and Peter agrees to take them to Neverland as well, but he’s not happy about it. After Peter spanks Tinker Bell for some of her fairy dust (yeah, it’s a bit weird) they all fly off to Neverland. This is where they sing the first song of the movie other than the title song “You Can Fly” which I’d barely even call a song, but I’ve committed to at least mentioning everything with even the slightest tune at this point.

Here we meet the antagonists of the film, Captain Hook, his pirates, and his henchman Mr. Smee. Captain Hook is a great villain. He’s pathetic, being scared of a crocodile to the point of absurdity, and complains like a small child when he loses to Peter Pan. Still though, he does serve as a formidable threat yet not one you would exactly call threatening. He wants to kill Peter to the point where he’d do anything to do so, even disregarding the health and needs of his crew. Talking about his crew he straight up kills two people in his crew for doing harmless things like asking questions and singing. His unpredictability is what makes him such an entertaining villain.

Mr. Smee is the comic relief, he is naive, friendly and would do anything for Captain Hook. You get the feeling that he just wants to be friends with his captain and likes playing pirate. It appears that he doesn’t truly comprehend the evil actions he is helping Captain Hook do. It feels very much like children playing a game but I’ll get to that later.

Throughout the pirate ship the song “A Pirate’s Life” can be heard which is so similar to “A Pirates Life for Me” from Pirates of the Caribbean that for a few seconds I thought they were the same song. It’s good though definitely gets you in the mood for a pirate adventure.

Anyway, Captain Hook spots Peter and the gang flying through the air and decides to attack them. Peter asks Tinker Bell to escort the Darlings to his hideout but instead Tinker Bell orders Peters crew to attack them. Peter beats Captain Hook and returns only to find out that Tinker Bell has attempted to murder Wendy and her siblings. He banishes Tinker Bell which just fuels her anger towards Wendy.

Now I hadn’t watched Peter Pan until this point, all I knew about Tinker Bell was from the Disney Parks and popular media so I was really surprised with her in this film. She’s jealous at Wendy throughout the film to the point where she tries to murder her, and helps pirates kidnap her. She reveals the location of Peters hideout. She is unusually sexualised as well which I didn’t expect. Like there’s a close up of her ass at one point. I already mentioned the spanking. I find her character much more interesting here than I thought I would just because she’s a psychopath. I always looked at her as a character like Mickey Mouse or Mario. Someone who hasn’t really got a personality beyond just being nice, so anyone can identify with them.

What follows now for a while are just a bunch of adventures in Neverland. They progress the characters and are engaging so they get an ok from me. John and Michael go to hunt down the natives which they keep calling Indians (I’ll get onto that in a while don’t you worry). When they do this, they sing the song “Following the Leader” which is kind of shit. Wendy and Peter go to see the mermaids who end up being so jealous of Wendy that they try to drown her.

After all this it turns out that the native chief’s daughter Tiger Lily has been stolen by Captain Hook. Off goes Peter to rescue her. What is interesting about this scene is how Peter doesn’t actually seem interested in rescuing Tiger Lily, instead he just wants to prank Captain Hook and beat him in a sword fight. Even after Captain Hook is once more defeated it takes Wendy mentioning that Tiger Lily still needs to be rescued for Peter to do anything. This leads on to the most interesting thing about the film.

I find it interesting how childlike everything in Neverland is, almost like it’s all a game. The fact that Peter always wins against an evil pirate who is obsessed with him is a very childlike fantasy, the idea of being a hero who has an archnemesis. The fact that all the mermaids, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily, and Wendy are in love with Peter is also a very childish idea. If you are a hero all the ladies will love you. Everything to Peter is a game, his battle with the natives is confirmed to just be a game, and even his fights with Captain Hook are presented as little more than a friendly scuffle. Peter wants to be the hero but fails to understand what that means, e.g. fighting the bad guy but forgetting to rescue the girl who he kidnapped until prompted. It gives the film a very fun feel to it. Like nothing really matters. The lack of maturity and naivety of the characters really does make this film feel like a game of pirates some kids are playing.

So anyway, next up is the most problematic scene in the entire film. The children are all celebrated by the natives for rescuing Tiger Lily. This is when the natives sing the song “What Made the Red Man Red?”. Where do I fucking begin with this one? The song presents natives as dumb and states that their red skin comes from one of their ancestors blushing over some attractive lady. It involves about a hundred stereotypes and was apparently looked down on even when it was made for its disgusting portrayal of natives. The film in general doesn’t represent natives in the best light. Firstly, the constant use of the word Indian isn’t great. They call them “redskins” at one point which is a racial slur. When the children go to hunt them down, they talk about how dumb they are. Also don’t go and tell me they aren’t real Native Americans as they live in Neverland, they’re stand-ins for them and everybody knows it.

Rant over, let’s get back to that plot. Tinker Bell gets kidnapped by Captain Hook who tricks her into telling his where Peter Pan’s hideout is. She tells him because she wants them to kidnap Wendy and only Wendy but of course that doesn’t fucking happen. Captain Hook and his crew overhear Wendy singing to the rest of the lost boys. The song is “Your Mother and Mine” which is a really nice song, it talks about how great mums are and really shows how lost Wendy feels without hers. After this touching scene Captain Hook kidnaps everyone but Peter, but leaves him a bomb.

The children now on Captain Hook’s ship refuse to be a part of his crew, but in the same way you’d oppose joining the other team in a game. Captain Hook and his crew sing the song “The Elegant Captain Hook” which fits into the category of songs I forgot were in the movie. Tinker Bell escapes and rescues Peter Pan before he gets blown up. Peter fly’s on over to Captain Hooks ship and defeats him with the help from the rest of the kids. Captain Hook ends up swimming away from a crocodile who has chased him since he had a taste for his blood and the rest of Captain Hooks crew row away on a lifeboat.

Peter Pan now in control of Captain Hook’s ship agrees to fly Wendy and her brothers’ home as Wendy and her siblings have learnt the value of parents. Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d miss your parents because you’d been out playing for too long (I don’t I barely left the house as a kid but I’m sure most people have felt that) that’s what this feeling from Wendy is presented as. Not a fear that she’d never see her parents again, but homesickness.

When they get home Wendy’s dad isn’t upset anymore and she doesn’t have to grow up and move rooms yet, yippie conflict magically solved, I guess. This ends Peter Pan and it was great.

Peter Pan is a film that might transport you back to your childhood for a bit and I think that’s gotta be worth something. There are negatives of course. Peter is a bit of an asshole and hard to route for sometimes. Wendy isn’t great either to be honest. There’s the racism which is terrible, and the film drags in a couple of scenes. But other than that, it’s a good time. Next up, Lady and the Tramp.

7 / 10