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Peter Pan
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DVD Debut
Peter Pan
Rated G
1953, Disney
Everything a little boy could possibly want from a story can be found in Disney's animated adaptation of James M. Barrie's Peter Pan. There are pirates, an Indian village and a golden pirate ship that flies through the sky. While Peter Pan is a notch or two below previous Disney animated features like Snow White and Pinocchio in artistic quality, it remains one of Disney's most playful films.
Peter Pan follows the Disney formula with tuneful songs, a larger-than-life villain and plenty of comic slapstick. When Pan guides Wendy Darling and her two younger brothers, John and Michael, over the rooftops of 1904 London to Neverland, the illusion of weightlessness feels real. The movie is most magical during Pan's nighttime visit to the Darling home. Once in Neverland, battling Pan's nemesis Captain Hook, Peter Pan settles into fast-paced storytelling.
Hans Conried gives the film a dramatic boost, supplying the voices of Hook and the grumpy Mr. Darling. Kathryn Beaumont is the soothing voice of Wendy. Bobby Driscoll is plenty rambunctious as the voice of Peter Pan.
Tinkerbell remains a character based in pure comic pantomime, with the feisty personality of a jealous girlfriend. Tinkerbell's vanity becomes laughably clear when she measures her hips while staring into a hand mirror.
While Peter Pan is a boyhood adventure, it's also a celebration of motherhood. Pan brings Wendy to Neverland because he loves listening to her nighttime stories. Wendy is brave and opinionated. She's an adventuress in a powder-blue nightgown and red lipstick.
The elaborate special effects found in Steven Spielberg's overblown Hook (1991), about a grown-up Pan returning to Neverland, offers no improvement on Disney's spirited cartoon feature.
Without the satirical adult jokes and lightning-quick pace audiences have come to expect from animated films like Shrek or Monsters, Inc., Peter Pan seems old-fashioned in its storytelling. Yet, at the same time, Peter Pan's childlike innocence keeps it timeless, humanistic and warm.
Beautifully restored, Peter Pan takes full advantage of the DVD format. Bonus features include an archival short, The Peter Pan Story, shown in theaters during the film's 1953 debut, and a new documentary, The Making of Peter Pan, that supplies plenty of film-historian-friendly facts. The best DVD bonus is the collection of archival storyboards found in the Still Frame Gallery. Viewed alongside the film, these unused drawings hint at the more sinister direction Peter Pan might have taken.
Pan's 1953 origin remains the source for much political incorrectness. Pan is chauvinistic and egotistical. Like some pint-sized member of the 'Rat Pack,' Pan surrounds himself with mermaids who look more like Las Vegas showgirls. Neverland's Indians are caricatures who share more in common with the Cleveland Indians mascot than any real Native American.
Computer-generated images like the lifelike heroes of Shrek and Monsters, Inc. are the trend in animated films. Still, I can't imagine how 3-D images could have made the hand-drawn Peter Pan any more enjoyable or artistic. There are moments in Peter Pan that are truly stunning. Scurrying across the Darling's rooftop, Pan is a shadowy figure until the sparkly Tinkerbell's lights his face. Pan's eyes remain hidden in shadow, like a raccoon's mask, while his mouth breaks into a wide, mischievous grin.
Peter Pan is about stopping the hands of the human clock. So it's telling that Pan, Wendy, John and Michael rest on the hands of London's Big Ben just before heading for Neverland.
'I'm warning you,' Peter Pan tells Wendy. 'Once you've grown up, you can never come back.'
For children, Peter Pan remains a playful, childhood adventure. For adults, it's a chance to hold onto one's inner child. It's a brief return to a simpler, more fantastic time. Through movies, you can go back.
CITYBEAT GRADE: A
