Peter Pan and Wendy (2023) is the most recent in a series of classic Disney cartoons remade into live-action. After watching it, it’ll quickly turn into clear why it skipped theaters and headed straight for streaming.
For greater than a century, JM Barrie’s beloved tale is one which many have tried to inform, retold, twisted, or modernized, and failed. Whether on stage or screen, it’s such a improbable world of fantasy and kids’s adventures that it is not any small feat to place it outside the pages of a book. On the large screen, no other productions other than the 1953 Disney cartoon and the beloved Hook have brought audiences or recognition. The latest attempt was made by director David Lowery, who in 2016 brought Pete the Dragon to life for Disney.
Peter Pan and Wendy gives the look of a movie of two separate commissions. It’s very much a remake within the sense that the primary half stays true to its cartoon predecessor. The plot lines, characters, and even motion sequences are almost cut frame by frame from the cartoon.
Oddly enough, the film is incredibly bland and down-to-earth. All the intense colours have been thrown out of the costumes and sets, and there isn’t any fantasy here. British Columbia’s barren but beautiful landscape is gaining prominence as Neverland, but at no point does it seem like an inviting place. Up up to now, the nice charm of the 2 successful predecessors was shiny shades, romantic scenery and the magic of Neverland. This version was barely visible, heavily shadowed, and devoid of anything that will help a person survive.
After a lengthy introduction to the Darling family and Wendy, played by Ever Anderson (who looks an identical to young Milla Jovovich as she is her daughter), we meet Peter Pan. He seems a bit charming, but more like a brat than someone you’d wish to travel with. At this point, we’re covered in Pixie Dust and thrown into Neverland for no reason apart from Peter said so.
We quickly run into Captain Hook, played too maniacally by Jude Law, and run into Lost Boys accompanied by Tiger Lily. Even though the solid of characters is plentiful, we viewers get little greater than an introduction. There are few moments, no arc or story from anyone but Wendy, Peter and Hook. Everyone else is unforgettable.
Even Tinkerbell is silenced, wasting Yara Shahidi’s talents.
The unlucky reliance on a number of sets to maintain the film standing still, as other than the Canadian islands B-reel, it was mainly set in 4 locations. The Darling’s Attic, Hook’s Pirate Ship, Lost Boys Dark Hideout, and a number of unlit caves made it feel more like a play than a movie at times, but who knows when you may’t physically see the actors?
After two isolated songs that reduce the film almost to the category of a musical, we enter the second half, where the film takes a turn and permits you to try something recent. Instead of stretching the source material or much-needed development of existing characters, we learn that (SPOILER) Hook was once a lost boy and a friend of Peter’s.
He was exiled by Peter for missing his mother and wanting to return home, but he never made it and was raised by pirates until he grew up. Now he hates Peter Pan, and rightly so. From the viewers’ viewpoint, the film doesn’t do Peter justice. He is spoiled, mean and doesn’t care about anyone but himself for greater than a number of seconds. I’ll tell the filmmakers that I even have never seen Peter Pan as a villain before.
Peter gets redeemed, after all, and makes some amends with Hook, all during a fight scene between kids and well-armed adult pirates where nobody ever dies. We also get female empowerment moments as Wendy makes the pirate ship fly on her own and rescues all of the boys. Disney continues to be attempting to bring modern ideas and equality to a time once they didn’t exist, however it’s a story for teenagers in an imaginary land, so who cares.
This tackle a widely known story was as flat as the colour palette on which it was shot. It’s one other disappointing, failed, and ultimately boring attempt at telling a story all of us wish to do well. Feel free to pass it on or hate watching and discussing the entire thing because you will not give you the option to physically see much of it anyway. Don’t feel bad in case you send this video to Never-Watch-Land.
