If there was ever a movie I wanted to live inside of when I was a little kid it was 1953’s Peter Pan. Peter Pan had it all for a young, imaginative boy like myself. There were swashbuckling pirates, flights, mermaids, pixies, racially insensitive depictions of Native Americans. The film had it all. As an adult, I couldn’t help but get swept away with the romanticism of fantasy of it all. The film opens with my all-time favorite mood setter opening credit sequence song, The Second Star to the Right. This song sounds like the feeling of drifting off into a dream land. The opening strings are just the pixie dust you need to lift you off the ground and send you on a grand adventure with Peter and his Lost Boys.
The scene is set in London where we see the home of the Darling Family, parents George and Mary, and their children, Wendy, John, Michael, and their nursemaid/dog Nana. As George and Mary are getting ready for a night out, the boys are playing a game of make believe pretending they are Peter Pan and Captain Hook under the tutelage of the expert of all things Pan, Wendy. After things get a bit too rough, George decides that is was time Wendy grew up and this would be the last time she’d sleep in the nursery with her brothers. Mary, on the other hand, this George is being a bit too harsh. I’ve always had a certain affinity with Mrs. Darling. I’ve always seen her as the ultimate mother. She’s so caring and nurturing. She’s beautiful and you can tell that her hug is like a warm blanket. As she tries to comfort the children while tucking them into bed, Wendy ask that the window be left open in case Peter Pan comes back for his shadow. Mary shares her concerns with George, rightfully so, but George brushes this off as the imagination of a little girl.
Enter Pan.
Our titular hero has been waiting on the roof top to retrieve his shadow as it turns out he’s been listening to the stories Wendy has been telling the boys about him. Peter Pan is full of himself. If Peter Pan were any cockier he’d definitely be really annoying but he comes across more has an extremely self-confident fella than a total douche. He’s accompanied by his companion and iconic Disney symbol, Tinkerbell. I adore the original depiction of Tinkerbell. Here she is spiteful and petty. Walt once described her as so tiny that she only has room for one emotion at a time. When she feels happiness, jealousy, or rage, she feels it to the fullest. She’s been so watered down as the years go by, she’s now just a sassy symbol of all things magic. And why is she always depicted with a wand? For Ollivander’s sake, she never carries a magic wand in the movie. But I digress… The two sneak into the Darling’s nursery for the shadow and successfully convince the kids to fly off to Neverland where Wendy will not have to grow up so she can continue to tell stories about Peter Pan to Peter Pan and his band of Lost Boys. With a happy thought and a sprinkling of pixie dust the children are off. I’d like to think that every Disney Animated film has one iconic scene that is magic at its purest and You Can Fly is it. You literally watch the children fly over London and into another world, but you feel that you are transported with them.
When they reach the beautiful island planet of Neverland they have their first encounter with Captain Hook and his ship, The Jolly Roger. The 1950’s were a good time to be a comedic Disney Villain. The interactions Hook has with his First Mate, Mr. Smee, are hilarious. Captain Hook is wonderfully foppish and Mr. Smee joyously bumbling. Mr. Smee has always seemed too kind hearted to be mean. It’s like he’s the little brother that just wants to hang out with the big boys. There is a Crocodile lusting after Hook’s other, probably even tastier, hand and hilarity ensues. But in all honesty the comedy between Hook, Smee, and the Crocodile is some of the funniest physical comedy Disney has put out even to this date. And it’s not to say that Captain Hook isn’t dark, he attempts to kill Pan several times and successfully kills one of his crew members in cold blood.
When they reach mainland Neverland Tinkerbell tells the gullible Lost Boys that Wendy is a bird and must be shot down. Wendy has her first brush with death and Tinkerbell admits to the attempted murder. Peter Pan banishes Tinkerbell from the island… for 2 weeks.
During a seeming routine game of hide and go capture with the Neverland Indians (Native Neverlandians? Is that more politically correct?) the Indian Chief informs them that they will not be released until the princess Tiger Lily is set free.
After an encounter with some deliciously bitchy mermaids (I get the sinking sensation that Peter Pan is quite the ladies man-child), Peter and Wendy, whom is on brush with death #2, see Hook with a captive Tiger Lily. Tiger Lily is captured for information on Peter’s secret hideout, but she remains tightlipped. Peter saves the princess with the help of a clueless Smee, a hungry Crocodile, and some pretty awesome impression skills.
The Indian camp celebrates the return of Tiger Lily with the infamously inappropriate song, What Makes the Red Man Red. Now, to be honest, I still don’t see the song as that bad. Musically it’s great. It’s got a great beat with pounding drums and the chorus of singers deliver it effectively. What I try to keep in mind is that this is a 1950’s interpretation of a British Victorian view of the Native Americans. It could have been worse.
In the midst of the revelry, Wendy is completely through with the excess and heads back to the hideout in preparation to return home. Meanwhile, back at the Jolly Roger, Hell hath no fury like a pixie scorned when Tinkerbell is manipulated by Captain Hook into revealing Pan’s hideout.
Back at the hideout Wendy gathers the rest of the Lost Boys so they can return home to London with the movie halting song Your Mother and Mine. I thought this song was horrendously boring when I was a kid, the main saving grace being some comedy provided by the pirates who are preparing to kidnap the kids and set a bomb trap for Peter Pan. Now that I’m a bit older, the song is a bit of a sentimental one as I seem to appreciate what my mommy did more and more now that I see all she’s done for me during my childhood. The kids get apprehended, and Tinkerbell barely escapes the Jolly Roger with enough time to save Peter from the bomb, and redeeming her treachery.
Peter rescues the Darling Children and Lost Boys and leaves Hook to fend for himself against our pal the Crocodile. Peter and the children sail back to London and the Darlings are left with memories of a grand adventure.
Even though J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play and 1911 novel have been adapted many times over the years, there is good reason the Disney version is the one that comes to most people’s minds. It’s a colorful, wildly imaginative, and beautifully animated movie. It’s not to say it’s a perfect film, the Lost Boys really have no character other than “Boy” and Your Mother and Mine kills the pacing, but this along with fantastic 1993 Fox animated series Peter Pan and the Pirates have kept me dreaming of never growing up in Neverland all my life.
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