Peter Pan (thing)

Release Date: 5 February 1953

Ah, Peter Pan. No, not the peanut butter, but the tale of the young lad who, fearful of growing up, ran away to Never Never Land, where he would never have to.

The original story was written by James M. Barrie, a successful writer who developed the story of the boy would wouldn't grow up as a tale to tell to some young boys he had befriended. The story evolved over many years until he finally wrote it down, both in a novel and in a theatrical version.

Disney chose the famous story as the basis for its next animated feature, and it was released only a year before the most famous theatrical production (with music by Jule Styne and starring Mary Martin as Peter) began. Disney's version broke with the normal theatrical tradition and cast a boy in the lead part, rather than a young adult woman.

The story is still rather straightforward. Peter arrives at the home of the Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael, who had heard stories of the boy from their mother. After an act of kindness from Wendy, Peter takes the children to Never Never Land, where they discover the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and his pirates, mermaids, and Indians. Hook of course, is one of the classic villans; while dignified and outwardly courteous, he held a great hatred for Peter, who had fed his hand to a crocodile in the past.

Not to be forgotten is Peter Pan's little fairy companion, Tinker Bell. She never spoke, but her expressive face cleary indicated her emotions. This was a bit of an improvement, really, over the flashlight and bell by which she is represented in theatrical productions. She was intensely jealous of Wendy and the attention Peter showered upon her (attention that had previously been given to Tink). Tinker Bell is now one of the iconic Disney characters, used in a variety of its media whenever a magical effect is desired, thanks to her copious amounts of fairy dust.

The movie is a musical, although the songs are considerably more forgettable than the famous Styne-penned tunes from the later theatrical version. The most significant of them is "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" The film also failed to win any major awards, including Academy Awards, which was unusual for a Disney animated feature.

Despite the lack of awards and memorable songs, the film itself is a well-done and fondly remembered adaptation of the original story.

Information for the Disney Animated Features series of nodes comes from the IMDb (www.imdb.com), Frank's Disney Page (http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~fp/Disney/), and the dark recesses of my own memory.

On February 15, 2002, Disney released a theatrical sequel to Peter Pan called Return to Never Land. This is surprising for Disney; with the exception of Fantasia 2000 and Toy Story 2 (which was originally not going to be released in theaters), all of Disney's recent sequels were direct-to-video. In this sequel, Captain Hook is back, and he kidnaps Wendy's daughter Jane.