Peter Pan & Wendy Review: A Deeper and Darker Vision Of The Classic Peter Pan Story
Cast: Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Jude Law, Yara Shahidi, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Alyssa Wapanatahk, Jim Gaffigan, Molly Parker, Alan Tudyk, Noah Matthews Matofsky, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, Skyler, Kelsey Yates, Florence Bensberg, Caelan Edie, Diana Tsoy, Felix De Sousa
Director: David Lowery
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
April 28, 2023, marks the return of Peter Pan in a Disney feature film. The film is titled Peter Pan & Wendy and is available to all subscribers on the Disney+ streaming service. The question that probably every fan has been asking since the release of the first trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy has been: do we need yet another film about the never grown child? It was December 27, 1904, when James Matthew Barrie, in the hope of being able to revive his fortunes as a playwright, filled the Duke of York’s Theater in London for the first performance of Peter & Wendy, his most famous work, the most talked about, the most loved. Barrie wanted to tell the story of a child who never grows up, and he decided not to, to continue having fun on an island where he fights against pirates. A graceful, cheerful tale created to alleviate the pains of the Llewelyn Davies family, whose story is told, in a fictional way, in the film Neverland with Johnny Depp.
George, John, Peter, Michael, and Nico were the four children of Sylvia, who died 6 years after Peter Pan was staged, a year before Barrie could transpose all the changes and variations to the play into the official novel, which we today know and appreciate. Just 24 years after its publication, in 1935, on the other side of the ocean, before Joe Grant offered him, in vain, to try to buy the rights for the film adaptation of The Hobbit, Walt Disney let himself be conquered by that story. which would become his second Classic. Today, on the 70th anniversary of the distribution of The Adventures of Peter Pan, his live-action version signed by David Lowery is available on Disney+, under the name of Peter Pan & Wendy.
Peter Pan & Wendy Review: The Story Plot
Wendy Angela Moira Darling (Ever Anderson, the daughter of Paul Anderson and Milla Jovovich) lives the drama of having to grow up, having to leave her bed, her room, shared with her two brothers, John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe). Of her, If it depended on her, she would never reach adolescence, or puberty, and would continue to spend her days playing in the company of her brothers, telling them the stories of Peter Pan. The boy who never wanted to grow up is the protagonist of all the bedtime stories that Mary (Molly Parker), Wendy’s mother, tells her three children. One night, Peter (Alexander Molony) visits the girl, anticipated by his little fairy Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi), with an official invitation to Neverland, a place where Pan rules unchallenged, if were it not for the presence of James Hook, the evil Captain Hook (Jude Law). Peter Pan & Wendy, in the hands of Lowery, follows the same narrative plot that was the Disney Classic, slightly distanced from the original story of James Barrie.
As is customary to do and as has already happened in other live-action films, Disney pursues the goal of revealing part of the origin stories of his characters, starting right from Hook, whom James of whom Barrie had left only three cardinal references, accompanied however by a narrative chasm that very few have tried to fill in the past hundred years. There are just two novels, both Italian among other things, on the origins of the character, to which is now added the Disney live-action, which adds nothing new, therefore, to those who have already had the opportunity to navigate between the pages of the above books. It is fair, however, to underline how an attempt was made to contextualize the hatred between Peter and James, so as not to make it random, without foundations, and above all credible. Similarly, Lowery worked much more deeply on the character of Wendy, mature, eager to change things, and at the same time longing for a better fate for Peter, who in turn harbors a regretful side and sadness about its existence.
Peter Pan & Wendy Review and Analysis
The attention given to some characters, however, has negatively influenced the one designed for others. Lowery almost completely cancels Tiger Lily, which loses any kind of thickness, just as the contrast between Tinker Bell and Wendy is eliminated from the final equation, fundamental in all the other works to create the conflict in the triangle with Peter himself. Also stripped of the sirens and other indigenous elements of the Island, the same crew of James loses characterization, leaving only Sponge a well-defined role: Starky, Hook’s first mate, disappears completely, as does Ed Teynte, the quartermaster of James, and many others. The lost children themselves, beyond Curly, mentioned only once by Giglio Tigrato and nothing more, see their characters, their peculiarities vanish. Elements, if explored in depth, could have given more color to Neverland, a crossroads of fantasies and marvels all to put together.
From the point of view of the narrative plot, in a more macroscopic dimension, Peter Pan & Wendy does not lead to original elements that destroy the magic of the work: we are not faced with Zemeckis’ Pinocchio, whose adaptation seemed necessarily to tell his story (our review of Pinocchio reminds you of this ), nor must we observe mediocre renderings of CGI elements (beyond London’s Big Ben, which flakes off creating an unglamorous effect) as happened to us with Aladdin or The Lion King. David Lowery’s film runs light and serene from start to finish, which in itself is good news given the quality of the live-action of the last period. Surprisingly, in some cases, one might wonder why streaming distribution was chosen rather than the cinema, where instead in a month we will have The Little Mermaid, on which skepticism is higher (starting from the duration of The Little Mermaid).
The same work of reproduction of Neverland can be said to be successful, albeit halfway: we don’t have many locations to see, nor should we expect to be able to experience a documentary to discover the island. Most of the action takes place on board the Jolly Roger or in Peter’s hideout, the famous tree house: devices to avoid having to show vast lands or atolls in the sky, just as Lowery also avoids the worry of water, causing Hook’s ship itself to almost always hover in the clouds. A choice that he knows so much about, once again, as an expedient to get away from excessive production and budget problems. The crocodile is also not very fascinating, for which two appearances and a screen time are reserved that would have deserved much more goodness, as well as a realization that cries out for revenge for the overly caricatured style with which it was recreated.
Praise, however, goes to James Hook, whose interpretation of Jude Law is complete, variegated in the right places, and able to bring out the dichotomy that lies behind that hook: in this regard, well done Lowery to put it back to the right hand, after Disney had mirrored it for esoteric and actorial needs. He denotes an attention to detail that should not be underestimated. In closing, some doubts remain about not having been able to listen to the rearranged original soundtrack. Oliver Wallace didn’t have his forte in Peter Pan but inserting only the melody of “You can fly” and nothing else is a bit of a misstep on the part of Lowery, who could rely on many other successful songs from that soundtrack.
Despite all these interesting attempts, the film as a whole doesn’t come out with flying colors. If the female characters are well written, even if not perfectly, the male counterparts come across as flat and uninteresting. In Peter’s case, this poor writing is aggravated by the inexperience of the young actor who is still immature, who never manages to pierce the screen and therefore reach the heart of the viewer. The same goes for Jude Law as a Captain Hook that doesn’t belong to him. The only standout moment comes in a confrontation between him and Wendy, where the actor managed to go beyond the facade of the villain and therefore dig a little deeper into the character’s psyche, allowing him to show his undisputed skill.
The film was designed for on-demand distribution and not for a theatrical release. All this has led to a lower budget and this can be seen above all in the non-excellent special effects which result in many points being very “plasticky”. The photography, on the other hand, retains the Disney quality we are used to. Finally, as you can tell from the title, David Lowery’s live-action film makes Wendy even more of a protagonist. This represents the audience being taken on an adventure in Neverland. This character, played well by Ever Anderson, is probably the most positive note of Peter Pan & Wendy, as he manages to give depth to the story thanks to his point of view. Compared to the 1953 film, Wendy’s story has been expanded and somewhat improved.
Peter Pan & Wendy Review: The Last Words
Peter Pan & Wendy is a good film, especially when compared to the other live-action films proposed by Disney in recent years. David Lowery brings the Jolly Roger to port wisely, without overdoing it and without taking excessive risks: his story is faithful to the original work and allows himself to add elements that had already been put to the test by those who had suggested the same origins as Hook, just in a different medium. The expedients are evident, as well as some slightly incomplete points of the script (some precisely on James, but let’s limit the spoilers for now) and almost approximate characterizations, but we are faced with a title that, without wanting to expect to have to see the Classic transposed step by step into live action, it can entertain us in the right way.
