Peter Pan 1953
I had never seen Peter Pan before and honestly was never that crazy about the story or character. When the movie was taken out of the vault and added to the Signature Collection, I opted not to get it despite having all of the previous Signature releases. However, I was able to pick a free movie and only pay for shipping, and my ranking of Disney’s animated features had Peter Pan at a respectable no. 28 out of 56, in a neighborhood where I had already bought a few other movies. Some people really love it, and it is an amazingly classic story, featured in plays and a lot of movies (often with Peter Pan played by a woman for some reason), and is still an essential part of today’s culture.
Due in part to that impact, it was neat that the first part of the narration is “All of this has happened before and will happen again,” which the remake of Battlestar Galactica had used. So that was kind of a neat way to kick things off for me. Also the movie has three classic characters in Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell, with Tinkerbell being the one that introduces the Wonderful World of Disney. Tinkerbell’s look is still pretty modern today, unlike the weird blue fairy in Pinocchio.
One thing I knew about already was the stereotyped presentation of the Indians, which is definitely offensive, but maybe not quite enough to warrant pulling the movie out of distribution as was done with Song of the South and mitigated by how cartoonish the depiction is. Tinkerbell and the mermaids are almost pin-up girls in their appearance and mannerisms. Also offensive is the way almost all of the women are presented in the movie as backbiting and jealous over the attentions of Peter Pan, even Wendy. In fact there isn’t much character development at all with few lessons learned, just a straight up adventure story. Even the action scenes are a little lackluster. In the scene in the cave as Peter Pan and Captain Hook fight and Princess Tiger Lily is chained to a rock to drown in the rising tide, they only flash to her after the fight is over and she is rescued. It seems like a lost opportunity to build some drama. The animation is good (a lot of it based on real actors on film for reference, but done with real animation) but feels a little cartoonish. Maybe Disney’s resurgence in the 1950’s as they made Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and this movie seems cartoonish because so many cartoons were also flooding television and would continue to do so for a while, using the same techniques and styles. Flying scenes have certainly gotten much better since 1953. The music is also not that great. The beginning and ending pieces in London are just so-so, featuring a talented but mistreated and generally unhappy nanny dog, with just the slightest bit of interest as Mr. Darling mentions a fading memory, tying back to the opening line (I think more could have been done with that too). I didn’t realize it while watching that Mr. Darling is voiced by the same person as Captain Hook, which is often how the play is presented as well, but that is also a nice touch
Anyway, Peter Pan is certainly worth watching, complete with the racial and sexual stereotypes of the era, but I think Disney was a little off its form, having lost the richness of the pre-war features but also lacking the more original storytelling and characters that would come later.
Written: 28 Sep 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital