Peter Pan (2003)
by V.E. on February 3rd, 2010
filed under entertainment, recap/review
Despite hearing not great things about Peter Pan (wiki), I decided to watch it after listening to the soundtrack. It can’t be that bad, I thought, if the music is good, right?
Well, yes and no. It wasn’t that bad, no, but it wasn’t awesome, either. When I spend time on a movie, I want to be impressed and left with some deep feeling, whether that be happiness, awe, or anger. In short, I want to be moved. I’ll admit, sometimes I want to just chill out and veg on the sofa, but not this time. I was expecting fantasy, high drama, and epic sword fights. Well, I wasn’t expecting that so much as hoping for it. Unfortunately, Peter Pan didn’t deliver.
Or, at least, not enough for my tastes. Perhaps if I was younger and more easily impressed—and still believed in fairies—I might’ve liked this movie more. I hope I’m not so cynical as to believe that I wouldn’t have liked it even as a child, but I’m not a child anymore, and this movie was… lacking. Maybe I should become more childlike in the future when watching a children’s movie, but for now… no.
Tiger Lily’s part was entirely too small, for one thing. Smee’s part was… eh… not great. And the stupid half-dead parrot. Ew. One thing I was wondering about, however, was the part in which Wendy remembers that she, John, and Michael have parents.
Wendy says, “John! Who is your father?”
John says, “Why, Peter Pan, of course.” The Lost Boys all laugh.
Wendy turns to Michael and says, “Michael, who is your mother?”
And Michael says something like, “You are, of course.”
In despair, Wendy says, “We’ve forgotten our parents!” and resolves right then to return home, lest they, too, are forgotten.
I was wondering why she remembered that, in Neverland, they were parent-less, rather than one of her brothers remembering instead. Of course Peter Pan, if he remembered, wouldn’t tell them since he doesn’t want them to leave. He wants Wendy as a storyteller, if nothing else. Same with the Lost Boys. But why did Wendy remember her parents when her brothers didn’t? Was she not having as much fun? Had she grown up more than them and already teetering on the edge of childhood?
Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not going to get into the sexism and social dynamics of the story (as opposed to this movie) because it’s a story first published in 1911 and I’m just too tired right now for Modernist Era chitchat.
