Peter Pan

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Overall, this film is…nice. It’s not extraordinary or ground breaking, it is certainly not the best of the Silver Age, but it’s nice (well, apart from the incredibly disgusting and racist portrayal of Native Americans). This story is a classic for a reason- there is just a sense of magic surrounding the world of Neverland which is present in all good Peter Pan adaptations and it can certainly be found here. 

The animation is mostly pleasant, with the best scenes being various shots of London, particularly during the ‘You Can Fly’ sequence. The backgrounds are beautifully done- the character designs mostly follow the rather generic Disney House Style of the time, but they are nice enough to look at.

The music, particularly the score, is also beautiful, aside from ‘What Made the Red Man Red’ and parts of ‘Following the Leader’ for obvious reasons mentioned in brackets above. The best song by far is the aforementioned ‘You Can Fly’, with its sweeping melody and catchy tune.

Much like Wonderland, the best characters in Peter Pan are from the world that the film explores, in this case Neverland. None of the Darling children have much personality, but the film more than makes up for it with iconic good guys like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, who are both a lot of fun and the equally iconic bad guys Captain Hook and Mr Smee, who are very funny in all of their scenes.

Speaking of great sequences, the fight scenes between Hook and Pan towards the end are by far some of the best scenes in the film and are also refreshingly different to the films that came before it.

Generally, this film doesn’t break many boundaries, but it is fun to watch for the most part and definitely deserving of its status as a Disney classic. 

Rating

Good guys: Although the Darling children are pretty bland, the Lost Boys, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan are a lot of fun, so the good guys get a 6/10

Bad guys: Mr Smee and Hook have some very funny scenes, so the Bad guys get a 6/10

Animation: Some very nice backgrounds and ok character designs mean that the animation also gets 6/10

Music: You Can Fly is great and most of the other music is passable so it gets a 7/10

Plot: A classic story told well- the movie gets 8/10 for the plot

Overall score: 33/50

Next review: Lady and the Tramp