Peter Pan & Wendy

3 outta 5

The remake train for Disney animated classics keeps diligently chugging along, with the latest one being Peter Pan & Wendy. There are some interesting changes to the Walt Disney 1950’s film, and in other moments it recreates certain bits exactly. Why does Disney feel the need to remake every one of its animated classics? The answer is probably to fill out content related to the original on the Disney Plus app. Anyway, this is a decent, if completely unnecessary, remake that also delivers some unexpected subversions of the original.  

Wendy (Ever Anderson) is about to go to boarding school and is spending a final night at home with her parents and her brothers, John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe), although she doesn’t want to leave. Into their room arrives a fairy, Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi), and an eternally young flying boy, Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) who brings them to the magical world of Neverland. In Neverland they find Peter’s crew of Lost Boys, who aren’t entirely all boys as Wendy points out to which they respond, “So what?” and Wendy agrees it doesn’t matter. The kids are confronted by the evil pirate Captain Hook (Jude Law), and Hook’s first mate Mr. Smee (Jim Gaffigan) with his crew of misfits, leading to another battle between Hook and Peter. Soon the kids are captured by Hook, Peter is seemingly vanquished, and the kids learn more about the history between Peter and Captain Hook.

One of the best things is the performance of Law as Captain Hook as he goes big as an iconic Disney villain. In one of the movie’s funnier asides, he shoots down his own door, walks over his own crew, and then says that he’ll need a new door. When Smee reminds him that his been the third door Hook has destroyed this week, Hook simply says it won’t be the last. The quirks from the animated version of Hook are there; his obsession with Peter Pan, Hook’s anger at hearing clocks or seeing the Crocodile that Peter threw Hook’s hand to. When Law is playing Hook as the big buffoon, it’s rather enjoyable. The movie delivers an unexpected swerve when it delves into Hook’s backstory. It’s not what one would expect from a story about Captain Hook and Peter Pan. It gives Hook a tragic layer and there’s brief moments when Law shows there may be a traumatized human underneath Hook’s cartoonish exterior. It does clash with the camp moments, however.

Hanging out and not growing up forever comes off as a bit of a downer. There was always a subtle undercurrent of tragedy about Peter Pan not being able to grow up, but this makes it explicitly stated. Wendy ultimately must realize that moving on with her life is a good thing, and hanging out with the Lost Boys and Peter refusing to grow isn’t going to get her anywhere. One line twists Pan’s iconic line, “To die would be a great adventure” but here Wendy says to grow up would be the greatest adventure. It gives the film a tinge of melancholy that isn’t in the original Disney movie. The film kind of tries to have it both ways with tragic backstories and thematic bleakness about not growing up, but also being a fun, campy, enjoyable pirate fantasy adventure. Both tones are valid, but both bump against each other. When the movie settles on what it wants to do tonally, it is solid. The scene of Peter and Hook fighting in a cave when the Crocodile shows up is visually striking. When Peter and Hook square off for a finale fight, Hook grouses about his own age. Also, a pirate says to wake him when one of them kills the other yet again, which is pretty funny. Even this random pirate is sick of the eternal battle between Hook and Peter have fallen into.

Anderson as Wendy has some funny reactions, like when one of the Lost Boys starts shooting arrows at her feet and she snaps “Stop that!” She is supposed to be the emotional centre of the film and she pulls off looking sympathetic. Pickering and Jupe as her siblings are good for cutaway one liners. Gaffagin as Smee is perpetually suffering under Hook’s excessive demands. Shahidi as Tinker Bell gets to emote wordlessly in a good impression of the original animated character. As Peter Pan, Molony crows triumphantly while going into battle. He also quieter moments as he seems involuntarily forced to reflect upon the existential terror of never growing up. It makes him more tragic than the original story intended but it gives a shallow character some depth. There’s also a few more shades added to one of Pan’s sidekicks, Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatâhk), a character that is problematic in the 1950s version but seems more well rounded here.

This isn’t the worst Disney remake that has come along, as Peter Pan & Wendy manages to throw in some unexpected thematic depth and recontextualizing elements from the original film. It is mostly forgettable, if rather good looking, but once again this just feels like content filler for Disney Plus. Not terrible filler, but filler nonetheless. But if one wants a slightly different take on Neverland, this accomplishes the job.