SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last Friday, I saw the film ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’, the latest film adaptation of ‘Peter Pan’ by J. M. Barrie. This is another Disney+ exclusive film. I’ve seen previous film adaptations of ‘Peter Pan’ like the 1953 Disney animated film, the 2003 live-action film and the 1991 live-action film named ‘Hook’.

So, I was intrigued to find out what this film was like and whether it was a worthy adaptation of the original ‘Peter Pan’ story. The film’s director is David Lowery and it stars Alexander Molony as Peter Pan, Ever Anderson as Wendy, and Jude Law (who was in the ‘Captain Marvel’ film) as Captain Hook.

Apparently, the film has received generally favourable reviews from critics. Me personally, I can’t say the film was a satisfying experience. I appreciate the film doing something different and the performances of the cast are well-done, including the two main leads, but I wasn’t too happy with it.

My main issue with the film is it has a darker tone compared to the energetic and often light-hearted feel of the previous ‘Peter Pan’ film adaptations I’d seen, especially in the 1953 and 2003 films. There weren’t enough of the playful aspects I had grown to associate with Peter Pan over the years.

The film starts well, especially with introducing Peter and Wendy as characters, along with Wendy’s brothers John and Michael. But as the film progressed, the story didn’t match to what I’d seen before in previous ‘Peter Pan’ film adaptations. It often deviated from the original source material. 😦

Another thing that annoys me about this film is that there wasn’t enough chemistry between Peter and Wendy. For a film called ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’, you’d think the film would explore their relationship. The 2003 live-action film did it way better compared to how this 2023 film did things. 😐

Also, Wendy wouldn’t punch Peter in the face after rescuing her, her brothers, the Lost Boys (or should they be called Lost Gang, since there are girls with the boys too) and Tiger Lily. Scold him for being reckless, yes, but punch him? That just felt wrong to me whilst watching the film on Disney+. 😦

I guess the film is trying to make Wendy better than Peter, especially as she gets to fly once Tinker Bell provides her some pixie dust and she didn’t need saving from Peter after being forced to walk the plank. Except, I feel that Peter and Wendy should be equals with each other in terms of strength.

Wendy in the 2003 live-action film was strong enough as a character, especially as she got to fight pirates with a sword, both on Skull Island and on the pirate ship at the film’s climax. Again, the actors playing Peter and Wendy are fine. I just wish their chemistry was better-handled in the film. 😦

A positive I can give this film is how it explores Peter and Captain Hook’s relationship as enemies. It’s revealed Captain Hook was once Peter’s friend and was a Lost Boy himself before he fled away after having a disagreement with Peter before returning as a pirate to exact his vengeance on Peter.

I don’t know if that matches to what’s in the original J. M. Barrie play or whether it’s something the film came up as an original idea, but it was interesting to see. I don’t think Jude Law as Captain Hook matches well to Dustin Hoffman and Jason Isaacs, but his interpretation was pretty intriguing to see.

Whilst watching the film, I did pick up on the instrumentals for songs like ‘You Can Fly’ from the 1953 film in the musical score for this film. I quite liked hearing the instrumental for ‘You Can Fly’ when listening to the musical score. I found it better than some of the songs performed by Hook’s pirates. 😀

Incidentally, I’m disappointed we only got one scene featuring Tick Tock the crocodile compared to other film adaptations like the 1953 and 2003 films that had more scenes featuring Tick Tock. Then again, no-one can match up to the brilliance of Tick Tock looking to the camera with eyes wide open. 😀

The film’s cast also includes Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, Alyssa Wapanatâhk as Tiger Lily (who gets to ride the Moon Stallion in this 😀 ), Joshua Pickering as John, Jacobi Jupe as Michael, Molly Parker as Mrs. Darling, Alan Tudyk (who’s been in ‘Rogue One’) as Mr. Darling and Jim Gaffigan as Mr. Smee. 🙂

As you can imagine, ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ wasn’t a satisfying film experience for me on Disney+. It has its good moments, and the performances of the cast are reasonably good, but this didn’t match to how I perceive ‘Peter Pan’ as a story. 😦 I prefer the 1953 and 2003 movies as well as ‘Hook’ more.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂