April 28th marked one year since Peter Pan & Wendy debuted on Disney+.
Now, I had actually previously written about how much I was looking forward to this live-action remake before it came out. It was mainly because I was such a fan of the director, David Lowery. I especially liked his last Disney live-action film, Pete’s Dragon. So I was curious to see what he’d do with a bigger property like Peter Pan.
After initially watching the film, my biggest takeaway was that the movie was good – not great. A year later, and I still think feel the same. However, after having some time to sit on it, I realize what has been holding me back from fully loving the movie. At first, I couldn’t really place what was holding the movie back for me, but then I realized it was because the film introduces what I think is a very interesting change from the original story. And I don’t think they explore it as well as they could have.
The movie starts off as any other Peter Pan story where the Darling children, Wendy, Michael and John, are taken off to Neverland. They decide to go after being told that they will never have to grow up there. Upon arrival, they come into conflict with Captain Hook and this leads to the biggest change in the story.
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Normally, there’s not a lot of background given to Peter and Hook’s rivalry beyond the fact that Peter cut off his hand and threw it to a crocodile. In this adaptation, however, Lowery introduced a new twist. In this film it’s revealed that before he became Captain Hook “James” was actually Peter’s first lost boy and his best friend. The two were extremely close, but one day after expressing that he missed his mother Peter told James to leave angry at the fact that he wanted to return to his family. James went out to sea in search for his mother before getting lost and discovered by pirates who raised him. After realizing he wouldn’t find her, James went back to Neverland hoping to reconnect with Peter only to be turned away again for having grown up.
There are some versions of Peter Pan that hint at him and Hook once being friends. But they usually still portray Hook as an adult during this part. The Idea that James was a lost boy, another child who got swept away to Neverland only to be banished by his best friend for not wanting to abandon his family is an undeniably interesting idea. One that makes you question who the real bad guy is here. My only problem with it is that the reveal comes a little too late in the movie. The film keeps hinting at Hook’s past, but it takes way too long before we actually get the full story.
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Now, Jude Law gives a great performance as Hook. The scene where he explains his backstory and history with Peter is especially powerful. But I think what’s missing is that there’s not a lot of time spent on Peter realizing he was wrong. Or even Peter expressing guilt over what happened. After being injured and rescued by Tiger Lily, the implication is that he’s learned to not be selfish and be better towards his friends. But it kind of feels like even that lesson is learned offscreen. Maybe if there was just one scene of a flashback between him and a young hook, and him having a moment of realization that he hurt his friend, might’ve made a big difference.
Again, I did enjoy the movie overall. One year later, and it still holds up. I just felt like the movie had the potential to stand out from the dozens of other adaptations we’ve seen of the Peter Pan story. Hopefully someone will find a way to tell the story flawlessly one day…
