These boys should have stayed lost: Pan drops anchor in sea of mediocrity
The latest in a long line of live-action remakes from Disney’s neverending catalogue of films, Peter Pan & Wendy reimagines yet another animated classic into the modern day. Heavily based on its predecessor, 2003’s Peter Pan, the new film shows not only more gender diversity, but also is more racially integrated, which is refreshing considering the depictions in both the 1953 Disney animated flick and the 2003 iteration.
Compared to the 2003 Peter Pan, it is abundantly clear that the Darling children aren’t expecting Peter Pan (Alexander Molony in his debut feature film), nor did they even believe he was anything more than a bedtime story. In the original, Wendy (Ever Anderson, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) and her brothers believed Peter Pan was a real person and made him the hero of all their nursery games. Wendy was expecting Peter Pan as she tells her mother, “Oh, don't lock it, Mother. He might come back. …You see, I found something that belongs to him.” She refers to Peter's shadow and leaves the window open to welcome him in, whereas in this remake Pan has Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi, Black-ish) break into the house as he just shows up to find his shadow (that the Darlings were unaware of) and take Wendy with him.
A key part of Pan lore is Captain Hook (Jude Law, Fantastic Beasts), who believes he’s defeated Peter only to find that he was wrong and gets bested by him. In this remake he truly has reason to believe that Peter has died because he practically does kill him. This scene makes Hook out to be less of a “codfish” and moves him up the scale of dangerous villains.
Something cleverly woven into the 2023 remake is taken from the original in which Peter and Hook are in a sword fight on a cliff. Peter walks off, but stays level by flying, and Hook falls. This is the best-hidden gem of the movie as it fits well and reminds viewers of this comical scene from the original.
Unlike the previous versions, the 2023 live-action explores more of Peter Pan’s background. Peter and Hook used to be friends, but Hook missed his mother and wanted to go home to see her. After which, he is saved by pirates and raised by them until he becomes the captain.
While the remake hits this spot, it still misses others. This is the case for Smee. Smee is seen as a bumbling fool, with a kind soul, but the actor playing him (comedian Jim Gaffigan) has a strong, confident voice and presence, making him not seem as clueless as his character is meant to be.
There’s also no hint of a love story between Peter and Wendy, with the film choosing to focus on their friendship instead. It’s even mentioned by Peter Pan himself that he brought Wendy to be his friend, nothing more and there’s no hint on anything more. Cleverly woven into the beginning of the movie is the 2003 remake idea of a thimble being a kiss. Wendy accidentally pokes Peter with a needle and her brothers suggest giving him a kiss to make it better. The sheer thought of a kiss visually terrified Wendy and she went for a thimble instead. She had no intentions of actually giving him a kiss, ever, whereas in both the original and 2003 remake Wendy tried to kiss Peter. In the original another possible love interest was briefly explored through Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatahk, Riverdale), but in this remake all those ideas are shut down as they display a sibling-like bond.
For being an hour and a half long, this movie feels really short, so much so that it feels like they forgot to include parts. Each scene is just dragged out so long that it takes up time without feeling like they explored as much as they really could. There are only nine different scenes throughout the whole movie and the same scenes are rarely revisited, if at all.
Overall, this reimagining was good, but not great. As with most of these live-action remakes, their failure in order to become something more than what had already been accomplished repeatedly holds them back from standing out. In a world where mediocre movies are the standard, Peter Pan & Wendy fails to sprinkle the fairy dust necessary to reclaim any of the magic of the original.
C+ : Following along with the recent trend of live-action remakes, Peter Pan & Wendy creates a prequel that doesn’t answer many of the questions about Pan’s past, changing characters into new versions of themselves.
By Ashley Schumann
May 22 2023
Oshkosh West index Volume 119 Issue VIII