Peter Pan (1953)
The classic tale of a boy who never grew up and took some kids to Neverland. Has this aged well?
Brief Backstory
Continuing the trend of fairy tale movies, Walt Disney created Peter Pan in 1953, which would be come one of the more popular movies that year, along with House of Wax, Hondo, Shane, and sigh… War of the Worlds.
Like many of the 1950s Disney animated movies, Peter Pan is often considered a beloved classic, but like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp, poorly made sequels followed half a century later.
Story
Peter Pan takes Wendy and the Darling boys to Neverland so they don’t have to grow up, unaware that Captain Hook is hunting for Peter Pan to get “justice” for the loss of one of his hands.
Random Facts
The “Walt Disney Classics” version has several scenes of zooming in to cover the cue marks. This is most notable when the chief tells the other natives to execute the lost boys if his daughter didn’t come back.
Final Disney animated movie to be distributed by RKO.
The Zelda series took the majority of its’ Disney references from this movie. Link is similar to Peter Pan, and the Kokiri in Ocarina of Time are ripped straight from the lost boys (though there are female Kokiri like Saria).
Wendy Darling shares the same physical appearance as Alice though with a different hairstyle and dress.
The theme for the crocodile is “Never smile at a crocodile” which was a deleted song. Still waiting on a metal version, Alestorm.
Random Opinions
This film’s got some girl trouble; Tinkerbell tried to get Wendy killed by having the lost boys throwing things at her.
Mary Darling (the mother) looks pretty similar to Cinderella.
The crocodile’s appearance reminds me of the “attention everyone” soldier from Robin Hood.
Not sure what the point of Hook using a gold hook and playing the piano when he’s with Tinkerbell. You think that might’ve been an inspiration for Ganondorf playing the organ in Zelda?
Despite having this on video for a few years, I only remembered the scenes of Captain Hook and the crocodile because of a Disney Sing-Along Songs tape named Volume 6: Under the Sea as a kid, which had song numbers affiliated with the nautical worlds.
Pros
- Tinkerbell is cute. Ranks up there in cuteness with Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Elsa and Anna from Frozen, etc.
- Fight against Hook and Peter Pan (both of them) are great.
- Hook’s reactions to seeing the crocodile never fail to amuse me. Especially when he ends up accidentally carrying a clock from inside the crocodile himself!!
- Once again, first-class animation, typical of Disney.
Cons
- Okay cutting to the chase here – normally I disagree with racism accusations, but Peter Pan is somewhat racist when talking about the natives. Not as racist as Sunflower in Fantasia (who was deleted in the 1960s) but it’s still very disturbing. Captain Hook even refers them as “redskins” which is relatively inappropriate for a Disney movie. I’d chalk this up to social science in the 1950s, but most of the westerns I’ve seen from that time period like Bend of the River or John Wayne’s Rio Grande feature natives and aren’t racist stereotypes (I’ll need to rewatch them on a later date).
- Wrong coloring on releases after the first edition (Walt Disney Classics). This in my opinion ranks as one of the worst restoration jobs Disney has ever done.
- Adding to this, Tinkerbell’s appearance looks worse and worse with every later release for no reason. Some of her details are completely gone starting with the Masterpiece Collection release. Because of this, you’re better off just sticking with the classics release if possible.
- Not too fond of some of the song numbers – following the leader has some lyrics involving fighting “injuns” and do not get me started on “what makes the red man red” and how inappropriate that is.
Rating: 7.5/10 – Good
One thing that bothers me with this movie is the racism; as I said I would’ve ignored it but natives in other movies in the 1950s that I’ve seen aren’t walking racial stereotypes. The crows from Dumbo might’ve been accused of being racial stereotypes but at least for that movie it somewhat made sense given that it was in Florida and it’s more common to see people dressing and talking like that there.
Other than that this movie’s good.
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