The live-action remake trend of beloved Disney classics has finally reached Neverland. Peter Pan & Wendy is the newest reimagined movie from the Disney Company to be transformed from rolled pictures to real people. This new remake has given the 69 year old movie a well needed revamp.
Although it is common for the live-action remakes of Disney Classics to be unusually different from the originals, this remake has been quite similar to the 1953 movie. The Darling children have the same bubbly personalities as before, and the plot of Wendy leaving the nursery has been shifted from that to Wendy leaving the Darling house for boarding school. So aside from this small plotpoint in the beginning, everything else is the same.
One of the most moving moments from the movie was the new addition of the song, “All Grown Up,” sung by Wendy’s mom, played by Molly Parker. This lullaby ties into the plot of Wendy leaving the Darling home, but has a deeper connection to the underlying themes when the children arrive at Neverland.
When considering the original Disney movie, Peter Pan and Captain Hook were simply enemies because Pan was a child and Hook was a grown pirate who hated children. Their rivalry was deeply explored throughout Peter Pan & Wendy though. This live-action film dives into how Pan and Hook knew each other, as they originally became friends when Hook (known then as “James Hook”) was the same age as Pan. With no parents of the children allowed on Neverland, Hook grew longing of his mother though and ventured out to search for her with no success, drawing a line between him and Pan, who wanted to never have to deal with adults again. But while searching for his mother, Hook encountered rouge pirates and was raised by them, still holding onto hope that he would see his mother just one more time. The hatred and anger of not finding his mother lead him to return to Neverland and eventually fight his former friend for years to come.
Although this is a lot of new information about the arch rivals, it was Wendy who coaxed all of this out of Hook because of her singing the lullaby to the Lost Boys when in the pirate’s captivity. The new reimagining of the classic tale about a boy who never grew up has perfectly reimagined the female protagonist to becoming more courageous and adventurous opposed to her meek and dainty cartoon version.
Overall, the story about growing up has definitely made this writer a tad bit emotional because of how the topic of venturing into adulthood was introduced in the first place. From the lullaby, to the lessons that Wendy teaches Pan throughout the movie, to even the musical score, Peter Pan & Wendy has reminded me that growing up might be scary, but as Wendy herself said, “After all this…I think that to grow up, why, might just be the biggest adventure of all.”
