One of the best Disney movies: EVER

Peter Pan is one of the most entertaining and charming Disney movies ever made. It follows the adventures of Wendy, John, and Michael Darling, and of course the boy who never grew up, Peter Pan. Captain Hook is one of the funniest and evil villains ever created and his first mate, Smee, is absolutely hilarious.

I have to admit that this movie doesn't follow the book very much, but is better. The characters are so much more lovable in Disney's tale. Now why couldn't Barrie be this imaginative?

A new, live version of Peter Pan recenyly came out. and when I saw it I couldn't help but be disappointed. I missed all of those timeless songs, charming characters, and humor. Peter was dressed as if he came straight from the jungle, and unfortunately it followed the book. I know you may think that sounds odd of me to say that I didn't like it because it was an accurate adaption, but it's true.

So if you want to watch an exciting and classic movie buy this DVD.

You'll (almost) believe you can fly

Of all Walt Disney's animated films, "Peter Pan" is my personal favorite. This classic tale of the little boy who never grew up has Disney stamped all over it. It also varies refreshingly from the versions that preceded it. In previous plays acted on the stage, Peter Pan was always played by a young woman, but in the Disney version he is all boy. He's brash, mischievous, more than a little cocksure of himself, able to fight and defeat a grown pirate captain, and on top of all this, he can fly. What else is needed for a children's hero? Tinker Bell is one of Disney's best inventions. On the stage she is a blob of light flitting here and there; only in animation could she be realized as a real pixie, vain, conceited, totally devoted to Peter and madly jealous of Wendy. The three children, Wendy, John and Michael, are very well done in the movie, and the opening family scenes are priceless. When Peter and Tinkerbell sneak through the children's window, and zoom back out again with the children in tow, we want to sprinkle on some pixie dust and fly right out there with them. Second star to the right, here we come. The scenes at Neverland are funny and original, and the pirates are a riot. One of Disney's most hilarious, and underrated, characters in all his films, is the crocodile, Hook's nemesis, who can't wait to get another chomp out of him. (Poor Hook is reduced to a bundle of shattered nerves every time he hears that tick-tock, tick-tock coming towards his ship.) The only negative in this film is the scene in the Indian village; the stereotypes that were accepted without question in the 1950s are almost embarrassing now. However, it can't and doesn't detract from the fun. The songs are okay, nut nothing special; it's the action and animation that make this movie. Of all Disney's animated films, "Peter Pan" was the one I used to wish was real when I was a child. Maybe there is a little of Peter Pan in all of us.

Poor adaptation of Barrie's play misses the point.

"The Disney version" of "Peter Pan" clearly demonstrates what is so wrong with "The Disney version" of too many classic stories. It turns Barrie's play into a simple adventure tale, in which the dramatic and (dare I say it?) psycho-sexual elements at the center of Barrie's fantasy are discarded wholesale.

There are defensible reasons for this, I suppose. Drama requires talking, but characters who stand around gabbing bring an animated film to a dead stop. I also suspect that Disney simply didn't understand the story in the first place. It wasn't until the Ashman/Menken era that Disney films finally developed any dramatic focus.

It's unfortunate, because "Peter Pan" starts off well enough. The late Sammy Fain's "Second Star from the Right," played over the title cards, has one of the most-ravishing melodies in the history of American popular music. (Look for the albums "Bibbidi Bobbidi Bach" and "Heigh-Ho! Mozart" for superb "classical" arrangements of Disney tunes.) The "You Can Fly" sequence is inspired (and can you name any other pop song with an accelerando passage?). But everything quickly bogs down thereafter, with Captain Hook's machinations providing the only fun.

There just aren't enough good things in the Disney "Peter Pan" to make up for its failure to treat the source material in an honest and serious fashion.