Peter Pan (1953 film)
Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated adventure fantasy film produced in 1952 by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson. Featuring the voices of Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, and Bill Thompson, the film's plot follows Wendy Darling and her two brothers, who meet the never-growing-up Peter Pan and travel with him to the island of Never Land to stay young, where they also have to face Peter's archenemy, Captain Hook.
Peter Pan
- Ted Sears
- Erdman Penner
- Bill Peet
- Winston Hibler
- Joe Rinaldi
- Milt Banta
- Ralph Wright
- Bill Cottrell
Donald Halliday
- February 5, 1953
77 minutes
United States
English
$4 million[1]
$87.4 million (United States and Canada)[1]
In 1935, Walt Disney began considering plans to adapt Barrie's play into an animated feature. He purchased the film rights from Paramount Pictures in 1938, and began preliminary development in the next year. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Disney shelved the project when his studio was contracted by the United States government to produce training and war propaganda films. The project sat idle in development for the rest of the decade until it experienced a turnaround in 1949. To assist the animators, live-action reference footage was shot with actors on soundstages. It also marked the last Disney film in which all nine members of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators.
Peter Pan was released on February 5, 1953, becoming the final Disney animated feature released through RKO before Disney founded his own distribution company. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival,[2] Upon its release, the film earned positive reviews from film critics and was a box office success. Its representation of the Native Americans received retrospective criticism.
A sequel, titled Return to Never Land, was released in 2002, and a series of direct-to-DVD prequels focusing on Tinker Bell began in 2008. A live-action adaptation of the film was released on Disney+ in 2023.
Plot
In Edwardian London, George and Mary Darling's preparations to attend a party are disrupted by the antics of their boys, John and Michael, who are acting out a Peter Pan story told them by their elder sister Wendy. An irritated George demands that Wendy drop the stories and move out of the nursery, since "sooner or later, people have to grow up". Later that night, Peter himself arrives in the nursery to find his lost shadow. He persuades Wendy to come to Never Land, where she will never have to grow up, and she and the boys fly there with the begrudging help of the pixie Tinker Bell.
A ship of pirates is anchored off Never Land, led by Captain Hook and his first mate, Mr. Smee. Hook wants revenge on Peter for cutting off his hand, but fears the crocodile which consumed the hand, knowing it is eager to eat the rest of him. When Pan and the Darlings arrive, Hook shoots at them with a cannon, and Peter sends the Darlings off to safety while he baits the pirates. Tinker Bell, who is jealous of Pan's attention to Wendy, convinces the Lost Boys that Pan has ordered them to shoot down Wendy. Tinker Bell's treachery is soon found out, and Peter banishes her. John and Michael set off with the Lost Boys to find the island's Natives; however, the Natives capture the group, believing them to be responsible for taking the chief's daughter, Tiger Lily.
Meanwhile, Peter takes Wendy to see the mermaids, who flee in terror when Hook arrives on the scene. Peter and Wendy see that Hook and Smee have captured Tiger Lily, to force her to disclose the location of Peter's hideout. Peter frees Tiger Lily and returns her to the Chief, and the tribe honors Peter. Meanwhile, Hook takes advantage of Tinker Bell's jealousy of Wendy, tricking the fairy into revealing Peter's secret hideout instead.
Wendy and her brothers eventually grow homesick and plan to return to London. They invite Peter and the Lost Boys to join them and be adopted by the Darlings. The Lost Boys agree, but Peter does not want to grow up and refuses. The pirates lie in wait, and capture the Lost Boys and the Darlings as they exit the lair, leaving behind a time bomb to kill Peter. Hook attempts to persuade the Lost Boys and the Darlings to join the crew or walk the plank. Tinker Bell learns of the plot, just in time to snatch the bomb from Peter as it explodes.
Peter rescues Tinker Bell from the rubble, and together they rescue Wendy, confronting the pirates and releasing the children. Peter engages Hook in combat as the children fight off the crew, and defeats him. Hook falls into the sea and swims away, pursued by the crocodile. Peter commandeers the deserted ship and, assisted by Tinker Bell's pixie dust, flies it to London with the children aboard.
George and Mary Darling return home and find Wendy sleeping at the nursery's open window. Wendy awakens and excitedly tells about their adventures. The parents look out the window and see what appears to be a pirate ship in the clouds. George, who has softened his position about Wendy staying in the nursery, recognizes the ship from his own childhood.
Additionally, Stuffy Singer, Johnny McGovern, Robert Ellis, and Jeffrey Silver provided voices for Slightly, the Twins, Cubby, and Nibs – The Lost Boys, Peter's right-hand boys, dressed as various animals. June Foray, Connie Hilton, Karen Kester, and Margaret Kerry voiced the mermaids, vain and shallow inhabitants of the Mermaid Lagoon who are infatuated with Peter. Foray also voiced the Squaw Woman, who orders Wendy to get firewood while everyone else celebrates Peter's rescue of Tiger Lily. Tom Conway was the film's narrator.[8]
Reception
Critical reaction
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times criticized the film's lack of faithfulness to the original play, claiming it "has the story but not the spirit of Peter Pan as it was plainly conceived by its author and is usually played on the stage". Nevertheless, he praised the colors are "more exciting and the technical features of the job, such as the synchronization of voices with the animation of lips, are very good".[71] However, Time magazine gave the film a highly favorable review, writing "it is a lively feature-length Technicolor excursion into a world that glows with an exhilarating charm and a gentle joyousness."[72] Mae Tinee of The Chicago Tribune wrote: "The backgrounds are delightfully picturesque, the music only so-so. The film is designed for broad effect, with the accent of comedy. I'm sure the youngsters who grow up with cartoons will be right at home with all the characters."[73] Variety described the film as a "feature cartoon of enchanting quality. The music score is fine, highlighting the constant buzz of action and comedy, but the songs are less impressive than usually encountered in such a Disney presentation."[74] Harrison's Reports felt the film was "another Walt Disney masterpiece. It should prove a delight, not only to children, but also to every adult. The animation is so good that the characters appear almost natural."[75]
Giving the film 3+1⁄2 stars out of 4, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune noted the "drawing of Tinkerbelle [sic] and the flamboyance of Captain Hook" as well as the "quality music mixed with appropriate animation" were the film's major highlights.[76] Michael Jackson cited Peter Pan as his favorite film, and from it he derived the name of his estate, Neverland Ranch, in Santa Barbara, California, where he had a private amusement park. Ronald D. Moore, one of the executive producers of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, has cited this film as the inspiration for the series' theme of the cyclical nature of time, using the film's opening line, "All of this has happened before and it will all happen again", as a key tenet of the culture's scripture. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 40 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Though it doesn't delve deeply into the darkness of J. M. Barrie's tale, Peter Pan is a heartwarming, exuberant film with some great tunes."[77]
Controversy
Peter Pan has been criticized in recent decades for its broadly stereotypical treatment of Native Americans.
In 1995, Eric Goldberg, director of that year's Disney animated romance Pocahontas, expressed his belief that "all the Indians [in the 1953 film] were caricatures".[78]
In particular, the song "What Made the Red Man Red?" has been removed from television airings of the film[79] and widely described as "racist" since 2014.[80][81][82][83][84] Its lyrics claim that Native American men are "red" due to "the very first Injun prince" blushing after kissing a "maid". It also contains usage of the word "squaw", gibberish utterances like "ugg-a-wugg",[85][86] and a mocking explanation of the Lakota greeting háu.[84][87][88] The visuals include tipis, drumming, tobbacco ceremonial pipes, and the Inuit eskimo kiss. Multiple characters use the word "squaw" throughout the film, in reference to two different Native women as well as protagonist Wendy.
The Native American tribe was not included in the 2002 sequel Return to Never Land, but they were included in a tie-in video game and are referenced by a brief shot of Peter Pan flying by a totem pole.
Animator Marc Davis was quoted in the 2007 audio commentary: "I'm not sure we would have done the Indians if we were making this movie now. And if we had, we wouldn't do them the way we did back then."[32][89]
In 2021, the film was one of several that Disney limited to viewers 7 years and older on their streaming service Disney+. They cited the film's depictions of Native American characters that were "stereotypical" and not "authentic", and references to them as "redskins".[90]