Disney's Peter-Pan (1953)

Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated musical fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney and based on the play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J.M. Barrie. It is the 14th film in the Disney Animated Canon, and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Radio Pictures. Peter Pan is the final Disney animated feature released through RKO; future animated features would be released by Walt Disney's own distribution company, Buena Vista Film Distribution. It is also the final Disney film in which all nine members of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators. It is also the second Disney animated film, starring Kathryn Beaumont, Heather Angel, and Bill Thompson, after their roles in the animated feature Alice in Wonderland.The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. 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 Disney Junior television series featuring some of the characters, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, premiered in 2011. While not a big hit at first, it is considered to be one of the most well known Disney films of all time.In 2023, a live-action adaptation of the film was released on Disney+.
==Plot==
In the Edwardian London neighborhood of Bloomsbury, in 1904, George and Mary Darling's preparations to attend a party are disrupted by the antics of the boys, John and Michael, acting out a story about Peter Pan and the pirates that were told to them by their older sister, Wendy. Their father angrily declares that Wendy has gotten too old to continue staying in the nursery with them, and it's time for her to grow up much to everyone's shock. When George Darling began to storm out the room he trips over Nana. Both Nana and George fall but the rest of the family only comforts Nana. George is shocked and this causes Nana to be put in the dog house. Nana is heartbroken as she never sleeps in the dog house. George feels sympathy for Nana but claims the children are not puppies and Nana is truly a dog. When George and Mary leave for the party, Mary asks if the children will be okay without Nana, because Wendy mentioned capturing Peter Pan's shadow the previous night at the window. George calls the whole thing ridiculous and tells his wife that she's as bad as the children are, and that it's no wonder that Wendy is getting crazy ideas.That night, they are visited in the nursery by Peter Pan himself. Wendy is awakened when Peter is trying to get his shadow on. Wendy offers to sew it on for him (as he is trying to reattach it with a bar of soap). Through conversation, Wendy learns that Peter likes to hear her stories. However, when Peter learns that she is to "grow up" the next day, Peter offers to take her to Never Land where she would never grow up. There, she could be the mother of the boys who live there. Wendy tries to kiss Peter out of gratitude, but Tinker Bell, who is jealous, pulls Wendy's hair. By this time, Michael and John awaken and are allowed to go with them. Peter sprinkles the three with pixie dust, and after a few false tries, they are able to fly by thinking happy thoughts. While flying to Neverland, Michael grabs Tinker Bell from the window sill and pours some pixie dust on Nana on her back, causing her to fly, but gets caught by the rope as she waves goodbye to Michael as they fly away. They land on one of Big Ben’s clock arrows, showing Wendy the way to the Second Star to the Right. Peter then takes them to the island of Neverland.A ship of pirates is anchored off Neverland, commanded by Captain Hook with his henchman Mr. Smee. Hook boldly plots to take revenge upon Peter Pan for cutting off his hand. Captain Hook laments Peter Pan's role in causing Tick-Tock the crocodile to follow him, due to Peter cutting off Hook's left hand and throwing it to the crocodile; Tick-Tock found it so delicious, he follows him everywhere for another taste. Tick-Tock suddenly shows up next to the ship; Hook hears the clock ticking and his eyebrows and pointing mustache begin twitching in rhythm (with the music of "Never Smile at a Crocodile"). The crocodile's eyes begin popping up to the tune, sending Hook into a panic. The crocodile then emerges from the water onto a rock rubbing his belly and licking his lips, accompanied by a wide smile towards the captain. Hook then screams for Mr. Smee to save him, and Smee shoos off the crocodile. The crocodile then frowns and wiggles his tail to the ticking clock while sulking away. The crew's restlessness is interrupted by the arrival of Peter and the Darlings. The children easily evade them, and despite a trick by jealous Tinker Bell to have Wendy killed, they meet up with the Lost Boys: six lads in animal-costume pajamas, who look to Peter as their leader. John and Michael set off with the Lost Boys to find the island's Indians, who instead capture them, believing them responsible for taking the chief's daughter Tiger Lily.Meanwhile, Peter takes Wendy to see the mermaids, where they see that Hook and Smee have captured Tiger Lily to coerce her into revealing Peter's hideout. Peter duels Hook and have the crocodile chase him away. As Peter crows in triumph, Wendy reminds him of Tiger Lilly, and he rescues the princess. Peter is honored by the tribe. Eventually, Wendy tells her brothers and the lost boys about the real world and having a mother, at which Peter believes they are leaving to grow up, never to come back.Meanwhile, Hook plots to take advantage of Tinker Bell's jealousy of Wendy, tricking her into revealing the location of Peter's lair. The pirates lie in wait and capture the Lost Boys and the Darlings as they exit, leaving behind a time bomb to kill Peter. Tinker Bell learns of the plot just in time to snatch the bomb from Peter as it explodes. However, although Peter survives the explosion, Tinker Bell is fatally injured in the now ruined Hangman’s Tree. Peter tries to find and rescue Tinker Bell, while debris fall in the process. As he can see her light, however, more debris fall on Peter off-screen.Peter then rescues Tinker Bell from the rubble, and together they confront the pirates, releasing the children before they can be forced to walk the plank. Peter engages Hook in single combat as the children fight off the crew and humiliates the captain. Peter fights Hook in a final showdown until the pirate begs for mercy. Peter then allows Hook to leave and never return. He crows, and Hook lunges at him from behind. Wendy warns Peter, and he ducks, while Hook falls into the water below, where the crocodile was waiting. Hook and his crew flee, with the crocodile in hot pursuit. Peter gallantly commandeers the deserted ship, and with the aid of Tinker Bell's pixie dust, flies it to London with the children aboard.Mr. and Mrs. Darling return home from the party to find Wendy, not in her bed, but sleeping at the open window; John and Michael are asleep in their beds. Wendy wakes and excitedly tells about their adventures. The parents look out the window and see what appears to be a pirate ship in the clouds. Mr. Darling, who has softened his position about Wendy staying in the nursery, recognizes it from his own childhood and realizes that some childhood fantasies may be real after all. The family all watch happily as it breaks up into clouds itself.
==Cast==
*Bobby Driscoll as Peter Pan
*Kathryn Beaumont as Wendy Darling
*Paul Collins as John Darling
*Tommy Luske as Michael Darling
*Hans Conried as George Darling/Captain Hook/Peter Pan (impersonating Hook's voice)
*Heather Angel as Mary Darling
*Bill Thompson as Mr. Smee/The Pirates
*Candy Candido as Indian Chief/Peter Pan (impersonating the Chief's voice)
*June Foray as Squaw (Chief's wife)
*Tom Conway as Narrator
*Robert Ellis, Jeffrey Silver, Jonny McGovern, and Stuffy Singer as The Lost Boys (singing done by Tony Butala)
**Robert Ellis as Cubby (bear)
**Jeffrey Silver as Nibs (rabbit)
**Stuffy Singer as Slightly (fox)
**Jonny McGovern as the Twins (raccoons)
**N/A as Tootles (skunk)
*Clarence Nash as Nana
*Lucille Bliss, June Foray, Margaret Kerry, and Norma Jean Nilsson as Mermaids
*Roland Dupree and Don Barclay as Additional Voices
*Gloria Wood and Thurl Ravenscroft as Chorus
==Production==
In 1913, Walt Disney saw a touring production at Carter Opera House starting Maude Adams as Peter Pan in Marceline. At Park School, Walt play Peter Pan with his brother Roy manning a block and tackle which the rope snapped and, as Walt recalled, "I flew right into the faces of the surprised audience", also added that he was more realistic than Maude Adams in the end of his performance. In 1924, Walt saw a silent film that captured his imagination. In 1935, years before the film began production, Walt wanted to bring another children's story to life and Peter Pan was one of several stories considered, he expressed interest in making Peter Pan as his second film following Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, he could not get the rights until four years later, after he came to an arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, to whom Barrie had bequeathed the rights to the play. The studio started the story development and character designs in the late-1930s and early-1940s, and intended it to be his fourth film, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and Pinocchio (Bambi was later put on hold for a short while for technical difficulties and ended up being his fifth film while Pinocchio became his second film).During this time, Disney explored many possibilities of how the story could be interpreted. In the earliest version of the story, the film started by telling Peter Pan's back story. But on May 20, 1940, during a story meeting, Disney said, "We ought to get right into the story itself, where Peter Pan comes to the house to get his shadow. That's where the story picks up. How Peter came to be is really another story." Walt also explored opening the film in Neverland and Peter Pan coming to Wendy's house to kidnap her as a mother for the Lost Boys. Eventually, Disney decided that the kidnapping was too dark and returned to Barrie's original play, where Peter comes to get his shadow and Wendy is eager to see Neverland. The scene in the nursery went through many alterations. For instance, in one version, it was Mrs. Darling who found Peter Pan's shadow and showed it to Mr. Darling as in the original play. In another version of the film, Nana went to Neverland with Pan and the Darling children, and the story was told through her eyes. In other interpretations of the story, John Darling was left behind for being too serious, practical, and boring. The film also included Wendy taking her "Peter Pan Picture Book" and Peter and the children eating an "Imaginary Dinner."At one point, there was a party in Peter's hideout where Tinker Bell got humiliated and, in her rage, went and deliberately told Captain Hook the location of Peter Pan's hideout at her own free will. However, Walt felt that this was against Tinker Bell's character and that she had "gone too far" and changed it to Captain Hook kidnapping and persuading Tinker Bell to tell him. There is a point in Barrie's play where Captain Hook puts poison in Peter's dose of medicine, and Tinker Bell saves Peter by drinking the poison herself, only to be revived by the applause by the theater audience. After much debate, Disney discarded this fearing it would be difficult to achieve in a film. In earlier scripts, there were more scenes involving the Pirates and the Mermaids that were similar to what Disney had previously done with the "Seven Dwarfs" in Snow White. Ultimately these scenes were cut for pacing reasons. The film was also a little bit darker at one point since there were scenes involving Captain Hook being killed by the crocodile, the Darling family mourning over their lost children, and Pan and the children discovering the pirates' treasure which is loaded with booby traps.Then on December 7, 1941, the United States joined the Second World War after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The following day the U.S military took control of the studio and commissioned them to produce war propaganda films. They also forced Peter Pan as well as Alice in Wonderland, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Song of the South, Fun and Fancy Free, among others, to be put on hold. After the war ended in 1945, the studio was in debt and they could only produce package films to support themselves. It was not until 1947, as the studio's financial health started to improve again, that the actual production of Peter Pan commenced, even though Roy O. Disney did not think that Peter Pan would have much box office appeal.Rumor has it that Tinker Bell's design was based on Marilyn Monroe, but in reality, her design was based on Tinker Bell's live-action reference model, Margaret Kerry. Margaret Kerry posed for reference film shots on a sound stage; the footage was later used by supervising Tinker Bell animator Marc Davis and his team when they drew the character. Kerry also provided the voice of the redheaded mermaid in the film.Like Kerry, Bobby Driscoll was both the live-action reference model, mainly used for the close-up scenes and the voice actor for Peter Pan. Peter's flying and action reference shots, however, were provided by dancer and choreographer Roland Dupree. In an interview, she said she had to hold out her arms and pretend to fly for all the scenes requiring it. Kathryn Beaumont, the voice of Wendy, eldest of the Darling children, also performed for the live-action reference footage. Similarly, Hans Conried, the voice of both Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, also performed the live-action reference footage for those characters (it was one of the few elements left over from the play, that Hook and Mr. Darling were played by the same actor). In contrast to rotoscoping, the animators did not merely trace the live-action footage, for this would make the animation look stiff and unnatural. Instead, the animators used it as a guide for animating by studying the human movement in the situation required. For example: "How far does the head turn when a character looks over his shoulder?" Milt Kahl the supervising animator of Peter Pan and the Darling children, claimed that the hardest thing to animate was a character floating in mid-air.
==Reception==
Peter Pan got mainly positive reviews from the critics and currently holds an 77% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews. The New York Times gave the film a mixed review, praising the animation itself but also declaring that the film was not really true to the spirit of the original Barrie play. However, Time Magazine gave the film a highly favorable review, making no reference to the changes from the original play. The controversies over the differences between the play and the film were short-lived, and Peter Pan is today considered one of Disney's animated classics. There is another controversy that spawned in recent years over the portrayal of the Indians, which is considered racially stereotypical.Michael Jackson cited Peter Pan as his favorite movie of all time, from which he derived the name for his estate Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara, 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.This is considered the most commercial Disney movie to date, having a theatrical sequel and six Tinker Bell spin-off films, as well as a popular children's programs on Disney Junior to this day, which also airs on Hamilton to this day.
==Crew==
*Directed by
**Hamilton LuskeClyde GeronimiWilfred Jackson
*Effects Animators
**George RowleyJoshua MeadorDan MacManusBlaine Gibson
*Character Animators
**Hal KingCliff NordbergFred MooreBob CarlsonHal AmbroHarvey ToombsKen O'BrienDon LuskBill JusticeJudge WhitakerMarvin WoodwardJerry HathcockHugh FraserArt StevensEric CleworthClair Weeks
*Directing Animators
**Milt KahlFrank ThomasWolfgang ReithermanWard KimballOllie JohnstonMarc DavisEric LarsonJohn LounsberyLes ClarkNorm Ferguson
*Backgrounds by
**Ralph HulettRay HuffineArt RileyThelma WitmerAl DempsterD--- AnthonyEyvind EarleBrice MackArt Landy
*Color and Styling
**Mary BlairJohn HenchClaude CoatsDon DaGradi
*Layout
**Charles PhilippiMcLaren StewartTom CodrickA. Kendall O'ConnorHugh HennesyKen AndersonDon GriffithAl ZinnenThor PutnamLance Nolley
*Story by
**Ted SearsErdman PennerBill PeetWinston HiblerJoe RinaldiMilt BantaRalph WrightBill Cottrell
*Vocal Arrangements
**Jud Conlon
*Orchestration
**Edward Plumb
*Songs by
**Sammy FainSammy CahnOliver WallaceFrank ChurchillErdman PennerWinston HiblerTed Sears
*Music by
**Oliver Wallace
*Special Processes
**Ub Iwerks
*Music Editor
**Al Teeter
*Edited by
**Donald Halliday
*Sound Recording
**Harold J. SteckRobert O. Cook
*Sound Director
**C.O. Slyfield
==Release history==
*February 5, 1953 (first theatrical release)
*May 14, 1958 (second theatrical release)
*June 18, 1969 (third theatrical release)
*June 18, 1976 (fourth theatrical release)
*December 17, 1982 (fifth theatrical release)
*July 14, 1989 (sixth theatrical release)
*September 21, 1990 (VHS - Walt Disney Classics)
*March 3, 1998 (VHS - Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection)
*July 1998 (VHS reissue - Made in Brazil - Abril Vídeo/Walt Disney Home Video)
*November 23, 1999 (DVD - Walt Disney Limited Issue)
*July 2000 (DVD - Made in Brazil - Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
*February 12, 2002 (VHS/DVD - Special Edition)
*August 2002 (VHS Reissue - Made in Brazil - Walt Disney Home Entertainment)
*April 5, 2003 (50th anniversary and seventh theatrical release in the Philadelphia International Film Festival)
*March 6, 2007 (2-Disc DVD, Platinum Edition)
*February 5, 2013 (60th Anniversary Diamond Edition - Blu-ray/DVD Combo and 2-Disc DVD - U.S. only)
*February 16–18, 2013 (60th Anniversary, eighth, and final theatrical release in Cinemark Theaters)
*June 5, 2018 (65th Anniversary Walt Disney Signature Collection Edition - Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo)
==Videos==
Peter Pan - 1998 VHS Trailer
Peter Pan - 2002 Special Edition Trailer|2002 Special Edition Trailer
Peter Pan - Platinum Edition DVD Trailer|2007 Platinum Edition Trailer
Peter Pan - Diamond Edition Trailer|2013 Diamond Edition Trailer
Peter Pan Walt's Love for Flight
Peter Pan Everybody
Peter Pan Flies onto Digital May 29 & Blu-ray June 5
Peter Pan Live Action Imagination
PeterPan Designing the Character of Tinker Bell
Peter Pan On Digital Tomorrow
Peter Pan On Digital & Movies Anywhere Today
Peter Pan All It Takes is Faith and Trust
Peter Pan On Digital & Blu-ray Today
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*The film's copyright was renewed on July 29, 1980.Online Copyright Catalog search (form autofilled, pressing "begin search" brings up the entry)
*This is the eighth Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with just Disney at the end of the movie, on current releases.
**Peter Pan was not the last film to be distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, because when Music Land was released in 1955, it was the final film to have an RKO.
*When in reruns on ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney in the 2000s, this movie received a TV-14 rating due to the racial controversy involving the Native Americans, in spite of it earning an official G rating.
**Even Disney+ gave a warning sign at the beginning of the film.
*Hans Conried, the voice of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, would later serve as the live-action reference for Princess Aurora's father, King Stefan, in Sleeping Beauty, and while he still recorded some additional lines of dialogue, Conried was eventually himself replaced by Taylor Holmes as the voice of Stefan in the film's final version, making it highly unknown who had really voiced the herald.
*As of January 2021, Disney has pulled this film, along with Dumbo, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Aristocats, from children's profiles on Disney+, due to negative connotations concerning racist stereotypes.
==References==
==External links==
*
*
*