Mister John Darling

**John Darling** is George and Mary's middle child, Wendy and Michael's brother, and a major character in Disney's 1953 animated feature film, *Peter Pan*.

## Background

### Personality

John takes after his father, George. He often speaks in a sophisticated way, which his younger brother, Michael, usually mimics and repeats (albeit in a more simplistic way (John: "Oh, I should like very much to cross swords with some real buccaneers". Michael: "Yeah, and fight pirates, too!"). He also shows interest in piracy, which may explain why he plays the part of Captain Hook in his nursery games with Michael. He is also shown that he is brave and clever; when he and Michael were playing with the Lost Boys, he was the leader. He is very mature but loves his time being very adventurous and playful.

### Physical appearance

John is a young boy with matching dark brown hair and eyes and fair skin. He wears black round glasses, a white nightshirt, a black top hat, and a pair of black slippers, and carries a black umbrella.

## Appearances

### *Peter Pan*

John loves hearing his older sister Wendy's stories of Peter Pan and plays Captain Hook while his younger brother, Michael, plays Peter Pan during their nursery games. He is very brave and very smart.

One night, while George and Mary go to a party, Peter visits Wendy, John, and Michael and teaches them how to fly and takes them to Neverland with them. When they arrive there, Captain Hook and his crew shoot at them with their cannon, but Peter orders Tinker Bell to take them to the island while he takes on Captain Hook. She jealously tries to make the Lost Boys take out Wendy, but after Peter tells them that she will be their new mother, they feel bad.

John is ordered by Peter to take the Lost Boys and Michael on a hunt for Indians, who capture and mistake them for the kidnapping of the Chief's daughter, Tiger Lily, and he orders them to be burned at the stake if she doesn't return by sunset. Luckily, Peter saves her from Captain Hook, the real kidnapper, and returns her to the Indian Camp, and the boys are set free while Peter is made a Flying Eagle by the Chief. During the song, John tries the Chief's pipe, which sickens him and makes his face turn dark green. Also during the song, he dances along with the Indians, wanting to live like savages.

After the party, Wendy tells John and Michael that they're going home the next day, but they refuse until she reminds them about their mother, Mary, and they wish to return home, along with the Lost Boys who wish for a mother, too. John leads them out, but they (along with Wendy) are captured by Captain Hook and his crew who are waiting outside having revealed their hideout, Hangman's Tree, by Tinker Bell who was banished earlier for nearly killing Wendy and been captured by Smee. On the Jolly Roger, the children are offered to become pirates to which the boys agree, but Wendy stops them, saying that Peter will save them. However, Captain Hook admits to leaving a present for him from her that had a bomb in it that will blow up shortly and take him with it. But unknown to the children and Captain Hook, Tinker Bell manages to escape from her prison and warns him of it, and the children being captured. Thinking it has killed him, Captain Hook has made Wendy walk the plank to drown in the sea, but luckily Peter arrives, saves her from her watery grave, and frees the boys, and they fight off Captain Hook and his crew, who go off in their rowboat chasing the crocodile who chases Captain Hook.

In the end, Peter takes Wendy, John, and Michael home. Afterward, John is seen sleeping in his bed and tucked away by Nana and Mary - the whole experience is speculated by some viewers to be a dream, validated by the fact that the word *Neverland* today appears in English vernacular as "an ideal or imaginary place; a dream world".

### *Return to Never Land*

John didn't appear in the sequel and wasn't mentioned by any of the characters, including Wendy. However, he made a couple of shadowy cameos on some starry night clouds that light up by Tinker Bell, to begin with (flying with Wendy and Michael and leading the Lost Boys to the Indian Camp).

## Trivia

* In the original book by J.M. Barrie, John's full name is John Napoleon Darling.
* In some Disney storybooks, John's nightshirt is blue instead of white.

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