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Peter Pan & Wendy — Review: A Bland Retelling
by KJ Proulx
I’m not a massive fan of the fact that Disney is remaking every single one of their classic animated films. Personally, I think they should make the ones they believe are best fitted to be redone, but I’ve now accepted that they’re all going to be done at some point. I’ll just hope they all end up being good. Sadly, lately, the track record with films like Pinocchio, Dumbo, Mulan, Cruella, etc., hasn’t impressed me much. I really liked their remake of Aladdin, but none of the others have stood out. Well, Peter Pan & Wendy is now the latest to join this club and while there is an effort to make the tone different and a couple of magical moments, it was nothing special to me.
The story is the same as the classic here. Peter Pan stumbles across the bedroom of Wendy, Michael, and John Darling and flies them off to Neverland, a place they’ve only read in storybooks. Being a real place, these kids are amazed at everything, but only until they realize that Captain Hook is also a real threat. Meeting the lost boys and going on an adventure across this island, there is some fun to be had here, but the film ultimately just feels like it’s trying to be a more serious very of the original, which didn’t work for me. For the crazy magic that happens throughout the film, the tone just didn’t match that aspect.
