Peter Pan and Wendy
Another stab at J.M Barrie’s immortal classic lacks an emotional centre and has very little pixie dust.
Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell
There are millions of children who have never seen Peter Pan on screen. Probably. Still, that’s no reason to inflict this bloodless, charmless edition on their parents. The latest ‘live action’ adaptation of a ‘classic’ Disney cartoon, it magnifies all the worst aspects of Disney, along with a trunk load of misjudgement. David Lowery seems an odd choice to be handed the helm, other than that he directed Disney’s well-intentioned live-action remake of its own Pete’s Dragon, which proved another blip on a very unusual career. Known best as the director of such singular indie vehicles as Ain't Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story and The Green Knight, Lowery seems an unlikely Disney collaborator.
Like many a Disney film, this relatively short edition (prior to the credits, it runs to 93 minutes), dives straight into the action, allowing little time to get to know the characters, who are Wendy (Ever Anderson, daughter of Milla Jovovich), John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe, younger brother of Noah Jupe). Considering how rich the cinema is with young talent, it is a shame that these three are given so little time to register. As Peter Pan himself, Alexander Molony conveys none of the youthful pluck we have come to expect of the title character, while Jude Law is a surprisingly muted Captain Hook, even when declaring, “I’ve found you guilty of being children!” He is painted more as a tragic figure, with his own childhood traumas to deal with. Inevitably, the outsize crocodile is computer-generated to a fault, while the fight choreography is surprisingly clumsy, with the stunt performers throwing themselves into the water, when, really, they should have been propelled.
Where this Peter Pan differs from previous versions is in its broad inclusivity, so that even the Lost Boys have become gender fluid. “You’re not all boys…” Wendy observes when she first meets them, adding hastily, “well, I guess it doesn’t really matter...” Go Wendy! However, not everything that comes out of Ever’s mouth is decipherable, as the sound mixing is all over the place, perhaps in order to combat Daniel Hart’s bombastic score which – just – won’t – stop. Another disappointment are the flying sequences, which makes one crave the POV tracking shots of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. This, too, was a missed opportunity. So, scrambling for something positive to say, one should point out that Molly Parker makes the most of her few scenes as Mrs Darling, while Jim Gaffigan is a mildly amusing Mr Smee, Captain Hook’s bosun. The film is also more bearable than Joe Wright’s stab at the material with his 2015 Pan – but only just.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jude Law, Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Yara Shahidi, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Jim Gaffigan, Molly Parker, Alan Tudyk, Florence Bensberg, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, John DeSantis.
Dir David Lowery, Pro Jim Whitaker, Screenplay David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks, Ph Bojan Bazelli, Pro Des Jade Healy, Ed Lisa Zeno Churgin, Music Daniel Hart, Costumes Ngila Dickson, Sound Al Nelson and Christopher Boyes, Dialect coach Catherine Charlton.
Walt Disney Pictures/Whitaker Entertainment-Disney+.
109 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 28 April 2023. Cert. PG.
