Peter Pan (film)

"I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!"



The 2003 movie adaptation of Peter Pan based on the original play. As far as film versions of Peter Pan go, it is perhaps the adaptation that stays closest to the play and the novel.

It's a familiar story: Peter Pan takes the Darling children back to Neverland to join the Lost Boys and to make Wendy their mother. The idea of Peter Pan's immortality and unending youth are explored, along with much darker and heavier themes than the animated Disney version you remember from when you were a kid, with more violence, death, High Octane Nightmare Fuel and heavy themes including Pan's eternal immaturity, Wendy's emerging sexuality, and the implications of childlike innocence and moral ambiguity with a sword.


 * Acting for Two: As in the play, the same actor plays both Hook and Mr. Darling.
 * Action Girl: Wendy wielding a sword against pirates.
 * Adaptation Expansion: Puts far more emphasis on Wendy's crush on Peter that most other versions.
 * Aluminium Christmas Trees: On a fictional level. Some viewers were upset that Hook could fly at the end, since he should have no happy thoughts, but in the book, happy thoughts are not actually required, that was just something Peter made up.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * The alternate ending cut out from the movie serves as a  as well.
 * Blue Eyes: Wendy, many of the Lost Boys, and Hook. The kids all have the innocent variety, whereas his are cold and evil, something that's Lampshaded several times.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Smee does this all the time.
 * Brick Joke: The kiss/thimble confusion.
 * Canon Foreigner: Aunt Millicent.
 * The Charmer: Peter, so very much. As Wendy says, "It is perfectly delightful the way you talk about girls!" And that little grin and mock-modest shrug he gives toward the end of the movie--Oh, the cleverness of him!
 * Children Are Innocent: And occasionally unthinkingly violent because of it.
 * Clap Your Hands If You Believe
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Tinker Bell.
 * Crosscast Role: A noteable aversion. Jeremy Sumpter is the first boy to play Peter in a live-action film, probably the first in a mainstream live-acting production counting the plays and musicals.
 * Darker and Edgier: Than the widely-known Disney version. This film cleaves more closely to the book, shocking some viewers not expecting this kind of (PG) violence.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Wendy kisses Peter and the guy BURSTS INTO FLIGHT WITH A HUGE SMILE ON HIS FACE.
 * Empathic Environment: Neverland reacts to Peter's feelings as well as his presence; when he's upset it storms, and when he's gone it freezes into winter.
 * First Kiss: Also counts as a.
 * Foe Yay: The film turns this Up to Eleven between Hook and Peter.
 * Foot Focus: The kids are all barefoot, and both Peter and Wendy get extreme foot closeups.
 * Good Is Not Nice: This is Peter's problem to some extent.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: Hook's outfits certainly apply, even if they tend to come from several different periods.
 * Growing Up Sucks: Wendy certainly thinks so, which is why she's willing to run away to Neverland.
 * Hair of Gold: Peter is a male example.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Hook pulls this on Peter to fill him with unhappy thoughts of Wendy's departure and cause him to be unable to fly.
 * Hates Baths: Nana the dog has to hoist Michael onto her back and throw him into the bath tub every day.
 * Even as one of his happy thoughts one of the things he says is, "...never to take a bath again...!"
 * Hook Hand: Take a wild guess.
 * Innocent Innuendo: After Peter loses his shadow in the room Wendy sketches a picture of him hovering over her bed. Her teacher of course knows nothing about Peter so she assumes it means something else...
 * Ironic Echo: After Wendy sews his shadow back on Peter says "oh, the cleverness of me" (ignoring that Wendy did the work). At the end  Wendy says "oh, the cleverness of you".
 * Lack of Empathy: Hook and, to an extent, Peter himself.
 * Magical Native American: The woman who "heals" Michael's decapitated bear.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook is almost as hot as (if not even hotter than) pirate captain Jack Sparrow himself. Don't believe me? Take a look!
 * Motivational Kiss: Peter is nearly defeated by Hook until he gets one from Wendy.
 * Tiger Lily also gives one to John.
 * Mythology Gag: A whole bunch to the Disney movie (the Indians capturing and binding Michael's bear as if it's a human being, Peter rescuing Wendy from the plank and the superstitious pirates going crazy because they don't hear a splash), and possibly one to the anime series (the John/Tiger Lily Ship Tease). There's also Wendy deciding on "Red-Handed Jill" as her pirate name; in the original novel and play, John was offered a position with the crew and wanted to be called Red-Handed Jack.
 * Aunt Millicent adopting Slightly was taken from the play, where the housekeeper Liza adopts him when he arrives late.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Hook has shades of this at times with both Peter and Wendy, to the point where some critics were creeped out. Jason Isaacs has mentioned in interviews how incredibly uncomfortable some of that was to portray.
 * Oblivious to Love: Played slightly differently than in the novel; Peter can feel love; he's just too immature to allow himself to or admit it if/when he does.
 * Our Mermaids Are Different: Very much so from the Disney movie. They try to drown people in both films, but they look downright creepy in this one, and speak with these strange clicking sounds.
 * Pajama-Clad Hero: Heroes--the Darling children all go to Neverland in their PJ's, and remain in them throughout the whole adventure.
 * Pirate Girl: Wendy considers an offer to be a pirate on Hook's ship, though she eventually turns it down.
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:
 * That we see, at least. Hook seems single-mindedly obsessed with killing Peter, but beyond that don't seem to do much. In the book it's implied they make raids on the Indians at times, but there's really not a lot in Neverland for them to do.
 * It's hinted by Hook's declaration that they "sail off at dawn" upon believing that Peter is dead, that they don't do anything because they are so single-mindedly obsessed with killing Peter.
 * The Power of Love
 * Puppy Love: Peter and Wendy. An in-universe example as it is played up way more in this movie than most adaptations.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Hook's eyes turn red just before he kills someone, and can cry tears of poison. He tries to kill Peter with that poison, but Tinker Bell drinks it first.
 * Team Mom: Wendy, obviously.
 * Teenage Wasteland: The Lost Boys. Even when someone is brought in to take care of them, it's another (somewhat older) kid.
 * Timeshifted Actor: In the original ending we would have Rachel Hurd Wood into Saffron Burrows playing older Wendy.
 * Translation: "Yes":
 * When Smee is helping Captain Hook "interview" Tiger Lily, her (untitled) invective goes on forever. Smee's translation, much less.
 * Also counts as Tactful Translation, since it's obvious that Tiger Lily is not being nearly as polite as Smee's translation. Her actress gives a more accurate translation in one of the DVD extras: she says "You are the life-stealer. You are evil. You smell bad. You smell of bear-poop. You are many moons old and ugly" in Mahican.