Peter Pan and Wendy (2023) Review
A new retelling of the classic story of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Neverland, Peter Pan and Wendy drops on Disney+ today. I was able to check it out, so let’s talk about it!
NOTE: As I go into this review I should say this. I’ve seen the classic animated movie. I know the characters and the world. But Peter Pan has never been a story that I’ve been super invested in, I’ve seen the original animated movie but only a couple of times and it’s been a while. So that’s the perspective that I had going into this movie.
The Good:
And for me I feel like the story of Peter Pan lends itself well to a live action remake. When you have a group of kids, The Lost Boys led by Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook and his band of pirates. That can lend itself to a fun action adventure fantasy film, and I got that. The movie has plenty of action inside of it, the movie moves very quickly from plot point to plot point. The movie never drags, it’s a very quick moving film. We are introduced to the characters and sent to Neverland within the first 10-15 minutes of the film. And the other 90 minutes is focused on Peter Pan and the Darlings trying to stop Captain Hook from his evil plans. So this movie is very easy to consume and to just put on in the background and have fun with it.
Also the cast here does a solid job with the material that they are given. The big stand out and quite frankly the star of the movie is Jude Law as Captain Hook. And as soon as they announced Jude Law as Captain Hook I thought that was great casting. He’s able to be so villainous as he’s done well in other movies. But he also has this vulnerable side that he brings to Hook, at points you do feel bad for him and I think that comes from Law’s performance. And Jude Law is an actor that I always enjoy when he shows up in roles. I think he’s one of the best parts of the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, I wish we got more of him in that role. You also have Jim Gaffigan as Smee, he’s a funny guy and mix with him a character like Smee you get a fun performance from him. And then you have the child actors, they’re fine. Child actors can be pretty hit or miss for me, and I think they did a good job. They weren’t anything special, they weren't fantastic performances. But they aren’t as bad as some other child performances have been.
Also I thought the director did a great job of staging the action in the movie. You have a lot of sword fights between Peter Pan and Captain Hook, it’s just shot very well. The angles in which he uses to stage the fight scene is very cool, it’s very creative. And this isn’t an action scene but there’s a shot well Captain Hook is running in a cave and he’s running in a circle around the outside of the cave. And the camera is following him as he does it, and it’s just a really cool shot. Some other shots in the finale are handled very well and look rather cool. And I feel like it makes the movie have a bit of distinction from all of the other Disney live action remakes.
Finally, I just appreciate that we have a movie that sticks to its run time. What I mean by that is I feel like so many blockbusters are trying to be so long with having nearly 2 ½ hour long run times, some close to 3 hours long. And so the fact that this movie is 1 hour and 45 minutes long, and it’s the right length for this movie I appreciate that. I don’t feel like everything needs to be 2 ½ to 3 hours long.
The Bad:
And the big thing here is that I feel like they put Peter Pan and The Lost Boys on the backburner. The movie is called PETER PAN AND WENDY, but this movie feels like Captain Hook and Wendy with Peter Pan in it. Captain Hook and Wendy have more screen time then Peter Pan does. Without spoiling anything, there's 10-15 minutes of the movie with no Peter Pan or The Lost Boys in it. It’s more focused on the rivalry between Captain Hook and Wendy then it is about Peter Pan and Captain Hook’s feud. It’s frustrating because there’s this interesting dynamic and backstory that is said about Peter Pan and Captain Hook that I thought was interesting. But I feel like the movie doesn’t focus a lot on that. So that plot point that should be crucial and important to the story, it’s not. You don’t feel the emotions that you should when they fight or when they talk. And since this plot point is underdeveloped in the story, I feel like it makes Peter Pan kind of antagonist and you feel bad for Captain Hook. I don’t know if this is a plot point in the original story, so I don’t want to spoil anything but I feel like this is much more the Captain Hook movie then it is a Peter Pan and Wendy movie. And then The Lost Boys sort of just there, they’re just there because they are so important and crucial to the Peter Pan story. But in this movie they don’t really do anything, they don’t really fight in any of the action scenes. They are just there because it would be weird to have a Peter Pan story without them there.
Other things here, I feel like they made Captain Hook too much of a sympathetic character. Like I said earlier it does feel more like a Captain Hook movie then a Peter Pan movie. And part of the fun of Captain Hook is that he’s just evil and he wants to get Peter Pan. And this movie dives deep into Captain Hook’s backstory, we learn his real name. And I feel like that cheapens the characters. I don’t think adding all of these layers and backstory to Captain Hook makes him a better character. Some characters are their best when you know nothing about them. But the more you dive into them, the less and less the characters actually work.
Also for being a big budgeted Disney movie, there is a lot of spotty CGI in here. Some shots when the people are flying look pretty fake. Especially when Peter Pan, Wendy, and her brothers first fly to Neverland, it’s pretty obvious that these kids are on a green screen. And then the finale takes place on Captain Hook’s ship in daylight and the way it’s lit and everything it just looks really really fake. I don’t know what the budget is, but the movie didn’t look really good at points in the film.
Finally, this is a type of movie that I had fun watching it, but writing my review now it’s starting to slip my mind. It’s just one of those movies, a fun time watching it but a very very forgettable movie as a whole. Like it’s not as good as it should have been, it’s not as fun and memorable as it should be. It’s just bland retelling of the classic Peter Pan story with some changes that I’m not sure fully helped the movie.
Final Thoughts: And my final thoughts are essentially what I just said. It’s a fun time while you’re watching it, there are some actors in here to make it a bit memorable. But the movie as a whole just feels off, like the Disney magic isn’t fully there for me. So it’s hard to fully recommend this movie to anybody, it just feels like another attempt at making a great Disney live action remake.
The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)
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