While movies such as Cinderella I find myself enjoying more as I'm older, Peter Pan is one I find myself enjoying less. A young girl named Wendy and her two little brothers are whisked away to Neverland by Peter Pan. For Wendy, it's a fun journey to close out her childhood, but for Peter Pan, it's an escape from growing up. This seems to be the consensus over what the themes of the movie are.
The plot is Captain Hook trying to kill Peter Pan, and this is just one of the many times this has happened. Peter Pan torments Captain Hook and makes his escape. And this is kind of where the movie starts to lose me, there isn't anyone to Root for. Yes, Captain Hook is a vicious Pirate, even kills one of his crew-mates for singing (Because Disney could get away with pointless murder at this stage of its existence, something lost in later movies), but Peter Pan is an entirely self-absorbed asshole who doesn't seem to learn anything by movies end. Tinker Bell, worse than anyone else, is just kind of a sociopath. She straight-up tries to kill Wendy out of jealousy, and doesn't even try to deny it, Tinker Bell is psychotic. Now don't get me wrong, Tinkerbell being essentially the original Tsundere (For the non-weebs reading this, it's a female archetype where the girl is jealous to the point of psychotic murder) and those hips I see why it is she became a kind of sex symbol over the years (A lot of BDSM kind of imagery too) as a character I don't want to root for her either. Wendy and the kids are fine, but honestly, beyond being decently written child characters they don't leave an impression either. I just don't care what happens to any of these people.
At the same time, it doesn't feel like the movie did anything wrong. I can't find any major criticisms about the film. The animation is solid as always, there aren't any real plot holes, everything makes sense, the pacing is good, it feels like a competently made movie. And I think that is where things start to fall apart is it's just that, competent. It's the first time in all of these Disney films I felt like something was just kind of churned out. In a way that kind of makes it the worst of the Disney movies released so far.
Despite being a mystical land of magic and childlike wonder, visually the show just doesn't stand out like previous titles either. There are some fun visuals and good gags here and there, but the movie just feels so restrained compared to the previous movies. So without a really strong narrative, themes that feel like they go nowhere as every character ends how it all began, and the lack of anything that feels truly creative it's a movie that I just can't find a reason to sit down and watch. I know the review is shorter than my others, but the movie doesn't give me much to talk about unless I wanted to just keep Tinkerbell's butt.
