PETER PAN: RETURN TO NEVERLAND review

I woke up rather early this morning, about 5am, I’m not really sure why… Just a messed up schedule I suppose, but as I chatted in AICN’s chat debating the validity of John Milius’ RED DAWN and the futility of useless MGM remakes… You know the standard film geek conversations.

At 9:17am, I was in the midst of talking to Moriarty about his addiction to the pleasures of the flesh, when the emergency line here at AICN rang with the WAD ALERT – those are long long loooong rings signaling the voice of Johnny Wad. He was calling to see if I was going to PETER PAN 2: RETURN TO NEVERLAND at an advanced press screening this morning.

I looked at the time… The screening was to be at 10am. I had no desire to see an abortion of an animated effort of one of my favorite Disney Classics. A so-called film that was meant to just go directly to video shelves never to be rented by sane men and women and children the world over.

It was 9:20, Father Geek was still asleep, but my love for Peter Pan won out. I had to go and destroy this piece of…. Ahem animation. I was intrigued by the inclusion of World War II into the story, the time frame shifting from Wendy’s youth to that of her daughter’s.

I wasn’t intrinsically opposed to a sequel to PETER PAN, because I never thought Peter’s story was over, just Wendy’s. That is exactly the opposite of how I feel about CINDERELLA, SNOW WHITE, SLEEPING BEAUTY and the other fairy tales. Those have definite beginnings and endings, but with no loose ends. They literally end with ‘happily ever after’.

Back to Peter Pan though. The animation is television department animation, so the smoothness of Disney’s typical feature animation isn’t here throughout, but it is still physically smoother animation then say… most Anime… HOWEVER, without the genius of that form’s character design and intricate detailed work.

I will say this I loved seeing these characters moving again. Just watching Peter and Hook in motion, talking with what I swear sounded like their original voices. I came to this wanting to just loathe and hate it, but try as I might, I couldn’t. What works, works beautifully, what doesn’t… well when it fails it fails in the most bland awful twitching in a dentist’s office hell of boredom manner.

The number one crime in RETURN TO NEVERLAND is the music. The songs are apocalyptically awful. I’m talking worse than that song at the end of PEARL HARBOR bad. These songs by some unknown crooner of an elevator near you, are not only distractingly awful, but inappropriate to boot. They do not feel of the forties era that the film is set in. They have no life, no vitality. In fact they suck the life out of the already stilted animation in these sequences. They are not ‘watching paint dry’ boring, they are ‘watching the paint crack through the heat of twenty summers’ boring.

Now in addition to the terrible songs, there is the terrible score by Joel McNeely. I have enjoyed Joel’s music since his TINY TOONS days and most love his music for RADIOLAND MURDERS and SQUANTO: A WARRIOR’S TALE and his SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE music too. He can do very strong work, here… Here he delivers a listless, lifeless bit of muted whimperings. Gone is the bouncy, vibrant charge that I got out of the original film’s score. What I felt needed to have gone into this film was something a bit like what Scorsese had done in his CAPE FEAR. An adaptation and re-orchestration of the original themes and music. Musically, this film and the original 1950’s Pan should be married. The look of the film had the look of the original, but the music was a blight. Never once did the music propel me into the London sky.

The next problem is a terrible terrible animation design for the Octopus. The crocodile is sorely missed. The octopus is the worst of TV animation. A creature of motion stilted by a design that belongs in the SNORKS, not a PETER PAN film.

The P.C.-ifaction of Neverland. You’ll see the Indian village, but gone are all the Indians. Apparently hiding somewhere. HATED THAT!

Lastly, the film has no third act. It just sort of wraps up with no third act fireworks.

What did I like?

I liked Wendy’s daughter Jane… I love how she was a girl grown up by a war waged upon her city. I love how she placed childish things to the side because the times were serious. Lives were ending and her city was burning in rubble. The scenes of her and NaNa (the dog) wearing the old British WWII helmets dodging about in the rubble of war torn London… magic.

I loved adult Wendy. She had the elegance of a woman, but the twinkle of the little girl from long ago inside. Very nice design work there.

There was a moment between Peter and adult Wendy that literally brought a tear to my eye. It was a beautiful moment, far better than any moment in the entirety of Spielberg’s HOOK. In fact this film is easily that movie’s superior in all things save score. Williams’ score rules all.

I loved seeing Peter and Hook go at it. I loved Captain Hook and the way he plays Jane in the movie.

I love how World War II plays into the story, but I feel they really really missed the boat with the ending. Had Peter and Jane come back to London to find Jane’s house bombed out… nothing but rubble, while an air siege was continuing in the skies above London. Had Peter gotten furious at the thought of Wendy being dead, had he flown up into the ravaged night sky of London to drive the Nazis away… and had while he did that, Wendy and Jane’s lil brother come out of the bomb shelter. That emotional third act would have made me forgive nearly all the horrible music and the bad moments of TV animation.

In all… I can’t really recommend this film as a theatrical experience, but it may be something you want to check out on video. The animation will look better on a TV screen than blown up to 35mm. There is magic amongst the dog turds of this project. And coming away from the film, I just can’t help but imagine what might have been had Disney had a real leadership in their Animation Division.

The second they thought to release this theatrically, it should have been rethought for Theatrical release. Fleshed out. As it is, the final product (and it does feel like product) degrades the Disney name. Walt would never have allowed his beloved characters to have been treated so blatantly commercially.

I think it is very tragic that the film has as much warmth in it as it does, because that is misplaced affection. It is sort of like hugging your child after beating them. NOT GOOD.

Like I said, wait for video.