'Peter Pan And Wendy' review: Not enough pixie dust to truly soar

'Peter Pan And Wendy' suffers from being not kiddy enough for kids, and not grown up enough for adults. – Photos: Disney+ Hotstar

Peter Pan And Wendy

Director: David Lowery

Cast: Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Jude Law, Yara Shahidi, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Molly Parker, Alan Tudyk and Jim Gaffigan also appear in supporting roles.

J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has been adapted so many times over the years that it is hard to find one that is wholly original.

Of the major attempts at doing so, the most memorable recent ones include Steven Spielberg’s Hook in 1991 with the late Robin Williams as a Peter Pan who had grown up, and 2015’s Pan, an ‘origin story’ that tells how Peter and Hook became mortal enemies, and starred Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard the pirate.

If I'm the boy who never grew up, why am I a boy instead of a baby?Still, for many, the quintessential motion picture adaptation has to be Disney’s 1953 Peter Pan animated feature, a much beloved retelling of Barrie’s original story that has almost become THE default image of Peter Pan for modern audiences, even today, 70 years after it was released.

This of course, makes this ripe for a live-action adaptation, as is the norm with Disney these days. The new version, recently released on Disney+ Hotstar, largely follows the story of the animated version, but with a few updates of its own.

This includes upgrading Wendy's role from supporting character in the original animation to the co-star role that Barrie had intended all along (the original 1911 novel based on Barrie's screenplay was called Peter And Wendy).

The story is a tale that is as old as time – Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) is a girl on the cusp of becoming a woman but unable to let go of being a child.

Then one night, Peter Pan (newcomer Alexander Molony) shows up while chasing his shadow alongside Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi), and after Wendy and her brothers John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe) help him catch it, he takes them flying to Neverland.

There, they meet the Lost Boys and Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatâhk), and cross swords with Peter's arch enemy, Captain Hook (Jude Law) and his pirate crew.

So far, so familiar.

Luffy D Monkey's new helmswoman was quite the Darling.

Most of Disney's live action ‘updates’ have been a pretty mixed bag – there were some watchable ones like Beauty And The Beast, Jungle Book and Maleficent, some forgettable ones like The Lion King and Aladdin, and some downright pointless ones like Pinocchio, which deservedly earned a number of Razzie Awards this year.

Peter Pan And Wendy falls somewhere in between ‘watchable' and 'forgettable’.

There are moments that are simply wondrous to behold, like the moment Peter brings Wendy and her brothers into Neverland. And the giant-sized upgrade of the Tick Tock the crocodile is pretty impressive.

The young stars also do a decent enough job of capturing the joy of childhood (though Peter himself is a bit annoying).

Let's not turn this finale into a cliffhanger, shall we? Geddit? CLIFF hanger?

However, Law's portrayal of Hook falls a little flat, and his character somehow doesn't quite steal the show enough for me.

Also, there are too many lulls in the story that disrupts the flow, and certain parts that seemingly pay homage to the original animation, but end up poor imitations instead.

To reference a scene in the movie, the live-action remake seems to spend its time constantly chasing the shadow of the animated classic, and trying to stitch it on to its feet in order to give it SOME semblance of soul.

Jude Law's portrayal of the pirate captain doesn't quite hook you in.That in a nutshell is a niggling peeve I’ve had with Disney’s live-action remakes of their animated classics – most of them are passably decent, provided you have never watched the original animated versions.

There are moments here that would have been brilliant on the big screen (the aforementioned journey to Neverland is one standout), but it seems a little... diminished on the smaller TV screen.

Watching this on the TV kind of makes you lament the fact that this was initially planned to have a theatrical release (which was curtailed by the pandemic).

But even if it were being shown in the cinemas, would a live-action Peter Pan have a big enough following to draw an audience?

The original Peter Pan was an almost masterpiece, so there really is no need to have a live action version of it.

While Lowery manages to add a little more pixie dust on it to make it slightly different, Peter Pan is such an overdone property that there really is not much to look forward to here, unless you for some reason have NEVER seen the original animation before.

At the end of it, you might feel mildly entertained, but really, Peter Pan And Wendy suffers from being not kiddy enough for kids, and not grown up enough for adults. Ultimately, It just doesn't have enough pixie dust to really fly.