But, this Thursday, NBC presents Peter Pan Live! with Allison Williams playing the legendary Boy Who Never Grew Up, along with Christopher Walken as Captain Hook. And, next summer, Pan - a Peter Pan prequel, of sorts - hits movie theaters with Hugh Jackman as its villain, Blackbeard. This coming spring, Finding Neverland (the musical version of the 2005 film) comes to Broadway, starring Matthew Morrison and Kelsey Grammer. It feels like it was made more for the Darling children’s parents, not the Lost Boys.Prepare yourself - we are about to enjoy (or endure, depending on your perspective) a Peter Pan renaissance. The movie is entertaining and has a professional polish but it’s also very safe. It’s a shame there aren’t more “wow” moments like this in “Peter Pan & Wendy,” because Lowery is certainly capable of them. Later, Wendy’s potential post-Neverland life flashes before her eyes in a thoughtful montage that signals a shift in the film’s theme from “Wouldn’t it be great to stay a kid forever?” to “Maybe growing up won’t be so bad.” When Wendy and her brothers John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe) are passing into Neverland for the first time, they hang suspended between worlds for a few seconds in a poetic shot evoking the heavy barriers between childhood and adulthood.
But Lowery does know how to frame and block scenes in eye-catching ways and there are moments of real wonder here not copied directly from Barrie or Disney. Lowery and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli follow the frustrating trend in Disney live-action remakes toward keeping the image dim, as though the whole picture were shot during a solar eclipse. Reactionaries who rush to the internet to complain about progressive ideas sneaking into popular culture may be outraged but for the most part, this is the “Peter Pan & Wendy” everyone is used to. Wendy has a lot more agency, wielded with a feminist edge and she and Tinkerbell are no longer rivals. The Indigenous princess Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatâhk) is no longer the pulp fiction stereotype of the Disney cartoon.
Captain Hook’s rivalry with Peter Pan is given a thornier, more involved backstory.
Lowery and Halbrook do tweak some things. Throw in a rapacious crocodile, the loyal fairy Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi), and the very loaded question of whether Wendy wants to play Mommy to a bunch of rowdy kids, and you’ve got all you need for a timeless crowd-pleaser. Once again in this version, Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) is on the cusp of becoming a young lady - and aging out of the family playroom - when she receives an invitation from the storybook character Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) to join him in Neverland, where he and all the other “Lost Boys” who refuse to grow up battle the sour pirate Captain Hook ( Jude Law). That’s not necessarily a bad goal, given that Barrie’s original remains a favorite for a reason: It imbues a simple adventure plot with deeper subtext.
0 kommentar(er)
