Peter Pan Has A Birthday Today!
Disney’s animated classic Peter Pan turns a big 68 years old today!
Let’s take a quick look at how the boy who could fly made it to the big screen and inspired creativity for generations.
Early Production
Peter Pan was originally released on February 5, 1953. It was the last Disney animated film released by an outside production company, RKO Radio Pictures, before Walt Disney founded his own distribution company.
Peter and friends didn’t make it to the big screen easily. Disney acquired the production rights way back in 1939. But while storyboards and hand drawn animation certainly take time, World War II didn’t offer any pixie dust, either.
Early production of the movie was interrupted in 1941 when the United States Military commissioned Walt Disney Productions to produce training and propaganda films. Most entertainment work was paused as efforts to support the war took over.
Along Came a Princess
When production resumed, Disney still didn’t have voice actors for Peter Pan and he wasn’t pleased with the characters. The movie was being made alongside Alice In Wonderland when Cinderella appeared on Walt’s radar.
The princess film took the focus at Walt Disney Productions and Peter Pan had a temporary backseat for much of the late 1940s.
Animation Strife
Somewhere in 1949, work on Peter Pan resumed. But even the heaps of extraordinary talent working on Peter Pan were not without head butting. Animators didn’t always agree with the story artists’ visions, and occasionally no one agreed with Walt’s. Production plugged along, but the disagreements and constant shuffling of character work lead to tales of Walt’s frustrations with the film.
Critique
As we all know, the film eventually made it to the screen in 1953, 14 years after Disney acquired the production rights for it.
Peter Pan was met with mild criticism, but there’s a reason the early hand drawn days of Disney animation are the stuff of Legends…
Despite critique that the adaptation deviated too far from the original play, the lively drawings and stunning coloration won critics over. Time Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Variety magazine – all described the film’s visual display as “delightfully picturesque”, “enchanting”, and “a delight”.
Interestingly, the soundtrack to the film was viewed then as “ok” and somewhat boring, however modern Disney fans now hail it as signature “Disney”, exploding with whimsy and childhood nostalgia.
Controversy
While the production quality of Peter Pan held up over time, the movie’s content is a different story.
The film’s stereotypical portrayal of Native American’s has drawn criticism in today’s climate. Marc Davis, Disney Imagineer and one of the lead animators of the film, said in past interviews that the film would not be the same if made today.
I’m not sure we would have done the Indians if we were making this movie now. And if we had, we wouldn’t do them the way we did back then.”
When Disney+ launched in 2021, Peter Pan was one of a handful of films given an age rating of 7+. A statement was added to the streaming version, acknowledging depictions of “stereotypical” and “not authentic” Native American characters.
Decades Later
Despite production delays and controversy, Peter Pan went on to earn a lifetime domestic gross of $87.4 million ($427.5 million, if adjusted for today.) The animated masterpiece gave way to decades of spin-offs over a variety of genres.
Video games, board games, children’s shows, a whole fairy-themed line of books and Tinkerbell movies, Ice shows, musicals, theme park rides. You name it and there’s likely a fairy or pirate themed version that stems from the classic tale of the boy who wouldn’t grow up.
Because “once you’re grown up you can never come back.”
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