Long before Peter Pan became a subject of interest only to Michael Jackson and people struggling to think of something to wear to fancy dress parties, the feather-capped swash-buckler was the subject of one of Disney's all-time animated greats.
Neatly packaged in the “Walt Disney Classics” collection which I'm hoping won't be including “The Jungle Book 2” any time soon the 1953 animation spectacular has now arrived on DVD.
Adapted from J. M. Barrie's timeless novel, “Peter Pan” tells the story of a group of children visited during the night by a bloke in green tights who supplies them with enough pixie dust to fly off to the fantastical island of Neverland. Here, it's promised, they'll never have to grow up. So, amid lots of singing, dancing and generally having a heck of a good time, they encounter some uncomfortably stereotyped “Red Indians” and a group of pirates who think that picking on kiddywinks is big and clever. Shame on them all.
Of course, as a spoil-sport adult, I feel obliged to say that pixie dust is no doubt some sort of drug reference, feisty fairy Tinkerbell is clearly in the early stages of anorexia, Peter's a pathological liar and pirate Cap'n Hook is more than a tad camp but I'll never get into Neverland with that sort of attitude.
So let's focus instead on the wonderful animation which shows none of its half-century age (and, in fact, puts many modern films to shame), and the tremendous characters brought to the screen with bright colours and loads of fun. Personal favourites have to be Smee (Hook's bumbling right-hand man) and the scene-stealing crocodile that ticks its way through the water as a result of having swallowed a clock. Great stuff.