Peter Pan (1953)

Peter Pan is the fourteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and was originally released to theaters on February 5, 1953 by RKO Radio Pictures. This would be the final Disney animated feature released through RKO, as Walt Disney established his own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution, by the end of 1953.

Production
The film's story is based on the play and novel Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Disney had been trying to buy the rights to the play since 1935. He finally received them four years later, after he arranged with the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London (to whom Barrie had bequeathed the rights to the play). His studio started the story development and character designs in the early-1940s, and intended Peter Pan as a follow-up to Bambi, but World War II forced the project to be put on hold. Just like Pinocchio before it, the original pre-war character designs for Peter Pan were very different from the final product. The original version actually had Nana go to Neverland with Pan and the Darling children. Also, the original version was a little darker. It was not until after the war that actual production of the film commenced.

Until this movie, the role of Peter Pan had always been played by a young woman. Instead, Walt Disney chose to portray him as a 12-year-old boy. Disney explained the age by saying, "He is 12 years old forever simply because he refuses to grow up beyond that comfortable age." There are numerous other differences, including the revision of Tinker Bell's "death" (whereas in the original play she gets knocked out by a poison, in the animated film she gets knocked out by a bomb), which can be attributed to Disney's history of artistic license and reshaping of content to be more suitable for younger audiences. The animated film not only marked the first time in which Pan was played by a male, it was also the first time in which Tinker Bell, Nana and the Crocodile (named Tick-Tock the Croc in comics published later on) were all shown as believably as Barrie had originally intended (on stage, Tinker Bell was shown as not much more than a mere spot of light, Nana was played by an actual actor, and the Crocodile was represented by offstage ticking; here, Tinker Bell was represented as an actual sprite, Nana was a real dog, and the Crocodile was a real crocodile who had ingested an alarm clock).

Tinker Bell (who wears a slim, green dress, slippers, and yellow panties) owes her shapely form to the Pin-up girls of the war. Margaret Kerry was Tinker Bell's live-action reference model, contrary to rumors that it was Marilyn Monroe. Margaret Kerry posed on a soundstage, while animator Marc Davis drew Tinker Bell. Kerry was also the voice of the red-haired mermaid in the film.

Like Margaret, Bobby Driscoll was the live-action reference for Peter Pan's character, primarily in close-up scenes. Peter's graceful flying and action reference shots were provided by dancer Roland Dupree.

Kathryn Beaumont, the voice for Wendy, also performed the live action references. In an interview, she said she had to hold out her arms and pretend to fly for all the scenes requiring it.

One of the few stage traditions that Disney did retain for the animated film was to have Captain Hook and Mr. Darling be played by the same actor. In this case, Hans Conried not only voiced both characters, he was the live-action reference for them as well. Also, in the original play, Hook lost his right hand, but the Disney artists felt that would limit his actions too much, and so relocated the hook to his left hand.

Re-release schedule and home video
The film was re-issued to theaters in 1958, 1969, 1976, 1982, and 1989, and on VHS in 1990 (as a Walt Disney Classics release) and 1998 (as a Masterpiece Collection release). A Limited Issue DVD was released in 1999, and a special edition DVD came out in 2002. A Platinum Edition DVD of the film has been announced for release in March 2007. 

Peter Pan theatrical release history



 * February 5, 1953 (original release)
 * May 14, 1958
 * June 18, 1969
 * June 18, 1976
 * December 17, 1982
 * July 14, 1989

Worldwide release dates

 * Argentina: July 7, 1953
 * Mexico: November 11, 1953
 * Italy: December 16, 1953
 * Finland: December 18, 1953
 * France: December 18, 1953
 * Sweden: December 21, 1953
 * West Germany: December 22, 1953
 * Denmark: December 26, 1953
 * Norway: December 26, 1953
 * Spain: December 21, 1954
 * Japan: March 22, 1955

Controversy
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the Indians of Neverland and their song "What Made The Red Men Red." The song cleary states "we've all been blushing since" after an Indian kissed a maiden at the very first Injun dance too. 

Characters

 * Peter Pan: Protagonist, the boy who won't grow up.
 * Tinker Bell: Pan's hot-headed pixie pal.
 * Wendy Darling: The eldest of the Darling children; adores Peter Pan. She is 14 years old.
 * John Darling: One of Wendy's two younger brothers.
 * Michael Darling: Wendy's youngest brother.
 * George and Mary Darling: The Darling children's parents; their mother likes Peter Pan and their father doesn't; in fact, he wishes the kids to grow up to be practical.
 * Nana: The Darlings' maid, a dog (Saint Bernard).
 * Captain Hook: The villain of the film; a pirate captain who wants revenge on Pan for getting his hand lopped off and fed to the Crocodile.
 * Mr. Smee: Hook's right-hand man or the comic relief of the story
 * The Pirates: The rest of Hook's crew. Their names include Mullins, Turk, Skylights, Black Murphy, Bill Jukes and Starkey.
 * The Crocodile: A crocodile who swallowed an alarm clock and is after the remains of Hook; Pan had cut off Hook's hand and threw it to the Crocodile who enjoyed the little appetizer so much, he's been following him ever since. In comics published later on, the character was known as Tick-Tock the Croc.
 * The Lost Boys: Pan's right-hand men, dressed as various animals. Their names are Slightly (fox costume), Cubby (bear costume), Nibs (rabbit costume), Tootles (skunk costume) and the Twins (raccoon costumes).
 * The Indian Chief: Father of Princess Tiger Lily.
 * Princess Tiger Lily: Indian princess, daughter of the Chief.
 * The Mermaids: Friends of Peter Pan, to whom he tells his stories of his battles against the pirates. But they seem to be rather malicious towards Peter's female friends. One of them, coincidentally, bears an uncanny resemblance to Ariel from The Little Mermaid, which brings the idea to mind that perhaps Ariel was based on this character.

Voice cast

 * Bobby Driscoll as Peter Pan
 * Kathryn Beaumont as Wendy Darling
 * Hans Conried as Captain James Hook and George Darling
 * Paul Collins as John Darling
 * Tommy Luske as Michael Darling
 * Bill Thompson as Mr. Smee and other pirates
 * Candy Candido as Indian Chief
 * Heather Angel as Mary Darling
 * Tom Conway as The Narrator
 * Roland Dupree as miscellaneous characters
 * Don Barclay as miscellaneous characters

Directing Animators

 * Milt Kahl
 * Frank Thomas (Captain Hook)
 * Wolfgang Reitherman (Crocodile)
 * Ward Kimball
 * Ollie Johnston (Mr. Smee)
 * Marc Davis (Tinker Bell)
 * Eric Larson
 * John Lounsbery (George Darling)
 * Les Clark
 * Norman Ferguson

Crew
The movie was adapted by Milt Banta, William Cottrell, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, and Ralph Wright from the play and novel Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. The film was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske.

Songs in film
The songs in Peter Pan were composed by Sammy Fain, Sammy Cahn, Frank Churchill, Winston Hibler and Ted Sears. Oliver Wallace composed the incidental music score.
 * "The Second Star To the Right" - The Jud Conlon Chorus
 * "You Can Fly!" - The Jud Conlon Chorus
 * "A Pirate's Life" - Mr. Smee; The Pirates
 * "Follow the Leader" - John and Michael Darling; The Lost Boys
 * "What Made the Red Man Red" - The Indian Tribe, which was very controversial because of offensive lyrics
 * "Your Mother and Mine" - Wendy Darling
 * "The Elegant Captain Hook" - Captain Hook; Mr. Smee; The Pirates
 * "You Can Fly! (Reprise)" - The Jud Conlon Chorus
 * "Never Smile At a Crocodile" - The lyrics were not heard, but the music was.

Songs written for film but not used

 * "The Boatswain's Song" - Captain Hook; The Pirates

Titles in different languages
—*Russian: Питер Пэн—°*Slovakian (Slovakia): Peter Pan
 * Bosnian: Petar Pan
 * Bulgarian: Питър Пан
 * Cantonese Chinese: 小飛俠 ("Little Flying Hero")
 * Croatian: Petar Pan
 * Czech: Peter Pan
 * Danish: Peter Pan
 * Dutch: Peter Pan
 * Estonian: Peeter Paan
 * Finnish: Peter Pan
 * French: Les Aventures de Peter Pan (later Peter Pan)
 * German: Peter Pans Heitere Abenteuer (later Peter Pan)
 * Hebrew: פיטר-פן
 * Icelandic: Pétur Pan
 * Italian: Le Avventure di Peter Pan
 * Japanese: ピーターパン (Pītā Pan)
 * Korean (South Korea): 피터팬
 * Mandarin Chinese: 小飛俠
 * Norwegian: Peter Pan
 * Polish: Piotruś Pan
 * Portuguese (Portugal): As Aventuras de Peter Pan
 * Portuguese (Brazil): Peter Pan
 * Romanian: Peter Pan
 * Spanish (Spain): Peter Pan
 * Spanish (Latin America): Peter Pan
 * Swedish: Peter Pan och sjörövarna (later Peter Pan)
 * Thai: ปีเตอร์แพน
 * Turkish: Peter Pan
 * Vietnamese:Peter Pan-Cậu bé bay

Trivia

 * Though Princess Aurora is one of only two Disney Princesses to have both parents alive and well, Wendy of Peter Pan is the first Disney heroine to have both parents present and survive the film.
 * This film marked two "lasts" for Disney: 1) This was the final Disney film in which all nine members of the Nine Old Men worked together on it as directing animators. 2) It was the last Disney animated feature to be distributed by RKO Radio before Disney started its own distributor, Buena Vista.
 * The phrase "second to the right and straight on till morning" was changed into "second star to the right..." for the Disney version, however the phrase was said by Peter Pan while standing on one of Big Ben's clock hands. Also, since the film came out, non-Disney versions have used the term "Never Never Land" as opposed to "Neverland".
 * Although original author Barrie is credited, this is the only major film version of "Peter Pan" which does not use any of his original dialogue, although one of Barrie's original lines is paraphrased when Hook first tells Smee why the Crocodile is always following him. Even the live-action musical versions, as well as the 1924 silent film version, use Barrie's original dialogue.
 * The melody for "The Second Star to the Right" was originally written for Alice in Wonderland as part of a song to be entitled "Beyond the Laughing Sky".
 * Though the film was extremely successful, Walt himself was dissatisfied with the finished product. He felt that the character of Peter Pan was cold and unlikable.
 * In 1989, British pop group Five Star performed a medley of Peter Pan songs "You Can Fly", "Never Smile At A Crocodile" and "Second Star To The Right" for a BBC Television special celebrating the works of Walt Disney.
 * In the original film, there is a scene where Tinkerbell is dying and Peter sings a song to save her, but this scene was taken out in later versions. Tinkerbell appears with Peter later in the film and no explanation is given as to her healing.
 * Captain Hook's name in different languages include the following: Capitaine Crochet (French), Käpt'n Hook (German), Capitán Garfio (Spanish), Capitan Uncino (Italian), Kapitein Haak (Dutch), Kapten Krok (Swedish) and Capitão Gancho (Brazilian Portuguese).
 * The crocodile in Goliath II (released in 1960) looks exactly like the Crocodile in this film. A similar-looking crocodile also appears in the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Kiwi's Big Adventure". Tick-Tock himself also appears as a boss in the Nintendo Entertainment System game Mickey Mousecapade.
 * The film beget multiple spinoffs in various forms, including, but not limited to: Peter Pan's Flight, the dark ride found at many of the Disney parks worldwide; a sequel some fifty years after the original film, Return To Neverland; another sequel to come out in 2007, Peter Pan III (was been cancelled); and two areas of the Kingdom Hearts series: namely, Neverland as a playable world in the first Kingdom Hearts game with Tinker Bell as a summon and Peter Pan as a Summon in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * Tinker Bell is the only character in the film to appear in the Disney Fairies franchise. However, unlike in the film, Tinker Bell spoke on the series.
 * Disney villains introducing Captain Hook from 1981 television special of Disney's Greatest Villains.

Disney Fairies
Disney Fairies is a series of children's books published by Random House, which features Tinker Bell and her friends: Beck, Lily, Vidia, Rani, Frilla, Fira, and Bess.

Sequels

 * Peter Pan II: Return to Never Land
 * Peter Pan III (Cancelled)
 * Tinker Bell