Return to Never Land
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Return to Never Land is a 2002 animated feature produced by the DisneyToons studio in Sydney, Australia and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It was originally produced as a direct-to-video sequel to Walt Disney's 1953 film Peter Pan, but was released theatrically first. It included digitally animated sequences and an all-new voice cast.
Plot
The film begins in difficult times. Wendy Darling has grown up, married, and had two children of her own: a daughter, Jane, and a son, Danny. When her husband leaves to fight in World War II, Wendy is left alone to raise her children through such dangerous events as the threat of bombing. She tries to tell them stories of Peter Pan to make them feel lighthearted, but Jane has nevertheless become bitter and jaded.One night, Wendy discovers that her children will be evacuated to the safer countryside on the following morning. When Jane learns of this, she acts out, belittling the Peter Pan stories her mothers tells and ridiculing her brother's faith in them. Jane is sent to her room (which is also the Darlings' old nursery) as punishment, and falls asleep on the window seat.
While she sleeps, Captain Hook, who has sailed through the skies on his now enchanted pirate ship, kidnaps the girl he thinks is Wendy. He plans to use her as a trap to capture Peter Pan, and takes her back to Neverland.
Hook's plan is to feed Jane (who he thinks is Wendy) to a giant octopus, but to allow Pan enough time to arrive, he first suspends her above the hungry beast, who is lured to the surface with fish heads. Pan, hearing Jane's cries flies at full speed to the scene where a cartoonish battle ensues.
Peter Pan quickly rescues the girl, and upon finding she is Wendy's daughter, assumes she would like to follow in her mother's footsteps. He takes her home to be mother to the Lost Boys, but Jane can't stand Neverland or the rowdy gang of boys. They try to make her have fun and to teach her to fly, but she fails because she does not believe. In another outburst she blurts out she doesn't even believe in fairies. Suddenly, Tinker Bell falls sick. Jane runs away, and at a vulnerable moment strikes a bargain with Hook. She will help him to trap Peter Pan, under the pretenses that he is a cruel and selfish boy, and Hook will help her sail home to London.
After returning home and receiving an apology from Peter, she admits she would like to become the first Lost Girl. So begins Jane's training as a Lost Girl.
Although Tinker Bell falls more ill every day, dying from lack of faith, the children are out having fun and searching for buried treasure. Just when things are going perfectly between Peter and Jane, Hook barges in, ropes up Peter, and drags him and the Lost Boys away. Now it is up to the girls to save the boys. Jane runs home to find Tinker Bell on the verge of death. After an emotional healing, she and Tinker Bell hurry to the Jolly Roger. Peter is saved by Jane, who becomes the hero and finally, with the help of "faith, trust, and pixie dust" learns to fly. Hook and the pirates exit via a rowboat, pursued by the gigantic orange octopus who has replaced the crocodile.
It all ends on a happy note, with Jane returning home just as the war is ending. Peter is briefly reunited with Wendy, and, although he is not happy to find that she has grown-up, he is glad to discover she has not lost faith in him. At the very end, a truck pulls up to Wendy's front door, bringing Jane's father Edward home. After observing the happy family reunion, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell quietly fly away.
Although the final chapter in Barrie's Peter and Wendy deals with Wendy's family and daughter Jane, Return to Never Land, like its prequel, is only slightly based on the novel. It is really more of a modern sequel for Disney's 1953 animated film version. As a result, there are several differences. For example, most of the characters who were killed or died, or grew up, primarily Hook and Tinker Bell, return for this film. This is most likely due to their marketing popularity.
In the novel, the Lost Boys returned to London with Wendy and grew up like normal children, but in Return to Never Land they have stayed as young and immortal as Peter Pan himself. Even Nana, the kind nurse-dog, is reincarnated in the form of Saint Bernard Nana-two. There are also problems with the character of Jane and the period during which she is growing up. Disney's Jane is modern: tomboyish and independent, and fully capable of taking care of herself; but Barrie's Jane plays the part of a new Wendy - motherly and domestic. In the novel, Jane was very willing to go to Neverland. (As previously mentioned, Captain Hook had been killed, so he could not kidnap Jane under any circumstances.) Finally, Wendy's son Danny and husband Edward are new characters created for Return to Never Land - they were not in Peter and Wendy.
Trivia
- Kathryn Beaumont was originally suggested to play adult Wendy since she played young Wendy in the original Peter Pan (1953).
- Because most of the original voice cast from the film had died, including Hans Conried (the voice of Captain Hook) and Bobby Driscoll (the voice of Peter Pan), an entirely new cast of actors had to be used to film this sequel.
- End credits feature a remake of "Do You Believe in Magic?" by BBMak. The film also features a remake of the song "Second Star to the Right", the theme for the original movie.
- Although Jane and Peter fly through the Indian Encampment, Princess Tiger Lily and the Indians are not featured in the sequel. This is most likely due to their offensive, sterotypical characters in the original film that would not be recreated during modern times.
- In Return to Never Land the crocodile was replaced by an orange octopus for no apparent reason. It is now believed that since the crocodile was killed (we see it on Hook), the octopus, who was the crocodile's best friend, is determined to kill Hook for revenge.
- While the twins in the original movie spoke in unison, the twins in Return to Never Land have different voice actors and speak normally.
- The Lost Boys were not named in the original film. In Return to Never Land, they are called to attention and most of them state the names Barrie gave them in the book: Slightly, in the fox suit; Nibs, in the rabbit suit; the Twins in the raccoon suits; and Tootles, in the skunk suit. Cubby, in the bear suit, had his named changed to complement his suit. He was named Curly in the novel.
- Cubby/Curly seems to be the most talkative Lost Boy in Return to Never Land, but he was not the main Lost Boy in Peter and Wendy. The primary Lost Boy was Tootles who, oddly enough, does not speak at all in either movie.
- A sequel, entitled, Peter Pan III will be released in 2007.
Box Office
External links
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