Peter Pan is a
2003The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
film released as a joint venture of
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
,
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and
Revolution StudiosRevolution Studios was a film production company founded in 2000 by Joe Roth, a former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox. Revolution was a strategic partner of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed and marketed Revolution's films. The company shut down in October...
.
P. J. HoganPaul John "P. J." Hogan is an Australian film director.As a teenager, Hogan lived on the North Coast of New South Wales and attended Mt St Patrick's College and was said to have had a difficult time in high school as he was a victim of bullying.His first big hit was the 1994 Australian film...
directedA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
a
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
co-written with
Michael GoldenbergMichael Goldenberg is an American playwright and more recently a Hollywood screenwriter and director.Goldenberg was the screenwriter and director of Bed of Roses in 1996. He was the co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of Contact and co-adapted the 2003 live-action version of Peter Pan with...
which is based on the classic play and novel by
J. M. BarrieSir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM , more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish author and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys...
.
Jason IsaacsJason Isaacs is an English actor born in Liverpool, who is known for his performances as villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot, and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the internationally-broadcast American television series...
plays the roles of
Captain HookCaptain James Hook is a fictional character and the antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger galleon, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is...
and George Darling,
Olivia WilliamsOlivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films. As of 2009 she stars in the Joss Whedon sci-fi drama Dollhouse.-Early life:...
plays Mrs. Darling, while
Jeremy SumpterJeremy Robert Myron Sumpter is an American actor. He played the lead role in the 2003 film version of Peter Pan.- Early life :...
plays
Peter PanPeter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
,
Rachel Hurd-WoodRachel Clare Hurd-Wood is a British actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.- Childhood and family :Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
portrays
Wendy DarlingWendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional heroine and female protagonist in the Peter Pan stories by J. M. Barrie, and in most of their adaptations in other media...
, and
Ludivine SagnierLudivine Sagnier is a French actress and model, who has worked in 33 movies since 1989. She was nominated two César Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Swimming Pool and Un secret .-Early life:...
plays Tinker Bell. Noted actress
Lynn RedgraveLynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE is an English actress.A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn Redgrave trained in London, before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
plays a supporting role as Aunt Millicent, a new character created for the film.
Peter Pan is a
2003The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
film released as a joint venture of
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
,
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and
Revolution StudiosRevolution Studios was a film production company founded in 2000 by Joe Roth, a former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox. Revolution was a strategic partner of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed and marketed Revolution's films. The company shut down in October...
.
P. J. HoganPaul John "P. J." Hogan is an Australian film director.As a teenager, Hogan lived on the North Coast of New South Wales and attended Mt St Patrick's College and was said to have had a difficult time in high school as he was a victim of bullying.His first big hit was the 1994 Australian film...
directedA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
a
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
co-written with
Michael GoldenbergMichael Goldenberg is an American playwright and more recently a Hollywood screenwriter and director.Goldenberg was the screenwriter and director of Bed of Roses in 1996. He was the co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of Contact and co-adapted the 2003 live-action version of Peter Pan with...
which is based on the classic play and novel by
J. M. BarrieSir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM , more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish author and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys...
.
Jason IsaacsJason Isaacs is an English actor born in Liverpool, who is known for his performances as villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot, and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the internationally-broadcast American television series...
plays the roles of
Captain HookCaptain James Hook is a fictional character and the antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger galleon, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is...
and George Darling,
Olivia WilliamsOlivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films. As of 2009 she stars in the Joss Whedon sci-fi drama Dollhouse.-Early life:...
plays Mrs. Darling, while
Jeremy SumpterJeremy Robert Myron Sumpter is an American actor. He played the lead role in the 2003 film version of Peter Pan.- Early life :...
plays
Peter PanPeter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
,
Rachel Hurd-WoodRachel Clare Hurd-Wood is a British actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.- Childhood and family :Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
portrays
Wendy DarlingWendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional heroine and female protagonist in the Peter Pan stories by J. M. Barrie, and in most of their adaptations in other media...
, and
Ludivine SagnierLudivine Sagnier is a French actress and model, who has worked in 33 movies since 1989. She was nominated two César Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Swimming Pool and Un secret .-Early life:...
plays Tinker Bell. Noted actress
Lynn RedgraveLynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE is an English actress.A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn Redgrave trained in London, before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
plays a supporting role as Aunt Millicent, a new character created for the film. Contrary to the traditional stage casting, it featured a boy in the title role.
Plot
This story is a fairly faithful adaptation of the play and novel by
J. M. BarrieSir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM , more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish author and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys...
. In it, the perpetually young
Peter PanPeter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
(
Jeremy SumpterJeremy Robert Myron Sumpter is an American actor. He played the lead role in the 2003 film version of Peter Pan.- Early life :...
) from time to time visits his birthplace of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1904, where he becomes enthralled by the stories he hears being told by
Wendy DarlingWendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional heroine and female protagonist in the Peter Pan stories by J. M. Barrie, and in most of their adaptations in other media...
(
Rachel Hurd-WoodRachel Clare Hurd-Wood is a British actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.- Childhood and family :Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
) to her brothers. Peter invites her to come to Never Land and be a "mother" to his gang of Lost Boys. Wendy asks to bring her brothers John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), and Peter teaches them all to fly with him.
Out of jealousy, Tinker Bell (
Ludivine SagnierLudivine Sagnier is a French actress and model, who has worked in 33 movies since 1989. She was nominated two César Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Swimming Pool and Un secret .-Early life:...
) tricks the Lost Boys into shooting Wendy as she approaches the island, but Wendy survives and the boys ask her to be their mother and tell them stories. Meanwhile
Captain HookCaptain James Hook is a fictional character and the antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger galleon, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is...
(
Jason IsaacsJason Isaacs is an English actor born in Liverpool, who is known for his performances as villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot, and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the internationally-broadcast American television series...
) captures John and Michael and holds them as bait for Peter. Wendy and Peter free them, with help from the Amerindian princess Tiger Lily (
HaidaThe Haida are an indigenous nation of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The Haida territories comprise the archipelago of the Queen Charlotte Islands, known in the Haida language as Haida Gwaii , and the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in the southernmost Alaska Panhandle, which...
speaker, Carsen Gray) and the timely arrival of the crocodile that ate Hook's hand.
That night, Peter and Wendy share a romantic "fairy dance", while Hook spies on them, distressed that Peter has "found himself a Wendy". Peter reminds Wendy that "they" are make believe, and Wendy confronts Peter about his feelings about love. Peter becomes angry at her, and tells her to go home if she's not happy. Wendy, in tears, escapes to her little house. Peter returns to the Darling house, and seeing that Wendy's mother is still waiting for the children to come home, he attempts to shut the window (to make Wendy's parents forget about them). But, after a struggle, Wendy's parents manage to reopen the window, refusing to let it be closed.
Hook later finds Wendy and has her carried to his ship
Jolly Roger, where he entices her with a job telling stories to the crew, then sends a spy to follow her to the Lost Boys' underground lair. The pirates kidnap her and the boys by tying every one of them up and gagging them and carrying them over their shoulders to Hook's ship, but since Hook is unable to reach Peter, he leaves poison for Peter to drink when he wakes up. Tink stops him, poisoning herself in the process; Peter reaches out to the other children sleeping around the world, the Darlings, and even the pirates to sustain her with their belief in fairies.
Peter and Tink save the children from walking the plank, and they all fight against the pirates. Hook gets sprinkled with Tink's fairy dust, and duels Peter in the air, weakening him with taunts about Wendy abandoning him and growing up. Peter finally falls, unable to fight anymore and gives in to inevitable death. But with a "thimble"(kiss) from Wendy, Peter recovers and sends Hook above the crocodile. The crocodile takes a jump out of the water and snaps his jaws around Hook. Hook begins to think unhappy thoughts, which drag him down and allow the crocodile to swallow him alive. Wendy decides that she belongs back home, and returns to London with her brothers and the Lost Boys. Peter chooses not to grow up.
In an alternate ending based on Barrie's epilogue, included on the DVD release with unfinished special effects, Peter returns to the London house 20 years later, finding Wendy as a grown mother. He is briefly dismayed at what has happened to her, then turns to her daughter Jane and takes the girl with him to Never Land, with one last happy, boyish smile at Wendy.
Production
After the script was written, Stephen Cox, Chief Press Officer for
Great Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street Hospital is a medical institution specialising in the care of children. It was founded in London in 1852 as the Hospital for Sick Children, making it the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world. Now an NHS hospital...
for Children NHS Trust and the Institute for Child Health, gave the hospital's approval, saying, "We have read the script by P. J. Hogan and Michael Goldenberg and are delighted to report that we feel that it is in keeping with the original work whilst communicating to an audience with modern sensibilities."
The visual effects in the film are a mixture of practical and digital. The fairies that appear in the film are actors composited into the film with some digital enhancements. According to actor Jason Isaacs, the filmmakers were impressed with actress Ludivine Sagnier's performance and decided to abandon their plans to make Tinker Bell entirely computer animated. The film also features a large, computer-generated crocodile. Another character, an animatronic parrot, appears in some scenes on the pirate ship.
A complex harness was built to send the live-action actors rotating and gliding through the air for the flight sequences. They were then composited into the shots of London and Never Land, although they are sometimes replaced with computer-generated figures. Other aspects of bringing the fantastic story to life include the complex sword-fighting sequences, for which the actors were trained. Sumpter said that, "I had to train for five months before the shoot. I had to do harness training to learn how to fly and learn how to swordfight," and that, "I got stabbed a couple of times with a sword." Hogan says that the flying scenes very difficult to accomplish, but that, "it was tougher on the kids than it was for me. They were up there on the harness 12' off the ground, having to make it look like flying is easy and fun."
Sumpter grew several inches over the course of the film's production, requiring staging tricks to retain Hook's height advantage over Peter in face-to-face scenes late in the process. Hollywood-based producer Lucy Fisher also said that, ""The window he flies out of had to be enlarged twice."
The film is dedicated to
Dodi Al-FayedEmad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed known as Dodi Al-Fayed , was the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed , owner of British department store Harrods, Fulham Football Club and the Hôtel Ritz Paris...
, who was executive producer of the 1991 film
HookHook is a 1991 family fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Charlie Korsmo and Amber Scott. Hook acts as a sequel to Peter Pan's original adventures, focusing on a grown-up Peter who has forgotten his childhood...
. Al-Fayed planned to produce a live action version of Peter Pan, and shared his ideas with Princess Diana (who was President of Great Ormond St Hospital), who said she "could not wait to see the production once it was underway." Al-Fayed's father, Mohammed Al-Fayed, co-produced the 2003 adaptation of the classic fairy tale after his son died in the car crash which also killed Princess Diana.
Finding NeverlandFinding Neverland is a 2004 British/American semi-biographical film about playwright J. M. Barrie, directed by Marc Forster. The screenplay by David Magee is based on the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee.-Plot synopsis:...
, a film about
J. M. BarrieSir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM , more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish author and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys...
and the creation of Peter Pan, was originally scheduled to be released in 2003, but the producers of this film – who held the screen rights to the story – refused permission for that film to use scenes from the play unless its release was delayed until the following year.
Filming, which lasted about twelve months and ended in June 2003, took place entirely inside sound stages on
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
's Gold Coast and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
. According to Fisher, the decision to shoot in Australia was based on the low value of the
Australian dollarThe Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
at that time. Hogan had originally planned on filming in a variety of locations such as
TahitiTahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The island had a population of 178,133 inhabitants according to the August 2007 census. This makes it the most populous island of French Polynesia,...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
, and
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
but abandoned this idea after scouting some of the locations. Filming on sound stages did, however, help "retain some of the theatricality of the original play", something which Hogan thought was important.
Merchandise
For the promotion of the film, the original novel of
Peter Pan by J.M Barrie was released with the cover that was the same look as the teaser poster. A video game was also released only for the Gameboy Advance on December 10, 2003. In it players can fly, fight, and solve various puzzles and collect special objects for special prizes and bonus points. The game received mixed reviews overall with Gamezone giving it a 6.4/10, Cubed3 giving it a 5.2/10, and
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
Power giving it a 2.2/5. Cubed3 criticized the game for the bad dialogue and repetitive and rushed gameplay, but praising the graphics and sound.
Reception
The film was generally well received by critics. Based on 129 reviews collected by the film review aggregator
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
, 76% of critics gave
Peter Pan a positive review. Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
gave the film three and a half out of four stars.
The film earned $48.4 million at the box office in the United States and another $73.5 million outside of the US. It faced competition from the highly-anticipated
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King released the week before, and
Cheaper by the DozenCheaper by the Dozen is a American comedy film about a family with twelve children . The film takes its title from the 1948 biography of Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth and their twelve children, but other than the title and the concept of a family with twelve children, the film...
which opened on the same day.
Jeremy Sumpter won a
Saturn AwardThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Best Performance by a younger actor, for which Rachel Hurd-Wood was also nominated. The film was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film. Sumpter also won a 2004
Young Artist AwardThe Young Artist Awards also known as the 'Hollywood Young Artist Award' are presented yearly by the Young Artist Foundation. Started in 1980 by long-standing Hollywood Foreign Press member Maureen Dragone, they were envisioned specifically as awards to be presented to talented young people in...
; Harry Newell, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and Carson Gray were all nominated.