I have to say that I loved the original Peter Pan movie. So, maybe, I'm not the best to review this movie. It fell terrible short of the first.
The first problem was the music. Disney takes great pride in finding the right music for its movies. So, what happened? They must have been in a hurry. I think a three year old could have played most of it on a toy keyboard. The simplicity and tone quality are just that bad.
Shall we talk about the story. Canned and rehashed from the original. There is an octopus plaguing Captain Hook (Corey Burton)much like the Croc did. Tinker Bell is jealous of the new girl, Jane(Blayne Weaver), like she was of Wendy. Of course there's kidnappings. And, Peter Pan is lead into Hook's grasp by a female. Same old, same old.
The way the plots developed is rather childish. Or, I should say, your kids will love it. You will be bored. Not like most Disney classics that can be enjoyed by both age groups. This effort is wholly worthy of a video release not a big screen release. I don't think Disney will break even on this one. Though, with the Disney name, there will be some poor people suckered into seeing it.
Unfortunately, for the simplistic plot, there are some scenes too complicated for the young viewer. A poor attempt to capture the more mature audience.
The good news is that there is good news about the movie. The facial expressions are very life like. We have been seeing improvement on this front in recent movies. But, this takes the cake. Now, if they could work on body language. But, it's for kids. Kids don't understand body language.
The voice overs are nice, as well. Kath Soucie does Wendy's voice over. Oh, yes, Wendy is Jane's mother. She is trying to raise 2 kids during a World War in which her husband has been taken away from the home. She watches as her daughter grows up too fast. And, her son is too young to understand separation.
Jeff Bennett did the voice of Smee. He is the only one who did the voice as it was in the original. Nobody else made the attempt.
But, I think Corey Burton's Captain Hook was the best. He may have outdone the original. The voice inflections where superb.
The animation wasn't the greatest. I assume it was computer animated. But, it looked like the older drawn cartoons. While that isn't bad, I don't think that's the look they were going for.
The number of flashbacks where horrendous. It's like watching a series on TV where they do the flashback show. All the actors decided to take that week off. A few flashbacks are ok, but it was too much.
And should we mention the stuffing of original characters. There is a scene in which Peter Pan takes Jane for a flight. We see ever character from the original movie in about 10 seconds. I have to wonder what the purpose of this was. They use some lame excuse of showing Jane around. But, she has grown up on the Peter Pan stories. I fail to view this as an important part of the story. More like someone filling time. Which, this movie does seem short.
Don't waste your money. Wait for the video. Your kids will like it. And, it's better than a lot of things they could be watching.
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