Hollywood is intent on doing one remake after another. A combination of seeking name recognition and lacking originality drives the film industry to keep rehashing the same material, year after year. The excuse for these all too frequent adaptations is doing a new take on an old story, which invariably means a darker take. You’d think that, by now, the sinister twist on a lighthearted tale would be getting old, but no one has told the filmmakers yet that this technique is worn out.
Particularly tired is the trope of making the villain a misunderstood antihero while turning the good guy into a morally ambiguous egomaniac. What approach do you think Disney chose when formulating “Peter Pan and Wendy,” the live-action remake of the classic 1953 cartoon “Peter Pan.” This movie hasn’t received the notoriety of the other live-action remake Disney released this year, “The Little Mermaid,” since it was released directly to Disney+ instead of in theaters. It’s an example of a film that destroyed its basic story by trying to make too much of it.
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“Peter Pan and Wendy” was released on Disney+ on April 28, 2023. The title characters were played by Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson, two relative unknowns, so the cast’s only big name is Jude Law, who played Captain Hook. Filmed in Canada and on the Faroe Islands in Denmark, this production has a very gray aesthetic. If a screenwriter had a checklist of politically correct topics to include in a film, the result wouldn’t look much different than this. They covered everything. The Lost Boys include four girls (who aren’t Lost Girls, mind you, just female Lost Boys). Half of the Lost Boys are “people of color.” Peter’s right-hand man, Slightly, was played by Noah Matthews Matofsky, who is the first actor with Down Syndrome to be featured in a Disney film.
This version of the “Peter Pan” story begins on the last night before the oldest Darling child, Wendy, is going away to school. She is very strong-willed and resists the idea of growing up. That night, she receives a visit from Peter Pan, the magical figure who has dominated her childhood bedtime stories. He whisks her and her two younger brothers, John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe), away to Neverland, after teaching them to fly with the help of some pixie dust from his fairy friend, Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi). Once in Neverland, they have the usual adventures from this story, including the Lost Boys, the local Indians, and the pirates. The main difference is that Captain Hook, Peter’s pirate nemesis, is revealed to be a Lost Boy who was once Peter’s best friend, before Pan drove him out of Neverland. This Peter Pan is less sympathetic than the playful imp in the cartoon, especially since his real age is emphasized by the Hook storyline.
Many old Disney movies included racial stereotypes which are now taboo. The original “Peter Pan” cartoon, for instance, includes a content warning on Disney+ for its “offensive” depiction of Tiger Lily and other Native American characters. Rather than eliminating the controversial character, this new film cast a Canadian Indian from the Bigstone Cree First Nation, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, in an exaggeratedly dignified interpretation of the role. She’s the only Indian in this version, and her depiction is so careful to not offend anybody that she spends most of her screen time tossing her hair dramatically. However, other sinister themes were added instead, such as an unsettling predatory flavor in Captain Hook’s behavior toward John and Michael.
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“Angels with Dirty Faces” is one of the Warner Bros. gangster films, starring quintessential crime players like James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Pat O’Brien offers some compensating moral values as a Catholic priest, Ann Sheridan is a love interest, and the Dead End Kids (later the Bowery Boys) make their third onscreen appearance as a group of local urchins who are caught between the influence of Cagney’s and O’Brien’s characters.
Two young Irish-American boys, Rocky Sullivan (Frankie Burke) and Jerry Connolly (O’Brien), are juvenile delinquents who are robbing a railroad car when the film begins. Connolly escapes, but Sullivan is caught by the police and sent to reform school. Almost twenty years later, Sullivan is a convicted robber, while Connolly has become a priest. After getting out of prison, Sullivan goes to visit his old friend and ends up renting a room in a boarding house run by a pretty girl whom he bullied in school, Laury Martin (Sheridan). Later, he visits his crooked lawyer, Jim Frazier (Bogart), and tries to get back the money he’s been keeping for him. Naturally, Frazier says he’ll give him the money by the end of the week but has no intention of doing so. Meanwhile, Sullivan runs into a group of local urchins (the Dead End Kids), who pick his pocket but end up making him their idol. Connolly worries that the boys may be swayed toward Sullivan’s life of crime as he fights to bring them to the path of righteousness.
These movies sound pretty different, I know, but they have some intrinsic similarities. Both center around a charismatic male, Peter Pan in one case and Rocky Sullivan in the other, who is both youthful and worldly. He leads a group of mischievous youths (the Dead End Kids and the Lost Boys), whose shenanigans are more than just innocent fun. His leading lady (Laury and Wendy) is a feisty young woman who tries to lead him to the right path. The biggest similarity is that the two protagonists, whom I would classify as antiheroes, have become the archenemies of their childhood friends, Captain James Hook and Father Jerry Connolly. Both Pan and Sullivan have a traumatic death scene, although the former comes back to life later.
Friends and Enemies
It’s a strange day when a Disney film about a boy who won’t grow up is darker than a Warner Bros. gangster film, but that’s the case here. Since “Angels with Dirty Faces” was released in 1938, it doesn’t feature the excessive violence, anti-social message, and immoral romantic relationships that one finds in the gangster films of the early 1930s. Films released after July 1934 were self-regulated by the Production Code Administration (PCA), which held all Hollywood films up to the decency standards of the Motion Picture Production Code. As a result, this film features a moral about the evils of organized crime, bad influences on youth, and how easy it is to go astray.
If you want to watch a movie about childhood friends who have gone astray, a bunch of delinquent ragamuffins, and a strong-willed leading lady—and appropriate for the whole family—don’t watch “Peter Pan and Wendy”! A much more uplifting, wholesome option is “Angels with Dirty Faces.”
