Peter Pan

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Peter Pan's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Peter Pan completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 19 December 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

The story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook has been done many times before but this present version includes very good graphic effects which make it interesting and exciting to watch. It is well acted and also contains a lot of humour which lightens the darker side of the story. As such it is quite entertaining for adults and adolescents.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Peter Pan contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

This movie is a retelling of J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan, the story of a young boy who never wants to grow up. Set in early 20th century London, Wendy Darling lives with her parents and younger brothers John and Michael. Their St. Bernard Dog is their nanny, complete with headdress. Wendy has a gift for storytelling and enthrals her brothers with fairy stories and tales of pirates. Peter Pan is an unseen visitor at these story tellings until one day he appears to Wendy and wants to take her back to Neverland. Wendy wants to go but not without her brothers so Peter Pan teaches the three children to fly and away they go to Neverland, a fantastic place where good and evil are constantly at odds.

Peter Pan introduces Wendy to the lost boys who have no mother and they immediately want to adopt her as their mother. They build Wendy her own house and they love to listen to Wendy’s stories. The evil on the island is perpetrated by the wicked Captain Hook and his cutthroat pirates. Pirates have always fascinated Wendy and her brothers and now they are caught up in their own serious, swashbuckling pirate adventure. Captain Hook and Peter Pan have their own vendetta to settle as it was Peter Pan who cut off Hook’s right hand requiring him to wear his choice of hooks or claws to suit the occasion. Peter Pan has his own fairy Tinkerbell, who is quite often a bad fairy, to help him. This results in many battles in which Hook and his crew outnumber Peter Pan and friends but they have magic on their side. At times it seems as if all is lost but good wins in the end and then Wendy and her brothers have to decide whether to stay in the magical Neverland or return home to their parents.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence, some of it comic, including the following scenes:

• The dog slides across the bank floor collecting Wendy and the post boy and crashes into the bank managers.
• Tinkerbell attacks Wendy and pulls her hair because she likes Peter Pan
• Peter Pan throws Tinkerbell away
• Michael tries to fly and crashes onto the floor
• A pirate shoots at parrot
• Pirates blast cannon into clouds where the children are
• Hook stabs a pirate with his hook
• Tinkerbell puts fairy dust into a boy’s eyes blinding him
• Tinkerbell gives the lost boys the wrong message to shoot at the children – Wendy falls to the ground unconscious.
• Peter Pan threatens to kill boys with a sword
• Hook threatens an Indian squaw with his hook to her throat
• Michael, John and Indian squaw are tied up with their hands above their heads, mouths gagged and lowered into water.
• Hook shoots a pirate who falls into the water
• Hook aims a rifle at Peter Pan but misses, Hook and Peter Pan have several sword fights
• A pirate attacks Wendy who fights back with a sword.
• Michael hits a pirate in the groin
• Peter Pan is trapped in a net which drops into the water.
• Hook is about to cut Peter Pan’s throat when a huge crocodile attacks him.
• Tinkerbell gets shut in a drawer and locked in a cupboard
• Hook tries to stab Peter Pan with his claw
• Hook puts poison in Peter Pan’s drink which Tinkerbell drinks instead and falls to the ground, dead.
• Wendy is captured by the pirates, tied up with rope and threatened by Hook with a blade. She’s made to walk the plank.
• Hook picks John up with his hook and kicks him.
• Hook shoots two of the pirates
• Two pirates stab each other
• Hook strikes Peter Pan who falls on to the deck. Hook has him by the throat and he has blood on his face. Peter Pan almost dies.
• Peter Pan comes back to life with great energy and blasts everyone off the ship.
• The crocodile swallows Hook.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group would be scared by the above violent scenes as well as the following:

• Wendy tells her brothers stories of pirates who “claw your belly with an iron hook” and who have red eyes.
• Peter Pan flies around the bedroom and when startled rises up and sticks to the ceiling
• Tinkerbell opens the bedroom window and flies around the room as a bright light creating chaos, knocking books off shelves and messing up the room.
• The pirate ship is a wreck and looks eerie
• The parrot has a wooden leg and screeches
• Hook is evil looking with dishevelled long hair, tattoos and his hook for a hand.
• The lost boys have no mother
• Michael and John knock on a large rock which turns out to be the head of a huge, monstrous crocodile which roars suddenly at the boys.
• Michael and John get caught in a trap and hang upside down.
• The mermaids are ghostly looking creatures with webbed hands. One of them tries to pull Wendy into the water – Peter Pan screeches at it who then screeches evilly back, but lets go of Wendy.
• Hook takes the boys into a an underwater cave which is full of skeletons.
• The boys and the Indian squaw almost drown in the water as they sink slowly into it.
• Peter Pan talks in Hook’s voice
• Peter Pan climbs out of the water and up the bank over the skeletons
• The crocodile is very scary and roars up and snaps at Hook. In the final scene it swallows Hook.
• One of the pirates has boils all over his face.
• When Tinkerbell drinks the poison her light goes out and she turns cold and dies. Peter Pan picks her up, carries her outside and cries over her. She does come back to life however.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children in this age group would mostly understand that this is just fantasy but could still be frightened by the pirates attacking and threatening the children. They could also be frightened by the crocodile particularly when it swallows Hook.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group would not be frightened.

Sexual references

There are no real sexual references; however Peter Pan and Wendy kiss as do Michael and the Indian squaw. It seems odd that children should be acting out adult concepts.

Nudity and sexual activity

When Michael and John are hanging upside down, their bare buttocks are exposed.

Use of substances

When Wendy is captured by the pirates she’s offered Muscat or Rum to drink and a box of cigars. Hook drinks something in a goblet.

Coarse language

There is no coarse language.

The movie's message

This is a good versus evil battle in which the ‘good’ side wins. However Peter Pan and Tinkerbell can be quite bad also, with Peter Pan being credited with chopping off Hook’s arm and feeding it to the crocodiles. Also the movie promotes childhood by encouraging fantasy and imagination and the desire to never grow old.

Some values parents may wish to encourage include:

• bravery
• loyalty

Values parents may wish to discourage include:

• Violence as a way to solve conflict.