Peter Pan & Wendy attempts to retell a story I’m sure you all know fairly well. In the early 1900s, Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) is a young girl in London who is about to move to boarding school. She’s afraid of the changes and uncertainties that come with growing up. One day, she meets Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), the quintessential symbol of eternal youth and childlike innocence. He takes her and her brothers on an adventure to Neverland, a place where no one ever has to grow up, and along the way they learn the value of maturity. However, this remake lacks the charm, passion, and creativity necessary for an adaptation of this story to work.

For one, the cast mostly did not work for me. Alexander Molony has zero charisma, and his arrogance just comes across as cringe-worthy instead of charming. I wasn’t a fan of Tinker Bell and Wendy’s rivalry over Peter in the 1953 movie, but with its removal, Yara Shahidi gets nothing to do as Tinker Bell. This may be a blessing, though, as her CGI is extremely uncanny. Ever Anderson is decent as Wendy. While her acting occasionally falls flat, she’s easily the most capable of the child cast. Alyssa Wapanatâhk has a few monologues as Tiger Lily — likely intended to give some depth to the portrayal of her indigenous tribe that the animated version lacked — but it fails to make any sort of impact thanks to her completely unconvincing line delivery. Jude Law is somewhat interesting as Captain Hook as he’s given a much more emotionally complex character arc than you’d expect, but he plays the character a bit too straight-forwardly to be truly memorable. In the end, I still wound up preferring the campier and meaner version of the animated original. 

The main problem here is that this film is absolutely hideous to look at, with the desaturated colour palette removing any sense of wonder and spectacle that you should feel watching the characters going on this supposedly grand adventure.There’s a large chunk of the film that takes place in darkness that makes the visuals so murky and bland that I might as well have been looking at a black screen. There are multiple flashback sequences to Wendy’s childhood that look prettier than anything that goes on in the dour and drab Neverland. This isn’t a total surprise, as Disney is famously content with their live-action remakes looking ghastly, lifeless, and hideous. However, it’s disappointing that for a film proclaimed to be David Lowery’s passion project, very little is done to distinguish it in any way. Lowery adds nothing to this that any other unimaginative Disney-chosen director couldn’t have done.

Even the attempts at tense action and extended fight choreography fall flat. It’s difficult to take any of the stakes seriously when you have these 8-year-olds holding their own against adult pirates. I understand that you’re not supposed to think about it too much, but it’s not at all interesting to watch regardless. 

Peter Pan & Wendy occasionally achieves the emotional complexity that the Peter Pan story is known for, and I appreciate Disney’s efforts in trying to modernize this classic tale with a more diverse cast and less problematic depictions of Native Americans. Alas, I found this to be yet another slog in the long line of Disney’s soulless live-action remakes. It’s held back by ugly visuals, bad acting and eye-roll worthy blunt storytelling. There’s no reason anyone should ever watch this version over its earlier and more interesting adaptations.

3/10