Peter Pan

Yes, it's a kids movie. But I really liked it when I saw it in theaters. I liked it more than I remembered when it came out on video. I think Jason Isaacs is the immortal good/bad guy (the same actor plays Mr. Darling and Hook in the stage tradition). They play up the emergent adolescence angle, and I think it adds a nice spin to an otherwise one-dimensional plot.

Mrs. Darling has one great scene when she discusses how brave their father is. The kids doubt her, since he doesn't fight pirates or indians. She tells her children that he has many given up many dreams for his family. They ask where they went. She replies that they are in the top drawer of his bureau, and every once in a while he gets them out and looks them over, and puts them away. I thought it nice to see Mr. Darling have more character than usual. Often he is just the blathering idiot who blusters his way into the nursery and destroy's Wendy's youth in a fit of anger (watch the animated version). He has more depth in the stage play, where he confines himself to Nana's doghouse as punishment.

The kid who plays Peter Pan is going to be the new teeny bopper star in a year or two -- he's fourteen now. The only non-british cast member.

The fairy dance scene is divine on the big screen...it loses something on video. The score is beautiful...the composer must be a student of John Williams style of writing. The sound is similar to the Harry Potter soundtrack. I was so relieved that they exchanged the "clap if you believe in fairies" thing for a very cool chant. (I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!) It looks cheesy in writing. You'll have to watch it. Musicians, prepare to cringe just a bit as the chanting falls out of synch with the score, but it is breathtaking. It's almost better in French. (Je crois que les Fees exist! J'y crois! J'y Crois!)

An honorable mention to Tinkerbell; a french actress who spent the entire filming reacting to nothing in front of a bluescreen.