Thoughts on Peter Pan (movie-based)
May. 17th, 2004 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyOne of the things that I like about the recent Peter Pan is that there's meta right in the text. The story comments on itself.
There are two characters who make metatexual comments (Hook and Smee -- both adults, both pirates) and then there's the format of the story itself -- it's a story wrapped in a voice-over of Wendy many years later (long enough to have children and for her children to have children). But though the Wendy voice-over can be considered a guide, it is not a narrative, it's a personal opinion as presented by one of the characters in the story. What we see on the screen goes beyond the narration -- we see things that Wendy did not and never learned about, therefore, in considering the story, we should not consider the voice-over to be factual.
Setting aside, of course, the fact of this being a fiction. All fictions have truthful bases and all truths have ideas that have no base at the heart of them. Fact and fiction are intertwined, knotted together by dreams and hopes and wishes.
There are many questions to ask of the story. First and foremost, what is Neverland? We can see that Neverland's very being is driven by Peter's presence and his feelings. The ice melts and the flowers blossom when he returns home. Moreover, the color scheme shifts based on what Peter is feeling (particularly in the last battle with Hook). He is the pin that holds Neverland together.
Why is that? Why Peter Pan? There's a hint in how his story differs from that of the Lost Boys -- he chose to leave (or imagines himself choosing -- belief is a powerful thing). Peter chose Neverland and chooses it again every moment that he rejects needing anything else. The Lost Boys are, as Peter says, well named, and it is with reason that Peter is not one of them. He's not Lost, he's Exploring, which is, as are many things, only a difference in state of mind.
So he either discovers or creates Neverland. It truly doesn't matter which, not to Peter. And the Lost Boys come. And it's not enough, for Peter is curious above all things. Children tend to be. He discovers Wendy and her stories. Now, in the movie, there is no hint of whether or not Wendy is unique and whether Peter does forget her, but I find the ending a tragedy either way. If he remembers, he hurts for no reason because he chooses never to grow past it. And if he forgets, then he'll go through the same pain countless times, because he doesn't know any better.
Peter Pan thinks that Neverland is a paradise, or would, if he had the words. But a paradise without memory is only a wisp of cloud, changing the moment the wind does. Forever frozen as a child, Peter does not live... as Angel put it, he echoes. Because life is change, but more than that, it is growth. Peter Pan chooses not to grow, chooses to remain a child.
As Hook says, Peter is a tragedy.
And Peter knows it, yet his fear of being what he hates traps him in place, forever running in circles.
"I wish always to be a little boy and to have fun."
Always is a very, very long time.
There are two characters who make metatexual comments (Hook and Smee -- both adults, both pirates) and then there's the format of the story itself -- it's a story wrapped in a voice-over of Wendy many years later (long enough to have children and for her children to have children). But though the Wendy voice-over can be considered a guide, it is not a narrative, it's a personal opinion as presented by one of the characters in the story. What we see on the screen goes beyond the narration -- we see things that Wendy did not and never learned about, therefore, in considering the story, we should not consider the voice-over to be factual.
Setting aside, of course, the fact of this being a fiction. All fictions have truthful bases and all truths have ideas that have no base at the heart of them. Fact and fiction are intertwined, knotted together by dreams and hopes and wishes.
There are many questions to ask of the story. First and foremost, what is Neverland? We can see that Neverland's very being is driven by Peter's presence and his feelings. The ice melts and the flowers blossom when he returns home. Moreover, the color scheme shifts based on what Peter is feeling (particularly in the last battle with Hook). He is the pin that holds Neverland together.
Why is that? Why Peter Pan? There's a hint in how his story differs from that of the Lost Boys -- he chose to leave (or imagines himself choosing -- belief is a powerful thing). Peter chose Neverland and chooses it again every moment that he rejects needing anything else. The Lost Boys are, as Peter says, well named, and it is with reason that Peter is not one of them. He's not Lost, he's Exploring, which is, as are many things, only a difference in state of mind.
So he either discovers or creates Neverland. It truly doesn't matter which, not to Peter. And the Lost Boys come. And it's not enough, for Peter is curious above all things. Children tend to be. He discovers Wendy and her stories. Now, in the movie, there is no hint of whether or not Wendy is unique and whether Peter does forget her, but I find the ending a tragedy either way. If he remembers, he hurts for no reason because he chooses never to grow past it. And if he forgets, then he'll go through the same pain countless times, because he doesn't know any better.
Peter Pan thinks that Neverland is a paradise, or would, if he had the words. But a paradise without memory is only a wisp of cloud, changing the moment the wind does. Forever frozen as a child, Peter does not live... as Angel put it, he echoes. Because life is change, but more than that, it is growth. Peter Pan chooses not to grow, chooses to remain a child.
As Hook says, Peter is a tragedy.
And Peter knows it, yet his fear of being what he hates traps him in place, forever running in circles.
"I wish always to be a little boy and to have fun."
Always is a very, very long time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 04:14 am (UTC)Especially the scene where he watches Wendy interacting with her family and he's clearly longing to be part of that but instead he says: "To live would be an awfully great adventure."
More to convince himself than anything...
what is Neverland?
I've wondered about that... it seems like Neverland is a part of Peter. What would happen if Peter did die? Would Neverland vanish? Or would it continue?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 06:37 am (UTC)More to convince himself than anything...
Such a sad scene, because you can see that part of him wants to stay so badly -- when he smiles at Tink, his eyes are still sad.