Peter Pan

As the 14th animated feature film for Disney (I’m skipping Alice in Wonderland), Peter Pan is perhaps one of Disney’s most well-known movies (at least all my friends have seen it).  It was well-received and was a box office success back in the 1950’s.  While Peter Pan has “birthed” some of the most popular Disney characters ever, I think the movie does have a fair amount of content that makes me more than a little uncomfortable; and I have to believe that my friends would agree, most especially my friends who are females and who are Native Americans.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this Disney film!

Peter Pan (based on a British play/novel of the same name) is about a young girl named Wendy and her two younger brothers.  One day, a young boy named Peter Pan and his fairy friend, Tinkerbell, go to Wendy’s house because Peter lost his shadow.  Wendy fixes his shadow and, in return, Peter takes Wendy and her brothers on a trip to Neverland where they go on a crazy journey.  This movie does have some good messages (like how you should never really say “good-bye”), and I think the smartest character in the movie is Nana the dog because she’s never unkind to anyone; but I also think the movie is mostly overshadowed by its characters’ racism.  First of all, there are very negative portrayals of Native Americans in the movie as they are portrayed as speaking nothing but gibberish (very unrealistic and offensive) and as people who aren’t very smart (and they even get their own derogatory song); in addition, they are also called horrid names.  Second of all, I don’t think the females in the movie are portrayed well since they don’t come across as very smart and spend most of the movie fighting over boys (if you look closely, there are topless mermaids in one scene); and even the villain, Captain Hook, makes a comment of how “a jealous female can be tricked into anything” (which he doesn’t get to say because he’s not a female).  Yet, all the while, Peter is thought of as a “hero,” but I don’t think real heroes should have a habit of being rude to others, which Peter seems to be.  Due to the racism and sexism I picked up on when watching Peter Pan, I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending it to parents of young kids. While the movie seems to be trying to give the message that you should always be somewhat child-like, there is a strong difference between child-like and childish.  I know that this review is probably coming across as a negative one but I feel as if we need to tell the truth to young kids about these kinds of topics so they know that it’s not ok to tolerate discriminatory behavior.  Also, I would encourage my readers to go and read something “real” (as in credible non-fiction) about Native Americans, our first Americans, most especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.”  Peter Pan