Which movie version represents Barrie's story the best?

[TheWendybird]

See i guess we differ on the romantic thing...i think Peter could feel it but would never admit to it. However it is clear he doesn't want her to leave and the scene before the thimble on the deck of the boat i think is very heartbreaking...that being said...Hook flying is just...i dunno i don't care for that at all. But the talk of Wendy leaving causing Peter to fall I think was kind of a neat thought...in the end every child wants to be loved....not romantically I mean just loved in general..Hook telling Peter he dies alone and unloved just like him is horrible....but Wendy does love Peter and she lets him know this...and I think children are capable of that emotion but thats my opinion....i just think todays kids don't have any good examples of real love to go by anymore...we're in a different society from even that era and there was a time when children married at Wendy's age (way back)..it's just our era thinks it a taboo or something. I think Peter doesn't ever say or admit it but I think he does feel love of the same kind for Wendy...but the admission I think is the scary thing. Perhaps had they been in ancient times and not the era it's set in Peter, perhaps would have had a different perspective on it all. It's really all a matter of what you know. None the less...Wendy lets him know in some form....she loves him and that gives him strength...even had it been in a motherly way instead of the romantic way...I still like the concept. I think that's the point...I think Hook THINKS he knows the riddle of Pan's being but he doesn't really...he says he cannot love...i think the movie tries to make the point that he can. Likewise I find the original story to be kind of jumping around on this idea....sort of like when Barrie in his narration acts like he dislikes Mrs. Darling but then other times he thinks she's swell haha I think Peter Pan is a conflicted character..he doesn't know what falling in love would mean. But in little white bird he asked Maime to marry him....I know it's not really looked at as official Peter Pan but Maime is the forerunner of Wendy so I think it's quite possible. I think I've said before that I don't like Pan to be put in a box so I like to think he felt that way he just didn't want to say it out loud in the original story...plus the fact the only kind of love from a lady he understood about I think was mothers...it doesn't mean he didn't feel it just he didn't know what it was....just my thoughts...not that they're worth much lol I just find that there are even some today...who fell in love as children, grew up together and married...I have heard of people in this era and others...that knew as children...they loved someone of the opposite sex as a child and never stopped. So I do think children feel love.

[AlexanderDavid]

It's fine to take that interpretation of the movie, but even if I agreed, the problem is that the movie is TELLING us that's what it's about, rather than letting us figure it out for ourselves (or not, just letting us enjoy the story and not worry about "deeper meaning").  I don't mind looking at people's interpretations of Peter Pan (in fact, I enjoy and appreciate such things) but for a movie to come right out and SAY "this is what the movie is about" kind of ruins it for me.

It would be like if Aslan came right out and said, "You know me in your world as Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, the only Son of God.  Therefore now that you will never enter Narnia again, know me and serve me by that name."  If one of the Narnia movies had him saying that people would be complaining that it was Christian propaganda, and they'd be right.

Instead he says (forgive me if my quote is inaccurate): "You must learn to know me by another name."  He leaves it up in the air as to what that "other name" is--it need not necessarily be Jesus, it's just a way of saying "I am everywhere, and I have many names," which is certainly a Godlike idea in my opinion.

Long story short, I don't so much mind that particular interpretation of Peter Pan (although I don't necessarily agree with it personally) as I do that the movie makes it clear that it thinks that's the ONLY possible interpretation, something I didn't get from the original and which I therefore think makes the original superior.

[TheWendybird]

hmm odd I had placed a response here...and then i couldn't get to the forums again and my message was gone after...anyhow...what i pretty much said was...i agree ..it's not good to give it all away.