STUDIO: Disney | DIRECTORS: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske | CAST: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Heather Angel, Bill Thompson, Paul Collins, Tommy Luske
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 2/5/2013 | PRICE: Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.99, Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo $44.99
BONUSES: featurettes, deleted songs and scenes, commentary, music videos
SPECS: G | 77 min. | Animated family | 1.33:1 aspect ratio | 7.1 DTS-HD audio | English, French and Spanish subtitlesRATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie
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Never Land looks wonderful in high-definition.
Disney’s 1953 adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s beloved play, Peter Pan is an adventure that stands the test of time. Older audiences will probably enjoy it more now for the nostalgia, but younger viewers will be as glued as ever, thoroughly enjoying the songs and action.
The story of young Wendy, Michael and John whisked away to Never Land with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell to battle pirate Hook is fun and delightful. Watching it now, it’s funny to notice the running storyline of jealousy and infatuation toward Peter Pan from the girls in the movie, from Tinker Bell, to Wendy, to the mermaids in Mermaid Lagoon. We’ve come a long way from that to Brave‘s fiercely independent Merida.
But it’s the boys being boys adventure of Peter Pan that makes the film’s story so endearing. The classic hand-drawn animation, created in Disney’s Nine Old Men days, is gorgeous, especially Tinker Bell. And it all looks great in this high-definition version. The movie’s sound is good too, with Disney going the extra mile again by including a 7.1 sound track.
On the special features side, the Blu-ray contains some of the extras from the film’s Platinum Edition DVD
Of the new bonuses, the documentary Growing Up With Nine Old Men is a must-see. Ted Thomas, son of Disney animator and Nine Old Men member Frank Thomas (also one half of the acclaimed Frank & Ollie animators) visits the children of the animators to talk about their childhoods and fathers. There are a lot of documentaries about these animators, and many have been on earlier Disney discs, but don’t shy away from this one thinking you already know everything there is to know about these amazing men. The film offers plenty of fun anecdotes, but the most interesting is perhaps seeing the artwork they did in their spare time.
Also fun is the featurette “Tinker Bell: A Fairy’s Tale,” showing interviews and reference footage with Tink model Margaret Kerry used by the animators. Some of it is repeated in “You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan,” but both are worth a watch.
The Blu-ray also offers plenty of deleted scenes (in storyboards) and songs, and a different version of the story shown in storyboards in the featurette “The Peter Pan That Almost Was.”
Peter Pan was a personal movie for Walt Disney himself, as he had used up all his allowance to see the play when he was a child and had dreamed of going to Never Land ever since. An article he wrote about his love for this story is read and put to footage in “In Walt’s Words ‘Why I Made Peter Pan.'”
There’s also a commentary track, with Roy Disney introducing a host of others, and other featurettes, all in all enough material for a Peter Pan-filled afternoon.
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