Film Review

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)

A young girl who, defying her parents’ wishes to attend boarding school, travels with her two younger brothers to the magical Neverland.

J.M Barrie’s original 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grown Up has been repeatedly adapted for film and television, but only Disney’s 1953 animation can be considered an enduring success. Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991) has been reappraised by the generation who saw it as children, but at the time it was a critical failure and box office disappointment. P.J Hogan’s 2003 version starring Jason Isaacs was also a financial flop, as was Joe Wright’s 2015 adaptation with Hugh Jackman, and various smaller attempts also haven’t set the world on fire. And yet there’s always a Peter Pan in development somewhere, as it’s considered an evergreen intellectual property. This is fantastic news for Great Ormond Hospital Charity, of course.

David Lowery (The Green Knight) announcing another retelling of Barrie’s story caught my attention because the filmmaker claimed it’s always been a passion project for him. More importantly, despite still…