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Narrative
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Second Star To The Right, And Straight On 'Til Morning — the original directions Peter gives to Neverland, although it turns out there isn't really a 'direction' as such. He just gets there. He only gives these directions to sound clever to Wendy.
James M. Barrie was a prolific writer at the turn of the 20th century, but his most-beloved works are his play and novels about Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up and lives in Neverland, a Magical Land. He has a feisty fairy Sidekick in Tinkerbell.
One spring evening, Peter follows his wayward shadow into a young girl's bedroom. When Wendy Darling fastens his shadow back on, Peter invites her to come and look after his Lost Boys, similarly ageless kids who (like him) lack a mother.
Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael, fly away to Neverland, where the boys have many adventures while Wendy mothers them. Finally, after a climactic battle with Peter's archenemy, the pirate Captain Hook, Wendy decides she's had enough of Neverland. Peter agrees to let her go, and to let her take her brothers and the Lost Boys with her. Twenty years later, Peter Pan returns for Wendy's daughter Jane, and the adventures begin anew.
Peter Pan is a trickster, only nominally human. In Peter Pan in Kensignton Gardens, Peter is alluded to as being half bird; as all children in fact come from birds, but only Peter is close enough to his youth to remember being a bird. In Neverland, he is more like a playful demigod, with aspects of Puck and Pan. The character has become something of a cultural symbol for youthful exuberance and innocence, especially if it persists into adulthood; it also evokes the poignant flip side - never becoming truly mature. Michael Jackson identified with the character so much he named his estate (with an amusement park, et. al. on the grounds) "Neverland Ranch". The darker implications of eternal youth and perpetual irresponsibility is likely why a well-remembered 1987 film about teen vampires was called The Lost Boys.
The well-remembered 1953 Disney animated movie presents a cosier version of Peter Pan. It kept most of the incidents, but virtually none of the original dialogue. Also in the 1950s, a successful Broadway musical version of the story was launched; live TV broadcasts of it with Mary Martin as Peter were ratings winners, and this version is frequently staged in theaters great and small to this day. An unusual quirk of most stagings of the play and musical, going back to its original productions, is that Peter is traditionally played by a young woman instead of a preteen male actor.
Both Disney and the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital claim to own the Peter Pan copyright, and have authorised clashing Sequel and Prequel books and films. On the non-Disney side, there was a 1990 animated series on the first season of Fox Kids, and a 2003 live-action adaptation, but probably the best-known take on the material from other hands is Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991), a sequel that posits what would have happened had Peter eventually decided to grow up. (A key moment in his E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial has a Shout Out to the Clap Your Hands If You Believe scene.) Robin Williams plays the adult Peter Banning, who has long forgotten his past, and has to go back to Neverland to defeat the Captain once and for all when he kidnaps his children. One of the screenwriters, James V. Hart, subsequently wrote Capt. Hook, a children's novel that explores the early years of the villain. See also Finding Neverland (2004), a Very Loosely Based On A True Story drama about Barrie's conception and initial production of the play.
Disney made a theatrically-released sequel to this story, Return to Neverland, in 2002, but it is not part of the Disney Animated Canon. Their publishing arm has released a series of prequel novels written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Finally, their take on Tinkerbell has long been something of a mascot character for the company and in the new millennium the Spinoff Disney Fairies line of books, merchandise, and a made-for-DVD film was launched focusing on her and other (original) pixies (similar in concept to the Disney Princess line).
This story includes examples of:
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