They might actually be children, or they might actually be Really 700 Years Old, but they will always at least look like little kids.
The trope name, which comes from the name of the Magical Land in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, is something of a misnomer, since being in Neverland didn't actually stop anyone from growing older, though it works that way in many adaptations.
Sister Trope to Lady Land, where most of the inhabitants are adults, just monogender.
Not to be confused with the game developer Neverland.
Examples
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Literature
- Cittagazze in His Dark Materials. The Spectres suck the soul out of anyone who has hit puberty.
- In Everlost by Neal Shusterman, the titular Everlost is populated by ghost children who are Really 700 Years Old. One of the oldest-looking children was fifteen at the time of death.
- In A World Out of Time by Larry Niven, the protagonist ends up (via a combination of suspended animation and time dilation) on a distant future Earth ruled by immortal, unaging children, the result of an immortality treatment that only worked on the prepubescent.
Film — Live-Action
- Hook: Neverland, like most adaptations, is depicted as an island where aging simply doesn't happen. Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys that stayed on Neverland haven't aged a day while Peter Pan grew up as a father in London after deciding to stay and marry Wendy's granddaughter, Moria. The Lost Boys are depicted as a tribe heavily influenced by 80s and 90s slangs and culture, and headed by Peter's successor Rufio. The Lost Boys have been at war with the pirates led by Captain Hook, who has managed to established a pirate colony at the coast in Peter's absence, and their rule with grown-ups is "All grown-ups are pirates... we kill pirates."
Film — Animation
- Peter Pan: Unlike the novel and the play, Neverland actually does prevent you from aging. This is most prominent in the sequel Return To Neverland where Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook's pirate crew all remain unchanged in age despite Wendy growing up as a mother with her own daughter in London. Peter and the Lost Boys pretty much rule Neverland (alongside the Indians, but the less said, the better) while their adult pirate adversaries anchor off-shore on the Jolly Roger.
Live-Action TV
- The Reality Show Kid Nation was based off this trope.
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Miri" contains a fairly dark example: A planet of long-lived, unaging children who sicken and die upon reaching long-delayed adolescence.
- The same principle was the basis for the New Zealand After the End kids drama The Tribe.
- The Stargate Atlantis episode "Childhood's End" features a set of villages populated entirely by children (and young adults) because they commit ritual suicide upon turning 24. This is revealed to be the result of an Ancient setting up a forcefield on the planet to protect them from the Wraith, but because the shield was only so big they turned to Population Control.
- Naturally, Syfy's miniseries Neverland, which serves as an Origin Story for Peter Pan, and "explains" that no one ages in Neverland because it's on a planet in the center of the universe, so time stands still for anyone there.
Music
- Neil Young's "Somewhere" Song "Sugar Mountain" (although it's really about being evicted from childhood itself):
"Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain,
With the barkers and the colored balloons
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain,
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon"
Video Games
- The Kokiri Forest area in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Interestingly, it's never revealed why the the Kokiri are immortal, if it's due to all the fairies that congregate there, or if it's because of the mysterious protection of the Deku Tree. (The implication in the sequel Wind Waker is that the wooden Koroks are what the Kokiri transformed into after the Great Flood.)
- Youngtown in EarthBound Beginnings, due to Alien Abduction of all of the adults.
- Little Lamplight in Fallout 3 has been populated entirely by children for nearly two hundred years. It's not clear how they replenish their population, but citizens are banished to Big Town on their eighteenth birthdays.
Webcomics
- Tales of the Questor features this with the elves - due to a goof by a now-reviled elven king (who wanted his people to be able not to die of old age and apparently went to a Literal Genie for his wish) elves are perpetually young - but not long-lived. They only live to about twenty or so, and then die of 'old age'. The result is that most of the elven territories are inhabited by half-wild children. To make things even worse, it's implied that, as a result, their civilization has gone from being able to match the humans or even the Sidhe to something out of Lord of the Flies. Half-elves, although longer-lived, still have much briefer lifespans than humans or Raccoonan - they only get anywhere from ten to twenty years more. There is allegedly an artifact out there somewhere that can fix the problem, but it's missing so it looks like our hero Quentyn has another item to keep an eye out for in his grand quest.
Western Animation
- Codename: Kids Next Door: During a Chase Scene, Number 1 crashes and wakes up on a Utopian island inhabited entirely by children. He soon learns he's actually inside a Lotus-Eater Machine.
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Kid Stuff" Mordred decides to turn the Earth into one of these when he gets a hold of an artifact that boosts his magical power. He removes all adults, including his mother Morgaine Le Fay and the entire Justice League from the planet and off into a Pocket Dimension and he plans to rule over Earth as king. Morgaine Le Fay strikes a bargain with Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman into children so they can fight Mordred Batman defeats Mordred by goading the villain into turning himself into adult and which makes him subject to his own spell, Morgaine Le Fay's punishment for this is more age than Mordred ever asked for.
