This week, my son had a snow day, so we settled down on the couch to watch a Disney’s Peter Pan. I’ve seen the movie a few times recently (repetition is kind of big with the four-year-old set) and I’m always struck by how much of a jerk Peter Pan is. I mean, the guy’s ostensibly the hero of the movie, but — at least by adult standards — he’s truly unpleasant. But this time — as the snow fell relentlessly inside, and I snuggled cozily with my little boy inside — I realized something: the story isn’t really about Peter at all. It’s about Wendy. And — much like a Disney princess movie — it’s about growing up.
We first meet Wendy on her last night in the nursery. Her father, fed up with her “childish” stories of Neverland and Peter Pan, has decreed that she must grow up. But Wendy — like many children — doesn’t want to. She wants to stay in the nursery, and wait for Peter Pan.
But Peter, when he does come, isn’t exactly what Wendy had in mind. Because Wendy — whether she likes it or not — already is growing up. And the way she feels about this playful, charming boy is not the same way she might have felt a year ago. While her younger brothers, John and Michael, are eager for Peter to show them the pirates and the Indians, Wendy hopes for something a little more intimate: a kiss from Peter Pan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEcU08o1ap8
In much the same way that Snow White practices her newfound womanhood on the dwarves — cooking and cleaning and caring for them — Wendy practices on the Lost Boys. Peter decrees that she is their mother, and she rises wonderfully to the challenge. But, for Wendy, Peter is different. Wendy hopes that Peter will be, not another child to care for, but the father. She feels for him what a wife feels for her husband, not what a mother feels for a son. But Peter isn’t interested — can’t possibly be interested — in that.
Seen through Wendy’s eyes — as he is in the film — Peter Pan comes off as a bit of a sociopath. And he certainly isn’t the charming young gallant we want him to be, for Wendy’s sake. He laughs when Tinkerbell calls her “a big ugly girl,” and when the mermaids try to drown her. He’s angry with her for insisting they all behave like gentlemen (instead of rowdy boys), and for charming the Lost Boys with her song about mothers. And he sees nothing wrong with ditching Wendy completely to dance with Tiger Lily at the Indian celebration. He’s completely and utterly narcissistic. He’s a little boy.
There isn’t anything inherently wrong with Peter Pan. Children are narcissistic and can’t be expected to understand the yearning heart of a newly adolescent girl. But Peter’s narcissism is jarring both in the face of Wendy’s budding romantic interest, and in light of the fact that Peter isn’t really a little boy — he’s lived far longer than Wendy has or will. He’s simply stuck — through the magic of Neverland — in perpetual boyhood. And that — as perceived through Wendy’s eyes — is kind of horrifying.
John and Michael, being younger than Wendy, are perfectly content to stay in Neverland forever. Their developmental states are aligned with the forever-states of Peter and the Lost Boys. They have yet to glimpse the world beyond childhood that Wendy is becoming aware of. If they never returned home, they’d happily play pirates and Indians indefinitely, completely unaware of what they’d be missing in not growing up.
But we, the audience, see — almost painfully — what they’d be missing. Wendy thought Neverland would be a beautifully romantic Eden, where she and Peter pan would nurture a budding romance surrounded by mermaids and fairies. But Peter’s interest in Wendy extends only as far as her ability to tell stories about him and marvel at his daring deeds. And, in fact, the mermaids and fairies that Wendy was so excited to see, are examples of what Wendy might become if she chose to stay in Neverland caught, as she is, between childhood and womanhood.
Tinkerbell and the mermaids feel for Peter what Wendy feels. They are attracted to him romantically. We know this because both Tinkerbell and the mermaids are so jealous of Wendy’s closeness with Peter that they literally want to kill her. When the mermaids see Peter Pan approaching, they primp and preen and fawn all over him. Tinkerbell wants Wendy gone so badly she reveals Peter Pan’s hideout to the villainous Captain Hook. But, because Peter will never be able too see them as they want to be seen — as women — Tink and the mermaids have become jealous, whining, nagging, brats instead of examples of feminine virtue and grace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp65oAmnG7c
Childhood is beautiful, but it was never meant to last forever. Peter Pan is stagnating in childish narcissism, missing out on the full human experience. Wendy, just on the cusp of adulthood, sees the world beyond the nursery and can never go back. She must leave Peter Pan to his eternal playtime and embrace the fullness of life. “I am ready to grow up,” she tells her father. Peter Pan just can’t cut it anymore.
And yet, the movie wants us know, we can’t completely abandon childhood either. The carefree, adventurous, playful spirit of Peter Pan must have a place in our hearts. If it doesn’t, we become like Wendy’s father, Mr. Darling, rigid and irritable and endlessly dull. When Mr. Darling looks out the window and sees the shape of Peter Pan’s flying ship in the clouds, his face becomes dreamy. “You know,” he says to his family, “I have the strangest feeling that I’ve seen that ship before. A long time ago. When I was very young.” The music swells, his women embrace him, he’s made progress. We mustn’t forget our childhood selves, you see, we’ve got to take them with us. Out of the nursery and on into the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20r3YAaSdsU
At first glance, Peter Pan seems like a movie about Peter — the wonderful, carefree spirit of childhood. But it isn’t. It’s about Wendy and her acceptance that she must grow up. Peter Pan expertly shows us that we can’t stay young forever — that we wouldn’t really want to. Peter chooses to stay in Neverland — he doesn’t understand what he’s missing. But, with a tip of his hat and courtly bow, he brings Wendy home. There is something she knows, he realizes, that he just never will. We have to grow up. That’s what Peter Pan is all about.
Faith Moore 
A spot on analysis. Back in 1988, Donald Crafton** wrote “Walt Disney’s Peter Pan: Woman Trouble on the Island” and comes to essentially the same conclusions, but mucks it up horribly by ditching the more straightforward marker of mental maturity and replacing it with “puberty rites” as well as the physical manifestations of female maturity – as the thing that requires Wendy to no longer sleep in the nursery. And yes, when I first saw Peter Pan as a boy I was unable to enjoy it as much as other Disney offerings because I thought PP was a total jerk. As an adult, however, it’s one of my favorite animated classics.
**The American Film Institute:”Storytelling in Animation The Art of the Animated Image vol2″
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The story of Peter Pan has always deeply bothered me, but I know now it’s from a lack of understanding everything you just said. And in that case, this story is an AMAZING portrayal of growing up.
keturahskorner.blogspot.com
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This is another great article! Peter Pan has always been one of my favorite Disney movies, and I think this really helps explain why for me. I must say, when I was little, all my friends were in love with Peter Pan, but I never understood the romantic appeal (I was totally in love with Aladdin, myself), until I saw the 2003 live action version, where Peter Pan is older, around 12 or 13, and really charming. I’ve always found that I dislike young Peter, like in the original movie and book, as he’s really annoying, but I’m more drawn to older Peters, like the live action one and the one in Once Upon a Time, I think because he’s more ready for the kind of romance that Wendy wants to have.
I also think it’s super interesting how many songs have been written based on Peter Pan about not growing up, including some of my favorites:
Somewhere in Neverland by All Time Low
What’s My Age Again? by Blink-182 (originally called “Peter Pan Complex”)
I’m not quite sure if these songwriters are misunderstanding the movie, thinking it’s about not growing up, or if they understand it completely and are just playing off this… 🙂
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This was an amazing analysis!! It helped me see the movie from a complete different perspective. Thank you for this amazing detailed blog with so much insight. I want to rewatch Peter Pan now, since I only watched it when I was a kid. At the time, I didn’t realize how obnoxious and narcissistic he was, because I was a kid too at the time; I’ll probably view it differently when I watch it now 🙂 A very beautiful story about growing up. I’m scared of growing old, but after reading this blog, I guess it is kinda scary to stay a kid forever…idk. Growing old is still scary to me though. Any advice for stop being so scared of growing old? It’s one of my fears, for real…
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Loved this analysis, Peterman has been one of my favorite movies growing up. When I watched this as a kid I loved it because I always dreaded the idea of growing up. Now that I am older, although I do wish I was a kid again just like peter: to avoid dealing with the grown-up responsibilities. I think that mostly I began to realize that growing up doesn’t have to be this miserable doom. Growing up doesn’t have to be about being like Wendy’s father. I don’t have to become uptight and boring. I can be a grown-up while never leaving my inner peter pan aside. Always being a kid at heart. This movie undoubtedly is about wendy and accepting growing up but never forgetting peter pan(our inner child). I have read that a lot of people don’t like the character peter pan and I find that very interesting. I personally love his character because I see the innocence of a child and in a way myself. I was once a very imaginative kid who read books that would take her through the most amazing adventures. At times I would be stuck in those worlds that I would rather spend my time doing that than having to face reality. My neverland was within the pages of a book. As I began to get older I saw how the kids who were beside me were now older and were now into other things. It took a while for me to accept that I too must grow up. I eventually decided I would grow up as wendy did. I will grow up but I would never forget Peter pan.
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Don’t you think though, that it can be a toxic tale when shown to children too young to understand the deeper themes, and too immature to know not to idolize the narcissist? Especially women? I feel like it created cognitive dissonance within me. The magical beings I longed to identify with as a wide-eyed child – the fairy, the mermaids, the exotic little TigerLily – were all portrayed as weak-willed, jealous girls with no ability to see the narcissist for who he was. Isn’t this setting us up for narcissistic abuse? Wendy was portrayed as a no-fun, stuck-up Mother figure by the hero of the show, which left me with the message of “don’t be like that or you’ll never win the affection of the cool fun guy”. Peter Pan triangulated the affection of Wendy, Tiger Lily and Tinkerbell playing them off each other – a common narc tactic. The Lost Boys were his ‘flying monkeys’ never questioning his actions or holding him accountable for his shitty behaviour, especially to how he treated their very own sister, turning her own family against her (common narc tactic. And yes I know the lost boys are only kids themselves but as a kid myself watching it I don’t think “they’re just kids.” I identify with them.) The Dad at the end harks back to Peter Pan drawing the ending conclusion about ‘needing to growing up’ back to the fantasy of Peter Pan instead which just felt like more idealisation of Peter Pan to me and which undermined the real message of needing to grow up. Stories with hidden esoteric meaning should not be shown to kids who don’t yet have the capacity for metaphor and take everything literally, unless you’re going to sit down with them afterwards and have a philosophical conversation about it to help them frame the story the right way and so to integrate the teachings properly. Kids should be shown straight-forward, innocent stories and cartoons until they have the capacity to integrate more complex and nuanced meaning. Before the moving image was invented fairytales were told orally and passed down, but they usually had a discussion after the story was told to help everyone integrate the teaching. The image and the moving image has a very different effect on our psyche’s though, a programming effect. That’s why TV programming is called just that. And barely any parents have an intelligent discussion with their kids after they watch a movie. Disney went and animated adult fables to make them more appealing to kids but they’re not appropriate for their age when you really think about it. A covert infiltration of their young minds. These animations look sparkly on the outside to capture your attention but are rotten on the inside – much like narcissists.
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I wish you didn’t use that word (exotic) to describe TigerLily. Idk as a poc, it gives me the ick when other poc or seemingly poc people are referred to that way.
That’s an interesting take you have there. I personally never saw it that way. As a young child, I too wanted to be like the mermaids and fairies, but when I saw them being horrendous to Wendy I quickly chucked that thought out of my head and said it wasn’t worth it if I had to be all mean and snooty just because of a boy and the presence of another girl.
I agree with your points to an extent. When I studied your comment I realized that not all children probably saw the film the same way I had and interpreted it differently. This, I can see, can cause problems if children’s media is interpreted negatively or gives way to negative behavior. However, I don’t think we should limit children’s media to straightforward innocent things that lack substance. Children will never learn to understand nuance and metaphors and things like that if they haven’t been exposed to them, in my opinion.
I’m not as eloquent as you and might go off on a tangent trying to explain myself but I hope you can understand what point I’m trying to convey. It has always been my understanding that adult figures would watch whatever it is that their children watch and be there to answer any questions that children may have. That was the case in the household I grew up in for a little while, and even then when I went on to watch “Complex” cartoons on my own, finding the meanings and gaining an understanding was never a challenge.
I would discuss with friends, we’d theorize and debate, and ultimately ask the closest unfortunate adult to tell us what they thought the true meaning of the ice age was about. Children aren’t clueless and I don’t think they need to be coddled so far as to deny them media that will challenge them and help them develop mentally.
Show them things that challenge them and also instill a good sense of right and wrong in them. Show them things that leave them pondering and questioning the world around them, and show them things that have them interested in learning more. Yes, innocent stuff is good (wouldn’t want to show a child gore and outright horror or things that would be very difficult to explain or could be borderline traumatic) but I think they need to be exposed to some nuance and metaphors and things that are meant to be analysed. Obviously, adult figures should be ready to discuss what they’ve seen/read afterward to dispel confusion and stuff.
All in all the Disney cartoons were good for their time, they appealed to the circumstances and situations of that era in human history for that demographic of people. Some lessons and things that occurred in these cartoons can still be applied and useful today and I think some of the new Disney films like Encanto, Sofia the First, or Pixar’s Turning Red are good examples of well-done children’s media. Because whilst there are underlying themes and hidden meanings at the end of the day it’s quite easy for children to navigate.
Your post gave me a lot to think about in terms of children’s media and what the effects could be for a child watching without guidance or how they might interpret things. Quite the thought provocker haha and it has me more eager to continue looking at media with a critical eye and trying to see what it could be interpreted as compared to what it is/is trying to be.
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