Considering that Disney ships most of its cartoon sequels straight to video, it's surprising to find "Return to Never Land" premiering first in theaters.
Visually, it's quite consistent with the 1953 Disney version of "Peter Pan." The characters who are supposed to look the same, do. In every other respect, "Return to Never Land" is, perhaps inevitably, a letdown.
The dramatization of events and relationships is strictly by the numbers. Like most sequels, it wouldn't stand well on its own and wouldn't have much success without its predecessor's coattails.
The Disney original and the much-revived early '50s stage version were based on James M. Barrie's classic story but were independently conceived.
They had different song scores, both with considerable merit.
"Return to Never Land" briefly reprises one song from Disney's "Peter Pan" ("The Second Star to the Right"), adds three others that are hopelessly out of period and tacks on a golden oldie, "Do You Believe in Magic?," that is thematically correct and musically as inconsistent as the new compositions.
Have filmmakers and songwriters become too indifferent to research the period of the story and write material appropriate to it?
In "Peter Pan," Peter Pan scooped up London's Darling children - Wendy, Michael and John - and took them, with his pixie Tinker Bell, off to Never Land to meet the Lost Boys and to do battle with Captain Hook, the pirates and the hapless Mr. Smee.
"Return to Never Land" picks up a generation later in war-torn London (presumably World War I), where the young adult Wendy (voiced by Kathie Soucie) is married to Edward (Roger Rees) and has two children, the skeptical Jane (Harriet Owen) and the younger, trusting Danny (Andrew McDonough).
Wendy mythologizes Peter Pan and the Never Land residents to her children. Danny buys it all, but Jane is having none of it. While their father is off to war, the children succumb to plot machinations and get kidnapped by Hook (Corey Burton) and rescued by Peter Pan (Blayne Weaver).
Could there be any doubt Jane would learn the value of faith, trust and pixie dust?
Because of fond associations with the original, I caught myself more interested in "Never Land" than in most Disney cartoon features but generally less rewarded by it.
There's little humor, no sense of wonderment in the flying and missed opportunities throughout. The sequel's creators neglect to develop Peter, Tink and the Lost Boys as a surrogate family to Jane and Danny.
Instead of being pursued by an eye-widening crocodile, Hook is chased this time by so non-menacing an octopus that it only points up how tepid the drama is in modern cartoons.
Until the final minutes, there's no emotional resonance, either.
Ah, but there's redemption and more in the conclusion - at least for folks who knew what it was like to know Wendy and Peter way back when.
| 'Return to Never Land' |
Director: Robin Budd
Stars: Voices of Blayne Weaver, Corey Burton, Harriet Owen
MPAA Rating: G
