Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(2015)

Pan did not get a lot of hype behind it. It kind of slipped through the cracks a bit. Not surprising, considering it was up against Avengers: Age of Ultron and Inside Out. I’m a little surprised at the highest grossing film in October 2015: Hotel Transylvania 2. But people want a Halloweenie movie in October so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I’ve really been into Peter Pan stories for a long time but not so much Peter himself. I found the mechanics of Neverland fascinating and always thought more could be done with it that didn’t necessarily involve Peter. Peter is great and all and nothing against him personally. I just think J.M. Barrie’s world has a lot more potential.

That’s why I ate up Fox’s Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990). It was everything I wanted from Neverland. New stories, new characters, new everything! Even Captain Hook was completely redesigned. Plus he was voiced by Tim Curry because, according to union rules, he’s the only actor in the business allowed to play a pirate.

 I’m afraid after Disney consumed Fox like a hungry ticking crocodile, Fox’s PP & the P will forever be swept under the rug so as not to confuse it with Disney’s own Peter Pan. Pity. I’d really like to see it again.

But I’m digressing considerably. Pan (2015) was like an origin story for Peter and Hook, which was something I’ve always wanted to see so naturally I loved it.

You don’t see a whole lot of Neverland in Pan as the plot focuses on Black Beard the Pirate (Hugh Jackman) running a slave mine. Bet you didn’t know that’s where Black Beard went. Bet you didn’t even know he was missing. These miners seem to be orphan children taken to Neverland from all periods in time, past, present and one can assume future (though no indication of any futuristic kids is demonstrated that I recollect. This fact is primarily hinted at by the fact that Peter seems to have been taken from Victorian England, only to arrive in Neverland where everyone is rocking out to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. Later it’s “Blitzkrieg Bop” by the Ramones, which, I have to say, makes a great pirate sea chanty.

The characters do at one point get involved with a stand-in for the Native American aspect of Neverland originally posited by J.M. Barrie.

I’d like to explain why I think this tribe is in Neverland from both a narrative and sociological standpoint if I may. First of all, throughout the 1800s and early 1900’s, being a bit removed from situations in North America, many less-traveled Europeans were quite fascinated by the Native American tribes. The European’s window into this world usually came from the descriptions and writings of American white people who, at that time had a very narrow, prejudiced, and/or romanticized view of Native Americans.

 [I’m sure even the previous sentence comes off as a gross understatement and the sentiment can hardly be regarded as specific only to “that time” by many.]

Peter Pan was published in 1911. I believe Neverland is a place that reflects children’s imagination and sense of wonder. Considering when this was written, and who wrote it, it makes sense Native Americans and Pirates and Mermaids were there; not to equate their respective reality or lack thereof by any means. Obviously, the Native Americans in this story are not accurately represented. As they are an actual people group, modern sensibilities (which obviously should have been present even in the past) dictate that we update a bit. 

Tolkien had a people group similar to this in Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson just skipped over them.

Did Pan’s updates to Peter Pan’s Native American tribe disassociate themselves from stereotypes enough to not be offensive? Eh, it’s kind of obvious who these painted, tribe-like people once were in this film. They were different enough I suppose but any fan of Barrie is going to know exactly what the filmmakers are doing and why.

If they wanted to include this aspect of the story then maybe have an explanation as to how they got there beyond my own theory of “Neverland is a kid’s imagination” and represent them accurately. Maybe even have representatives from different time periods. That would be really cool actually. What if “Princess Tiger Lily” was from 2005? Imagine the insight and wisdom she could have in a society of time-spanning orphans.

I know there’s all sorts of plot holes and weird world rules that I haven’t thought of. I’m just brainstorming here.

Anyway, I liked this movie. Hugh Jackman is awesome. His appearance in this has disgusted several females I’ve known which I think is hilarious. He’s no smoldering Wolverine in this one.

The story between Peter and Hook is not quite as interesting as Peter’s interactions with Black Beard. It feels like they (gnomes) were really hoping for a sequel so they were taking their time setting up the relationship between Peter and Hook. Research confirms this.

While I have my own ideas for a Neverland story, it seems the market is flooded with these concepts and I’m afraid one more would be white noise. This film seemed promising though. It’s a pitty so many decent films get swept under the rug because they don’t perform well against super hyped-up Disney beasts.