About 13 years ago, Disney put “Peter Pan” back on the TV screen. It’ll be a few years before it is re-released to a new generation. "Peter Pan," a 1953 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney and based on the play “Peter Pan,” or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up written by J. M. Barrie. Theories surrounding the naming of Peter Pan speculate that Peter Pan was named after the Greek god, Pan, who is the god of the wild and anything related to sexuality. The Disney animated film depicts how amazed a girl named Wendy and her two brothers were when a magical boy named Peter Pan flies into their bedroom, supposedly chasing his rebellious shadow. He and his fairy friend, Tinkerbell, ask the children to fly with him to a place called Neverland, where children stay forever young.
As mentioned, this Disney movie was inspired by J.M. Barrie’s play. The truth is that J. M. Barrie’s story had a dark secret. After hearing it, you will realize why Peter’s shadow was too afraid to be close to him. Here’s a little info on the playwright, J. M. Barrie grew up with a traumatic childhood. When he was a kid, his brother drowned in a river. Ever since that day, his mother started going a little crazy. She will even call Barrie by his brother’s name. He wished his brother was still alive and remained forever young.
Yes, Peter Pan is a kid that never grows. But do you know why? The actual story of Peter Pan goes like this; Peter is actually a Pixieーthe evil version of a fairy. The only way he can stay forever young is by taking the souls of kids or killing them before they hit puberty. Every other month, Peter will go to Earth and look for children that have problems with their parents or any adult figure. He will sneak into a kid’s room to show them magical stuff such as how to fly and do tricks. Then, Peter Pan tells them about this magical world called Neverland. They wouldn’t need to worry about adults hovering over them; and especially, they wouldn’t have to worry about growing up. They could stay forever young. Of course, the kids will be amazed and follow him to escape their troubled home lives. Peter takes the kids for a flight around their neighborhood first, then to Neverland.
As shown in the movie, Peter has a bunch of kids called “the lost boys.” He states that he saved them from Captain Hook, the supposed villain of the story. He is, therefore, of course, portrayed as the hero, since he interacts with the lost boys and makes sure they have fun. The only reason Peter doesn't want to kill them at a young age is that it would be “inhumane” to kill a kid, so instead, he kills them as soon as they hit puberty.
Now going back to Captain Hook, he is actually not the villain of the story. He is the hero if anything. If you didn’t notice, every time Hook attacks, he only goes for Peter. He does not target the kids or even try to harm them. Rumor has it that he was one of the kids that Peter brought to Neverland. Hook noticed that every year, some of his friends would disappear. One day, he found out about Peter’s horrible intentions, so he tried to escape. As you can see in the movie, Hook is always with his ship crew who are mostly formed by young adults. Captain Hook and his team are one of the few kids that survived from Peter Pan. Also, notice that Hook is always trying to steal the pixie-dust from Tinkerbell to make his ship fly. That’s because he wants the ship to fly back home to Earth and bring all these kids back to their family.