Peter Pan: Return To Neverland
My firnds and wife are big Tinkerbell fans and wanted to see this film when it was in the theatre. In compromise, I went and really liked it. Now my wife and I wouldn't buy the original, though the artwork is fantastic, because of the stereo-types ( IOO) but we are looking to it on tuesday. I don't now if I'll get it on tuesday but we will get it and think when we have kids, we think they'll like it.
The included game seems more challenging than many of the ones I've seen on Disney discs. I think it will take quite a few tries (or a lot of luck) before someone gets it all right. It's basically a remember-where-things-are, three-strikes-and-you're-out game. Make 3 wrong choices and you have to start over. So you have to remember the good choices you made and avoid the bad ones each time you start over. There are a lot of permutations to it so it should keep a kid busy for a while.
There's a coupon that comes in the DVD for a Return To Never Land book for only $1. We've sent away for several of these from various Disney movies and they've been of good quality, come within a reasonable amount of time, and make for good bedtime reading for the kids.
Last edited by Jim; 08-21-02 at 02:54 PM.
However! Clocking in at a run time of just over an hour and ten minutes hurt this film. If I had paid to see it in the theater I would have been upset at paying for half a movie. The characters and the story could have been better served by just another 20 minutes. The story on paper is an excellent start, but there is very little development beyond the surface treatment.
The music was also hampered by the short run time (you just cannot cram it all into 70 minutes). The theme song is beautiful and well suited, but there is little more to offer musically.
2 1/2 stars for adults, 3 1/2 stars for kids.
I actually liked the movie, but I certainly cannot recommend it over many a Disney animated feature and even some of their other direct-to-video sequels. I think Disney hurt themselves when they decided to release this in theaters. I probably would not have been so hard on its resemblances to Little Mermaid II and Lion King II: Simba's Pride had it come direct-to-video. Major motion pictures should not duplicate things we see in video releases.
I heartily recommend it to children though. I will say some of the story is a bit dark, especially in the beginning. Then again, small children won't understand that until they are older probably.
And the soundtrack is good too.
Well, I didn't like the 1st half anyway.
The 1st half of the movie was about the war.
Not really what you would expect for a Disney kids movie.
The 2nd half was much better.
Like I said, good effort, but falls short. Kids will like it.