Neverland (2011)
Raised on the streets of turn-of-the century London, orphaned Peter and his pals survive by their fearless wits as cunning young pickpockets. Now, they've been rounded up by their mentor Jimmy Hook to snatch a priceless, some believe, magical treasure which transports them to another world. Neverland is a realm of white jungles and legendary mysteries of eternal youth, where unknown friends and enemies snatched from time welcome the new travelers with both excitement and trepidation. These groups include a band of 18th century pirates led by the power-mad Elizabeth Bonny, and the Native American Kaw tribe led by a Holy Man, which has protected the secret of the tree spirits from Bonny and her gang for ages, and that has meant war. But as the fight to save this strange and beautiful world becomes vital, Hook, Peter, and the ragamuffin lost boys consider that growing old somewhere in time could be less important than growing up, right here in their new home called Neverland.
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If your like me who love these classic stories then you should agree with me that this mini-series is a contrived sci-fi mess. What makes this so bad is that it commits the sin that most fairy tale/ fantasy adaptations do these days; "trying to make sense of the story". When movies, TV shows or any other form of media attempt that it really destroys the magic and dignity of the stories. If you are like me and is a lover of classics I'd avoid this dung pile and stick with your books. Besides why watch this when there are far better Peter Pan adaptions such as; The Disney movie, Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates, Hook, or even the 2003 live-action movie.
This is a prequel dealing with Peter Pan (Charlie Rowe) as an orphan on the streets of London. Peter and his band of thieves work as pickpockets. Their evil mentor Jimmy Hook (Rhys Ifans) gets them to steal a magical treasure which transports them to Neverland. Once there Hook join with a group of pirates led by Elizabeth Bonny (Anna Friel) in search of more magic dust. Peter lands with the Indians and the beautiful Aaya (Q'orianka Kilcher) where the people don't age.The story lack any pace. It drags along. With 240 minutes, this is way too long. It doesn't help that they explain away the magic. It reminds me of Star Wars explaining away The Force. Why can't they leave it alone? The acting is acceptable. All the big name give the expected performance. Charlie Rowe as Peter Pan is average. As for the production, it's got TV movie level. It's nothing to brag about. It's dark and dreary. Again all the magic is gone.
This is an excellent job explaining how Hook, Peter, the boys, the Indians, and the Pirates all ended up in Neverland and many other unanswered questions are revealed. You will be pleasantly surprised how Nick Willing brings this tale together with great CGI, actors and sets to bring you back to Neverland where no one grows old. Willing borrows from Dickens' Fagin character to mold James Hook into the leader of a lair of boys from old London including Peter who, of course, is the cleverest. Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell holds up well. The CGI is great, and even though Willing borrows from Star Wars, Dances with Wolves, Pirates of the Caribbean you really don't mind since he does it in such a charming way that you don't notice it because you can believe that this is actually how they all got to end up in Neverland. Highly recommend this movie.
I've always enjoyed the story of Peter Pan and I'm glad to see it done once again in a new way. I thought this movie was well written and executed, it does not follow the exact story of Peter Pan but it's what makes telling this story different from the many others we've seen such as the movie Hook.It was fun and adventurous that had some really interesting effects and twists all through the movie. This is one the whole family can enjoy watching over and over again.The actors all did a great job and I enjoyed the music score, the one thing this show will be missing is if there isn't a sequel the way this ended it could be expanded on and I would truly love to see a sequel happen.