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Peter Pan, actually
Nov. 13th, 2006 07:34 pmThe Boy and I watched "Hook" a few nights ago, and now I'm all Pan-crazy.
I wish I could like that movie more than I do. I mean, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Smith are the rock, obviously, and Robin Williams is still fairly good. (He has really good legs. The bit with him in the green tights? I was all like whoa, and then even more because I realized that I was looking at Robin Williams' legs in a lustful manner and that freaked me out.) But I hate that it discounts the pain and ambiguity that make "Peter Pan" such a wonderful story in the first place.
Everything's too unambigously sweet and happy. And if there's an overriding point to the book, I think it would be that children are not all sweetness and light. Kids are heartless, in that there's so much that they simply don't understand. And magic is even more heartless than children, because even staying young at heart won't help you to fly once you've grown up. There are irrevocable losses inherent in reaching maturity, and James Barrie knew it.
I think that I also resent the movie for sidelining Wendy. Granted, this is a less academically pure critique, but it really bugs me. I identified heavily with Wendy as a little girl. I wrote this long soppy fic in my head where Peter comes back for her and they get together that I will never commit to paper because I know it's philosophically all wrong but I still love it anyway. And the movie just moves her to the margins. I want memories, damn it, and understanding and heartbreak and love that comes too late!
Curse you, Stephen Spielburg.
Also? I really want to make icons of the Trina Schart Hyman illustrations. They're in the edition of the book that I grew up with, and they remain my favorites. Not that everything she's ever done isn't my favorite, but the "Pan" stuff resonates with me especially.
I wish I could like that movie more than I do. I mean, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Smith are the rock, obviously, and Robin Williams is still fairly good. (He has really good legs. The bit with him in the green tights? I was all like whoa, and then even more because I realized that I was looking at Robin Williams' legs in a lustful manner and that freaked me out.) But I hate that it discounts the pain and ambiguity that make "Peter Pan" such a wonderful story in the first place.
Everything's too unambigously sweet and happy. And if there's an overriding point to the book, I think it would be that children are not all sweetness and light. Kids are heartless, in that there's so much that they simply don't understand. And magic is even more heartless than children, because even staying young at heart won't help you to fly once you've grown up. There are irrevocable losses inherent in reaching maturity, and James Barrie knew it.
I think that I also resent the movie for sidelining Wendy. Granted, this is a less academically pure critique, but it really bugs me. I identified heavily with Wendy as a little girl. I wrote this long soppy fic in my head where Peter comes back for her and they get together that I will never commit to paper because I know it's philosophically all wrong but I still love it anyway. And the movie just moves her to the margins. I want memories, damn it, and understanding and heartbreak and love that comes too late!
Curse you, Stephen Spielburg.
Also? I really want to make icons of the Trina Schart Hyman illustrations. They're in the edition of the book that I grew up with, and they remain my favorites. Not that everything she's ever done isn't my favorite, but the "Pan" stuff resonates with me especially.