1902 - Present
Birth Place : Fiction
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright, J. M. Barrie (1860–1937), as well as the title of a stage play and novel based on the character. A mischievous little boy who refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as leader of his gang, the Lost Boys; The twins, Slightly, Tootles, Curly and Nibs. Pan is based on a child Barrie knew.
J. M. Barrie wrote three works featuring Peter Pan:
* The novel The Little White Bird: Or Adventures in Kensington Gardens (1902)
* The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (first performed Dec. 27, 1904 with incidental music by John Crook); (first published version of play, 1928)
* Peter and Wendy (1911), later retitled Peter Pan, a novel for children based on the play.
Peter and Wendy
Later renamed Peter Pan.
This is the portion of J. M. Barrie's mythos of Peter Pan that is best known to most readers.
In both the play and the novel, Peter goes to the "real world" and visits London. While there, he meets and invites the girl Wendy Darling to Neverland to be a mother for his gang of Lost Boys, because she is always telling stories about him to her younger brothers. Her brothers John and Michael come along. Many adventures ensue, and a climactic confrontation with Peter's nemesis, the pirate Captain Hook of the pirate ship the Jolly Roger. In the end, Wendy decides that her place is at home, and brings all the boys back to London. Peter remains in Neverland, and Wendy grows up.
In the novel, Barrie includes an additional scene which was not in the play, but which he created for the stage under the title An Afterthought. In this scene, Peter returns to Wendy's house, not realizing that more than twenty years have passed since he took Wendy, John and Michael to Neverland, and that Wendy is now a married woman with a daughter, Jane. Confronted with the news, he breaks down and cries. Wendy leaves the room to try to think, and Peter's sobs awaken Jane, who asks him to take her with him to Neverland and to let her be his new mother. Peter joyfully accepts, and the two fly off together with Wendy sorrowfully looking off after them. Peter will now come for Jane once a year so that she will help him with his spring cleaning.
The additional scene is almost never used in the play or film versions, but it made a poignant conclusion to a famous production starring Mary Martin, which was such a success on television.
Background
Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, with whom he had forged a special relationship while both were married.
The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, at the time the youngest of the boys, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. Mrs. Llewelyn Davies' death from cancer came within a few years after the death of her husband. Barrie was named as co-guardian of the boys and unofficially adopted them.
It has also been suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at the age of thirteen deeply affected their mother. According to Andrew Birkin, author of J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, the death was "a catastrophe beyond belief, and one from which she never fully recovered… If Margaret Ogilvy [Barrie's mother as the heroine of his 1896 novel of that title] drew a measure of comfort from the notion that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy for ever, Barrie drew inspiration."
Peter Pan first appeared in print in a 1902 book called The Little White Bird, a fictionalised version of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies children, and was then used in a very successful stage play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered in London on December 27, 1904.
In 1906, the portion of The Little White Bird which featured Peter Pan was published as the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Barrie then adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (most often now published simply as Peter Pan).
There are seven statues of Peter Pan playing a set of pipes, cast from a mold by sculptor George Frampton, following an original commission by Barrie. The statues are in Kensington Gardens in London, in Liverpool, in Brussels, in Camden, New Jersey, in Perth, in Toronto, and in Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Wendy
Barrie is sometimes said to have "invented" the name Wendy with this story. He wanted to use an uncommon name for the girl, so his original name for the character of Wendy was "Mia Angela Carol Darling." The name Wendy came about because Barrie's friend, poet William Henley, called Barrie "friend." Overhearing this word, Henley's 4-year-old daughter Margaret could only pronounce it as "My Fweiendy" or "Fwendy-Wendy".
In fact, the name was already in use in both the United States and the United Kingdom, but was extremely rare. The Peter Pan stories popularized the name, at first in the UK. Wendy is related to the Welsh name Gwendolyn, and was used by Barrie at a time when Welsh names were making a resurgence in England.
Themes
The most apparent thematic thread in the story concerns "growing up" (or not), with the character of Peter wanting to remain a child forever in order to avoid the responsibilities of adulthood. "Peter Pan syndrome" has become a psychiatric term named by Dr. Dan Kiley to describe an adult who is afraid of commitment and/or refuses to act his age. It is also sometimes used to positively describe an innocent, childlike approach to life.
Along with the theme of "growing up" is the theme of death and innocence. Barrie's tale is intricately tied to the real Llewelyn-Davies boys and the deaths of both their mother and father.
Peter and Wendy form a contrast between childhood and maturity. Peter Pan remains a child in mind because he cannot feel pain of death affecting him or those around him. Peter has one emotion only: gladness, and occasionally to that he adds fury. He forgets soon after the fact anything that is not happy and lighthearted: "I always forget them after I kill them".
There is a slight romantic aspect to the story, which is sometimes played down, or omitted completely, in the movie adaptations. Wendy's flirtatious (by standards of the day) desire to kiss Peter, his desire for a mother figure, his conflicting feelings for Wendy, Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell (each representing different female archetypes), and the symbolism of his fight with Captain Hook (traditionally played by the same actor as Wendy's father), all could possibly hint at a Freudian interpretation (see Oedipus Complex). Most "children's adaptations" of the play omit any romantic themes between Wendy and Peter, but Barrie's 1904 original, his 1911 novelization of it, and most musicals at least hint at the romantic elements.
Another theme, also mentioned in the 2004 film Finding Neverland was made about Hook and the ticking crocodile. The statement was "We all have our own ticking crocodiles chasing us". This statement and the croc itself represent how we sometimes run away from time but it ultimately will catch up.
It is traditional in productions of Peter Pan, whether theatrical or on movie or TV, for Mr. Darling (the children's father) and Captain Hook to be played (or voiced) by the same actor. This highlights the similarity between the two characters as central figures in the lives of the children. It also brings a poignant juxtaposition between Mr. Darling's harmless bluster and Captain Hook's pompous vanity. This technique of tying two characters together was later used in The Wizard of Oz and Into the Woods, among others.
Adaptations
Peter Pan has been adapted for stage and screen many times. Following the example of Barrie's original stage version, Peter usually — but not always — has been played by an adult female. This is a convention of pantomime as the play was originally produced.
Paramount Pictures released the first film version of Peter Pan in 1924, a silent movie starring Betty Bronson as Peter and Ernest Torrence as Hook.
Several musical versions of the play have been produced, of which the best known are Leonard Bernstein's 1950 version, and, especially, the 1954 version mounted by Jerome Robbins (originally to have only a few incidental songs with music by Moose Charlap and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, but evolved into a full Broadway show with additional music by Jule Styne and lyrics by the team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green). The 1954 version became widely known as a vehicle for Mary Martin and later for a series of female gymnasts, including Cathy Rigby. The 1954 version was restaged for television by NBC as part of its monthly high-quality dramatic series Producers' Showcase and broadcast on March 7, 1955 as a historic, live color television event.
The production was so well received that Producers' Showcase remounted a second live version on January 9, 1956. Mary Martin played TV's Peter Pan for the third time on December 8, 1960 and it is this version, recorded on color videotape that was repeated in 1963, 1966 and 1973. Subsequently it was presumed lost and not broadcast again until March of 1989. In the meantime, a new TV musical production was broadcast on NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame on December 12, 1976. It starred Mia Farrow as Peter and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook. Notably, it had a brand new score, with music and lyrics by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The recorded voice of Julie Andrews was also a part of the production, singing one of the numbers. However, it was a quick failure which remains forgotten today.
On February 5, 1953, Disney released its animated film version of Peter Pan with music by Sammy Cahn, Frank Churchill, Sammy Fain, and Ted Sears. 15-year-old film actor Bobby Driscoll supplied the voice of Peter. In the film, a visual reference is made to Peter's ties to the Pan of Greek mythology by showing him absentmindedly playing the Pan pipes (also called panflute), which the nature spirit was famous for playing.
The 1979 stage version, a revival of the 1954 musical version, starred Broadway and television actress Sandy Duncan. In 1989, Nippon Studios released an anime version, Piita Pan no Bouken, as part of its World Masterpiece Theater series. The first 23 episodes are a loose adaptation of Barrie's story, while the latter half of the series introduces a completely original arc with new supporting characters. Takashi Nakamura, chief animator of Akira, did the character design for this project. The series adapts the story fairly well, even though the character designs are somewhat over the top (Peter for example, bears a striking resemblance to One Piece's Usopp and Tinker Bell's hairstyle has a somewhat punk-like appearance.) Most of Piita Pan no Bouken voice actors are the same as the voice overs for the Disney film and they reappear for Kingdom Hearts and its sequel.
In 1990, Fox Studios released the short-lived cartoon series Peter Pan and the Pirates, about the daily adventures of Peter, Wendy, and the Lost Boys. Voice talents in the cast included Jason Marsden as Peter and Tim Curry as Captain Hook. Curry won an Emmy for his performance. The series is notable for drawing much of its characterization from the original book and play, particularly Captain Hook and his henchman Smee, so that they are not one-dimensional villains but complex, even ambiguous figures.
In 2000, the Cathy Rigby version, featuring almost all of the songs used in the 1954 version, was telecast by A&E on cable television. Both the Mary Martin and Cathy Rigby versions were eventually released on VHS and DVD, but the Mary Martin version has gone out of print. As of now no efforts are being made to reissue it.
P. J. Hogan's 2003 live-action film version Peter Pan is notable for its directness in addressing the romantic elements between Peter (Jeremy Sumpter) and Wendy. Wendy was played by Rachel Hurd-Wood and Hook by Jason Isaacs, who also plays the role of the Darling children's father.
Sequels and prequels
There have been several additions to Peter Pan's story created, both authorised and not.
Prequels
In 1990, French artist Regis Loisel began a series of comic books titled Peter Pan, which constitute a bawdy, violent prequel to Barrie's work, and give Peter Pan's backstory a distinctly Dickensian flavor. The series consists of six volumes.
In October 2001, R. Scott Leatherwood's Neverland: the Early Adventures of Peter Pan was released. It attempted to answer seventeen questions about Peter's life before meeting the Darling children.
Hyperion Books (a subsidiary of Disney) published the 2004 book Peter and the Starcatchers by humorist Dave Barry and suspense writer Ridley Pearson. It is an unofficial prequel to the story of Peter and Wendy, set on a ship called Never Land. In 2005, the publisher announced plans by Disney to adapt the book as a digitally animated movie, and to publish a sequel, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and a series of five chapter books titled The Never Land Adventures, the first two of which—Escape from the Carnivale and Cave of the Dark Wind—were last planned to be released in Fall 2006. Escape from the Carnivale has been published, as has Peter and the Shadow Thieves.
In 2004, Karen Wallace's Wendy hit the stands. Supposedly a prequel to the events in Peter Pan, it is an attempt to justify the Darling children's willingness to fly away with Peter on the grounds that their home life, up to shortly before Peter appeared, had been filled with abuse and tragedy: a cruel nanny, a criminally irresponsible father, a suggestion of insanity in the family.
In 2005, James V. Hart (also the co writer of the movie Hook) published the book Capt. Hook by arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital. The book details the history of 15-year old James Matthew, young Oppidian Scholar and future Captain Hook. The book portrays the villainous youth in a sympathetic light.
Sequels
Gilbert Adair's novel Peter Pan and the Only Children was published in 1987. It has Peter living with a new gang of Lost Boys under the ocean, recruiting children who fall from passing ships as new members.
Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook (Novelized by Terry Brooks) has a grown-up Peter (played by Robin Williams) lured back to Neverland by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) who has kidnapped Peter's two young children, in an attempt to once again find meaning in his life, as his one life goal was the capture/death of Peter Pan. (Robert DeNiro had been considered for the role of Captain Hook prior to the casting of Hoffman)
J.E. Somma published After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan in 2001. It is set in modern times, and tells of Peter's reaction to a world that has grown to neglect him, and his rescue by three children who teach him that it's OK to grow up.
In 2002, Disney released Return to Neverland, a sequel to the 1953 Disney adaptation, in which Wendy's daughter Jane becomes involved with Peter Pan. This sequel is set during the Blitz (1940), and deals with the issue of children being forced to grow up too fast. The movie takes place during World War II.
Another related series published by Disney Press was released in late 2005. The Disney Fairy series began with "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" by Newbery award winning author Gail Carson Levine. It introduces a new cast of Neverland fairies, one of whom is Tinker Bell. Peter Pan and Captain Hook are mentioned in the book, but play very minor roles. Additional books in the series are intended for younger readers, and were written by various authors, focusing on the different characters invented by Carson Levine.
Also in 2005, Great Ormond Street Hospital announced that Geraldine McCaughrean had been chosen to write a hospital-authorised sequel to Barrie's novel. Her book is entitled Peter Pan in Scarlet[1] and was published simultaneously in 35 different editions in 31 languages, worldwide on October 5, 2006. The book is published by Oxford University Press in the UK and Margaret K McElderry (Simon & Schuster) in the US
Articles source : WikiPedia
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