Today we are talking about one of my favorite Disney classics, Peter Pan. Released in 1953, Disney was on a real roll here, this followed on from Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland and would be then followed up by Lady and the Tramp. Disney was truly firing on all cylinders and at the time, Peter Pan was probably the most “action-packed” movie that Disney had done.
How to Download Peter Pan (1953)
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
I have always loved Peter Pan since I was a kid. We did have a bootleg VHS of this, but I remember going to see this in the theatre with my dad when it was released again in the late 80s. It is one of the few movies that I have kept on laserdisc after I purged most of the format and as I have said before, Peter Pan’s Flight is still one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland Paris.
This movie just clicked on every level with me as a child and even as an adult I enjoy it. The movie starts in London where Wendy and her two brothers, Michael and John live with their parents. Wendy’s dad, George says that she needs to grow up and move out of the nursery with Michael and John into her own room!
Wendy does not really want to grow up and this leads Peter Pan and Tinkerbell to Wendy’s house and they take the three kids to Never Land so that they never have to grow up. Look, as I write this it is 2023, you do not need me to tell you the plot of Peter Pan, it is a classic and everyone knows it.
Peter Pan Anniversary Edition | On Digital 5/29 & Blu-ray 6/5
However, I think that the plot is deeper than many people think. We have a great villain in Captain Hook and his pirates that want revenge on Peter for Hook losing his hand to the crocodile! We have the Lost Boys who are stuck as children in Never Land, but now that they have met Wendy and her brothers are thinking that growing up and having parents is not all that bad an idea.
I think that Peter Pan is a very smart movie. It is the kind of movie that kids can have a lot of fun with and be thrilled by, but at the same time it does not insult the parents and they can enjoy the movie too. I enjoyed watching this with my own son and even now, I can watch this and have a fun time and feel like a kid all over again.
All of the Disney movies that came out around this time have their own style and Peter Pan is a movie that I think looks great. The animation on Peter’s shadow is so well done and something that I loved as a kid. Never Land is such an interesting place and the whole movie is just packed with imagination.
Peter Pan is a classic and one of my favorite Disney classics. I feel that my love for Peter Pan is not just all based on nostalgia either, it is a movie that holds up very well and a movie that even kids today enjoy. In the UK there is no 4K release of Peter Pan, but I would love it if they did as the 4K restoration Disney has done on some of their other classics is great, but I would be more surprised if this did happen than did not.
