Film and TV

Flying back to Never Land

April 03, 2002

But they say that Return To Never Land, currently at Reading cinemas, is a self-contained movie which you don’t need to know the original to enjoy.

On a visit to London, Chris told me: “Audiences have changed since Peter Pan first came out, and we had to reflect that.”

And Sharon added: “At the heart of our film is a mother-daughter relationship – Wendy was a believer in flying magic, whereas her daughter Jane is more sceptical.”

However, on her own enforced trip to Never Land, Jane discovers the truth of the Peter Pan gospel of “faith, trust and pixie dust”.

Though produced by Disney’s TV animation division, Return To Never Land was always aimed at the big screen.

Sharon explained: “We had a big response to our previous feature, The Tigger Movie, from parents who pointed out that there were now very few films for the two-to-eight age group.”

Return To Never Land also lacks celebrity voices –“we auditioned a lot of actors and we were more

concerned about whether they sounded right, rather than how well-known they were”.

The one voice which may sound familiar is that of Corey Burton as Hook, which is closely modelled on the one that the late Hans Conreid provided for the original cartoon.

Chris said: “Hook is the perfect villain for a children’s movie – scary but in a fun sort of way.”

Most of the animation for the film’s heroine Jane was done by New Zealander Mike Sutherland, who works at Disney’s Australian studio.

He said: “Young females are the most difficult characters to animate convincingly – you have to convey so much just through the eyes.”

Because Return To Never Land has a running time of only 72 minutes the programme has the bonus of a 1940s Disney short, Pluto’s Fledgling, which also has a flying theme.