Peter Pan Trailer Proves Disney MUST STOP Live Adapting Old Stories…

It’s honestly impressive how much ill-will a company can build up with its core fanbase. Disney’s new Peter Pan trailer proves that the company is creatively bankrupt and farming for controversy as it has torn apart yet another classic story in pursuit of attention and greed.

Is this really the sad state Disney has been reduced to by its greedy, arrogant, attention-seeking executives?

In the latest case of Disney shelling out its old IPs for a modern paintjob and disemboweling, Peter Pan is being made into a new live-action film that appears to have turned Wendy from an inquisitive, naive, kind, caring, and nurturing child into a head-strong, fierce, willful, and stubborn warrior. Have you heard this song and dance before?

Now, I don’t want to seem like I’m against having a woman be a capable, stubborn, and fierce warrior as that’s a perfectly fine character build/architect (so long as there’s personality to the character) but having EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER TO PASS THROUGH DISNEY’S CONTENT SLUDGE BE A STONG, STUBBORN WARRIOR is getting very old very fast.

It’s about as annoying as if I wrote the rest of this article in all caps.

In the original story, Wendy was purposefully not a stubborn, fierce warrior (in the loosest sense of the word) as her whole character arc depended on if she would end up like Peter Pan and The Lost Boys (who were those things) or learn to grow up and accept childhood ignorance cannot last forever.

Transforming Wendy from the smartest, calmest, and kindest character in the novel into one that has no qualms about fighting, adventuring, and risking her life on a whim not only negates the character arc she goes through to accept the end of childhood ignorance in times of war and hardship (the novel is set during the early 1900’s, which was a mere 10 years before WW1), but it also ruins the impact Peter Pan and The Lost Boys has on her.

Wendy is supposed to love and care for Pan and The Lost Boys as a mother figure because none of them had the parental love or guidance as orphans. Sure, it’s not as bombastic or “exciting” as a woman who slays pirates and flies with pixies, but I’d argue it’s far more impactful of a message and character arc than a warrior Wendy could ever be.

Wendy is still strong and brave, but in an alternate, subtler way.

Whether you agree with James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan’s author, or not, his message on responsibility and duty being more meaningful than willfulness and personal freedom as one grows should not be discarded in pursuit of a new message/idea. The work should be presented as was intended, and one should just create a new story if they don’t agree or wish to tweak some of the key concepts.

Peter Pan Trailer Proves Disney MUST STOP Live Adapting Old Stories...(Walt Disney Studios-Peter Pan & Wendy-Official Trailer) — Peter Pan Trailer Proves Disney MUST STOP Live Adapting Old Stories…
(Walt Disney Studios-Peter Pan & Wendy-Official Trailer)

In truth, it’s also a more honest message as one’s ability to do anything and everything they want without consequence forever is unrealistic…just as staying a child eternally is equally unattainable.

But, this is not the thing I’m the most disappointed and frustrated about.

What would that be? The controversy farming.

Yes, this whole take may be controversial in of itself, but that doesn’t mean Disney should be allowed to get away with not only riling up fanbases and unwelcomed viewpoints in elegant society, but also expose innocent young actors to a wave of hate and anger. Changing the ethnicities of the characters will be a highly debated topic in of itself, so I’ll leave that controversy farming tactic alone for now.

Though, I will just say that adaptations of a work should be most accurately (of course, some exceptions must be made for blatant and “not unique to the time of writing” racist, sexist, etc. ideas) represented to the original vision of the author, even if some of the ideas, characters, concepts, locations, etc. are not as “diverse” or “inclusive” as the current day world is.

I’m not saying that certain ethnicities or cultures should be excluded from adaptations such as Peter Pan (as they most definitely shouldn’t), but I’m saying that recasting roles solely (key word here) based on a person’s ethnicity is a poor storytelling choice.

Of course, there are great, noteworthy exceptions (Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Zoë Kravetz as Catwoman, etc.) that force this rule to be judged on a case-to-case basis as most things in life should be.

But Hollywood casting John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror or the blackface epidemic of the early 1900’s due to not wanting to have a certain ethnicity be in the lead role is as equally wrong as casting Halle Bailey (nothing personal against her) as Ariel the Little Mermaid or Yara Shahidi (again, nothing personal) as Tinker Bell for a similar reason.

Sure, the Little Mermaid and Tinker Bell are only a fantasy characters, and the two other examples were of real people, but it’s the same principle. And, just as I said, breaking the principle just for the sake of breaking the principle and/or farming “controversy-attention” (as Disney loves to do nowadays) is morally wrong in my opinion.

Whew, I spent more time on that than I thought I was going to, but it is a complicated topic.

Anyway, like I was saying, my biggest pet-peeve with Disney is how the people behind the scenes have shifted from writing good, compelling news stories into trotting out old, classic stories and tweaking enough things to inflame a certain section of people to farm “controversy-attention”. I mean, the very first scene in the Peter Pan trailer is a perfect example of it.

Instead of showcasing Wendy with her family in London or the first interaction between her and Peter Pan, do you know what Disney showcased?

They had Wendy go up to the Lost Boys, who now have girls amidst their ranks (which is story-breaking and character-breaking for Wendy in of itself), and says to them, “you’re not all boys”. And, in response, a girl of Afro-ancestry (I’m not sure where she’s from) say to her, “So?”, and the actual story is previewed after that.

It may seem harmless to the untrained eye, but Disney knows exactly what it’s doing with this kind of marketing. They’re INTENTIONALLY provoking racists and sexists, some of the worst members of society, to viciously and wrongfully lash out on social media against these innocent actresses and actors in order to get some headlines and more trailer views.

Why am I so sure? It’s because they’ve done this with literally EVERYHTING in the past two years!

Like I mentioned, Halle Bailey as Ariel, Moses Ingram as Reva in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel in Ms. Marvel, Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk in She-Hulk (which was a horrible show, but suffered the same marking ploys), etc. have all received such vile hatred and criticisms due to Disney’s vile marketing schemes.

Obviously, these people have every right to portray the roles they were casted, but the way Disney has left them out to rot at the mercy of those unsavory people to drive up views, viewership, interests, media attention, etc. is nearly (key word here) as bad as the actions of racists and sexists themselves.

Regardless, I hope I’ve shown some light to this situation as Disney has not been nearly criticized for their actions as they should have been.

As for Peter Pan & Wendy (the actual title), the movie is going to suck. This is still a live action adaptation of a classic Disney animated film, after all.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Walt Disney Studios) (Peter Pan & Wendy | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)