‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ lacks enough magic to truly take flight

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

“Peter Pan & Wendy” wants to conjure magic but turns out to be low on fairy dust, yielding a dreary live-action adaptation of the 1953 movie that transforms Neverland into what vaguely feels like a discount version of Pandora. Modest narrative upgrades help lift the Disney+ film above the service’s recent “Pinocchio,” but clearing that very low bar amounts to damnation with faint praise.

There have been numerous live-action renderings of J.M. Barrie’s classic, from “Hook” to “Peter Pan” to simply “Pan” — plus “Finding Neverland,” which cast Johnny Depp as Barrie in a touching look at the play’s origins.

Other than a few welcome and necessary changes to rid the Disney animated film of more problematic elements, and a bit more backstory explaining this Captain Hook (Jude Law) and his semi-depressed demeanor, this version pretty closely adheres to the basic blueprint, pondering that age-old question about children’s reluctance to grow up.

Wendy (Ever Anderson) says as much when her mother (Molly Parker) chides her for clinging to childhood, telling her mom tartly, “What if I don’t want your life?” Yet that rather philosophical conundrum quickly gives way to the arrival of Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) and Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi, making the most of a near-silent role), who whisk Wendy and her brothers off to Neverland.

Pan’s Lost Boys (some of whom are girls) receive somewhat short shrift in this telling, while Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanatâhk) has a more enhanced role. Indeed, by giving Wendy a more active part in the heroics indicative of the title change, this movie features more female empowerment all around, dispensing with much of the petty jealousy and girlish mooning over Peter that didn’t age particularly well during the last 70 years.

Still, there’s only so much that “The Green Knight” director David Lowery (who shares script credit with Toby Halbrooks) can do within the confines of toeing the Disney line, and even believing in fairies can’t bring the movie to consistent life.

While there are snippets of the original music, the film forgoes songs other than a few shanties the pirates croon when not trying to kill Pan and his mates. That said, the action is reasonably tame, other than the sheer size of the crocodile, who fleetingly demonstrates why Hook is rightly terrified of it.

Disney has obviously made live-action remakes of its animated properties a staple of its creative arsenal, flitting between more ambitious theatrical productions (see “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and the upcoming “The Little Mermaid”) and those sent straight to streaming (among them the aforementioned “Pinocchio” and “Lady and the Tramp”).

Yet the obvious appeal of introducing or reintroducing these stories to young audiences while allowing their parents to watch along works better if there’s some creative spark to invigorate the exercise, and maybe even hold the adults’ attention as opposed to letting them drift off to second screens (or dreamland).

“Peter Pan & Wendy” isn’t a complete failure, but nor does this return to Neverland pass that test; rather, it’s another case of a Disney production that — unlike the beloved and venerable story that inspired it — never truly takes flight.

“Peter Pan & Wendy” premieres April 28 on Disney+. It’s rated PG.

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