Peter Pan
Peter Pan as a character first appeared in a novel for adults called ‘The
Little White Bird’ which was published in 1902 by J.M Barrie, in 1906, ‘Peter
Pan in Kensington Gardens’ was published as a children’s story book. Since then
there have been a few adaptations of this story.
The 1953 adaptation of this story
is the most known, it was published as a colour animation by Walt Disney, it is
based on the story of ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’. The plot of this
particular film is that the Darling family are well off and living in London,
the parents (George and Mary) are preparing to go out to a party when the two
boys (John and Michael) are acting out a pirate scene from the book Peter Pan,
that Wendy had read to them, George Darling gets mad and says Wendy has to move
out of the nursery and have her own room. That night George and Mary go out and
Peter Pan visits them, chasing his shadow, Wendy discovers him and Tinkerbell,
he teaches them all how to fly with fairy dust and they fly to Neverland.
Captain Hook (has one hand as a hook after Peter fed it to the crocodile) and
Mr Smee are planning on finding peter and killing him, they take Tiger Lily, an
Indian, to try get her to tell them where he is, Peter takes them to meet the
lost boys. The lost boys (who look up to peter) take John and Michael to meet
the Indians, instead they’re captured and told they would be burnt at the stake
unless Tiger Lily is returned to them by sunset, Peter meanwhile takes Wendy to
see the mermaids when they see Tiger Lily, they release her and return her to
the tribe, Tinkerbell reveals the location to Hook and he traps her, he tries
to kill Peter but Tinkerbell comes to the rescue, however Captain Hook has
captured Wendy, John and Michael and the Lost Boys and wants them to walk the
plank, Peter saves them and there is a big fight, ending with Captain Hook
being eaten by the crocodile. The children return to London. It
takes elements from that but also changes some parts to appeal more to the
younger audience, for example, Peter Pan is seen as a 10+ year old in the film
adaptations whereas in the original books he was a baby/toddler. Instead of
starting with a back story like in the original books, Disney decided to get
straight into the shadow chasing scene in the Darling children’s bedroom,
saying that the back story could be made into another film of its own; these
are only a couple of the minor changes Disney made to the film from the book to
make it more appealing and exciting for the younger target audience as well as
setting up the opportunity to make sequels. This film is primarily targeted at
children and is a well-known children’s story that you grow up knowing. It is
Disney, so very sweet and innocent and language used for children to
understand, with the typical children’s fantasy plot of a magical place with a
girl and a boy and an enemy that tries to capture the boy. The appeal to boys
is that there is adventure, fighting scenes, pirates, boats and swords which is
exactly what boys at an age under 10 enjoy, and there being fairies and
mermaids as well as a possible romance, it appeals to young girls that believe
they exist; young girls dream and wish to be fairies and mermaids and so these
creatures in the film captivate them, as well as all children’s wishes for the
ability to fly, this brings the story to life and makes it realistic to them.
The ages of the children also matter, the targeted audience is under 10, the
oldest children characters are aged 10-15, this will be who the children look
up to, almost as idols, the girls idolising Wendy and the boys Peter, the
younger brothers of Wendy would be similar ages to the children watching it and
so they will be relatable characters who are likable and seen as the children’s
‘friends’.
The colours used on the front of
the DVD case are iconic and stand out, the Yellow font against the blue sky
makes the title and Walt Disney stand out, the font is kind of Old-style and
formal, what you would typically expect from an adventure, children’s film, it
is a font used quite often with Disney films. As you can see the most important
elements of the film are on the cover, all the main characters (it shows them
flying which entices children), Captain Hook in the back fighting the
crocodile, giving us a hint of what is to come, Neverland behind (with the
star) shows the setting of the film and on the back page, there is a fighting
scene, this will immediately grab the attention of young boys, who are the
target audience, as they love swords, fighting and pirates so this is perfect
for them. The
majority of animation films or television shows are targeted at children rather
than adults, and so this will be an obvious sign that it is made for children
although adults also enjoy is as it is seen as a classic. Although there are
fighting and battle scenes, it is not in any way explicit or shows any injury,
this reflects on the target audience as you can’t expose injury like what it
would be to young children. The editing is quite fast but at a slow pace in
most parts, I have said the editing is fast as the shots change to each
character to gain their reaction and follow them, making it easier for the audience
to follow and understand the scene, the characters emotions etc. (an example of
this is when Tinkerbell is yelling at The Lost boys).
The production budget for this film was a minor $4 million but made $87,404,651
(in total, after two re-releases), this made significantly less than Hook, but
this was most likely due to time of release (not as popular to go to cinema/too
expensive perhaps) however the film initially made $7 million and was the highest
grossing film of 1953. Re-releases have been made and tied along with other events such as a sequel or the 60th anniversary. We can see the
positive audience feedback and love for this film, firstly it being called a
‘classic’ shows how popular it was all over the world, it is a known and loved
children’s story, as well as the many re-releases proving that people do want
to see the film and it is still as popular as it was 60 years on. It has got
75% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to this day and has been released on
different formats. Despite the praise and fact that this film is a classic, it
has also been critiqued for being racist and stereotypical, calling Native
American’s ‘Indians’ as well as other names such as ‘Redskins’ and ‘savages’, it
also portrays them almost as animals and wild, violent and talk in a
stereotypical way saying words like ‘How’.
Hook on the other hand is completely different to any
of the previous and current Peter Pan stories, in this remake we see Peter as
an adult, living in America with a wife and two children, they go to London to
visit Moira (Peters Wife) grandmother, Wendy Darling. Peter and the two
children go to Neverland where Peter has to then convince the lost boys and
tinkerbell that it really is him and he relearns everything he had lost when he
left Neverland to grow up, peter has to rescue his kids from Captain Hook and
through the lost boys and tinkerbells help, there is a battle between Peter and
Hook. It was produced in 1991 and
directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo
however the characters and basic storyline is based on the original book by
J.M.Barrie, It also has the famous Robin Williams playing Peter Pan alongside
other co-stars such as Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts and Maggie Smith. This film is targeted at older children,
unlike the 1953 animation aimed at 3-10 year olds, Hook is aimed at 8 – 15 year
olds, we can see this as the language and story line is more complex and
although it still has fairies and pirates, it is very much a more grown up
adaptation with the fairies being full grown adults and a more twisted, darker
tale with more bad characters, which has a psychological effect on the
characters as well as the audience. It is not a jolly adventure and excitement,
it is a lot scarier than previous adaptations and there is so much more going
on (Peter has to battle with Rufio to become the leader of the lost boys, while
tinkerbell is in love with peter, while the kids are being enticed by Hook, it
is no longer the simple story) and as it a film with people acting rather than
an animation, I think that appeals more to older people and less to the younger
generation maybe because it is harder
for young people to relate to, firstly because the main character is a man and
so is tinkerbell, the lost boys are older and more aggressive and not so sweet
as well as the problems of life he is experiencing, even though the target
audience haven’t gone through them, they have an understanding of them whereas
it would be too complex for younger children to understand. Also Peter, as a
character, has no imagination which kids will find hard to understand as they
are so imaginative and so into all the magic and he is opposing that, not only
that but because it is such a different version of it, children might not
understand why it is so different although it is the same characters and same
place, it is completely different to other versions and so it might not appeal
to them the fact it’s completely different, which older people will understand.
As you can see by the DVD cover, it
is targeted a lot more at older children as there is still all the elements of
mermaids and pirates but it is a lot darker and doesn’t look as appealing, the
look of Captain Hook with the Hook being the main feature of the cover, it is a
lot scarier and you can see immediately he is someone to be feared. Unlike the
cover of the 1953 Peter Pan, it doesn’t show adventure and fun and flying,
which is very simplistic, this is very detailed and illustrated. The background
is of a map, putting forward again that this is a pirate story, the characters
in front are obvious to the audience of who they are however it is a different
look that challenges the way we stereotype Peter Pan as being. The font, this
time being more Piratey and Old-Fashioned (stereotypical font of a pirate)
which is in Red, not only does this make it stand out, but the colour red makes
us think of warning, danger, blood and so just by using this colour it gives us
a hint of what is to come in the film, on the other hand Peter Pan 1953 version
has a complete different colour scheme with warm colours that draw you into it,
one that is calming and is almost ‘child friendly’. Hook shows more violent scenes, has more
aggression and you’re really not sure all the way through if everything is
going to be okay because it is a challenge and Peter has a time limit to be
able to get his children back, where we see them being brainwashed by Hook and
being taken away by the pirates. The editing is quite slow paced with a lot of
different angles and panning, instead of fast cuts to see every angle, the
camera instead follows the character for a bit until it needs to cut to a
different angle, for example when Rufio first comes in, the camera pans and
follows him as he goes around the track before panning down to Peter and having
an over shoulder shot of Rufio with a sword to Peters neck, the camera follows
as they walk around. Unlike the animation of Peter Pan, because it is acting
and real camera’s it is more accessible to get all these different shots and
make a more creative film; the slow cuts also show that it is aimed at an older
audience as the fast cuts are not always needed (the creative, diverse shots
can make up for where it would be cut) and also older generations don’t need
action and a fast pace constantly so the slow pace suits the target audience.
The production budget for this film was $70 million, $66 million more
than the 1953 version, but it is there as a big budget Hollywood film that is
made for worldwide success, but it also made a gross profit of $300,854,823
worldwide, it was more popular internationally than domestically in the USA,
with 60.2% of the profit coming from there. In the opening weekend they made $13,522,535,
ranking number 1, it remained number 1 in the box office for 3 weeks, however
it was highly viewed for months before not being as popular, we can see from
this that not only was marketing correct in getting people to go see the film
during the opening weekend, but it must’ve been liked and people must’ve told
their friends to see it as it stayed in the cinema with high ratings for a few
months, on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience review of it is 77% which is good, the
reviews say how it’s exciting and has everything a Hollywood film needs with
Hook being the perfect recipe. Another appeal to the audience to see this film
is the actors, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Smith,
all very famous and well liked actors, if you were a fan of any of these actors
then you would be more drawn to see the film, an advantage of it not being
animated is that you can get a lot of promotion for the film through the actors
and their endorsements (We can see these famous actors on the front of the DVD
cover, with their names in matching red underneath, this immediately draws
someone in to buy the DVD if it has a big, Hollywood actor). It was also directed
by Steven Spielberg who is a major, successful director and so if you are
interested and like certain directors, than this can also be an appeal; this is
another reason why we can see it is not aimed at a younger audience, younger
audiences do not care about actors or directors, all they care about is the
content of the film, they also don’t take notice of things like camera angles
and music unlike older children and adults who do notice the creativity of the
making of it.
We can gather audience feedback
through different methods, such as reviews, focus groups, reception, test screenings
and box office, as well as others. Firstly there are test screenings, this is
where they bring in an audience before the film is complete to view the film
and then give feedback to what they could improve and what they liked, this way
the directors can decide what to change about the film before completion. Often
there are preview sessions of the film so film critics can review it for their
paper or website, consumers of the newspapers or viewers of the website can
read what the critic has said about the film and then decide whether they want
to go see that film as well, depending on whether it had a good or bad review
(if the film gets a bad view, it is more likely that less people will go see
the film as they trust the critics judgement). Websites such as Rotten Tomatoes
is where you can see reviews not only from film critics but from members of the
public, to get a wider overview of the response to the film, however it is up
to the public to decide whether they want to see the film or not. Us and
Directors can get an idea of how successful a film has been in the cinema
through box office, if, in the opening weekend, the film has been a success
however over the next couple of weeks if, in the box office, it is less
successful, it gives us an idea that people went to see the film after
successful marketing however it was disappointing and so they didn’t tell their
friends to watch it or it got bad reviews etc. whereas a film that might not
have great marketing and not great success in the opening weekend but then
increasing box office sales over the weeks/months in the cinema, it means that
it wasn’t that appealing to watch but people enjoyed it, heard good reviews
about it and were told about it by their friends, it would go around by word
and mouth about how great it was, therefore attracting a wider audience after
release. Audience feedback is an
important part of the success of a film, depending on the feedback it can
determine the success of the film, and there are different ways of both getting
feedback and analysing that feedback through film reviews, box office sales and
test screenings.
Both of these films are iconic in
the series of remakes of Peter Pan, the first, 1953 animation, is a family
classic and is what everybody thinks of when Peter Pan is mentioned and this
has set out the iconic look of Peter Pan, although this is a family classic, it
is targeted at a young child as it is an animation, it is magical and has
adventure and is perfect for both boys and girls whereas Hook is a twist of the
story and is unique in the series of sequels, it doesn’t follow the usual
pattern of the story although takes the basic storyline and elements from it.
Hook is based at the older child and I would say it is more targeted at boys
over girls as there is more fighting rather than magical creatures or a love
story however girls will also like the film, so in conclusion, we can tell they
are targeted to different audiences as one is an animation and has elements
that all children would love and the other is a Hollywood film with famous
actors that has a darker side and unique twist, however both have a wide,
international audience and anyone of any age would enjoy them.
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