Return to Never Land

Return to Never Land
A silhouette of Peter Pan was shown in a green background casting a glow.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Robin Budd
Produced by
  • Christopher Chase
  • Michelle Pappalardo-Robinson
  • Dan Rounds
Screenplay by Temple Mathews
Based on Characters created
by J.M. Barrie
Starring
Narrated by Clive Revill
Music by
Edited by Antonio F. Rocco
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release date
  • February 10, 2002 (2002-02-10) (New York City)
  • February 15, 2002 (2002-02-15) (United States)
Running time
 72 minutes
Country United States[1]
Language English
Budget $20 million[2]
Box office $109 million[2]

Return to Never Land (also known as Peter Pan 2 or Peter Pan in Return to Never Land) is a 2002 American animated musical fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures. The film is a sequel to Walt Disney Feature Animation 1953 film Peter Pan, It is based on J. M. Barrie's novel Peter and Wendy, and had a worldwide gross of $109 million.[3]

The film follows Wendy's daughter who refuses to believe in her mother's story during the Blitz in London, only to be mistakenly brought to Neverland by the pirates. In order for her to get home, she meets Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys who encourage her to fly and make her believe.

Plot

Wendy is now grown up and married to a man named Edward and has two children, Jane and Daniel "Danny". With World War II raging, Edward leaves to fight, leaving Wendy to take care of the children. Four years later, Jane refuses to believe in stories about Peter Pan and refers to them as "childish nonsense", which leads to an argument with her mother and brother one night (after Wendy is informed and tells Jane that she and Danny, along with the other children in London, are being evacuated to the countryside for safekeeping due to the German soldiers invading the city). Later while sleeping, she is mistakenly abducted by Captain Hook and his crew, who sail through the sky on their pixie-dust enchanted ship, evade an air raid alert and escape back to Neverland.

There, Hook plans to feed Jane to the octopus (who replaced Tick-Tock the Crocodile) in order to lure Peter into a trap. However, Peter rescues Jane and Hook escapes from the octopus, returning to the ship. After recognizing and asking Jane to follow Wendy's footstep, Peter takes her to his hideout to be the mother of the Lost Boys, but Jane refuses and gets stranded. The next day as the boys fail to teach Jane about flying, she upsets them and does not believe in fairies, making Tinker Bell sick. That night, Hook tricks Jane by lying that he will not harm Peter and she agrees to help him find the treasure. Hook gives Jane a whistle to signal him when she finds it and leaves.

Jane asks Peter and the boys to play a game of "treasure hunt", and they wish Jane to believe in fairies and save Tinker Bell. As Jane finds the treasure and changes her mind into discarding the whistle, the boys make her the "Lost Girl" before Tootles finds and inadvertently blows the whistle. As the pirates arrive to capture the boys, Hook reveals Jane was an accomplice. As Jane tries to tell Peter she never agreed to anything, Peter scolds her for her treachery and tells her that Tinker Bell was knocked out by Jane's disbelief in fairies. Horrified, Jane rushes back to the hideout to Tinker Bell's body, but she revives. They head to the ship and see Hook forcing Peter to walk the plank. With Tinker Bell's help, Jane learns to fly. As Peter drops the anchor on the ship and sinks into the sea, the pirates, riding on a rowboat, are pursued by the octopus.

After saying goodbye to the boys, Peter escorts Jane back home, where Jane reconciles with Wendy and Danny. Peter and Tinker Bell meet Wendy again, though she is already an adult, and they say goodbye. As Edward returns home from the war, Peter and Tinker Bell fly back to Neverland.

Voice cast

Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Wendy in the original, recorded all of her dialogues for the sequel, but Kath Soucie replaced her.[4]

  • Harriet Owen as Jane, Wendy and Edward's daughter, and Danny's older sister who refuses to believe in stories, but Peter changes her mind. Owen also voiced Young Wendy. Lianne Hughes served as the supervising animator for Jane Darling.
  • Blayne Weaver as Peter Pan, the leader of the Lost Boys, and friends of Wendy and Jane. Pieter Lommerse and Andrew Collins served as the supervising animators for Peter Pan.
  • Corey Burton as Captain Hook, the captain of the pirates. Bob Baxter served as the supervising animator for Captain Hook.
  • Jeff Bennett as Mr. Smee, Hook's first mate and sidekick.
  • Kath Soucie as Wendy Darling, Jane and Danny's mother, and Edward's wife. Ryan O'Loughlin served as the supervising animators for Wendy Darling.
  • Andrew McDonough as Daniel, nicknamed Danny, Wendy and Edward's son and Jane's younger brother.
  • Roger Rees as Edward, a surviving soldier, Wendy's husband, and Jane and Danny's father.
  • The Lost Boys, Peter's best friends:

Production

Disney MovieToons/Disney Video Premiere developed than assigned the work for Peter and Jane to Disney Animation Canada. The film was a Peter Pan sequel originally designed as its first theatrical release. In fall 1999, the Canadian unit stopped work on what was then a video release. With Canada's closure, work on Peter and Jane was moved to Australia and Japan units.[5] Cornerstone Animation was contracted to do animation direction.[6] The film moved back to a Disney MovieToons theatrical release[7]

Soundtrack

Joel McNeely composed the music for the film.

  1. "Do You Believe in Magic?"
  2. "Main Title"
  3. "Second Star to the Right"
  4. "Tale of Pan"
  5. "I'll Try"
    • Jonatha Brooke
  6. "Jane Is Kidnapped"
  7. "Childhood Lost"
  8. "Here We Go Another Plan"
  9. "Summoning the Octopus/Pan Saves Jane"
  10. "Flight Through Never Land"
  11. "So to Be One of Us"
  12. "Meet the Lost Boys"
  13. "Now That You're One of Us"
  14. "Longing for Home"
  15. "Hook and the Lost Boys"
  16. "Hook Deceives Jane"
  17. "Jane Finds the Treasure"
  18. "Pan Is Captured"
  19. "I'll Try (Reprise)"
    • Jonatha Brooke
  20. "Jane Saves Tink and Pan"
  21. "Jane Can Fly"
  22. "Flying Home"
  23. "Reunion"

Reception

Box office

The film opened at the third position at the box office behind Crossroads and John Q, earning $11,889,631.[8] Return to Never Land grossed $48,430,258 domestically and $61,432,424 overseas, for an approximate worldwide gross of $109,862,682. With an estimated budget of $20 million, the film made a modestly successful theatrical release.[9] It was before DVD sales, which had been the initially planned market for the film.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 46% based on 94 reviews, with an average of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With its forgettable songs and lackluster story, this new Pan will surely entertain kids, but will feel more like a retread to adults."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

Accolades

Breslin was nominated for a 2003 Young Artist Award as Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role at the 24th Young Artist Awards.[13][14][15]

Home media

Return to Never Land was released on VHS and DVD in August 2002, and it took in only lukewarm sales. The version went out of print in January 2003. In November 2007, the film was released in a "Pixie-Powered Edition" and was also released in a Peter Pan trilogy, along with the Peter Pan Platinum Edition and Tinker Bell in December 2008. The Pixie-Powered edition went out of print in January 2009.[16] The film was released on Blu-ray in August 2013, after the first Blu-ray release of Peter Pan.

References

  1. ↑ "Return to Never Land (2002)". AllMovie. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Return to Never Land (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Animated Views: Beaumont and Kerry: Peter Pan’s Leading Ladies, interview with Kathryn Beaumont
  5. ↑ Poirier, Agnes (February 15, 2000). "Disney pulls plug on Canadian animation studios". Screendaily.com. Retrieved March 23, 2013.
  6. ↑ Bloom, David (August 13, 2002). "Cornerstone Animation Takes Hit". Animation World Network. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  7. ↑ Baisley, Sarah (June 16, 2003). "DisneyToon Studios Builds Slate Under New Name and Homes for Needy". Animation World Network. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  8. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for February 15-17, 2002". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. February 19, 2002. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Return to Never Land (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. June 13, 2002. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Return to Never Land (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Return to Never Land Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  12. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
  16. ↑ Ultimate Disney's Out Of Print DVD List. Archived March 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
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