Peter Pan is a film released on December 25, 2003, by Universal Pictures. P. J. Hogan directed a screenplay he had co-written with Michael Goldenberg which was based on the classic children's play and novel by J. M. Barrie. Jason Isaacs played the role of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, while Jeremy Sumpter played the title role, Rachel Hurd-Wood portrayed Wendy Darling, and Ludivine Sagnier played Tinkerbell. Noted actress Lynn Redgrave played a supporting role as Aunt Millicent, a new character specifically created for the film.
The movie was relatively popular with critics, but earned only $48.4 million at the box office in the United States and another $71 million outside of the U.S., compared with the film's $100-million budget. It faced competition from the highly-anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, released the week before. On his website, critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 stars out of 4.
Audiences familiar with only the 1953 Disney animated film, and no other version, may have been disarmed to find the romantic angle of the story so pronounced in this latest film incarnation; although its amorous content consists of little more than a chaste kiss, reviewers at the time made wide mention of the film's romantic tone. The film also contains a scene not in the play in which Peter, still not having formally met Wendy, flies into her house and hovers in flight over her bed, curiously gazing at her; Wendy awakens, and the startled Peter flies away quickly through the open window. Wendy is left believing that she dreamed the incident. The next day, she makes a drawing in school of Peter hovering over her, and the horrified schoolteacher mistakenly assumes it to have a darker Freudian meaning. The incident is played in the film as innocent comedy whose supposed double-entendre goes right over the heads of younger viewers, but apparently some audiences were offended by its inclusion. Another scene not present in the book — and the biggest change from the novel to the screen — was the slightly modified ending involving the legendary duel between Hook and Pan on the pirate ship, whose alteration may have found disappointment among purists. The scene has Hook grab Tinkerbell to thereafter be made able to fly, eventually fighting Peter with his newfound ability. Another minor surprise was that despite the film's mature and bittersweet tone, they did not keep the book's ending where Peter forgets about Wendy only to return years later, when she is a grown-up woman. This ending was filmed and is alluded to during the final battle between Hook and Peter, but was not included in the final cut. The deleted ending is featured as an extra in most releases on the DVD.Wikipedia
