[HPforGrownups] Peter (& Disney)

[Denise Rogers]

No: HPFGUIDX 4740

Amanda, Could you elaborate on the "changing history?"  We do own Pocahontas, and I knew there was something not quite right about it...

I haven't seen MM's Peter Pan in ages, and barely recall it, but I have seen Cathy Rigby's (A&E, on sale currently), and I have read the book (courtesy of the SCPLibrary!).  I noticed the CR version kept more to the tone of the true book, but there are pieces of the Disney that I just enjoy more.  It's not true to the subject, no, but I can appreciate Disney for relating the material in these books to a level that my son can understand.  Someone mentioned back on Yahoo how they mutilated Mulan (And I still wish someone would post an URL, or something about that true story!).  It's got a moral to the story, the Disney version, that no matter what gender you are, you can overcome the odds.  Pocahontas is the acceptance of people, savages, despite their race.  Even Little Mermaid is more darker than the Disney version, and I know the evil queen in Snow White didn't just fade away, she wore heated irons, and was forced to dance at SW's wedding.  (Yes, I am repeating a few things, but we've a few new people.)

I try to see beyond Disney, using Disney as that jumping part for stories I haven't investigated before.  I never knew the storyline for Hunchback.  I know it's sugar coated, but at least I have something to go on.


And as for Peter Pan?  Well my son is going (all week--that's why no posts!) to everything this Halloween as Captain Hook.  Tell me that movies don't have an impression?  He likes both versions, the CR and the Disney, but watches CR more--"I don't want to grow up".

Watching the CR version, I can't stop laughing.  Hook (the actor, I cannot recall) does the lines so perfectly, they are hilarious.  I keep wondering what they left out due to time constriction?

;)

Dee, tricker or treater anonymous.

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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Amanda Lewanski 
  To: HPforGrownups at egroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 3:11 PM
  Subject: Re: [HPforGrownups] Peter and Potter


  foxmoth at qnet.com wrote:

  >         I think the words <redeeming charm> above are revealing. Disney
  > has conditioned us to expect charm from our kidlit  and we're
  > disappointed if we don't get it.

  A clarification. In order for me to be attracted to a character, there must
  be something about them I like. Charm was what I was expecting from Mary
  Poppins, somewhat due to the Disney version, but also because I'd heard the
  books described as such. I was disappointed at not finding it in a place I'd
  been led to believe I would. Hence my "redeeming charm" comment.

  I don't expect children's literature to be charming, as a generalization.
  Anyone who's read honest-to-Buddha fairy tales, before Disneyization, knows
  there's loads of uncharming, downright terrifying characters in there. And
  it's the archetypal tales that I, and now my kids, are most fond of.

  >         Pippin the heretic who hates Disney versions (ducking sharp
  > objects now) but loved the Mary Martin Peter Pan, ropes and all.

  I'm kind of two minds on the Disney thing. One, they have such a PR and
  marketing machine going, that anything they make quickly becomes the Official
  Version, and I'm too much a lover of the traditional to like that. On the
  other hand, there's precious little anymore that's pan-cultural besides such
  modern icons. And very few places in the modern world are just the way you
  remembered it as a kid, that you can go back to and show your kids, etc.,
  like Disney parks. And lastly, there are the kids in whom it engraves a
  lasting memory and prompts further investigation or study, like all the
  paleontologists I've read who lay the beginnings of their love of the field
  at the feet of "Fantasia" (which was an altered interpretation of the
  composer's intended scenario, too).

  On the other hand, I *still* won't, and never will, allow my kids to have
  "Pocohontas." When they begin to change history, as opposed to fiction, I
  lose my charitable outlook.

  --Amanda


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