The magic is missing in this remake: Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy reviewed

Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney’s latest live-action remake (the animated version was in 1953) and it’s quite the sombre affair. It takes itself and its story so seriously that I kept waiting for it to be fun and it never was. There is an underlying sadness to J.M. Barrie’s original story, but it is also funny and joyous and exciting. Flying! Fairy dust! Ticking crocodiles! Pirates! That’s all here but somehow the magic is missing. Still, Captain Hook is played by Jude Law, who is at that stage in his career where he’s determined to have a good time and, from the look of it, he is definitely having a good time. At least one of us did (she says, resentfully).

The film is directed and co-written by David Lowery who made the live-action version of Pete’s Dragon, which is the best Disney remake yet, apparently. Peter Pan, meanwhile, is one of those stories that, like its protagonist, never seems to get old. It first appeared as a play in 1904 – ‘a delicious frolic’, said the Times review, ‘full of quiet wisdom and sweet charity, under its surface of wild fun’ – and there have been many screen adaptations since. My favourite, if it’s of interest, is P.J. Hogan’s 2003 version starring Jason Isaacs as both Mr Darling and Captain Hook, which I think gets the balance just right – subtle and wistful yet also, yes, wild fun. Plus it has Richard Briers as Smee, and you just can’t quarrel with that.

Captain Hook is played by Jude Law, who is at that stage in his career where he’s determined to have a good time

This version does not bother with much preamble. Barrie made Mr and Mrs Darling (Alan Tudyk, Molly Parker) endearingly nuts, but here they are sober, stern characters and barely get a look-in.