DVD Review: Peter Pan - 2-Disc Platinum Edition
Peter Pan fans rejoice, as that magical flying boy is back in his original Disney adventure, but this time in a deluxe edition two-disc DVD set. Personally, I was never a huge fan of Peter Pan, and this release didn't convert me. My wife, on the other hand, loves Peter Pan. She owns the original DVD release, and she absolutely loved this one. Yeah, it has more extra features, but believe it or not, the movie itself is actually visually better. It's cleaner and crisper, like someone spent a lot of time going through it frame-by-frame to make it pristine. On the back of the DVD box, they call it a New Digital Restoration. I'm always skeptical when I hear something like that, but on this one you can definitely tell. It's not just the picture that was enhanced either. They also went and did the sound. This wasn't as noticeable to us, but that's mostly likely due to our sound system, which isn't really top-of-the-line.
And now for the extra features... let's see, there is a never-before seen alternate opening, some deleted songs, a really great documentary about why Walt Disney wanted to make Peter Pan, a music video for "The Second Star to the Right", some games for the kids, and an odd yet enjoyable audio commentary. It's odd because it's not just people talking over the film while they watch it, reminiscing about this and that. No, it's actually stitched together from a bunch of different audio sources of interviews, such as from cast and crew. You'll hear from people like Roy Disney, Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker, Kathryn "Wendy" Beaumont, and even some original animators. Normally I don't like commentaries that are stitched together (such as the one on Terminator 3), but this one was actually an interesting listen.
The story... do I really need to cover the story? Isn't it already known by every single person alive today? Or at least, every person who owns a DVD player? Yeah, so I'll just give you the short, short version. A magical boy who never ages whisks away a group of kids into his magical land where they encounter excitement, adventure, thrills, and danger. And who could forget Peter Pan's arch-nemesis, Captain Hook, who lost his hand to a crocodile... and the crocodile liked it so much that he's now constantly trying to get the rest of him. I do think Peter's little pixie girl, Tinkerbell, is kinda hot, but other than that I could just never really get entranced by the whole thing. Not even really sure why. But by now you probably already know whether or not you love Peter Pan, and if you do then you're sure to enjoy this release.
