A classic for sure, though I'd forgot how god-awfully racist was the depiction of the Native Americans...

It is a little slow until they get to Neverland but then it gets good. I love Smee and captain hook and of course the crocodile.

A timeless fairy tale, animated with passion and enthusiasm by the fabulous Disney old-timers (this would be the last time the "nine old men" collaborated on a film), trimmed of fat and hoisted, wriggling and fighting, onto the silver screen. Every frame is alive, ecstatic and energetic, with a heavy emphasis on stylized action and far less of the obvious frame-traced roto-scoping seen in Snow White or Cinderella. Loaded with garish personality and iconic character designs, it's effortlessly magical, jolly and carefree; enduring in many of the same ways as The Wizard of Oz. Breathless and mischievous, perhaps a bit old-fashioned, though such genuine wholesomeness never really goes out of fashion, provided it comes from the heart. The opening act may take a little while to get moving, but once the kids are sprinkled with pixie dust and the whole crew takes flight, it's nonstop action and adventure to the very end. I forgot how much of a feisty, jealous little thing Tinkerbell could be.

As soon as Mr. Smee opened his mouth, I knew I'd heard his voice before (and I don't mean from watching this movie as a kid). Adult me is highly amused to find that Smee shares his voice actor with the White Rabbit from _Alice in Wonderland_ (1951)—Bill Thompson. Turns out Kathryn Beaumont (Wendy) was also the voice of Alice in the same film. (Among the many other connections between this and other films of its time, Candy Candido (the Indian Chief's voice) also played a brief uncredited part in _The Wizard of Oz_ (1939) as an angry apple tree, and in _Dumbo_ (1941) as a roaring lion.) Watching this for the first time in probably 15 years, I realize now what a jealous [spoiler]bitch[/spoiler] Tinkerbell is to Wendy. Didn't really get that when I was a kid—but then, I was just a kid. Something else I really appreciate now as an art in itself: The crocodile's animations. Whenever he's moving around, we hear the tick-tock of the clock he swallowed, and some part of him is almost always moving in a tick-tock fashion as a nod to that. It's simply perfect. Having had the chance to watch a great many other cartoons since I last saw this film, I also appreciated the Wile E. Coyote connection: Hook chases Peter off a tall rock and continues stepping in mid-air until Peter points to his feet as if to say "You're standing on nothing," at which point Hook falls. I think the only Wile E. Coyote cartoon that had used a cliff gag of that type at the time this film was produced was the first short, _Fast and Furry-ous_ (1949), but that's early enough that it could have been written into the screenplay for _Peter Pan_ as a nod to Looney Toons. One last interesting connection I realized: In both _Peter Pan_ and _Pinocchio_ (1940), a character takes a drag on a smoking device of some kind and turns greenish. Here, John takes a pull on the Indians' pipe; in _Pinocchio_, Pinocchio is given a cigar. I'm sure if I did a proper study (if watching every Disney animated film could be called that), I'd find several instances of this. Seems like a subtle anti-smoking message embedded for the kids watching.