Plundering Pan Again

Perhaps you've already come across this preview - but somehow I'm just discovering it now.

I "reported" on this upcoming TV show back in March 2010 and now we have something to actually show for it.

First let me say that the animation quality is quite nice.  The camera angles, the way Peter flits about et cetera are quite pleasing.  But on the whole, I just can't accept it.  Sorry to everyone involved.

They're supposed to be fighting Captain Hook again.  Strike.

They've absolutely re-created the Darling children, beyond the idea of descendants.
They've a Wendy, Michael and John.  Strike.

Tinker Bell is still with him in this, the 21st Century.  Strike.

Oh.  That's three.

Maybe there IS a good explanation for any or all of the above.  But from this vantage point it just seems as if they're trying to regurgitate the elements of Barrie.  If we wanted all those characters, why not do what Fox's Peter Pan & the Pirates did and base their new adventures around this passage in the novel:  There were, however, many adventures ... to describe them all would require a book as large as an English-Latin, Latin-English Dictionary...

I also frowned at the "second STAR" being shown.  That's one of the reworkings of Pan I wish we could relegate back to Disney alone.

I did sort of like the use of the statue in Kensington Gardens, though.  That's something I haven't decided on myself.  Within the world of Pan (see last post), IS there a statue erected to him?  If so, it would have to have a different history to it, wouldn't it?  I mean, it could not have been paid for and put up Barrie his creator as it had been in our own 'real' history.  If it's there in the Pan-universe it would also not be in honor of a great piece of literature, rather a great urban legend.  (I always wondered about the use of it in the Spielberg sequel movie, too.)

I just have a couple of other questions.  The Narrator in the video hints that the Neverland doesn't change.  Er, yes, they do.  He also says  fairies sparkle with gold dust.  Gold?  Okay, perhaps, but gold isn't one of the colors of fairies.  Peter heard the call of thimble again... what on earth?  Yeah, I get the thimble part.  But HEARING it?  I don't get it.  Have a gander for yourself.

Oh well...at least it will likely cause more folk to seek out Barrie's original. 

Lovely? Happy? No worries!

Here’s another bit from Peter Pan’s NeverWorld that one might construe as a discrepancy.

From Peter and Wendy:

“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts,” Peter explained, “and they lift you up in the air.”

Said by Pan in PPNW:

“Now think happy thoughts and wriggle your shoulders.”

Happy thoughts? Shouldn’t it have been “lovely wonderful thoughts”?

Well, perhaps.  I’ll let you in on my rationale for this one.

We know from Barrie that Peter Pan can be quite scatter-brained and also that he’s prone to saying whatever comes into his head. Thus, we cannot necessarily rely on him to repeat the same exact phrase.

And that’s a factor, too... repeating Barrie’s exact phrasing of those two modifying words for ‘thoughts’ would seem a little over-the-top, no?   Maybe even stilted.   Thus, I don’t have Peter Pan saying the same thing verbatim.   It just wouldn’t happen.

Why, then, does he say “happy” when it’s become the standard in pop culture’s thinking about how one flies in the world of Pan? Well, precisely for that reason. You see, it’s not just in our own real life that Pan is known throughout by young and old alike. It’s within the world of the Barrie’s stories of him as well. Tales of Pan are passed down for generations... and not just via the Darlings’ descendants. Here’s the beginning of the chapter titled for the boy in The Little White Bird:

If you ask your mother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a little girl she will say, "Why, of course, I did, child," and if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days she will say, "What a foolish question to ask, certainly he did." Then if you ask your grandmother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a girl, she also says, "Why, of course, I did, child," but if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days, she says she never heard of his having a goat. Perhaps she has forgotten, just as she sometimes forgets your name and calls you Mildred, which is your mother's name.  Still, she could hardly forget such an important thing as the goat. Therefore there was no goat when your grandmother was a little girl. This shows that, in telling the story of Peter Pan, to begin with the goat (as most people do) is as silly as to put on your jacket before your vest.

And let us not forget this passage about Wendy’s mother in Peter and Wendy:

At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him...

... which just go on and on.

There you have it. I hope you’re happy with the lovely way I’ve manipulated the wonderful world of Pan.

What is "You Better BELIEVE It!," Alex?

Go figure.

So soon after the last one, a character from Barrie is mentioned on the best trivia show ever once again!
My my MY my MY!

Granted, it's referring to the Disney incarnation this time, but for certain the "question" to the $200 "answer" on Jeopardy! is "Who is Tinker Bell?"  I mean, what ELSE would be first in a categoty of 'TINKER,' right?

Also interesting to note, right next to it there'd been a category "EVER"s and one might think a mention of the N'ever'LAND might be inculded.  No, though.  But this entire category had been played before they ever touched on 'TINKER.'

Seriously, folks, WHO *IS* the Barrie & Pan fan on the Jeopardy! team?  My friend Buttercup who'd been watching and playing along with me agrees that there's got to be someone!

Who is the Pan Fan, Alex?

Although this one is much more understandable since it came during Jeopardy! Kids Week, my my my but if Peter Pan didn't show up as a clue on the famous and beloved quiz show yet again!

It came in a category of 'Quotations in Literature' and held the top box of $200.

Yes, a child catching up to the lead delivered the correct question.

I also need to point out that when they came back to the category, Treasure Island came up at $600.  An "answer" about the link between the two books would have made my day. 

Perhaps Jeopardy! uses Peter Pan and Barrie so often because they're just so well permeated in culture across both sides of the pond at the very least.  Makes good trivia material.

Still, it's uncanny.

Tree-son Against Barrie?

At the end of Peter and Wendy, Peter Pan says where he will now live:

“With Tink in the house we built for Wendy. The fairies are to put it high up among the tree tops where they sleep at nights.”

So why isn’t he living there in Peter Pan’s NeverWorld? Is this a glitch in the novel? No. What Barrie wrote is (but of course) true... and stayed true for quite some time. But as with many things, it had to come to an end. Why? What’s the rationale for that?

Simple. First off, there is quite an extensive amount of time between the events of Barrie’s conclusion and my novel. (We’re talking decades!) That alone should be (and is) a factor. Peter Pan would most likely get bored with living in the same simple and small place, espeically when remembrance of Wendy isn't fresh in his mind.  Yet that’s but a mild reason among those that exist.

Here's another:  Crowding issues. Since Lost Boys are always coming to the Neverland, eventually there’d be one too many of them trying to fit in the Wendy House.

Also, the Wendy House atop the trees is not as well hidden as say, a home under the ground. Think about it... there are other nasty shenanigans going on around the magical isle besides pirates. Would it behoove Pan to stay out in the open? He’s smarter than that.

The way I figure it... on one of Peter’s daily adventures in the Neverland, he came across the Home Under the Ground and found it again for what he believed to be the first time. Whichever Lost Boys were with him would delight in such a place as well.  Perhaps whichever mother had been with him would poo-poo the idea, but then, sometimes there’s no arguing with Peter Pan!  Having re-found it, he’d also (re?)realize what a boon the hideout proves to be. After all, Barrie didn’t think it up for nothing!

That’s why you’ll find Peter Pan, Denny and the Lost Boys living in the underground house on the island.

And yet...I didn’t want to replicate the very same idea for his adventures on NeverWorld. It’s certainly possible and plausible that he'd live under the ground again, sure. At the very least one of the kids who helped dream it up could have even placed an exact copy of it someplace on the planet. [In fact, that just might have been done!]  However, from a standpoint of storytelling, it would also feel utterly rehashed.

So I decided on a solution that would refer back to the very same Wendy House that he’d “supposed to be” living in at the end of the novel. Thus, they live in a house on the trees.

But as with everything in Peter Pan’s NeverWorld, the stakes are raised. As an example, Mothers are without a doubt an important key factor in the tales of Peter Pan. Raised a level, that becomes Mother Earth/Planet. So when the Wendy House is considered, an upgrade from a house is none other than a mansion, or to be exact: ...a multi-level tree house with more rooms than necessary.

You might be thinking that an even bigger “Wendy House” is therefore an even bigger sight that could attract unfriendly and unwanted guests. What’s more, the novel says: It did, however, lack one thing – a ladder. They could keep enemies away who didn’t have the power of flight. Why can’t “baddies” just climb up, you might be wondering? The tree is rather daunting, I tell you. Honest. In my mind, it’s a very thick, hearty tree that’s able to support such a grand house atop itself. Not to mention it’s quite high up indeed. Not the sort of bark stalk that’s either inviting or particularly easy to climb. Oh, sure, I suppose it could be done if need be.  But to use the opposite direction - that’s like saying you could jump off a cliff if you really wanted to do so.  Or maybe it's better to say it's like scaling a cliff.  Suffice to say, it’s no effortless task to clamber up their tree!

So there, you see, I strove for a blending of the old and new. Barrie wanted him in a Tree House. So I gave Pan the greatest Tree House of them all!

Another Thumb Up

A little addendum to yesterday’s post...

Our friend Gil stopped by last night. He asked what I’ve been up to... so naturally I said making illustrations for my latest Peter Pan book. I explained what I’m doing and he wanted to not only see the ‘drawings’ but have a gander at how I’d been doing it. So I showed him.  And I gave a quick demonstration of the process.

He marveled at both what I’d created and how I created them.

So... I guess it’s really not just me.

Let’s hope the rest go just as well.

I'm B-a-B Finishing the Interquel

The progress report on Peter Pan: Betwixt-and-Between...

just over half done.

Sorry if you were expecting more.  If only I were able to spend every moment working on it.  Alas, that is not to be.  Also, I don't want to rush it.  After all, they're the pictures for the tale and I want to be happy with each and every one.  So far that's true.

Part of the delay process is both selecting which parts to illustrate and another factor lies in what illustrations I am feasibly able to do.  For instance, I'm using actual photos (my own) of Kensington Gardens wherever I can... but not all scenes take place there!  So the hunt for more is on... (one picture in particular is composed of three - and you should have seen Bart get wide-eyed at that news.  He'd no idea that had been the case.) 

More importantly, recall that I wish it to have the 'feel' of the original drawings for both Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy.  Sort of a hybrid of the two.  For is it not a story that lies somewhere toward the middle of the two?

I'm not the only one who likes the pictures I have completed, either.  Like I said, Bart's been impressed.  He doesn't placate me, especially when it comes to something important such as pictures for a novel.  [This after I got the "go ahead" from worthy critics Anon* and Andrea Hook & Jill Jones who each saw the first illustration.]

I've also been revising the novel once again.  And that includes "maintenance" so to speak, as I tend to not want a page with, say, only two sentences on it or whatnot.  Sometimes, but not often, such undesirable results wind up unavoidable.  But I'm doing my best to prevent them... without sacrificing the original text.  That can be tricky.  But I'm happy to say that so far it's only caused a better flowing narrative.

And yes, I spent a good portion of the past holiday weekend working on the book.

So hang in there, Pan fans.  I'm only trying to produce something I can crow about!
(I should also mention that the work is going by much more quickly than I anticipated.)

You'll be able to crow about it soon enough.

*Barrie enthusiast and my faithful reader and #1 fan