When my 10-year old niece comes to spend the night at my house, in general it’s a veg fest. We watch movies, eat junk food, play with my psychotic cat, and in general act like big kids. The movie part is not always easy, as the majority of movies I own are not "niece-friendly". Lately we’ve been having a BTVS marathon, as she was born in ’99, and when the shows went off the air she was still too young to comprehend the storylines. She’s enjoying them immensely.
The last time she spent the night, we finished up Season 2, but I wasn’t ready for her to start Season 3 yet. Truth be told, the last handful of episodes of Season 2 are so emotionally draining for me, I wasn’t ready to keep going. Plus I don’t want to rush through the seasons. 10 is still very young to watch the exercise in disgust that is season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anticipating this, I told her to pack some movies from home so we’d have something else to watch, as well.
She brought quite a few movies from home, plus I had the 2003 live-action version of Peter Pan from the library. I hadn’t watched it since it first came out on DVD, and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to watch it again. Plus Jason Isaacs is in it, and after falling hard for him as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, I wanted to see him in another badass role.
The first thing I noticed on rewatch of the movie was, of course, that Olivia Williams plays Mrs Darling. As soon as she appeared on screen, I nearly shrieked, "Adelle!" Niece, of course, wanted to know what the hell I was talking about, and I just mumbled something and kept going. Ms Williams, of course, played Adelle on Dollhouse. Not only is the role of Mrs Darling the complete 180 degree opposite of Adelle, but she even looks different in the movie. She’s softer, for one, and in some scenes, absolutely breath-taking. Her voice is so pleasing. I’d barely noticed it on Dollhouse, probably because being a power heel wearing man-eating awesome Bitch Monster tends to distract from a pleasing voice.
Jason Isaacs plays both Mr Darling and Hook, a fact that was lost to me in the years since I saw it. He’s absolutely bloody incredible in the role. I remembered him as being mean and a badass, but I didn’t remember the vulnerability he brought to the screen. When he says for Peter not to leave him all alone, it definitely touched something in me. And not the same part of me that’s normally touched when seeing Jason on screen.
The casting in this movie all around was perfect. Lyn Redgrave was perfection as the aunt. At the very end of the movie, when the Lost Boys get to the Darlings and are just so thrilled at having found a mother. Then we pan over to the door, where Lyn is speaking to “Slightly”. And he’s heartbroken because he got there too late to have a mother. I am not going to lie, I bawled.
That was moment number two of tears. Moment number one? When Peter is crying over the “dead” Tinkerbell, and he starts the “I do believe in Fairies.” When the movie first came out, that was niece’s favorite part. We said it along with the movies, and it started her love for all things Tinkerbell, which has petered off slightly over the years. Speaking of Tinkerbell, she may be my favorite character in the movie. I am not a Tinkerbell fanatic. I wasn’t particularly fond of her in the animated version. I didn’t dislike her, but really, she’s a little angry fairy, and there were other characters to pay attention to.
If you don’t pay attention to Tinkerbell in this movie, you are severely missing out. Watch her in any given scene she is in, and you will never fail to be amused. Her mannerisms and pantomimes make this movie. Seriously. The actress is French, and I would like to see her in more roles.
All of this being said, I have a confession to make. The day after I watched this, I was speaking to TBF about it, and she said exactly what I was feeling, so it makes me feel slightly better that I am not the only pervert in the world.
Jeremy Sumpter. The actor who played Peter. I don’t know how old he was when he made this movie. But he is SERIOUSLY too young to look as goddamn seductive as he does. I mean, seriously. I felt like the most horrible, perverted, dirty old lady on the entire planet watching this movie. The looks he shoots Wendy? The looks he has just sitting there doing NOTHING. It’s horrifying how absolutely easy it is to forget that he’s MAYBE 12 years old. I need to look this up once I get internet connection working again.
He was born in '89, which makes him 7 years younger than me. 21...he was 14 when the movie came out, and I was 21, 22. I am a PERVERT.
I had the same reaction to Tom Felton the first time I watched the first and second Harry Potter movies. What’s more, he has not aged well. Which means I was only attracted to him when he was SEVERELY underaged. This makes me afraid to see Jeremy now, because what if HE has not aged well, thereby cementing my place in the special hell for finding a seriously young boy absolutely biteable?
I’m going to hell. And for once, not for a funny reason!!
The other movie we watched was Tarzan Part 2. Not my choice, but she didn’t have a terribly large amount of choices to pick from, so I went with it. Didn’t watch much of it, was knitting and reading through it. But what I did see was very cute. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the original Tarzan. I adore Disney movies, but the story of Tarzan hasn’t been one that really appealed to me growing up.
The telling of Tarzan growing up and learning to be “King of the Jungle” was actually really good. The minute I heard George Carlin’s voice I sat up and paid attention, and that role was just written with him in mind. The main “plot” was trite, but enjoyable for children. Not funny enough for Disney, in my opinion. The music wasn’t as good, either. But it’s Phil Collins, and you can’t really go wrong with a Phil Collins tune.
The little girl who did the song “Who Am I” for the end credits, Tiffany Evans, has an incredible voice. I watched the special features after the movie was over (I’m a special features whore. niece hates it), and watched her singing it in the recording studio. Her voice is scarily strong. I just hope she uses her powers for good, rather than going the Mariah Carey/Christina Aguilera way of evil.
So, great movie, so-so movie, and Buffy. No matter what, it's always a good movie when my niece is with me.
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