The Peter Pan Fantasy
In his 2004 essay about Barrie in The New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote that “In Peter Pan, Barrie achieved the rarest alchemy of all, the one that no writer can plan or predict: he invented a myth.” It’s true; there is a dark and sad undertone that you feel when you read the story as an adult, more than when you watch the movie as a child.
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Peter Pan always gave off a dark vibe, very different from the family-friendly children’s books that are published nowadays. Maybe it’s because, like all myths, the pain and tragedy that the story is derived from make it so timeless. Disney’s fairy dust covers up the dark origins of their popular characters. Disney is known for changing the tragic princess stories into fairy-tale dreams.