Peter Pan...eh?

I don't know what production you saw, but in the stage performances approved by J.M. Barrie himself, Mr. Darling (the children's father) and Captain Hook were always played by the same actor.

I saw the new movie last night. Found myself a leetle uncomfy with all the implied sexuality among pre-adolescents, and with Hook's seemingly carnal interest in both. The "ick" feeling surfaced!

I haven't seen the movie. Peter Pan has always wanted Wendy's full attention--why not her body too?

Hook has always been an "evil" man. Interestingly enough, Peter calls him a "codfish". Codfish was a nursery staple dinner--and not necessarily a pleasant experience. "Cod" was also a an 18th century euphemism for the male member.

Victorians were complicated sexually--more so, I'd guess, than we are more than a century later. Jerry Springer and his ilk have dragged a lot of home made sin out from under slimy rocks.

I've been reading some very funny reviews of this lately. Funny, in the sense that everyone seems to agree that the movie is truer to the book than anything seen on stage (apparently Mary Martin just RUINED Peter Pan), but no one can agree on whether the film is good/great or icky. It certainly seems to be getting peoples' guts to react.

The reviews normally wouldn't have struck me, except I somehow read 3 the same day. 2 in papers that i thought were part of the same chain, and therefore required to share an opinion.

The movie provoked the same reaction that I had when I first saw "Pretty Baby."

Oh, hobitbob, you enjoyed it and you know it.
At what age did you have your first sexual experiment? Don't answer that -- my "ick" meter registers quite low.

Good grief..now I'll have Wilso after me!

The very first song I ever wrote was called Peter Pan...as years have gone by I've changed it's musical style to fit the times but I can't bring myself to part with it...Peter Pan is someone I really see myself in......

Hmmm..I think Wendy is something both Peter and Hook see themselves in in the film......

I have not seen this movie but I have always felt there was intense, if not acknowledged, sexual tension between Peter and Wendy. I felt this right from the time as a kid I saw the Disney version. I also was always of the opinion that Hook had sexual designs on Wendy. maybe I'm odd but I always thought that Peter Pan was one of the most sexually charged books I read as a preadolescent and could never understand, or abide by the treacly interpretations that I was force fed.

There is sexual tension in a lot of folktales involving children like the Little Red Riding Hood stories and their variants. These served as cautionary tales. There was so much sexual inuendo that many school boards in the US tried to censure this tale.

Another story that comes to mind with sexual overtones is The Nutcracker.

I see you've met my ex wife!

PA-DUM, CRASH!

How about that perverted spider who's obsessed with eating that Little Miss Muffet?

Somebody get John Ashcroft to throw a blanket over Mother Goose, quickly, for the sake of the children!!!!!

"Peter Pan" got a good review in the NY Times. I'm tempted to see it as my memories of it are based on the kiddie versions I saw decades ago. Clearly there's more going on than I imagined back then!

The movie looks good -- I just might trek over to the multiplex as I would guess the big screen does it justice.

Just got through replaying "The Nutcracker" in the DVD version with the Royal Ballet. Of course, sex is involved -- it's Tchaikovsky! Actually the best of all the taped Nutcrackers with a 5.1 soundtrack that is amazing.

Was you ex-wife a ballet dancer, hobitbob?

No, just a nutcracker. I do, however, have a weakness for Ballet dancers. I learned a baluable leson at one time, never date more than one member of the PNB's Corp de Ballet in the same year!

Was it just tutu much?

I read Peter Pan when I was eight years old and the two scenes tht caused me great moral confusion don't seem to bother other people.

Early on in the book Barrie throws in a mawkish aside describing Mrs. Darling going through metaphorical bureaus which represent her children's minds, tucking the "nice" thoughts on top and slipping the not-so-nice underneath.

I felt that this was snooping and Good Mothers Shouldn't Snoop. Further, why tuck the bad thoughts underneath instead of getting rid of them?

Then Captain Hook gains access to Peter's medicine because one of the lost boys has started to grow and has resorted to some sort of padding or whittling away of his hollow tree entrance. Peter was against the Lost Boys growing older. My feelings on this point are pretty well my adult feelings about all points of Michael Jackson.

Of course the enforced timelessness of Never Never Land is one of the themes of the book.

To be fair, I also fell in love with the directions to Never Never Land. "Second star on the right and then straight on till morning." They made profound sense to an eight year old and they still do more than 50 years later.

Barrie, like most Victorian Children's Authors ( and before the Victorian Era there were precious few books written specifically for children) wrote with one eye on the adults who would buy the book or read the book aloud. Archness is not a particularly attractive aspect of an author.