Guess who's back? Back again! :D

Hey guys! Sorry I took a bit of a hiatus for a while, college has been keeping me busy, and now said college is on strike so classes are cancelled until who knows how long! 

*insert angry Donald Duck noises here* 

So while this is happening, I'm going to try and take advantage of this newly made free time and update this book and my other works as much as I can. 

Disney has a few films coming out in the next couple of months, so I'll be sure to cover them when they get there, but for now, let's fly to Neverland with Peter Pan and the gang as we learn some facts about the classic animated film! 

Remember, all it takes is faith, trust, and pixie dust! 

Fact #571
In the original play, Hook loses his right hand, but the Disney artists felt that would limit his actions too much, and switched the hook to the left hand. 

Fact #572
Though the film was extremely successful, Walt Disney himself was dissatisfied with the finished product, feeling that the character of Peter Pan was cold and unlikable. However, experts on J.M. Barrie praise this as a success, as they insist that Pan was originally written to be a heartless sociopath. 

Fact #573
Bobby Driscoll (as a voice actor) was the first male to play Peter Pan on film.

Fact #574
In compliance with the tradition of the stage version, the same actor, Hans Conried, performed the roles of both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook; the two characters' looks were even modeled after his. Nana and the Crocodile are also a "dual role" on stage, which the animators acknowledge by giving the Crocodile canine qualities.

Fact #575
The Darling children become very sleepy as their parents leave the room. This may not be merely because it is their bed time. The "tonic" given to the children by Nana may have been morphine. It was quite common in the early 20th century to give children "soothing syrups" and "tonics" to control their behavior. These concoctions turned out to consist of several different narcotics. 

Fact #576
22 year-old Margaret Kerry (who measured 35-25-36, and provides the voice of the red-haired mermaid) was the real-life model for Tinker Bell.

Fact #577
Kathryn Beaumont, who provided the voice for Wendy, also performed the live action references. In an interview, she said she had to hold out her arms and pretend to fly for all the scenes requiring it.

Fact #578
This film marked three "lasts" for Disney: first, it was the final Disney film in which all nine members of the Nine Old Men worked together on it as directing animators; second, it was the last full-length Disney animated film distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. All of Disney's films after early 1954 would be distributed by Buena Vista, as well as all of the post-1954 re-releases of his earlier films; third, it was the final Disney animated feature film that Ward Kimball worked on.

Fact #579
The melody for "The Second Star to the Right" was originally written for Alice in Wonderland (1951) for a song that was to be called "Beyond the Laughing Sky".

Fact #580
One of the early concepts of the film involved it being narrated from Nana's point of view.

Fact #581
Disney attracted negative comments for their stereotypical depiction of Indians, as indeed did J.M. Barrie with his original play. It's probably for that very reason that the Indians do not appear in the 2002 sequel, Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland. 

Fact #582
Walt Disney had been trying to buy the film rights to J.M. Barrie's play since 1935, having been smitten by a traveling production of the play when he was a child. The hold-up in negotiations was because Barrie had bequeathed the rights to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Disney finally secured the rights in 1939. 

Fact #583
Originally, this was intended to be the second animated feature created by the studio after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

Fact #584
Many Peter Pan purists were very upset by the characterization of Tinker Bell as a petulant (and voluptuous) young woman.

Fact #585
Although original author J.M. Barrie is credited, this is the only major film version of "Peter Pan" which uses little of his original dialogue. 

Fact #586
Heard during Captain Hook's fight with the crocodile inside the cave at Skull Rock, when Smee accidentally hits Hook on the head with his oar. The "Goofy holler" is partially obscured by gargling noises as Hook goes underwater after taking the hit. 

Fact #587
The Reluctant Dragon (1941) features a tour of the Disney studios in which drawings of Captain Hook can be clearly seen, indicating that the film was in active development as early as 1941.

Fact #588
The phrase "Second to the right and straight on till morning" was changed into "Second star to the right..." for the Disney version.

Fact #589
The fact that George Darling recognizes the shape of the cloud in the form of a ship from his childhood suggest that he once had an adventure with Peter Pan when he was a child. This is further suggested by the film's opening narration, stating "All this has happened before..."

Fact #590
Supervising animator Milt Kahl recalled that he had a particular challenge on this film. He had to learn how to animate a character's weightlessness as much of the time Peter Pan was not flying but simply floating in midair. 

Fact #591
Tiger Lily never speaks, though she nearly yells "Help!" as the water rises over her head at Skull Rock. 

Fact #592
Animator Frank Thomas, who was responsible for animating Captain Hook, had some initial difficulty trying to get the character started. Thomas was torn between two iterations of Hook: as Erdman Penner's foppish dandy or as Clyde Geronimi's snarling heavy. Eventually, Walt Disney came to Thomas' aid in regards of his approach to Captain Hook. Disney told him, "I think you're beginning to get him," and then advised him to keep going in that direction. 

Fact #593
JRR Tolkein was a Peter Pan fan. Neverland and the Lost Boys had a definite impact on Middle-earth; Peter Pan himself particularly influenced the elves.

Fact #594
Walt Disney explored many possibilities of how the story could be interpreted. In the earliest version of the story, the film started by telling Peter Pan's back story. But during a story meeting Disney said "We ought to get right into the story itself, where Peter Pan comes to the house to get his shadow. That's were the story picks up. How Peter came to be is really another story." Walt also explored opening the film in Neverland and Peter Pan coming to Wendy's house to kidnap her as a mother for the Lost Boys. Eventually, Disney decided that the kidnapping was too dark and went back to Barrie's original play where Peter comes to get his shadow and Wendy is eager to see Neverland. 

Fact #595
Roy Edward Disney was initially against the film, due to the cost concerns and budget overruns.

Fact #596
"The Peter Pan Syndrome" became a pop culture catch phrase as a result of this character. 

Fact #597
Peter Pan originally had wings, later incarnations dropped this.

Fact #598
Peter Pan is named after Pan, the Greek god of nature, a woodland creature, half man half goat, who frolicked through the enchanted forests of Arcadia with the nymphs and satyrs, playing his flute. Peter Pan is not a faun like Pan, but he does frolick through enchanted forests with otherworldly creatures and he does play a flute.

Fact #599
Child actor Bobby Driscoll plays Peter in this movie, after a variety of children's movies including Disney's 1946 film "Song of the South".

Fact #600
When Walt Disney was a child, he played Peter Pan in a school. 

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I hope you all enjoyed these facts as much as I did!