Return to Never Land

Return to Never Land
by Donovan Cook, Robin Budd

List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $28.19
You Save: $1.80 (6%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.23 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

DVD Cover Information

Movie Reviews of Return to Never Land

Movie Review: Disappointing for a Disney to say the least.
Summary: 5 Stars

As plot goes, Disney suceeds in telling the same story that the told in Peter Pan with a few alterations. The story revolves around a trip from the real world into Neverland and the strange antics that go on there. Then after a time the main character's decide that they want to go home. The battles that are fought with Captain Hook take place again in this movie and it comes across as being almost exactly the same. The characters to struggle to be different from the original Peter Pan. The main thing they did was change the names. Wendy's daughter (Jane) is now the main character. She is too grown up to believe in Peter Pan which is the only destiguishing aspect of her character. The other main character change was the alligator. Now instead of an alligator with a clock in his stomach there is a giant octopus chasing Captain Hook, and he does the exact same things that the alligator did, snapping his suction cups instead of the clock ticking. The story itself is only differed by the way Jane gets to Neverland, being obducted by Captain Hook, instead of going willingly with Peter. And the subplot with Tigerlily and the indians isn't included or redone.

The music in this movie falls way short of what you'd expect from a full length Disney feature. The oscar winning composers of several Disney movies must have left this one up to the understudies. The music, while trying to stay true to the original, was matched with lyrics that didn't even fit into the patterns that were played. And while that sells records for bands like "System of a Down" it just didn't work in this movie. The rhythm of most of the songs was so uneven that it sounded like a 4 year old wrote them. And the Lost Boy song alone made me very anxious for the end credits to come up and I can usually watch a movie two times in a row without getting bored.

There really isn't any aspect of this movie that gives me reason to recommend it to adults who might want to see this movie. Something is just missing. My recommendation, watch another Disney movie, like the original Peter Pan or just let the little kids can watch it by themselves while you watch something that has a little more to it.

The Breakdown:
1. Plot-6 (Same story as original, typical sequel by disney)
2. Characters-5 (Same characters as the first, some just in different form)
3. Flow-5 (Slow pace, songs dragged a lot)
4. Atmosphere-4 (Nothing special, songs actually took away points)
5. Animation-5 (Hook's ship was neat but everything else was to simple)
6. Entertainment factor-4 (I liked Peter Pan, but this sequel was pretty boring)
7. Replay factor-1 (The only way I'll ever see this again is if my kids want to watch it some day)
8. Character Depth-4 (Bad replacements for characters in the original)
9. Relevance to genre-3 (I expect more from Disney)
10. X-factors-2 (A few funny moments but that was it)
39/100