The Best Peter Pan Movies

Summary

• There have been numerous adaptations of Peter Pan, including live-action remakes and alternative perspectives.
• Despite various live-action versions over the years, originality and excitement have been mixed in the adaptations.
• Hook stands out with its unique family-friendly twist that retains the tale’s heart and revisits the classic story.

There are few legendary tales that have entrenched themselves into pop culture quite as well as that of Peter Pan. The boy who never grew up is an extraordinary character who can teach many lessons to both the young and the old. Brought to fame by a Disney animated film but a major part of many others, Peter Pan and his tales are littered across the history of cinema.

It has been a century since the first Peter Pan movie was released, over seventy years since the magic of Disney animation brought the story to even greater recognition, and in 2025, the story will feature in the burgeoning horror cinematic universe based around fairytale characters, bringing a totally different take on Peter Pan to the screen, reinventing him once again. While viewers await the latest adaptation, these are (currently) the best Peter Pan movies of all time.

8

Peter Pan & Wendy

The Maligned Live-Action Remake

Disney has done live-action remakes for many of their classic animated properties, and they show no signs of slowing down. These remakes have been met with a wide variety of acclaim, but Peter Pan & Wendy, a straight retelling of much of the Peter Pan story, didn’t see much support after it was released on Disney+ in 2023.

With many of the classic elements but a definite lack of excitement and magic, Peter Pan & Wendy was poorly reviewed upon release for not bringing enough energy and excitement to the story, or enough original ideas to justify there being a remake in the first place. Of course, it didn’t help that many live-action versions of this story have been produced over the past century, but the latest adaptation was one of the low points.

7

Pan

An Origin For The Beloved Character

A unique idea for a live-action take on the fairy tale, Pan attempted to tell the story of how Peter first found himself in Neverland and became the person who Wendy and the Lost Boys would later meet. This fascinating concept allowed the film to explore a young Captain Hook and to feature Blackbeard, played by Hugh Jackman, in a fresh villainous role.

Pan was well-received for trying to do something different with the beloved story of Peter Pan and for giving the origin a new spin when it was originally thought that Peter might have run away from a happy family. Making him a lonely orphan gave audiences a new sympathy for the character and his reasons for not wanting to grow up.

6

Wendy

A Different Perspective On The Classic Tale

A fascinating and much-changed version of the story, Wendy focuses on the girl who travels with Peter to Neverland. In this version, they travel aboard train cars to an island where an entity known as “Mother,” which resides inside a volcano, keeps children who believe in her young forever, while others who do not believe in her age normally.

This story still had fantastical elements but was grounded in a fascinating, darker sort of reality, including the transformation of Wendy’s brother into the eventual Captain Hook for a major twist. Fans of darker stories will definitely want to see this devastating take on the story, which is ingenious and has many shocking moments.

5

Come Away

A Wild Blending Of Fairy Tale Elements

Blending Peter Pan with Alice in Wonderland seems like a wild and fascinating idea, and Come Away brings together the two main characters as siblings who lose their elder brother and have to try and help their parents deal with the emotional backlash of this loss. This strange idea, featuring many elements of the Peter Pan mythos in a very different sort of setting, was brilliantly acted and featured Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo as the parents of this strange pair.

Portraying Alice as the sensible younger sister to Peter’s wild older brother, this enigmatic duo was a great vehicle for a serious and dark take on particularly the Peter Pan tale, ignoring most of the Alice in Wonderland elements that could perhaps have been included in favor of bringing the lost boys and Captain Hook into the mix.

4

Peter Pan (1924)

The Very First Version Of The Classic

The history of Peter Pan adaptions on film really is one of the longest of any famous book. During the silent movie era, a version of this story was brought to the screen starring Betty Bronson, an 18-year-old actress, as the famous Peter Pan. This version, while dated nowadays, remains one of the greats when it comes to silent movies.

With some more unusual elements included in the tale, like the Lost Boys being children who fell out of carriages when their nursemaids weren’t watching, this version of Peter Pan is a fascinating journey back through time, and it remains one of the more faithful adaptions of the play itself, which was the product of a similar time.

3

Peter Pan (1953)

The Disney Animated Classic

The Disney classic Peter Pan is one of the most easily recognized films in Disney’s vast arsenal. The classic moments, wonderful songs, and timeless story have helped this film endure much better than some of the other films in the Disney catalog that were released at a similar time.

The beautifully animated version of Neverland, complete with iconic characters like the cartoonish take on Captain Hook and the voiceless but stubborn Tinkerbell, has gone down in history. Disney’s Peter Pan might not be the very best version of this tale, but it will probably remain the most recognizable version of it forever.

2

Hook

The Perfect Family-Friendly Alteration Of The Story

Although there have been many versions of the Peter Pan story, no ideas to adapt the original with a new story have been as successful as Hook. This Steven Spielberg classic starred Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood but must return to Neverland when Captain Hook kidnaps his children.

With an all-star cast, also including Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts, and a beautiful, heartfelt story about growing up a little later than expected, Hook remains a classic in its own right and a fantastic take on the Peter Pan mythos. It still feels like the perfect spiritual successor to the original tale.

1

Peter Pan (2003)

A Wondrous Live-Action Version Of The Tale

There have been a few attempts to tell a straight live-action version of Peter Pan over the years, beginning in the silent movie era of the 1920s. However, the 2003 version, featuring the excellent Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook, was a beautifully made retelling that featured many of the iconic story elements and showed a lot of youth, energy, and vigor.

Praised for being one of the closest adaptions to date of the original work and for having a huge amount of heart and fun to it, Peter Pan was a great version of the tale which probably left Disney wishing that they’d gotten their live-action remake out twenty years earlier so it could have seriously competed with the amazing memories this film has left for many people.