Kim Batchelor

Writer of magical realism and other imaginative fiction

Pan, the Movie: Stunning Scenes, Lots of Action, Some Flaws

  • Share on Tumblr

Pan MovieNeverland: Where the girls are strong and the boys are awaiting their destinies. These are the main themes of the new movie Pan which debuted this weekend.

The buzz before the movie’s debut focused on the non-American Indian Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily. In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, the character of Tiger Lily is the chief’s daughter and “princess” of a tribe resembling that of a Native American group, and in the new Pan movie, she’s a prominent member of a diverse tribal group that seems to include African and Caribbean characters. I tend to agree with the concerns that the character wasn’t played by an actor of color because it’s a missed opportunity, and the controversy detracts from the fact that in the new movie, TL is a warrior, skilled in sword play while balancing herself on narrow wooden beams high above the ground and trained by another female character. I’m also ambivalent about the romantic tension between her and James Hook, the man who will eventually become Peter’s nemesis.

Setting aside the controversies, I’d rather focus on what I liked about the movie—the visual power of many of the scenes and the creativity found in the narrative of this Peter Pan origin story. The scene of the ship soaring through space after kidnapping the orphans, including Peter, is stunning, especially when Peter flies through the starry skies tethered only by a rope to the flying pirate ship. When the ship ascends to the island, the images within giant bubbles provide a beautiful visual. And one of the most impressive moments came when a giant crocodile arced over the floating trio of Tiger Lily, Hook and Peter.

In the original work, Peter was found as a baby by fairies who then took him to Never Neverland. Like Peter and the Starcatchers and the Syfy Channel’s Neverland, the movie begins with the assumption that Peter grows up in an orphanage. The orphan boy then searches for the woman who left him as a baby in a basket at the door of the orphanage. The pirate Blackbeard acquires children to labor in his mines through collusion with the nun who heads the orphanage.

The story of Peter Pan has provided fertile ground for reimaging the story in different forms. Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson did it with the Starcatchers series; Jodi Lee Anderson reimagined the characters in her novel Tiger Lily; and two books in a series by Heather Killough-Walden explore the more grown up characters for a young adult audience. Full disclosure: I’ve done the same myself with my modern take, The Island of Lost Children. There is much to recommend this current version, in spite of some of the criticism. If nothing else, it provides another opportunity for fans to fly through vivid scenes that many of us look forward to in our dreams.

Plenty of legroom on these trips without the hassles of carry-ons and baggage fees.

  • Share on Tumblr

Imagining Neverland with Heather Killough-Walden

  • Share on Tumblr

Heather Killough-WaldenHeather Killough-Walden counts 6 series and trilogies and multiple books within each of these in her body of work as an independent author. I got to know her first Neverland book while researching the market for my own book, The Island of Lost Children , based on the Peter and Wendy story. Heather’s Forever Neverland is for young adults (YA) while I intended my book for middle grade readers. I enjoyed reading her modern take on the story, with Peter on a motorcycle and Wendy and her brothers dealing with the aftermath of their time with him.

Heather and I are visiting in a virtual Victorian parlor something like this one drinking hot Irish Breakfast tea (Heather’s with soy milk) and nibbling on sugar-free dark chocolate bars. Come and sit down, have a cup, and listen in on the conversation.

Heather’s latest book in the series, Beyond Neverland, is available on Amazon.

heather killough-walden book coverKB: You have an impressive body of work—series on werewolves and warlocks and other beings that lurk in the night. I understand that you started with a vampire series and your writing career took off from there. Where did your original vampire(s) come from?

HKW: I fell in love with The Count from Sesame Street when I was very little. My fascination with the night-dwelling be-fanged just grew from there.

KB: What I like to focus on in my blog conversations is exploring what inspires us and where our imaginations take us. What would be the most interesting inspiration you can describe for any of your numerous books/characters/settings?

HKW: Well… I’ve been all over the world, but I guess there’s no place truly as interesting as a person’s imagination. My dreams give me a lot of ideas for characters. Sometimes inspiration just strikes out of the blue, with no provocation. Music can also trigger images, as I like to create music videos in my head when I listen to songs. I was listening to Mitternacht when I saw Roman D’Angelo for the first time – gracefully hacking and slashing his magnificent vampire way through his enemies to reach the throne he occupies now.

KB: I’m interested most of all in your two Neverland books: Forever Neverland and Beyond Neverland, which you recently released. What sparked your interest in re-imagining that story?

HKW: I’ve always felt unsatisfied with the book. I felt as if it opened a door and then wouldn’t let anyone through. It was full of possibilities left unexplored, and fantastic things undiscovered. Especially when it came to Hook. I had never in my life read a more two-dimensional character. I very much felt there was so much more to him than, sadly, because of the way the book was written, anyone even cared to learn. And then I saw the 2003 production of Peter Pan with Jason Isaacs, and that sealed it. It was time for me to tell Neverland’s real story.

KB: How did you decide to age and “modernize” those characters?

HKW: You write what you know. I didn’t live in Victorian times and I had no desire to reawaken the overly romanticized version of them – they were anything but romantic, after all. They were misogynistic, ignorant, disease-ridden, and backwards. So I brought the characters into a time where they could fully develop and then I sat them down and said, “Okay. Tell me your stories.” And so they did. Hook’s was especially gratifying.

KB: One of the most compelling aspects of your book—and this is something that struck me after I finished reading it—is how Wendy’s storytelling is being stripped away from her. I find that aspect of the story powerful and incredibly tragic. So Wendy’s “story inspirations” (Peter, Hook, etc.) rescued her. I’d like to hear your thoughts on that aspect.

HKW: It’s exactly what you said. Society attempts to strip away the magic from us, the imagination. The result is a kind of death. This happens to millions of people every day and no one gives a thought to how tragic it truly is. I wanted people to see it – and understand it. Fortunately for Wendy, her imagination was strong enough to step in and save her.

KB: I realize after reading your work how Wendy’s storytelling ability has mostly “flown” under the radar.

HKW: There are so many talented people out there whose stories will never be read due to the circumstances of how our literary society is set up. Traditional print publishing made it next to impossible. EBook reading devices made it a little easier, but now that market is so flooded, all of those truly talented people are drowning in a sea of people who think they are talented but perhaps are not so much. So the result is the same. Thousands, if not millions, of magical imaginations go unnoticed. I just wanted to shed light on one – just one – and hopefully help some readers to comprehend that if Wendy’s stories are never heard by society, then maybe there are others who aren’t being heard? Perhaps we should attempt to listen a little harder?

KB: Given that Kathy Rigby is still touring in Peter Pan, what do you think makes this story so compelling?

HKW: Well, to be honest, I can’t see the appeal in a woman playing Peter Pan. At all. However, I think just about everyone sitting in the audience has experienced the desire to fly. All it takes is faith, trust, and pixie dust, right? Who wouldn’t get on board with that?

KB: What would your Neverland look like?

HKW: If you’ve read the book, then you know. (smiles) But if you’re asking me what my own fantasy world would look like… wow. I’m afraid even I am not a good enough storyteller to convey such wonder.

  • Share on Tumblr

Peter Pan and Wendy in a Modern Neverland

  • Share on Tumblr

1My writing a story based on Peter Pan has its origins in my childhood. When I was about 8 years old, I convinced my younger sister and my friend Charlotte that I could read the secret messages that Peter Pan left in the sidewalk in front of our childhood home. They frankly weren’t buying it. I, on the other hand, believed my own made-up

I have to admit a soft spot for the story well into adulthood. After writing the middle grade novel, The Mists of Na Crainn, I decided to continue writing for children when the story of a girl forced to grow up too soon, meets the boy who never grows up, appeared somewhere in my imagination. A new Peter Pan and Wendy Darling for our times.

In my childhood, I loved the idea of flying and a faraway place where children are in charge, where small creatures flit about and light up the night sky. As an adult, I have to admit that world still fascinates me.

But beyond simply retelling the story of a modern Peter Pan, a boy who doesn’t grow up, I wanted to create a Wendy Darling who is not simply the surrogate mother who flew to Neverland. The Wendy in Lost Children is a girl who had to care for her brothers JJ and Michael, who’s on the autism spectrum while her parents work several jobs to make ends meet.

I look forward to releasing the book sometime in the never-distant future and I hope that you will return to find out how to get a copy. Just as an FYI: I no longer receive and interpret communication from Never Never Land.

Update: The Island of Lost Children is now available in hardback, paperback, and as an ebook for various platforms. For more information, check out the book’s page.

  • Share on Tumblr