MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature THE INFLUENCE OF TIME AND HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THE STORY OF PETER PAN IN FILMS Bachelor Thesis Brno 2018 Supervisor Author Mgr. Barbora Kašpárková Eva Nešporová Declaration I hereby declare that I worked on the following thesis on my own and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography. Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních zdrojů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy university a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb. o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. V Brně dne 30.3. 2018 ..................................... Eva Nešporová Acknowledgment I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Barbora Kašpárková for the useful comments and guidance that she provided through the writing process of this thesis. Abstract This bachelor thesis focuses on the story of Peter Pan, also known as “a boy who would not grow up”, and on changes that appeared during the past hundred years. The thesis analyzes three different films that were made in the past seventy years and compares them with the original story called Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie, first published in the year 1911. The analytic part consists of Peter Pan, directed in 1953 by the Walt Disney Company, Peter Pan by Paul John Hogen, directed in 2003, and Pan by Joe Wright, the latest film made, from 2015. The analysis focuses mainly on the issue of racism and feminism that appeared in the adaptations. Keywords Peter Pan, fairy-tale, novel, feminism, racism, Pan, Neverland, love story Anotace Tato práce se zabývá analýzou příběhu Petra Pana, který je též známý jako “chlapec, který nechtěl vyrůst”, a zaměřuje se na změny, které vznikly v průběhu posledních sto let. Práce analyzuje tři filmy, které byly natočeny v průběhu posledních sedmdesáti let a porovnává je s původním příběhem Petr Pan z roku 1911, který napsal Jame Matthew Barrie. Vybrané adaptace příběhu zahrnují animovanou verzi z produkce Walta Disneyho, film z roku 2003 natočený Paul John Hogenem a zatím poslední adaptaci, kterou natočil Joe Wright. Analýzy se zaměřují převážně na problematiku rasismu a ideologii feminismu, jejichž prvky se ve filmových verzích objevily. Klíčová slova Petr Pan, pohádka, novela, feminismus, rasismus, Pan, Země-Nezemě, milostný příběh Table of Contents Introduction..................................................................................................................... 8 1 James Matthew Barrie .............................................................................................. 10 1.1 Life ....................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Marriage ............................................................................................................... 11 1.3 Importance of Llewelyn Davies family ............................................................... 12 2 The original story of Peter Pan ................................................................................. 14 2.1 History of the book .............................................................................................. 14 2.2 Style and formal characteristics ........................................................................... 15 2.3 Storyline ............................................................................................................... 15 2.4 Characters............................................................................................................. 18 2.5 Neverland ............................................................................................................. 20 3 Walt Disney and the Native American conflict ....................................................... 21 3.1 Storyline ............................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Racism .................................................................................................................. 23 3.3 Differences from the original story ...................................................................... 25 4 Paul John Hogen and his vision of the Neverland .................................................. 27 4.1 Storyline ............................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Feminism .............................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Love story ............................................................................................................ 32 4.4 Differences from the original story ...................................................................... 33 5 Modern Peter Pan ...................................................................................................... 36 5.1 Storyline ............................................................................................................... 37 5.2 Love story ............................................................................................................ 38 5.3 Differences from the original story ...................................................................... 39 5.3.1 James Hook and Tyger Lily ....................................................................... 39 5.3.2 The Never Bird .......................................................................................... 40 5.3.3 Native Americans and Smee ...................................................................... 40 5.3.4 Neverland, Peter and His Mother ............................................................... 41 5.3 Characters............................................................................................................. 42 6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 44 List of references ........................................................................................................... 46 7 Introduction The story of a young boy who did not grow up, and more importantly never wanted to grow up, is famous all around the world. James Matthew Barrie created a story that thousands of children love to hear every night before sleep, Peter Pan. This tale entertains and stimulates their imagination and gives children hope that even they can fly. And not only children love this book. Peter Pan was published as a novel in the year 1911 and it is a story not only for the small ones but also for adults. Each of us can find something fascinating and important in this story. Is it the fact that all those children, and particularly Wendy, John, and Michael, who love their family as much as they could, were able to forget their parents so quickly or is it the ability of Peter Pan to truly believe that to pretend means to really happen? Maybe it is the fascination with Captain Hook who is the same terrifying as well as well-mannered. This bachelor thesis concentrates on its film adaptations throughout time and changes that time and history with its political ideologies caused. The thesis first focuses on the life of James Matthew Barrie, the author of the book Peter Pan. As he was a very interesting and humble person and his books were often inspired by real people, more importantly, by one particular family, it is important to know something about his life and the background. The second part of this work includes the story of Pneter Pan itself, its history, main characters and appearance of the inhabitants of Neverland. It also covers some of its film adaptations. Unfortunately, the thesis cannot include all of those for it would be too long and retentive. Therefore it will focus only on three adaptations throughout time. The first is Peter Pan by Walt Disney, made in 1953, the very first animated film and the second that was filmed, about this young boy. The second adaptation is also the most famous and well-known one called Peter Pan, from 2003, directed by Paul John Hogan. The last film adaptation that this work covers is also the last one made called Pan, directed by Joe Wright and it is a free adaptation and breaks the typical “Peter Pan image“ of a small boy that lives in the Neverland as long that no one can remember when he first came there. 8 The analysis will firstly focus on the storyline itself and differences from the original story in the chapter devoted to the differences will be covered the characters, their appearance, and typical characteristic features and the Neverland itself. It is said that each child’s Neverland is different but the thesis will focus on Peter Pan’s Neverland as a little island somewhere in the universe. Then it will focus on racism and feminism as the ideologies that caused a significant change either in the storyline or in the character features of some of the main characters. It was the fascination with this particular story and an interest in its development that made me choose this topic for a thesis. Each decade brought something else and each generation value different things. The interests of young people have changed and so has this story in order to get closer to the viewer. My motivation is to find if the main story has been kept or whether the story was