Finding Neverland DVD
One of my personal favorite stories of all time is easily the one of
the boy who never grew up. Peter Pan brought out magic and imagination.
His creator, James Barrie took a chance at bringing a true tail of
fairies to life and in Finding Neverland, Johnny Depp took a chance to
portray the man behind the boy. A performance that earned him an
Academy Award nomination. The film gives audiences some glimpse of
Barrie’s world and his inspirations for the fanciful characters that
inhabit his timeless story.
Though somewhat fictional, Finding Neverland recounts the relationship
between Barrie and the Davies family, a widow and her four boys, who
became a clear outlet and inspiration for his imagination that
tranformed into the eventual play, Peter and Wendy, otherwise known as
Peter Pan. The movie is heartwarming, comical, and often whimsical
family entertainment. It certainly should be a part of any family movie
library for many reasons, not the least of which is its ability to show
adults that it doesn’t hurt to be a child now and again, especially
around their children.
The DVD is presented in widescreen and
available in a full screen edition with a Dolby Digital transfer,
though the movie doesn’t especially pronounce surround effects except
for moments when we see through the eyes of Barrie and experience his
imagination first hand.
Bonus features include director and
producer commentary, deleted scenes, two behind the scenes featurettes
and an outake reel. Historically speaking, Johnny Depp can be a riot on
the set and we see a pinch of that in the outtake reel with flubbed
lines and several goofy moments, including one unorthodox use of an
on-set fart machine. The first of the two featurettes focuses on the
history of Peter Pan and the story’s many incarnations. Each of the
celebrities recount their experience and memmories of the story and how
it impacted them as children and adults. Moreover, the actors talk a
bit about their offscreen relationships with each other and how much
they enjoyed working with the crew. 20 minutes is devoted it seems to
how much everyone loves Johnny Depp. The second featurette primarily
shows the special effects shots and repeats many of the interviews
shown in the previous featurette.
Commentary is provided by
director Marc Forster, producer Richard Gladstein and writer David
Magee. Although a bit dry at times, the filmmakers often reveal facts
about Barrie’s life you might not find unless you read a biography of
the man. They talk about their experiences with the actors and film
crew, pretty standard, but worth at least one listen to.
Overall, the film is certainly enjoyable and a good family film with
bits of drama, comedy and fantasy all rolled into one. It’s a little
light on bonus features, though, off the top of my head I don’t know
what more they could have added.
