Peter Pan

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Like the schoolkids in this adventure, from the opening images to the closing credits, I do, I do, I do believe in fairy tales.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

tT never grow up is unspeakably sad, and this is the first Peter Pan where Peter's final flight seems not like a victory but an escape.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Hogan whips up a high-energy family entertainment that fairly erases memory of the other filmed versions of Barrie's tale.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Imbued with a greater degree of psychological darkness than before.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Mr. Hogan understands both themes, and his filmmaking style is a perfect mixture of wide-eyed wonder and slightly melancholy sophistication.

LA Weekly John Patterson

The movie belongs quite rightly to Wendy, the most enchanting little girl in English fiction, and to the untrained actress, Rachel Hurd-Wood, who plays her.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Uniquely jacked into a ripe sense of antique-nursery Victoriana and buzzing with a pre-adolescent metaphoric charge, J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is a primary text of modern culture, and P.J. Hogan's live-action rendition is the only one, screen or stage, to completely uncage this changeling and give it flight.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A bright, whirling pinwheel of a movie that tosses around special effects like confetti, but the techno magic is graced with a touch of sensuality.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Unlike last year's disastrous "Pinocchio" with Roberto Benigni, this movie proves worth the time, effort, and money to get the whole family to a theater.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

It's as if the movie itself has been sprinkled with fairy dust, and good thing, too: The world of Peter Pan is, at heart, so troublesome that it might as well also be enchanting.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It's gay in the old-fashioned sense, a giddy whirl for the senses, from chilly English drawing rooms to lush Neverland jungle. It's innocent in believing love banishes all ills, even physical ones, and inspires unthinkable heroism.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Both enchantingly old-fashioned and daringly modern.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A dazzling retelling of the J.M. Barrie tale, offers accomplished acting, splendid visuals, and in the role of the boy who won't grow up ... an actual boy.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Even at its most hyperactive, Peter Pan has a core of good and bad feeling that will hit home to kids and to adults with honest memories.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Though the story dawdles at times, the visuals are splendid.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

All Peter Pan lacks is a Peter Pan with any discernible personality, no matter that Jeremy Sumpter is the first actual, genetic boy to play the role on film.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Hogan's version brings out the story's somber side, showing how the mischief of unworldly characters like Peter and Tinkerbell can do real damage, and how refusing to grow up is an awful idea if you actually try it.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's tacky and beautiful, sometimes both at the same time. Occasionally flatfooted even as it sparkles, the film suffers when Hogan lets the scenery do the directing for him, but he's chosen a cast capable of shouldering the film's weight.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

It's a bad sign when you can't name or differentiate any of the Lost Boys.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Though being magical is very much its intention, it never manages to cross the threshold that makes that happen in our hearts.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Overall, though, this new Peter Pan does really soar.

USA Today Mike Clark

Peter is as adequate as the Harry Potter movies are, though you never sense in either case that kids are being bitten with the permanent movie-loving bug.

Empire Chris Hewitt

Tonally the film is never more than the sum of its parts, while Sumpter, although physically perfect, just isn’t charismatic enough as Peter.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Simultaneously groundbreaking and remarkably faithful to the classic play.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Lavishly produced -- overproduced, actually -- and persistently unexciting.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Lush, loud and sparkling, and not nearly as innocent as you might imagine.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

As far as production values go, this Peter Pan is a work of art. So why, then, does the movie feel so crushingly dull?

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

If you can get past the ick factor inherent in these suddenly adulterized relationships –- and there’s really no way this film should have received a kid-friendly PG rating –- and latch on to the film’s wealth of metaphor, you’ll surely have something to discuss over coffee post-screening.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Despite a hint that Peter (Jeremy Sumpter) and Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood) might get it on, there's nothing to crow about.

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

The film provides solid entertainment for kids but lacks any real sense of wonder and magic.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film suffers from uneven acting, an over-reliance on production values and an uncertainty over how dangerous the children's adventures should be.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Handsome, respectable and well cast, elaborate production lacks the excitement and magic that would elevate the film to beloved status, and sheer abundance of CGI work weighs on it too heavily.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Needs more than happy thoughts to get off the ground.