Nina Denning

What brought me here?

Posted on 4 June, 2016  in CIU110

I believe everyone involved in the creative arts aspires to inspire, because they were once also inspired, inspired to create. For me and many other creators, my inspiration comes from a spoonful of animated movies, sprinkle of video games, handful of short films, earful of music, a stack of books and a gallery of diverse artworks, both traditional and digital. Lets focus on my favourite, animated movies, actually, lets focus on the most fantastic one… Peter Pan. So what makes Peter Pan so special? For some people its the “when i was a child” moments, for others is its dark context and skeptic fan theories. For me, i find that its constant recreation proof of being an iconic marvel. It started off as a play, continued to be a novel by J.M Barrie, a fantastic read, and moved on to having its own animated film, to be turned into live action and so on with it’s many spin-offs.

What about this ‘childrens movie’ inspires me, an 18 year old girl, to the level where i wished i had a hand in creating it? Yes, it has beautiful fun-loving art and captivating story, but it also carries a strong relationship between the voice actors, animators, history as a novel and well, Disney. I cant pinpoint my most favoured aspect as all of its characteristics compliment each other. I will however elaborate on some of the highlights.

 

Breaking boundaries
In the film industry has always been seen as a leap of faith, in the 1930’s-40’s Peter Pan had been played by only female actresses as this was the norm for young male characters. Disney broke this tradition, and although it was an animated character, Peter was not only depicted as a boy but he had a make voice actor (Bobby Driscoll), just as the novel intended.

                                                 

Realism

To bring Peter Pan to life, Disney used live models as references for the animators, a film that no one but the animators saw. This technique really helped the animators increase the accuracy of the film down to small detail.

 

                                                                                Milt Kahl

The character Peter was assigned to Milt Kahl. Everyone loves Milt Kahl. He designed an amazing Peter, he admitted that he’s greatest difficulty was getting the character to “float”, but i think everyone can agree he did so wonderfully.

Novel to Film

I’ve read J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy many times, and the Disney remake, in my opinion does it  justice. Although it does lighten the tone (because its a children’s movie) it really sticks to the story, which is an honourable thing to do.

Its relatable
Its so important for a character to be relatable, when watching Peter Pan everyone can relate to his want to never grow old and be youthful and joyous forever, however I’m sure the audience finds themselves swinging to Wendy’s character who is for reason and family, or Mrs and Mr Darling who are full of regret.

I dont know what it is but Peter Pan has stolen some of my childhood and locked it away in a draw somewhere, and that inspires me to create something that will have that effect on someone else, if its possible. Here’s my favourite personal copy Peter Pan, it sparkles like pixie dust!