This isn’t your grandmother’s Tiger Lily.
Disneyknew it would need more than faith, trust, and pixie dust for the new version ofPeter Pan.
(Okay, so maybesomepixie dust then.)
Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell and Alyssa Wapanatâhk as Tiger Lily in ‘Peter Pan and Wendy’.Disney; Eric Zachanowich/Disney
You could tell he wanted to ground it."
The animated classic notoriously features a song “What Makes the Red Man Red?
“, as well as racist caricatures of indigenous people and multiple slurs.
The new film (now streaming onDisney+) offers diverse casting and more nuanced portrayals of characters.
(See:Song of the South,the crows inDumbo,etc.)
With its live-action approach, now retitledPeter Pan & Wendyafter the 1911 J.M.
Barrie novel on which both versions are based, Disney attempts to course correct.
The movie hews close to the original story.
While the blueprint is the same, there’s been some welcome updates.
For starters, they’ve cast an indigenous actress as Tiger Lily, Alyssa Wapanatahk.
They gave me the reins on it, and they let me take that into my own hands.
I felt very empowered to have that responsibility, to be able to do that.
I worked with my grandmother, and of course, a cultural consultant, Dr. Kevin Lewis.
In gratitude, she performs a dance for him and kisses him, spurring Wendy’s jealousy.
Here, Wendy and Tiger Lily get a Bechdel Test-approved makeover.
Wapanatahk is not the only person of color in the cast.
South Asian actor Molony plays Peter Pan and Shahidi is Tinker Bell.
It can feel troubling given the context, even if true to the character in the original story.
InPeter Pan & Wendy, it’s (unintentionally) emphasized by casting choices.
That’s some big 19th-century energy.
But even with that going for it, some more pixie dust might have been helpful.
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