tek's rating: meh and a half

The New Adventures of Peter Pan, on Discovery Family
originally aired on France 3 (France) / KiKa (Germany)
IMDb; KiKa; Neverpedia; Tiji; TV Tango; TV Tropes; Wikipedia (French); ZDFE

Okay... so I gather this was a French/German/Indian co-production, which first aired in France in 2012 and in Germany in 2013. (I have no idea about India.) I probably first heard of it sometime in late 2015, when it was released in the US on DVD; or some version of it was, anyway. I haven't gotten the DVD, but I think it may have two or three episodes combined into a movie. But the first chance I got to actually see the series was in June 2016, when it started airing on Discovery Family. After watching the first two episodes, I started writing this review, which necessitated doing research for it online. And at first, I really wasn't sure whether Discovery Family had broken up the movie into episodes, or other sources had combined episodes into a movie. (The movie format didn't seem to make much sense, because the episodes I've seen so far are each self-contained stories. Still, OVAs can be like that, so it wasn't impossible.) But as my research continued, I found that it really was originally a TV series, with 26 episodes in the first season, plus a second season which I'm not sure is complete yet or not. (There's also apparently a spinoff movie called "Fairy Friendship.") Anyway, the show is obviously made for young children, and I wasn't sure how long I'd keep watching it. But I did chuckle a few times, and I like the animation, so I thought it might have potential. Ultimately, I didn't watch very many episodes, partly because I wasn't up early enough, and I was foolish to think the DVR would consistently record it just because I told it to. But I soon realized that I didn't really mind having missed some episodes; the ones I did see, I didn't really like or dislike. So... I decided to stop trying to catch episodes. I wouldn't be averse to seeing more episodes someday, but I'm not going to make a specific effort to do so.

Anyway, it's set in the present, so that's different from most adaptations of Peter Pan. But that only matters during the relatively brief segments set in London. Wendy, Michael, and John Darling spend most of their time in Neverland, having adventures with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. I should say that the look of the series seems to be partially inspired by Disney's Peter Pan, but there are definitely some differences. I think Captain Hook and Smee look closest to the Disney designs (and Smee talks a lot like the Disney version). Of course the Darling children look somewhat different, partly because they're wearing modern clothes. As for Tink... well, she's a brunette, in this version, but otherwise she's kind of similar to the Disney version. (So she's probably the main reason I'd want to watch more of the show.) And unlike the Disney version, she talks. (Though that's also true in her own CGI Disney Fairies franchise, which is far superior to this show, in every way.) But the biggest difference I noticed is that instead of Peter's friends (the ones who live in Neverland full time) being the Lost Boys, they're the Lost Kids. (Yes, there are girls among them, so that's an improvement over the original story.) We also learn that Peter and all his friends know all of Hook's pirates by name and even character traits, which I thought could be an interesting change. I was kind of looking forward to getting to know the various Lost Kids and pirates better, but that didn't really happen in the episodes I saw, unfortunately. Meanwhile, one thing that hasn't changed is that Tink really doesn't like Wendy. And... that's all I can tell you, I guess.


CGI index

Peter Pan
movies: Peter Pan (1953) * Hook * Return to Never Land * Peter Pan (2003) * Finding Neverland * Tinker Bell * Pan * Peter Pan & Wendy
TV: Neverland (2011) * Once Upon a Time * Peter Pan Live! * The New Adventures of Peter Pan