Though the film was a modest success, Walt Disney himself was dissatisfied with the finished product, feeling that the character of Peter Pan was cold and unlikable. However, experts on J.M. Barrie praise this as a success, as they insist that Pan was originally written to be a heartless sociopath.
In compliance with the tradition of the stage version, the same actor, Hans Conried, performed the roles of both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook; the two characters' looks were even modeled after his voice actor. Nana and the Crocodile are also a "dual role" on stage, which the animators acknowledge by giving the Crocodile canine qualities.
In the originally-planned version, Nana traveled with the children to Neverland. It also had a much darker ending.
Walt Disney had been trying to buy the film rights to J.M. Barrie's play since 1935, having been smitten by a traveling production of the play when he was a child. The hold-up in negotiations was because Barrie had bequeathed the rights to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Disney finally secured the rights in 1939.
The Darling children become very sleepy as their parents leave the room. This may not be merely because it is their bed time. The "tonic" given to the children by Nana may have been morphine. It was quite common in the early 20th century to give children "soothing syrups" and "tonics" to control their behavior. These concoctions turned out to consist of several different narcotics.
However, J.M. Barrie, in his original draft script for the first film version of his play, the live-action Peter Pan (1924), identifies the mysterious medicine as - non-narcotic - castor oil, which he intended to be shown on the label in close-up. Doctor of Medicine Charles West, in his "Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases" from 1885, describes castor oil as perhaps the safest, and the most generally applicable medicine needed in the minor ailments of children, showing how popular the treatment was at the time, while also acknowledging its taste as "one of the great griefs of the nursery".
However, J.M. Barrie, in his original draft script for the first film version of his play, the live-action Peter Pan (1924), identifies the mysterious medicine as - non-narcotic - castor oil, which he intended to be shown on the label in close-up. Doctor of Medicine Charles West, in his "Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases" from 1885, describes castor oil as perhaps the safest, and the most generally applicable medicine needed in the minor ailments of children, showing how popular the treatment was at the time, while also acknowledging its taste as "one of the great griefs of the nursery".