every year around this time , or during the christmas season , the walt disney studios unleashes one of its treasures on the general public . the motivations behind this , no doubt , are to introduce an animated classic to today's younger audience , an audience very different from that when the film was originally released . last year , audiences were treated to the lady and the tramp . this year , it's the turn of peter pan , a somewhat cruder film than that canine love story , but one which manages to mix enough elements to keep the young in years -- as well as the young of spirit -- happily entertained even after they leave they theater . based on james m . barrie's beloved novel , peter pan is a familiar coming-of-age tale to most people , made all the more so by the recent rebroadcast of the 1960s television special starring mary martin . this animated version is probably the only time peter pan has actually been " played " by a boy . even though the film is under 90 minutes long , it does tend to get a little draggy towards to the end . this is due in part to the fact that , about two thirds of the way through , the film peaks , only to peak again not long afterwards . captain hook battles peter pan ( and that infernal ticking crocodile ) and it wouldn't be giving anything away to say that the good guy triumphs . they could have ended the film right there . instead , hook makes off with wendy which sets up the second climax . it's confusing for the younger set and repetitious for the older ones . one cannot easily think about peter pan and not the songs which accompany it . for example " i won't grow up " and " never smile at a crocodile . " in this animated version , the former is never heard and the latter only appears in an instrumental form backing the toothy protagonist's occasional appearances . it's hard not to notice the backgrounds in the film . these , such as the pirate ship , skull rock and scenes of london , are exquisitely detailed . the characters themselves seem somewhat flat in comparison , often lacking in detail . they register emotion more by a widening of the eyes than any kind of body language . but the film really takes off when it shows us glimpses of these children's world from an airborne point of view . the scene where the children fly over to london , following the second star on the right , is quite breathtaking , much like those imax films about flight they show at the national air and space museum in washington . and shots of never-never land , also from the air , are quite magical . one , of captain hook and first mate smee in a boat with captive indian tiger lilly , is so beautifully animated that the water looks real . disney has always been able to convincingly bring water to life in all his movies -- remember the storm in bambi or the subterranean sequences in pinocchio ? if you can ignore some of the film's minor flaws , you should have a ripe old time at the movies . thirty-six years after it was made , peter pan still makes for a wonderfully colorful entertainment . <hr>| produced by : walt disney david n . butterworth - university of pa | | rating ( l . maltin ) : * * * internet : <a href= " mailto : butterworth@a1 . mscf . upenn . edu " >butterworth@a1 . mscf . upenn . edu</a> |<hr> 
