Peter Pan & Wendy | 2023 | PG | – 1.4.1

Why is “Peter Pan & Wendy” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence, peril and thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a discussion between a teen girl and a boy about “exchanging kisses” without actual kissing, sword fighting with pirates including one boy being slashed and presumed dead, children dodging cannon fire, many sequences of dangerous and risky activity including stepping off a roof ledge to fly, a teen girl walking the plank on a pirate ship, a giant crocodile chasing and presumably eating several men, a slap in the face, several arguments, and some name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Based on the J. M. Barrie book: When a teenage girl (Ever Anderson) does not feel ready to grow up, she and her brothers (Joshua Pickering and Jacobi Jupe) undertake an adventure with the mysterious Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) and travel to Neverland where they learn many valuable lessons and encounter the notorious pirate Captain Hook (Jude Law). Also with Yara Shahidi and Jim Gaffigan. Directed by David Lowery. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in an unidentified language with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:46]

Peter Pan & Wendy SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A teen girl and a boy talk about exchanging “kisses” and they give each other trinkets (a shell and a thimble).
► Several creatures that resemble mermaids (female-looking forms with visible cleavage and wearing flowing skirts that resemble tails) swim in water as several children fly overhead. A pirate’s belt is cut by a boy using a sword and his pants fall down (we see his legs below a long-tailed shirt).

Peter Pan & Wendy VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A pirate lunges into a room with his sword drawn while looking for a boy; the boy jumps down from the ceiling startling the pirate that slashes him across the chest (we see a bloody slash and the boy falls back and to the ground below); the pirate yells, “I’ve killed Peter Pan” and children cry. A pirate is shot through the hand with an arrow and we see it sticking through the man’s hand with visible blood. A man stumbles when he doesn’t realize that he is standing on a giant crocodile’s snout and it moves and snaps at him; he leaps into the air and braces himself on its open mouth, and the crocodile snaps at other men, crushes a row boat in it jaws throwing the men in the boat into the water (we hear screaming but do not see blood).
► Pirates draw their swords as they approach a boy disguised as a pirate: the boy’s disguise is pulled off and he jumps while brandishing his own sword, kicking several pirates and knocking them off a rock and into the water; one man’s belt is cut and his pants fall down. A boy and a man fight with swords, the boy is pulled to the ground, the two argue and the man holds a sword to the boy’s throat until a teen girl calls for him to stop. Pirates with swords threaten several children and one is held with a hand over his mouth. A boy jumps from a horse’s back on a cliff and toward a floating pirate ship, uses his sword to slide down a sail and lands on the deck where he and a pirate fight with swords. Many children fight pirates on a pirate ship using swords and sticks. A teen girl slaps a boy hard in the face and scolds him for taking chances.
► Cannons are loaded and fired at children on an island; the children dodge the strikes, fly to a nearby peak that is then struck by cannon fire, they are all thrown and one teen girl wakes up on a beach and panics when she cannot find the others. A teen girl climbs to the top of a hill and is shot at by a child with arrows (they land near her feet and she falls back but is not struck). A pirate ship is levitated out of the water and it sails toward a large rock wall; a boy successfully steers it away from crashing with only minor damage. A floating pirate ship is tipped over mid-air, dumping many pirates off the vessel and into the water below. A floating pirate ship chained to a chimney breaks off part of the chimney and floats away. We see a shipwreck in the ocean and two men cling to an overturned rowboat and debris in the water.
► Pirates plan to search out and kill a boy and they row to an island called “Skull Island” while singing and we see skeletons inside a cave where two boys are chained to a large rock as the tide rises. Several children are shown locked behind bars in a cell on a pirate ship and a man orders other men to execute them. A young woman jumps from a horse’s back, catches the anchor of a floating pirate ship, and uses an axe and a dagger to fight many pirates. A teen girl is chained and forced to walk a plank on a pirate ship as a drummer plays a rhythm, a man pokes her with the tip of a spear, and he and other men sing a song about being “slowly digested” by creatures in the sea and calling her “fish food”; the girl walks off the end of the plank and the pirate becomes upset when he doesn’t hear a splash (she does not land in the water). A cannon is fired toward a pirate in a mast’s nest, the pirate falls and a boy catches him; the hook that has replaced the man’s hand pulls off and the man falls into the sea far below (we later see him surface and he seems unharmed).
► A pirate grips a boy’s shoulder and reaches into the boy’s pocket with his hook to retrieve a ticking pocket watch that he proceeds to smash on a table. Pirates on a ship panic when they see a boy flying nearby and they alert the captain; he becomes upset when the boy’s name is spoken and he shoots through a door knocking it off the hinges and a man lands on the deck (the man was presumably shot through the door, but we do not see blood). Pirates in a rowboat pull boys out of the water and when they are taken to a ship, a pirate reaches for one boy’s stuffed bear (the boy becomes upset). A fairy uses magic dust to open a lock holding two boys to a stone. A young woman treats a boy’s sword wound with salve and the boy revives with a gasp.
► A man says, “Peter Pan shall perish today.” Children ask a teen girl to tell them bedtime stories and say that she can be their mother; she replies, “I don’t even know if I want to be a mother.” A boy talks about a pirate being cruel and evil. A man says that a boy banished him from a place because he missed his mother. A boy talks about his mother being “long gone.” While scolding his teenage daughter, a man says, “You are too old for this to be the type of fun you are having.” Children talk about someone “growing up wrong.” A man says, “My time for joy is lost.”
► Three children climb out a window and stand on a ledge as they are told that they can fly if they fill their heads “With happy thoughts” and a fairy sprinkles pixie dust on them; one boy asks, “Are you certain this is safe,” as they all fly together. Several children fly through the night sky and crash through a giant clock tower where things seem to slow down and they swirl toward a shimmering curtain and to an island where they land safely. A fairy flies through a bedroom window and sprinkles dust on a sleeping teen girl’s face causing her to float off her bed; a young boy catches the fairy and the girl falls to the floor (no injuries are seen). A boy rummages through dresser drawers saying that he is searching for his shadow; he climbs walls chasing it until he catches it and a teen girl stitches it to his shoe with a needle and thread (the boy jumps saying that she stabbed him).
► Three children play sword fighting with wooden swords and one is accidentally thrown into a mirror shattering it after one teen girl says, “I’ll run you through”; their father yells and takes the swords away from them. A man is shown with a hook in place of his hand and we are told that a boy cut it off with a sword. A man’s dark-colored hair dye runs down his face after he swims to a nearby rowboat.

Peter Pan & Wendy LANGUAGE 1

 – Name-calling (silly, doomed, imposters, tattle-tale, old man, insolent, you know who, rotten friend, rotten stinking codfish, cruel, largesse, dearly departed friend), exclamations (thank goodness, don’t dilly-dally, uh-oh, goodness no). | profanity glossary |

Peter Pan & Wendy SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

Peter Pan & Wendy DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Growing up, leaving home, adventure, friendship, going to boarding school, prescribed roles, change, hope, apologies.

Peter Pan & Wendy MESSAGE

 – Growing up is difficult but it is also a great adventure.