Disney's Peter Pan is a Disney classic. With the first movie popular enough to gain not only a
sequel but an entire series for Tinkerbell... and the show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
But in the two original movies, who is truly the most good? And who is the most evil?
And where does Peter Pan rank when he takes an honest look at his actions?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Peter Pan and Return to Neverland: Good to Evil.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character
and working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Taking the gold medal of most good is Nana. Being the canine nursemaid, she takes pride
in caring for the Darling children. We see her picking up their toys, making their beds,
and making sure they get their medicine. Nana was such a beloved member of the family that
when we see the new dog in Return to Neverland, we see that she's given the title of Nana II
and carrying on the work Nana had begun. Seeing her get dragged outside by Mr. Darling because
she had been the one to gain sympathy broke the hearts of many children. It didn’t feel any better
when Nana is seen trying to use her ears to fly after the children in order to look after them.
Tied for the silver medal of good are Micheal and Daniel. Micheal had been the youngest child in the
first movie while Daniel is Wendy's son in Return to Neverland. Both are very young and innocent,
only wanting to play and hear Peter Pan stories. Micheal is shown to be a follower for most of the
movie. He follows John and the Lost Boys through Neverland’s wilderness, clueless to the danger he
was in. Save for when he had been the only one to notice when the boys were being surrounded. Daniel
wound up being a lot like Micheal. Even their designs resemble one another. However, Daniel
was far more outspoken and assertive. Daniel's reliance on hearing Peter Pan stories stems from
a need for comfort in a war-torn England. Whereas his older sister Jane doesn't understand the need
for children's stories, it's both enduring and heartbreaking to see that Daniel used them as an
escape from a harsh reality. Both were sweet kids that looked for fun in any situation.
Our bronze medal of good goes to Wendy Darling. In the first movie she had been the first to help
Peter reattach his shadow and took on an almost motherly role to her own brothers before arriving
in Neverland. Wendy was patient with nearly everyone we see she had been interacting with. She
insisted that Peter forgive Tinkerbell for almost getting her killed. She rolled with it
when ordered to get firewood rather than joining the festivities. Even when Peter had upset her,
Wendy was level-headed when disagreeing with him. When we see her in the second film, Wendy became
an actual mother to Jane and Daniel. She was able to stay optimistic and loving despite the chaos
of the war around them. We can only imagine how much stress Wendy had to be going through
knowing her children would be sent away where they would hopefully be safe. We do dock her a
few points for a couple of reasons, though. While we get that she was trying to be loyal to Peter,
encouraging the Lost Boys and her brothers to do the same, she did end up giving them
a death sentence. Had Peter not shown up, a watery grave would have met Wendy and the boys.
Next up we have the daughter of the chief, Tigerlily.
Though she didn't get much screen time compared to other characters- not even appearing in the
sequel- there's no denying how loyal she was to Peter. When Hook and Smee kidnaped her,
Tigerlily refused to reveal Peter's hideout. We can't say for sure that many people -- let alone
children her age -- would have had a fraction of the composure Tigerlily showed. The only reason
we can't rank her higher is because we don't really see much of her past this interaction.
Coming up on our list is John. Being the middle child of the Darling Family,
John wanted to take the chance to see Neverland to experience an adventure. He took the leading
role with the Lost Boys when Peter was showing Wendy the island. John also took a lot of pride
in being the intellectual of the group. While his need to be the one to lead the
Lost Boys to victory in a lighthearted turf war with the Native tribe got them captured,
John was also quick to admit that he messed up. John was easily swept up in the excitement
of the island, just like Micheal had been. This meant that, unlike their older sister,
John began to forget what their home had been like or who their parents were. That alone isn’t evil,
but it did make him act out against Wendy and indulge in the carefree life on Neverland.
Taking our next spot is Mrs. Darling. As seen in the beginning and end of the first movie,
she was far more understanding of the children and their games,
calming her husband’s panicked episodes. Wendy clearly got her level-headed nature from her
mother. We can’t rank her higher since she doesn’t really accomplish anything heroic in the movies or
stand out much. But we felt she deserved to be in the good section of our list for her reaction to
Wendy discussing the shadow she saw. It’s normal for any parent to do one of two things. One,
to brush off the comment as a child having an overactive imagination. Or, two, take the
comment seriously and be aware that something sinister might be afoot. Luckily, Mrs. Darling
took the second approach and treated the talk of a shadow in her children’s window with concern.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
Our first ranking for this section goes to the Lost Boys. We don’t feel right about placing
them lower since they are just kids, but they do a lot of damage for a bunch of young boys. They’re
more fleshed out in the second movie when we see them interact with Jane. The boys were playful
and always looking to make everything a game. They enjoyed toying with Hook and the pirates,
hiding their treasure and taking turns hunting it down. They had an ongoing game with the Native
tribe of the teams catching each other before letting them loose. Even with Jane’s notebook,
they were able to make a small improvised game of football. We also see that the boys
are easily swayed. They had little to no memory of their lives before Neverland, not remembering
what a mother was. They went along with Peter’s games, but also caved when Hook presented them
with a chance to join his crew. They even believed Wendy was a bird just because Tinkerbell had said
so despite seeing that Wendy was clearly a human just like them. They were easily persuaded to go
along with anything, and that left them unable to claim any heroic task or be truly loyal to anyone.
Next on our list is Jane. Daughter to Wendy, Jane is far more no-nonsense than her mother. She faced
the trials of living during a war head-on, taking notes on anything she picked up on the radio,
and getting her brother Daniel a practical gift for his birthday. She pushed aside the desire to
cling to childish things such as listening to her mother’s stories about Neverland or playing Peter
Pan with Daniel. She was in denial about leaving her home because she wanted to keep the promise
she made to her father Edward about protecting the family. The stress of having to leave
caused her to lash out at Daniel rather than protect him. After she’s kidnapped by Hook, Jane
is forced to come to terms with her situation and ask Peter for help. When Jane was unable to fly,
she lashed out again, only this time she caused a lot of damage and nearly caused Tinkerbell’s
light to go out. Though Jane came through in the end and saved Peter and the Lost Boys,
we had to drop her low for the simple fact that it was her actions that caused them to be caught
by Hook in the first place. Sure, she may not have been the one actually to blow the whistle,
but she had accepted the deal with Hook. Jane had reasoned that since the treasure belonged to Hook
in the first place that he was in the right, which would be fair enough on its own. But we
want to point out that Jane was raised on stories about this man. She knew how underhanded Hook
could be and fell for it anyway. Though one could argue that she was a young girl who was
desperate to get home, which we recognize. But she had a lot of chances to come clean,
especially when Peter found her and tried to make amends.
Included in another tied ranking are the Crocodile and Octopus. These two had one motivation:
eat Hook. And, no, we don’t mean that as some joke. They wanted to make a meal of
the captain literally. We don’t know what it was that made Hook seem like a five-star meal,
but we can’t call the Crocodile or Octopus evil just for finding dinner. The fact is,
they were predators on a hunt. They didn’t really care who wound up in their clutches.
It was just that Hook was the meal they wanted more.
Of course, earning the spot on this list is the boy who never grew up: Peter Pan. He takes
a drastic change between the first movie and the second one, which is why he isn’t placed lower on
this list. In the first film, Peter was far more clueless and inconsiderate. He quickly ordered
Wendy around, shoving his shadow at her and telling her to “get on with it” before dragging
her to Neverland. He wanted Wendy around just to tell stories about him and feed his ego,
which he also shared with the mermaids. He tormented Hook even when nothing was really
happening. He had been the one to cut off Hook’s hand and feed it to a crocodile...for some reason.
Peter also didn’t take anything happening around him seriously. He brushed off the mermaids
attempting to drown Wendy, claiming that they were “only having fun.” He didn’t seem concerned over
Tinkerbell’s jealousy and didn’t really do much of anything when she nearly got Wendy killed.
Luckily, Peter did grow up in his own way. By the time the second movie is released,
Peter is far more aware of his surroundings. He quickly recognized that Jane was not Wendy
with the way she punched him. He was able to admit to his mistakes and apologize to
Jane for upsetting her, offering to teach her to fly so that she could return home.
He worked to get Jane to accept being a part of their group and have fun for once, not only to
help Jane but to keep Tinkerbell’s light from going out. Like our ranking of the Lost Boys,
we grant him some leniency since he is just a kid. But a kid or not, we still can't think of a good
reason for him to torment Hook and cut off the captain's hand. At least as far as the movies go.
And Peter got way too much enjoyment out of the idea of kicking Hook to death for our liking.
Taking his place in the neutral territory is Mr Darling. Much like Hook, he was far too
stressed out in comparison to everyone around him. He would overthink every little detail,
from cufflinks he picks for a party to worrying that his children are using their imagination too
much. But we also see he was a good man at heart. Mr Darling did admit to being too harsh on Wendy.
So, he allowed her to stay in the nursery a while longer by the end of the movie.
Though he claimed to hate it when the children dotted on Nana,
Mr. Darling was also seen talking to her and venting as if she was a person he could confide
in. Sure, he didn't take the concern of a shadow in his children's window seriously. But, after a
whole evening of hearing his kids go on about Peter Pan, we can't really blame him too much.
The next spot goes to the Native tribe. Horrible representation aside, we did have to include
them for their role in the first movie. We are referring mainly to the chief, who was also the
father to Tigerlily. We can't place them higher due to the fact they nearly killed not only the
Lost Boys but also John and Michael. However, we don't think this earned them a ranking in our evil
section since the motivation for this made sense: the unknown whereabouts of their princess. But
we do wonder why exactly they believed the Lost Boys were responsible with pirates looming about.
For the last spot in the neutral ranking, we have the pixie Tinkerbell. We're sorry to say that
we can't take the Tinkerbell movies into account for this ranking, so she falls from grace on this
list. We already mentioned in a previous listing that Tinkerbell attempted to get Wendy killed
due to being jealous of her. She was also easily tricked by Hook when she bought into
the fake sympathy he offered and gave away the Lost Boys’ hideout so Hook could get rid
of Wendy. Tinkerbell wasn’t too fond of Jane, but at least she didn’t attempt to murder her.
In fact Tinkerbell was more fond of Jane, helping the girl to fly and save the boys. And we have to
give credit to Tinkerbell risking being blown up to save Peter. Even when the hideout was
caving in, Tinkerbell risked being crushed and insisted that Peter go to save Wendy and the boys.
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
Runner-ups worth the mention are the mermaids. As we brought up before,
the mermaids aren’t as nice as they appear. They are kind enough to Peter, always wanting to hear
his stories of fighting against the pirates. But when it came to Wendy, they had no issue insulting
her right away. Then, of course, we have the main act that brings them to this low spot on our list:
their attempt to drown Wendy. It doesn’t help that when asked, they replied very casually what
their intentions were. Which makes you wonder what they meant to do once they caught Jane from Peter.
Sure, it looked like they were just going to get her wet by dunking water on her,
but we aren’t confident it would have stopped there.
Our bronze medal of evil goes to the pirates. Being the men that work for Hook,
they have come to hate life on Neverland. They gripe that they wanted to sail the seas again
so they could continue robbing and terrifying people. One even placed a noose around Smee’s
neck while another threatened to slit his throat. While they’re scared of Hook, they
clearly have no regard for Smee, the inhabitants of Neverland, or each other. The only thing that
the pirates are shown to really care about is the treasure once it was found in the second
movie. They willingly dove overboard to get the jewels even though that had been established akin
to a death sentence, what with the crocodiles, octopuses, and other creatures that lurked below.
Our silver medal of evil goes to Smee. Smee may have insisted that he was loyal to Hook,
but we see that loyalty only went so far. Smee wasn’t the smartest guy, but that alone
doesn’t make him a bad guy. Smee was just as afraid of the captain as everyone else.
But, he also made various attempts to try and get Hook to let go of the rivalry with Peter
and leave Neverland. He carried out various tasks for and along with Hook, including kidnapping
Tigerlily, capturing Tinkerbell, and hunting down children with the intent to kill them. When
Hook was lowering the bomb into Hangman’s Tree, Smee’s response wasn’t to try and talk Hook out
of killing Peter. Instead, he suggested a more “humane method” like slitting the boy’s throat.
To be the type of person okay with that sort of the thing, you must be evil. When Hook was on
the losing end of things in the first movie, Smee didn’t stick around to see how things played out.
His plan was to grab as much treasure and as many supplies as he could to stock in a lifeboat before
trying to quietly sneak away. But we do want to point out how fearless Smee was when dealing with
the crocodile and the octopus, flat out shooing them off. He even tried to smash an ore over the
croc’s head in an attempt to save his captain. So at least there’s that going for his character.
Finally, our gold medal of evil goes to Captain Hook. There’s no questioning how he made it to
the top ranking. Hook was obsessed with getting revenge on Peter, and it drove him to do some
extreme things. He kidnapped Tigerlily and threatened to let her drown in the high tide.
He kidnapped the Lost Boys and gave them the ultimatum to either join his crew or walk the
plank. He attempted to take Peter out with a bomb, a massive overkill that likely did damage to the
other people and creatures on the island. He had no issue using guilt or manipulation to get
others to see his ways, such as when he tricked Tinkerbell and Jane. Hook was not only feared by
the Lost Boys and mermaids, but also by his own crew, who were more than happy to send Smee with
their complaints rather than face the captain themselves. While Hook had slightly different
motivations when it came to the original books, we have to place him as the most evil in these
movies. But we will concede that even in this portrayal, it’s tough to not feel at least a
little bad for Hook. Even when he’s portrayed as the most irredeemable character in the movies,
Captain Hook can still be easily seen as a man on the edge, always tormented by children that
like to sever his limbs. Of course, the guy was angry all the time. He had various things stolen,
he was harassed, and now he felt like taking Peter out was the only way to regain his dignity.
In the second movie, Hook nearly conceded to the idea of just leaving Neverland until Smee
unintentionally reminded Hook of the humiliation he suffered. That doesn’t really justify
his actions, but it helps to see why he stuck around and held onto this rivalry.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us what
we should cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil
playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons,
shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked.