When she was just twelve, Wendy Darling managed to discover the shadow of her childhood hero, Peter Pan. Wendy always wrote stories of Peter's adventures in Neverland, a place where children never grew up and good thoughts were enough to make you fly. Now with his shadow in her possession, maybe Peter would come back and take Wendy with him! But as time went on, years passed by, and soon even Wendy's little brother's have matured, not wanting to bother with Wendy's "bedtime stories". Peter never returned, abandoning Wendy to the ever-impending life of an adult, one where ladies should be quiet and stories are not for grown women.
In a split second decision, Wendy decides to run away from home, exchanging Peter Pan's shadow for passage to Neverland, a world only seen in her dreams. But her passage is on no ordinary boat, but the Jolly Rojer, the ship of the wicked Captain Hook. Now that he has Pan's shadow, Captain Hook has a little plan of his own, one that will eliminate Neverland forever. Realizing her mistake, Wendy seeks the help of Peter Pan's friend Tinker Bell, a little fairy who's jealousy of Wendy has gotten her into trouble of her own. The two may seem like an impossible duo, but Tinker Bell's familiarity of Neverland and Wendy's capability is what the island may be counting on, even if their journey is more dangerous than they expected. The land of Neverland is not the pleasant island Wendy wrote about back in London, but a unfamiliar place intent on throwing every obstacle in her way.
My thoughts Joy! A new book in the Disney Twisted Tale series! If you don't already know, I love any sort of book that takes a story we all know and makes it something completely different. A good example of this is the Lunar Chronicles series, a story so different than the original that it takes Cinderella and makes her a cyborg alien. But another type of "twisted tale" that I find enjoyable is when the author takes one critical part of the story and tweaks it just a bit.
This is why I like this series in particular, not just because it follows that type of twisted tale, but because it also has the potential of being an official Disney licensed series. That's right, this book series is an official Disney product, which means the author can take any Disney movie and completely change it in their book. I know that in this series there's an Mulan one, a Beauty and the Beast one, even a Frozen one! It's especially exiting to me, because this means any of my favorite Disney movies can get an entry in this series somewhere in the future. Is it limited to only Disney movies? Or is it possible they could make Pixar ones? Because I would love to see a book based on Cars. That would be hilarious! What would it be, What if Lightning McQueen was Totaled in Radiator Springs? But back to this book. Straight on till' Morning is the story of the classic Disney Peter Pan film, but the twist is that Wendy traveled to Neverland with Captain Hook instead of Peter Pan. The change is simple and doesn't seem like it would affect the original story much, but there are a few extra changes that end up making the story quite different. In this version, Wendy keeps Peter's shadow hoping that one day he'll come back, but he never does, causing Wendy to try and find him herself by exchanging the shadow. Peter never goes back to London to search for his missing shadow because Tinker Bell convinces him that it isn't there, just because Tink is jealousy of Peter's curiosity towards Wendy.
In the end these mistakes made by both the girls add up, causing an apocalyptic-like scenario regarding Captain Hook's "plan". It isn't the fact that Wendy traveled to Neverland with Captain Hook, but that she gave him the shadow. Perhaps the story could have gone as intended if Tinker Bell didn't deceive Peter Pan, or if Peter didn't listen to Tink and went to London anyway. But obviously, that couldn't have happened or else the book wouldn't exist.
Straight on till' Morning, as all the books in these series, was highly enjoyable and reread-able. I did in fact like this adaptation more than the movie it was based on, but probably just because I've heard the original story a million times, and this retelling was refreshing. It'd be interesting to see how someone who'd never seen the movie would like the book, but you'd have to seek out some Amish person to do that since everyone knows the story.
Stay Safe!
-Valkyrie