Fox's Peter Pan & the Piratesnote is a cartoon that ran for two seasons (1990-1991). It is a heavily expanded take on the classic story of Peter Pan. With high characterization and storytelling for its time, this cartoon was Truer to the Text than many other adaptations, and its original elements remain true to the spirit of the original story. It was the very first show to air on the "Fox Kids Network".note
The show was episodic in nature with a focus on adventure, humor, and drama, and wasn't afraid to delve into the darker aspects of Neverland. Another notable aspect is giving equal focus to the pirates and other characters alongside Peter, Wendy, and the boys.
When shown during its second year, the network tended to focus on the sillier episodes in order to make the show Lighter and Softer. Ultimately, the show was canceled only a few months into its second year, though a two-part Grand Finale closed out the series. A video game adaptation was created for the NES which was, in many respects, rather faithful to the show.
A notable thing about the show is that it's Fox's Peter Pan. When Disney first bought Fox Kids and then 20th Century Fox itself, the show became Disney's Peter Pan... and they already had one, so this show has never seen the light of day since.
Peter Pan & the Pirates provides examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Unlike nearly every other incarnation of Hook, this one has white hair. It's implied he's a lot older than some versions of the character, which would cause it to make sense. He was also fair-haired as a young man, which both explains why he went white so readily and is still an example of this trope.
- Peter Pan has dark brown hair unlike the red hair of the more famous Disney incarnation, or the usually light hair of most other incarnations.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Although it's a stretch to call Hook "nice", in this continuity he's been given some redeeming features, and is more of a Friendly Enemy to Peter Pan than the usual hero-and-villain dynamic. But, this is more downplayed, as he still has elements of his core persona, despite the Darker and Edgier setting.
- Peter Pan himself also received this treatment, going from a tyrannical dictator who abuses his friends, as he is in the novel, to a perfectly nice kid who, although arrogant and a bit of a sore loser, still cares about a lot of people and will help his friends when need be.
- Adaptation Expansion: We see a lot more of Neverland than we ever did, and learn more about many of the characters.
- Age Lift: Bill Jukes in the novel was a lot older with a lot of tattoos. However, Billy in the show is much younger without any tattoos; he's barely any older than any of the Lost Boys.
- Hook is also implied to be older since he has white hair.
- A Day in the Limelight: Many characters get one. One such example is "A Day At The Fair"; it stars Michael and Tinkerbell and absolutely no other heroes as they visit a fair, and outsmart the pirates in the process.
- Alternate Universe: An ancient Egypt-themed one.
- Always Second Best: Slightly felt this way about Nibs.
- Always Someone Better: Nibs in regards to Slightly.
- Ambiguously Brown: Billy Jukes. Given the pirate crew he hangs out with, he could be either Indian or some flavor of mulatto.
- Ambiguous Innocence: Peter, in a nutshell. He's a truly child-like character, which means he can be quite selfish and even cruel. For example, in the second episode, "Living Pictures", he eagerly agrees to use Tinkerbell's fairy magic to bring Wendy's latest story to life, even though it ends with feeding Hook - summoned to Peter's side from the ship and made helpless by the spell - to the crocodile.
- Animation Bump: The TMS Entertainment animated episodes.
- Anti-Villain: The Ice King, Kyros. In "The Coldest Cut Of All", he may pose a danger to Neverland, but the whole mess is Peter's fault, because he won't stop trespassing in Kyros's home in the Ice Caves and stealing its crystals. Once Peter makes amends by giving back the crystal, Kyros returns Neverland to normal.
- Arbitrary Skepticism. Hook does not believe in ghosts... despite having faced at least two in his adventures (one the ghost of his own departed brother) and living in a world where magic is quite real, inhabited by fairies, trolls, and giants, and even having a text on alchemy in his personal library.
- Badass Adorable: All of the heroes, but Michael especially qualifies.
- Baseball Episode: Between the Lost Boys and the Pirates, instigated when Captain Hook overhears the term "baseball diamond." He determines the "jewels" to be hidden in the bases and, rather heroically, manages to hit a home run so that he can steal all four, escaping much to the bewilderment of the other characters. (The bases are, of course, just bags stuffed with sawdust.)
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The plot of "Three Wishes" to a T. It actually ends up getting Hook killed, so Peter uses his wish to hit the Reset Button and prevent them from ever getting the wishes in the first place.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Completely inverted with the Mermaids. Crooked Tail was banished for being the ugliest mermaid (her own fault), and she inspires fear in the other mermaids... But she's the nicest of all of them while the others can be outright villainous.
- Beauty Is Bad: The mermaids, except for Crooked Tail, qualify for this.
- Berserk Button: Played for laughs, but Captain Hook hates seeing anyone mangling Shakespeare. He finds the Lost Boys' efforts to put on a play so painful to listen to that he storms out of hiding to act the part himself and show how it should be done.
- Also, you better not touch or even dare try to play his beloved harpsichord.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- One of Peter Pan's more redeeming features is that, despite his eternal child status, he clearly feels a strong, brotherly protective instinct towards the Lost Boys. Whils this is most obvious with Michael, and Pan is always the first to act to protect him, it also comes out with regards the other Lost Boys as well. This is most evident in "First Encounter", when it is revealed that Peter cut off Hook's hand because he thought the wicked pirate had killed Nibs and Tootles.
- As the eldest male of three Darling siblings, John feels a strong need to protect his sister and especially his little brother from Neverland's dangers.
- Bound and Gagged: Pretty much every character at some point or another.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Although they're still basically theme park Native Americans (which can be excused by being a child's imagined version), it is nevertheless a rather respectful portrayal, and miles better than the Disney movie.
- Break the Cutie: Most of the heroes eventually experience this.
- Break the Haughty: Crooked Tail's backstory covers this.
- Break Them by Talking: "The Ages of Pan" features Hook delivering one to Peter when Peter considers killing him for good. It works and puts Peter into a dangerous Heroic BSoD.
Hook: If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in my arms. For I, at least, have lived a full life, Peter Pan! I have been a child, I have been a youth, I have been a man, a scholar and a gentleman! I have sailed the world in the finest navy ever to set sun, sky or moon sail. In short, I have lived a full life. Whereas you are a pathetic creature, forever locked in the self-serving egocentricities of childhood. You will never be a youth, and you will never be a man! So, finish me now and be done with it!
- Canon Foreigner: A few, such as the Girl Who Lives in the Moon, the fairy king and queen, and Captain Hook's brother, Jasper "Captain Patch" Hook.
- Central Theme:
- The harsh effects one has to face with growing up.
- The wonder of childhood and progression.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: As evident from the title.
- Chick Magnet: Despite his youth, Peter Pan is considered very attractive amongst the female fae of Neverland — at the very least, Tinkerbell and the mermaids both harbor very obvious crushes on him. The episode "The Ruby" involves two mermaids stealing a map to the magical Neverland Ruby from Crookedtail and giving it to Starkey, as part of a plan to abduct Peter Pan and keep him all to themselves. Peter is aware of the fact they find him attractive, and to an extent he revels in the attention, but he is, of course, too young to properly enjoy it or take advantage.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: The mermaids and Tinker Bell both get very jealous when Peter spends time with any other female, sometimes to the point where they act very nasty. Needless to say, none of them like Wendy very much.
- Cosmic Keystone: Tinkerbell says Peter Pan created Neverland out of his imagination, making him this; but places would vanish or shift about as Peter forgot about them. To give Neverland a sense of order, a map was created of Neverland that can only be changed during the presence of a particular comet.
- Cowardly Lion: Tootles.
- The Dandy: Gentleman Starkey, here a foppish Englishman with a cape.
- Darker and Edgier: The first season finale is one of the darkest things seen in children's animation in that time.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Hook keeps a portrait of his mother in his cabin, and in "Hook the Faithful Son," is tricked into believing his mother wished for him to be a pilot, not a pirate. (Probably a nod to The Pirates of Penzance.)
- Even Evil Has Standards: Captain Hook writes a fake treasure map to lure Peter into an ambush, and sends it via a cannonball shot into the middle of the Indians' camp, as that's where Peter happened to be at the time. Robert Mullins asks why they didn't just blow the whole place up if Peter's in range, and Hook snaps that the village is full of innocent women and children.
- Evil Doppelgänger: King Kyros creates an icy elemental clone of Peter Pan's, made as a living embodiment of Peter's pride, vanity and other negative traits. Completely devoid of conscience, it proceeds to freeze over the entirety of Neverland just to force Peter to finally concede defeat and return Kyros' storm crystal.
- Eviler than Thou: Captain Hook is hardly a saint himself, but his dead brother, Captain Patch, is an even more terrifying figure, especially since Hook's a mortal but Patch, at the time of the show, is a powerful undead pirate who wants to lead a crew of ghosts and ghouls to prey upon the mortal seas for all eternity.
- Eye Scream: Hook gouged out his brother's eye, which his ghost is still livid about.
- Face Death with Dignity: At the beginning of "Ages of Pan, Part 1", Peter and the Lost Boys decided to do away with Hook for good, while Hook gives them a Thousand-Yard Stare and "Reason You Suck" Speech to Pan on how he'll never live a full life as an adult as the spears draw closer.
- Face–Heel Turn: Several temporary versions.
- In "The Hook and the Hat", after Hook becomes dejected and gives up on leading the pirates because he's sick of Peter Pan, Peter takes over the pirates.
- In "The Lost Memories of Pirate Pan", after losing his memories, Peter Pan joins up with the pirates.
- The Faceless: The show makes a big point of Captain Hook having a portrait of his mother in his cabin. It makes just as big a point of never letting the viewer see itnote.
- The hilarious reactions of the other pirates when they do get a glimpse of it are what sells it.
- The Fair Folk: Neverland is home to a wide variety of fae creatures, including faeries, gnomes/dwarves, mermaids and trolls.
- Faking the Dead: Hook does this in "The Demise of Hook", then acts as his own vengeful spirit.
- Fisher King: "Ages of Pan", wherein Peter magically grows up and begins to stop believing in Neverland, shows that as Peter's belief in the land fades, the land itself turns drab, dreary, and unlivable. The opposite is also true: when Hook manages to erase pieces of Neverland, it hurts Peter in return.
- Fisher Kingdom: From the episode "The Neverscroll": "Peter Pan is Neverland, and Neverland is Peter Pan."
- Fish out of Temporal Water: There are some subtle suggestions that the pirates actually slipped out of their own time when they wound up in Neverland, and they can no longer return even if they tried to leave.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: In "Pirate Boys, Lost Men", the pirates and the Lost Boys temporarily change personalities as a result of a magic crystal.
- Freudian Excuse: Captain Hook hates children, in part, because he misses his own childhood. A representation of it, in the form of a younger, more playful Hook as a child, is seen in one episode. Adult Hook chases desperately after him, but is separated yet again from his youth.
- Friendly Enemies: Several times, it's shown that the Pirates and the Lost Boys don't entirely hate each other.
- Wendy takes pity on an outcast Smee and tries to befriend him in "Stupid Smee".
- Slightly and Billy Jukes bond as a result of the events of "Billy Jukes, Lost Boy".
- Hook is actually relieved when he prevents Peter Pan from dying (and taking Neverland with him) in the season 1 finale "Ages of Pan", to the point of actually hugging his young nemesis in relief.
- In "Immortal Pan", the Pirates actually ask Pan to help them with a scheme to persuade Hook to give up his crusade and go back to piracy away from Neverland.
- In "The Hook and the Hat", Peter actually becomes the Pirates' leader for a time, and Wendy deliberately restores Hook's confidence to get him to take the job back.
- In "Mardi Gras", the Pirates actually rescue Michael from being eaten by the Crocodile, and the Lost Boys take the Pirates to the Mardi Gras festival under truce in gratitude.
- In "Three Wishes", after Peter accidentally leads Hook to his death, he immediately uses his last wish to prevent it from happening.
- In "Play Ball", the Pirates actually play a game of baseball against the Lost Boys (because Hook believes they were talking about alchemical bases).
- In "The Pirate Who Came to Dinner", after Hook is injured, Peter and Wendy actually tend to him as long as they believe he's injured.
- Girls with Moustaches: Upon first meeting Crooked Tail, Peter notes that he had never seen a mermaid with a moustache before. Crooked Tail replies, "You should have seen me before I shaved the beard off."
- Gory Discretion Shot:
- Used in "Living Pictures" when Hook is dropped into the crocodile's waiting mouth at the episode's start. The camera fades to black as a single loud chomp cuts off Hook's final words, before transitioning in a split-second to Wendy closing her book of stories.
- Happens when Peter tells John the story of how he cut off Hook's hand. All that's shown is Peter (furious because he thinks Hook killed Nibs and Tootles) grabbing Hook's sword and swinging it. It quickly cuts away, but Hook screaming out in pain can be heard clear across Neverland.
- Grand Finale: While the final episode, "The Lost Memories of Pirate Pan", didn't conclude Peter's adventures with Wendy and the others, it did provide closure for the viewer and provided a glimpse at the future of Wendy, John, Michael, and Wendy's daughter, Jane.
- Green-Eyed Monster : The Mermaids are collectively this. They show their most vicious streak when. after Peter says Wendy is more beautiful than they are, they decide to kidnap her and make her a mermaid... without the ability to breath underwater, basically wanting to see her slowly suffocate as the air bubble she has runs out of oxygen. Even Crooked Tail, the nicest one, got into her current ugly state out of jealousy.
- Harmless Freezing: During the events of "Coldest Cut of All", first the Lost Boys and then the entirety of Neverland end up encased in ice by the angry King Kyros. When the freezing is undone, they spring back to life in an instant as if nothing had happened. Justified due to the magic involved.
- Hook Hand: You have one guess.
- An Ice Person: The Ice King, from the first episode. Peter steals his crystals to offer to Wendy and Tinkerbell, which triggers his wrath, turning Peter and the gang into ice statues. Tinkerbell manages to thaw herself and Peter, then Peter thaws everyone; but Peter, being his proud self, still feels like provoking the Ice King. The latter ends up creating an Evil Doppelgänger of Peter who's made of ice and freezes the entirety of Neverland (pirates included). It all stops and comes back to normal when Peter eventually agrees to give the last crystal back.
- Idiot Ball: In the episode "The Ruby", Peter Pan sends the other half of the map to the Neverland Ruby to the surface in hopes that the Lost Boys will realize that he's still alive, because who else would send it to them? Unfortunately, Wendy is so distraught over Peter's apparent death that she completely misunderstands the message and instead gives the map to the pirates, thus putting Peter in even more danger!
- Ignored Epiphany: In the Yet Another Christmas Carol episode Hook seems deeply shaken by the idea of not only being killed by Peter, but being completely forgotten too. This seems like the moment when he would repent... but instead Hook resolves to be much, much worse, so that Peter will never forget him. Also, one would think that Hook's Freudian Excuse would make him more sympathetic to Peter and the Lost Boys, but you'd be wrong.
- Insult Backfire:
Peter: You are the cruelest, most heartless, irredeemably villainous pirate who ever walked a deck and truly the most evil man to set foot in Neverland!
Hook: Why, you flatter me, boy!
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: In "Vanity, Thy Name is Mermaid", Wendy is turned into a mermaid.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Old Crooked Tail, a particularly ugly mermaid, used to be extremely beautiful, but conceited and haughty until a potion to enhance her beauty went horribly awry, turning her into a green-skinned hag.
- Joker Jury: In "Peter on Trial", Peter Pan is put on trial by Captain Hook, with his pirates as the jury and Wendy as a defense lawyer. Surprisingly, she wins the case, though not without having to filch the keys to his cage.
- Kid from the Future: Jane, Wendy's daughter, who appears in the episode "The Lost Memories of Pirate Pan".
- Large Ham: As in many other versions of Peter Pan, Captain Hook is a large, loud, and domineering presence ready to chew the scenery at the drop of his magnificent hat. This version has the added bonus of being voiced by Tim Curry.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Inverted with the hero Peter, who is this considering that if anything happens to him, or he grows up and stops believing in fairies, all of Neverland will cease to exist.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The 'siren song' of the mermaids can act like this to those underwater, being left in an illusion while their air slowly runs out... this fails on Peter simply because his desires are so whimsical he can't decide on what to wish for.
- Lying Finger Cross: Done by Captain Hook of all people. In "The Neverscroll", after giving his word and then breaking it, Wendy calls him out on it.
Wendy: Captain Hook, you gave your word as a gentleman to return the Neverscroll!
Hook: Ah, so I did, mistress Wendy, but you see, while I gave my word as a gentleman, I kept my fingers crossed... as a pirate!
- Magic Feather: It's decreed that whoever looks into an ordinary compact mirror is the most beautiful in Neverland. Eventually it falls into the hands of ugly Crooked Tail, whom Peter proudly proclaims to now be the most beautiful mermaid in Neverland.
- Mondegreen Gag: Slightly and Peter trick Hook into thinking his mother wanted him to be a pilot, not a pirate.
- Ms. Exposition: If anyone needs any kind of information about Neverland, they can almost always count on Tinkerbell to know about it.
- Nerf Arm: Most of the time, the Lost Boys are armed with wooden swords.
- Never Learned to Read: Naturally, as an unaging wild boy, Peter Pan has never gone to school, and so he can't read anything. He relies on John, Wendy and Tinkerbell to do it for him, and reminding him of this deficiency is one of the few things that can puncture his ego.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- "The Coldest Cut of All" is pretty much built on showing how much of a self-centered Jerkass that Peter Pan can be. While showing off a gemstone that he openly boasts about stealing after breaking into the Ice Caves, home of the winter spirit King Kyros, Peter unwittingly summons Kyros by speaking his name. Kyros promptly takes back his property and orders Peter not to go messing around in Kyros' house or stealing his stuff again. Peter responds to this by leading the Lost Boys to go and do just that, hoping to impress Wendy with an even bigger crystal. Of course, Kyros suspected Peter would do just that, so he enchanted the gem, and it encases the entire underground lair and all the Lost Boys in ice. Luckily, Tinkerbell thaws herself out and then revives Pan, who does the same to the rest of the kids... and then leads them to try and melt down Kyros' home. Outraged, Kyros creates an icy doppelganger of Peter Pan to duel the King of the Lost Boys, which overpowers Peter and forces the children to run. Ice Pan then freezes over the entire island, demanding Peter return the stolen crystal.
- In "Living Pictures", Peter's use of Tinkerbell's magic to bring a story to life that features him humiliating Hook in battle before feeding him to the crocodile, which eats him alive, outrages Hook and inspires him to trick Tinkerbell into using that same spell on a book that Hook wrote, allowing him to use that same magic to kill Peter Pan.
- In "The Neverscroll", Slightly takes the Neverscroll (the map of Neverland) in order to add a "Slightly Gulch" to Neverland. Unfortunately, Robert Mullins spots him, steals the scroll from him, and presents it to Hook, allowing the villainous pirate to erase parts of Neverland, which causes great pain to Peter.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Peter Pan starts growing up and no longer believes in fairies, Tinker Bell is weakened and nearly dies. Later, Captain Hook comes across her, and she tricks him into saying that he believes in fairies, restoring enough of her power that she can continue searching for Peter in hopes of saving Neverland.
- Noah's Story Arc: Fittingly enough, the episode "The Never Ark", in which the children believe that Neverland is going to be destroyed by the volcano and try to evacuate the island, including taking over the Jolly Roger to carry away all of the animals.
- No-Sell: For whatever reason, Hook is the only being in Neverland immune to the enthralling song of Frau Brumhandel; it's implied she falls in love with him partially for this reason.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Invoked, understandable given it's a Peter Pan show:
- When Wendy suggests a birthday party for one of her brothers, Peter bitterly says that date never comes in Neverland. When Wendy decides to celebrate it the next day, Peter and Tinkerbell both conspire to keep dawn from coming. Why? Because birthdays mean growing up.
- In "Eternal Youth", Hook is tricked into thinking he's found the fountain of youth, and gets into his long underwear. Peter remarks that Hook is in his birthday suit, then reminds Hook that "birthdays are not allowed in Neverland."
- Invoked to devastating effect where Peter Pan himself is concerned. One episode has Neverland nearly being wiped out of existence because Peter suffered a case of Rapid Aging and stopped believing in it as a result.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Whilst Smee seems laughably evil at best, and he never does manage to back it up, he does show a bloodthirsty streak every so often to remind viewers that he is a devoted pirate. For example, waxing poetic about how Johnny Corkscrew lets the air rush in and the blood rush out.
- Land of Faerie: Whilst Neverland as a whole could count as this, the true example is Small Monday Island, a neighboring island which is where Neverland's faeries and related magical folk come together to trade goods. It's the closest thing to adult civilization in Neverland, and the pirates occasionally visit it as a result - often causing trouble by trying to steal things.
- Oireland: Smee is a walking Irish stereotype.
- Only Six Faces: The young boy characters can be counted on to have the same exact face. It’s a face style many will recognize from other productions TMS was involved in, for example Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
- Our Dragons Are Different: One appears in "Tootles & the Dragon" which has been kept in dormancy by an enchanted key for so long it is now believed to be a small island called "Dragon's Rock". It looks like a fairly classic six-limbed green dragon, save for a fleshy "moustache" akin to an Asian dragon, but displays no ability to breathe fire, instead exhaling gale-force winds as a Breath Weapon... at least, at first. Tinkerbelle later explains that this dragon was created by a powerful witch, but turned on her, and that she responded by sealing it away. The rest of the episode becomes a race to seal it back again before it regains its full strength and with it the ability to breathe fire.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They appear as beautiful women from the waist up and fish from the waist down, can Charm Person with their magical songs, and are a bunch of jerkasses, best characterized by their vanity and fickleness. The only mermaid who isn't a jerk is Crookedtail, who learned some much-needed humility when she accidentally and permanently disfigured herself.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Probably the funniest in the entire series. After Neverland is restored and everyone returns to normal, Hook picks Peter up and hugs him. This is so unlike him that everyone stares at him, completely confused by his actions. It quickly ends and he's back to his normal self.
- Panthera Awesome: The pirates' cannon "Long Tom" is shaped like a tiger.
- Pet the Dog:
- Robert Mullins is second only to Hook in terms of viciousness, but he has a soft spot for Billy Jukes. As Billy himself tells the Twins, Mullins was the only pirate to not bully him when he was brought on board the Jolly Roger.
- This series makes no pretense to Peter Pan being an all too often selfish thrill seeker... but he's not without his heroic side and is willing to repay kindness.
- Pink Means Feminine: Wendy and Tinkerbell both qualify.
- Pirate: The show, keeping with the Peter Pan story, features pirates in a prominent role.
- Plummet Perspective: Subverted. In one episode Hook incapacitates Peter, attaches weights to him, and threatens to throw Peter into a legendary bottomless pit. He throws a torch into the pit to demonstrate, only to see that the pit is maybe 20-30 feet deep... of course, it's also full of jagged stalagmites, so being thrown in isn't a good thing.
Hook: Well, not quite bottomless... but I'm sure you get the point.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Hook fakes his death to lure Peter into a trap in "Demise of Hook."
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The crocodile, of course -
this time, there isn't anything the least bit funny about her. She still serves an important purpose in Neverland, though.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!:
- Often, whenever the pirates think they've lost Hook or Hook himself thinks otherwise of staying, they decide to set sail for "The Spanish Main" and leave behind Neverland. They never do, but...
- In the episode "The Never Ark", after Olook becomes convinced that Peter may actually be right about the impending destruction of Neverland, he grabs a nearby tree, uproots it, crudely carves it into a boat with his bare hands, then jumps in the ocean and starts paddling away for dear life.
- Shout-Out:
- The Fairy King is named Oberon, as in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, while his queen is named Gloriana, as in The Faerie Queene.
- To the 1940 Pirate movie, The Sea Hawk, the opening title-music
of which (by Erich Wolfgang Korngold) obviously inspired the cartoon's theme music
.
- One episode has Hook believing he was meant to become a pilot, not a pirate. This was a plot point in The Pirates of Penzance.
- 65-Episode Cartoon: With the last two episodes being a two-part Grand Finale.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: The series is like if Hayao Miyazaki did a tv show. Its heavily on the idealistic side and has a strong sense of magic and wonder while also having its own sense of reality.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ice King's caves.
- The So-Called Coward: Tootles' primary distinguishing trait is that he's regarded as the meekest and most cowardly of the Lost Boys, but when the chips are down, he always pulls through. This is particularly evident in "Tootles & the Dragon"; Tinkerbelle laments that Neverland is doomed if it must rely on Tootles to reseal the dragonnote, but in the end, of course, Tootles steps up and forces the dragon back into dormancy.
- The Starscream:
- Robert Mullins. The only time he actually succeeded was in "Three Wishes", until Peter hits the Reset Button.
- Slightly is a heroic variation. Though instead of wanting to be leader, he wants to be Peter's Number Two.
- Stealth Insult: In "A Day At The Fair", Hook's men have all gone ashore and he has to resort to having Cookson row him there. Cookson takes so long that when they finally do reach the shores of Neverland, Hook quips they must have landed in Australia. Hook is English and England is at the opposite side of the Earth to Australia. He just implied his cook was so slow it would take them an equal amount of time to row round the world.
- Super-Sargasso Sea: A group of caverns in Neverland acts as this; One lost "object" is Captain Hook's lost childhood.
- Swiss-Army Tears: In the end of the two-parter "Ages of Pan", Neverland is disappearing because Peter Pan has grown up to be an old man, doesn't believe in Neverland and has forgotten about Tinker Bell. Then Tinker Bell's one tear falls on old Peter and turns him young again — and Neverland is saved.
- Taken for Granite: In the episode "Slightly in Stone", Tinkerbell accidentally petrifies Slightly with a potion she bought from Olook the Troll, forcing them to first raid Olook's lair for a magical grimoire to find a cure, and then undergo a Fetch Quest to complete a potion that they must use before moonrise, or else Slightly will be petrified forever.
- Take Our Word for It: In the episode "Hook's Mother's Picture", the eponymous portrait is seen by several characters, who all react with horror and disgust, but it is never shown to the audience.
- The Three Faces of Adam: Young, reckless and naive Peter Pan is the Hunter, mature, sophisticated and worldly Captain Hook is the Lord and Wise, experienced and reasonable Great Big Little Panther is the prophet.
- Time Travel: In "The Lost Memories of Pirate Pan". Apparently Peter can do this without consciously trying to.
- Token Good Teammate: Billy Jukes, the youngest pirate, is the least malevolent of them all.
- Too Dumb to Live: Peter's stubborn pride and childishness can often cause him to make some really stupid decisions. As early as the first episodenote, there's his interactions with King Kyros; after unintentionally summoning the icy elemental to his lair, Peter refuses to apologize both for that and for stealing one of Kyros' crystals. Then, despite being warned by Kyros to stay out of the Ice Caves, he deliberately goes there to steal another crystal, just because he was told not to. Naturally, Kyros has booby-trapped it; if it weren't for Tinkerbell having self-thawing abilities, Pan and his Lost Boys would have been frozen for all eternity. And does Peter Pan learn from this? Nope! Instead, he decides to wage war on Kyros, leading the Lost Boys to try and melt the Ice Caves, which leads Kyros to retaliate with an icy evil clone of Peter Pan that freezes all of Neverland before Peter finally admits defeat and gives back the second crystal he stole.
- Trapped in TV Land: The episode "Peter in Wonderland", in which everyone is trapped inside a copy of Alice in Wonderland.
- Tsundere: The mermaids (except for Crooked Tail) are all type A while Tinkerbell is type B.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "Tootles & The Dragon", Tootles discovers he has the ability to move the stake atop Dragon's Rock, and pulls it out in order to partake in Peter Pan's new Camelot-inspired game. Unfortunately, Dragon's Rock is an actual dragon, and the stake is actually the protruding part of an enchanted key that keeps it dormant. So when Tootles pulls it out, the dragon is freed to rampage once more.
- Vain Sorceress: Crooked Tail was this, and was already the most beautiful Mermaid in Neverland. Sadly her scheme to make herself more beautiful than she already was, fearing competition of a new mermaid, had the opposite effect due to 'some miscalculations.' She's actually the nicest out of all of them now.
- Victory Is Boring: The Christmas Carol episode shows Peter briefly having this after killing Hook, even considering leaving Neverland for good. Then it's subverted as Peter promptly forgets about Hook's existence shortly afterward.
- Villains Out Shopping: In "A Day at the Fair", it's shown that even the Pirates will sometimes go to the Great Neverland Fair, where everybody on the island goes to have fun and just relax.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Robert Mullins suffers from "landsickness", getting nauseous and weak if he spends too long away from the sea.
- Weather Manipulation: The Indian shaman Great Big Little Panther can do this with magic sand; the plot of the episode "The Wind and the Panther" revolves around Captain Hook stealing this sand and using it to try and defeat Peter Pan.
- When Trees Attack: In "Slightly in Stone", the children must recover a golden acorn from the Weretrees, a forest of giant, carnivorous trees that attempt to devour them with tentacles, "mouths" full of acidic sap, aggressive slime-molds and venus flytrap-esque folded leaves.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Peter Pan is quite co*cky, mischievous, boyish, and impulsive, but he is clearly the good guy. You would think that Captain Hook and his crew are typical baddies but episodes that focus directly on them give them more depth.
- Wicked Cultured: Captain Hook is very much this. Not only is he very intelligent and cunning, but he has great knowledge of Shakespeare, music, high society, and many other things, not to mention a massive and very fitting vocabulary.
- The World Is Always Doomed: A lot of things seem to be "the end of Neverland" if they happen.
- World-Healing Wave: After Peter Pan finally gives the crystal back to the icy Evil Doppelgänger created by King Kyros, it transforms into a glowing fireball and streaks across Neverland, undoing the freezing as easily as it created it.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Zigzagged with the Neverland Ruby; an enormous pillar of solid ruby crystals, whilst it is technically a valuable treasure, it serves a more mundane yet important task—it plugs up a hole that keeps Neverland's primary bay from draining away. When Hook blows it to pieces whilst trying to get a portion that he can take back to the Jolly Roger, it smashes the whole pillar, which results in his ship being stranded on a sandbar; the only way he can get it back afloat is to fill the hole up with all the ruby fragments.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: Inverted in "Hook's Christmas", despite a good section of the script being lifted verbatim from the original story. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Hook that, after his death, he dies alone and forgotten even by Peter Pan, he gets the pirate crew together for a Christmas raid on the Lost Boys' hideout, swearing that he'll be ten times worse from now on so that Peter will never forget what a terrible pirate he was.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The first season finale, when Peter takes Hook's accusation that he never grows up because he can't as a dare, and his grown-up act soon becomes a rapidly-aging reality. This causes the gradual decay of Neverland, in one of the most riveting forms of
Nightmare Fuel ever in a kids' cartoon.