Disney Myths #2: 1924s Silent Peter Pan

[2099net]

It is well documented that Walt's version of Peter Pan was in various stages of development for many years – far longer than the average production cycle for Walt's animated films – and also that the story/design underwent several revisions.

It is also well documented that Walt's main source of inspiration for wanting to do an animated version of Peter Pan was the Silent Version of the film made by Paramount in 1924.

However, what isn't so well documented is the current ownership of 1924 Peter Pan film. I am pretty sure that I heard or read somewhere that when Walt was first considering making an animated Peter Pan, he bought the rights to the 1924 silent film off Paramount. This was not for inspiration, but to stop Paramount re-issuing the film on or around the time Walt's version came out, and Walt didn't want any other company benefiting from the publicity around one of his films, or cutting into the profits from the animated film.

Since that, I have been unable to find any other reference to Walt and/or the Disney company acquiring the 1924 Paramount film.

Of course, Walt's version of Peter Pan came out much later than originally planned (1953 – after first obtaining the rights to the play in 1939 after trying for about 5 years). While it's possible that in the early 40's it would be commercially viable to re-release a film made in 1924 (perhaps with a newly recorded soundtrack in-place/in-addition of the captions from the silent film – in much the same way some silent films were re-released in the 30's), it is inconceivable that such a "crude" film could be successfully distributed to cinemas in the 1950's. So it appears the expense of buying the rights to the film (if such a transaction did occur) was wasted money.

There are however a number of interesting points:

1. If the film was made in 1924, it should (by all accounts) be in the public domain. Films made after 1924 are indeed in the public domain – examples off the top of my head include the 1925 Universal Phantom of the Opera and silent adaptation of The Lost World (also 1925). Considering the film was considered worthy of preservation in the year 2000 by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry, there a precious few copies of the film available for purchase.

Unlike other films famously within the Public Domain (such as The Phantom of the Opera, Scrooge, Night of the Living Dead etc) there is in-fact only one known copy of 1924's Peter Pan available for purchase in the US – Kino's release - which no doubt, like Kino's other excellent Public Domain releases, includes a freshly restored transfer, for which they themselves (or some third party) will hold the copyright. But the factor of the restoration copyright shouldn't prohibit other companies releasing less polished copies. For example, for every carefully restored copy of Nosferatu, there's half a dozen or more sub-VHS quality DVD releases cynically released to the market for a knock down price.

Why no knock down releases of the 1924 Peter Pan film?

2. As some may be well aware, the French and Japanese 2 disc Peter Pan DVD sets (released around the same time as Return to Never Land was hitting home video) included the 1924 Paramount Pictures version of Peter Pan in its entirety. Sadly, both releases do little to put the inclusion of the film into context – there's no specific introduction or explanation for it's inclusion, beyond the film being mentioned in the "making of" included on the disc (see point 3). But its there, and in reasonably good condition – it certainly looks much better than you would expect a film from 1924 to look, so restoration and/or preservation has clearly been undertaken. Odd, for what is little more than an almost incidental bonus feature (we all know how much contempt Disney seems to show for non-pop video or non-game bonus features these days).

3. Peter Pan is not the only Walt-era animated film to have been inspired by other adaptations. Snow White for example was (at least partly) influenced by a 1916 silent film, as the Disney version contains just as many similarities to this, adapted story as the original European fairytale (according to Wikipedia I should note!). Cinderella has several silent film adaptations (and one in 1914 starred Mary Pickford, the actress Disney selected for Technicolor test shots for his proposed live-action/animation Alice in Wonderland movie in 1933). So it's more than probably Walt was aware of at least one of the pre-Disney Cinderella film (and given his pre-occupation with Alice in Wonderland, he was most likely aware of the 1933 Paramount Pictures adaptation which did indeed mix live action and animation). You also have to wonder where Walt's "Alice Comedies" came from originally. Was it just from reading the books books? Or from the earlier 1903 silent film adaptation?

However, out of all the "making of" documentaries available on LD and DVD, only the Peter Pan one shows clips from a previous adaptation, or makes mention of it. Why is this? It is because only the Peter Pan film was a significant influence on Walt worth mentioning? Or is it because Disney themselves have complete ownership of the film – including access to the film print?

I'm not sure where I heard that Disney had bought ownership of the 1924 Paramount film. It doesn’t appear to be on any of the various Peter Pan DVDs (and we've had several – the barebones original release, the later Special Edition, the French/Japanese 2 disc releases and finally the recent Platinum release). Is it something I've misremembered or made up? Or could it be true? Has anyone else heard similar?

Disney Myths:
Disney Myths #1: Be Prepared

[a-net-fan]

However, out of all the "making of" documentaries available on LD and DVD, only the Peter Pan one shows clips from a previous adaptation, or makes mention of it. Why is this? It is because only the Peter Pan film was a significant influence on Walt worth mentioning? Or is it because Disney themselves have complete ownership of the film – including access to the film print?
Disney Myths:
Disney Myths #1: Be Prepared

Didnt a Snow White Documentary show clips from the old Snow White scilent film? Interesting reading...thanks for sharing.