Identity and Individuality of Derivative Fictions -- continued

After the surprising virtues of Mr. Darling, who was supposed to be an ordinary father, are declared, the film also leads to that famous scene in which Peter sneaks into the children’s room to meet Wendy in order to regain his lost shadow. The scene where Wendy meets Peter, who is crying by the bedside because he can’t put the shadow back on his body, is depicted quite faithfully to the original. Hearing Peter’s sobs, Wendy calls out from the bed to the strange boy who has sneaked into her room. The conversation between the two begins with the following scene of asking each other’s names.

Boy, why are you crying? …You can fly! What is your name? ／What is your name?　／ Wendy Moira Angela Darling. ／ Peter Pan.

Wendy’s question then shifts to the address of his house, where Peter is supposed to live. This is also the same as the dialogue in the original, but the major difference from the original is that the notional commentary of the narration is omitted in the video work, and the conversation scene proceeds only with the dialogue exchanged between the two. Following in the footsteps of various drama written since the Victorian era, the 1928 screenplay Peter Pan was also deliberately written, manifesting the traditional form of screenplay literature to be read in the same way as Goethe’s Faust. On the other hand, the dialogue in the movie Peter Pan is constructed only in actual lines, which is closer to the content of the theatrical work that unfolded on the stage. The narrator’s function in the novel Peter and Wendy, in which he shows a refracted predilection for the characters and arbitrarily interferes with the progress of the story, is removed.
Peter says, replying Wendy’s question.

Second to the right and then straight on till morning. ／They put that on the letters?／ Don’t get any letters.／ But your mother gets letters.／ Don’t have a mother.／No wonder you were crying.／ I wasn’t crying about mothers. I was crying because I can’t get the shadow to stick. And I wasn’t !

Just like the description in the original Peter and Wendy, Wendy sews the separated shadow onto Peter’s body using a needle and thread. Peter, who is only able to attire himself with his shadow by using artificial means due to the lack in the substrate of human existence, is brilliantly depicted in the film Peter Pan by the facetious image of the runaway shadow that has lost its control. However, this shadow of Peter itself is also a clever disguise for the existence of Peter, a shadow born as a result of polarization from Captain Hook, a man of modern education who carries the serious burden of self-reflection.

note:
This point is the central theme of Fantasy as Antifantasy, (2005), a study of the characteristics of fantasy literature centered on the arguments on shadow motif in Peter and Wendy. Similar discussions on the shadow motif are developed on the studies of anime works, Ergo Proxy and Madlax, focused on the phase shifts revealed between god and man. For the details, please refer to the studies below.

Study of Ergo Proxy:
https://www.academia.edu/108948903/4_Science_Science_Fiction_and_Cogitation_God_Man_and_Self_in_Ergo_Proxy

A Study of Madlax:
https://www.academia.edu/23574076/A_Study_of_Madlax


This philosophical central theme of the original Peter and Wendy is given a further twist in the derivative work Peter Pan.