MovieChat Forums > Peter Pan (1960) Discussion > Did you believe this when you were a kid...

Did you believe this when you were a kid?

posted 17 years ago by novastar_6
9 replies | jump to latest

When I was little and we had the tape of this, I'd listen to Lynn Fontanne as she did the opening narration, and she said, and I'm doing my best to recite this from memory here...I think she said "Some say that as we grow older we become different people at different ages, but I don't believe this. I believe we remain the same people, merely passing from one room to another, but always in the same house. If we unlock the rooms we can look in and see ourselves beginning to become you and me".

Well, when I was little I believed in a lot of things, and I certainly believed those words that Lynn Fontanne said...now I hear those same words, and I still believe it, some parts are new, some have changed, some are different, but overall I'm the same as I was when I was little. Maybe I just believed it so much that I made sure that's how I turned out, even when I was little, once I believed something, it took a good long while to come out of it, providing I did...

How about anyone else here? Did or do you still believe the narration Lynn Fontanne gave in this?

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] movibuf1962 17 years ago

I always loved the Fontanne narration. Absolutely loved it. It is the theme, or springboard, of the entire play. And the odd thing is, contradicting her declaration that she doesn't believe the first part, I actually believe a little bit of both. When we grow up we obviously don't change our bodies and identities (unless we have plastic surgery), but we DO change. Over and over and over again. And the person you are at 40 (or even 30) is not the same person you were at ten. So in a very real sense I *do* believe we become different people at different ages. When a proud parent looks at his or her grown child, they'll usually say something like, "look at the man/woman you've become." Isn't that acknowledging (sort of) the arrival of a new person- or at least the divine extension of the old one?

[–] novastar_6 17 years ago

But I think the idea of it is that as we grow up, we don't change entirely, there are certain things that we have as kids that we keep with us as we grow, if we're lucky. You know some people, one day you see them grown up, different hair, different clothes, different this, different that, but you still insist they haven't changed a bit, regarding the way they act. I think the point she's making is we don't automatically change everything to us as we grow, certain things stick with us AS we grow to make us what we become.

[–] movibuf1962 17 years ago

Well, I hope I didn't use the word 'automatically,' 'cause I certainly didn't mean that. We change gradually and over time, while never losing the essence of who we were as children. That's what I meant when I said I believe a little of both ideas. Even the PP epilogue shows that Wendy grew up (significantly), while still wanting to go back to Neverland. She changed on the outside, *and* stayed the same on the inside. (I always thought this scene was directed a little oddly; it makes Wendy seem almost jealous of her own daughter.)

[–] marvelxf4 16 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9xzoPyGhbY

[–] eastcoastguyz 15 years ago

Thanks for sharing that memory with us. Very nice, indeed!

[–] MyMovieTVRomance 9 years ago

There was true magic imbued in this version, which caused me to believe in quite a lot of it.

How can I explain… Well, even though my logic tells me that it's just make-believe, even though I basically must've known that as a child – I'm sure I did, just like I'm sure I do now, yet, logic and emotion are two different things. Logically I know that it's make-believe, but emotionally, I can literally feel the magic! And when that happens, I can't help but believe in it. 🌟💫🙌

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

[–] SevernSarge 9 years ago

Well said! I absolutely believed it, and still do!

Loved seeing this production each time it was shown back then, and am glad its still available on youtube. The rather mediocre NBC telecast from last night makes me appreciate this marvelous version even more.

____________________
Lighten up, Francis!

[–] poordogabone-1 9 years ago

i, too, still believe, but not in the most recent (per)version.

I'd like to be a pessimist, but this is a luxury I cannot afford.—Joseph of Cordoba