FILM 1395: PETER PAN

TRIVIA: Though the film was extremely successful, Walt Disney himself was dissatisfied with the finished product, feeling that the character of Peter Pan was cold and unlikable. However, experts on J.M. Barrie praise this as a success, as they insist that Pan was originally written to be a heartless sociopath.

In the original play, Hook loses his right hand, but the Disney artists felt that would limit his actions too much, and switched the hook to the left hand.

When Walt Disney was a child, he played Peter Pan in a school function.

Bobby Driscoll (as a voice actor) was the first male to play Peter Pan on film.

22 year-old Margaret Kerry (who measured 35-25-36, and provides the voice of the red-haired mermaid) was the real-life model for Tinker Bell. Persistent rumors have incorrectly named Marilyn Monroe in this position.

In the play, the Lost Boys were infants who fell out of their prams while the nurses weren't looking. Whereas Peter Pan is a permanent resident of Never Never Land, the Lost Boys are only temporary lodgers. If they seem to grow up, Pan would kill them

In compliance with the tradition of the stage version, the same actor, Hans Conried, performed the roles of both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook; the two characters' looks were even modeled after his. Nana and the Crocodile are also a "dual role" on stage, which the animators acknowledge by giving the Crocodile canine qualities.

The Darling children become very sleepy as their parents leave the room. This may not be merely because it is their bed time. The "tonic" given to the children by Nana may have been morphine. It was quite common in the early 20th century to give children "soothing syrups" and "tonics" to control their behavior. These concoctions turned out to consist of several different narcotics.

Michael Jackson's favorite film. He bestowed the name Neverland on his ranch in Santa Barbara, complete with a private amusement park. (Jackson was forced to vacate it after controversy over his involvement with young, unsupervised children on the premises in 2005.)

Walt Disney had been trying to buy the film rights to J.M. Barrie's play since 1935, having been smitten by a traveling production of the play when he was a child. The hold-up in negotiations was because Barrie had bequeathed the rights to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Disney finally secured the rights in 1939.

The Reluctant Dragon (1941) features a tour of the Disney studios in which drawings of Captain Hook can be clearly seen, indicating that the film was in active development as early as 1941.

FILM 1292: BIRDMAN

TRIVIA: The movie was largely shot inside Broadway's St. James Theatre - Michael Keaton and the rest of the cast had to adapt to Alejandro González Iñárritu's rigorous shooting style, which required them to perform up to 15 pages of dialogue at a time while hitting precisely choreographed marks.

There are only sixteen visible cuts in the entire film.

During the press conference in Riggan's dressing room, he says that he hasn't played Birdman since 1992. That's the same year Batman Returns (1992), the last Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, was released.

Martin Scorsese can be seen in the audience when Michael Keaton is walking to the stage in his underwear after he walks through Times Square.

According to Alejandro González Iñárritu, he had dinner with director Mike Nichols in New York two weeks before he began shooting the movie. Iñarritu told Nichols of his plan for how he was going to shoot the movie as one long take. Nichols predicted it would be a disaster because not having the ability to use cuts in editing would inhibit the opportunities for comedy. Inarritu said the meeting didn't deter him, but was instead helpful in raising his awareness level of the difficulty of what he was about to do.

The carpet visible within a number of back stage corridor scenes is the same iconic, hexagonal carpet used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980).

FILM 1249: LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY

TRIVIA: German-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as an American naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Vietcong, recreating many events for the camera.

FILM 1240: ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS

TRIVIA: Richard Barthelmess had deep scars that resulted from an infection due to plastic surgery. The only way to cover them up was with heavy make-up, but Howard Hawks convinced him to leave them the way they were because "those scars tell the story and are important to your character." Hawks also removed planks to make Barthelmess appear smaller, to reflect his character's inferiority among his fellow pilots.

Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way (not unlike his other "Hawksian women"), Arthur flatly said, "I can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot, "You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not (1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you want to do. If a kid [Lauren Bacall] can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and Arthur never collaborated again.

"Calling Baranca" later became a recurring line in Looney Toons/Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Dutchy's statements about flying, "Include me out," is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn. It is one of many malapropisms attributed to him.

Howard Hawks had known a real-life flier who once parachuted from a burning plane. His copilot died in the ensuing crash and his fellow pilots shunned him for the rest of his life.

Howard Hawks remembered that when the movie was released, "a certain critic said 'It's the only picture Hawks ever made that didn't have any truth in it.' I wrote him a letter and said, 'Every blooming thing in that movie was true.' I knew the men that were in it and everything about it. But it was just where truth was stranger than fiction."

FILM 1169: NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND

TRIVIA: Hayao Miyazaki was so upset by the original international cut version that he sent a samurai sword to the Executive at Disney with a simple note which read: "No cuts."

Nausicaä is the name of a character in Homer's Odyssey.

The military planes invading the Valley have yellow wingtip undersides. Hitler's Luftwaffe had similar yellow identification markings during German invasions of surrounding countries.

Ohmu means "king of the insects" in Japanese. It is short for "O-mushi" ("big/great insect").

While many consider this to be a Studio Ghibli film, it was actually created before the studio was properly founded. The first movie produced by Studio Ghibli was "Castle in the Sky."