Nana finally makes it to Never Land in “Battle for the Book!,” a primetime “Jake and the Never Land Pirates” special

Jim Hill

10 years ago

Let's be honest here. You kind of feel bad for Nana whenever
you watch Disney's "Peter Pan."

After all, everyone else gets to fly off to Never
Land in this 1953 animated feature.
But because Mr. Darling had tied this canine caretaker up in the backyard
before he and Mrs. Darling then went out for the evening, even though Michael
actually sprinkles Nana with pixie dust, she just wind up levitating at the end
of her leash.

Mind you, this wasn't what Walt had originally wanted to do
with the Darlings' dog. As you can see from these storyboard drawings from the
version of "Peter Pan" that Walt Disney Animation Studios was going
to produce in the late 1930s / early 1940s, Nana was not only supposed to join
Wendy, Michael, John, Peter Pan & Tinker Bell on their journey to the
second star on the right, but once they finally arrived in Never Land …

… Nana was then going to be right in the thick of this
motion picture's action. Even finding herself tied up with two of Peter's Lost
Boys as Tiger Lily's father threatens to burn these characters at the stake.

But for both budgetary & story reasons, when Disney's
full-length animated version of J.M. Barrie's classic play finally went into
production in the early 1950s, Nana was left behind in London. Forlornly
dangling at the end of that rope in the Darlings' backyard as Wendy, Michael
and John got to fly off and go fight pirates.

Well, as they say, every dog has its day. And for Nana, her
day finally arrives on October 26th. Where — as part of "Battle
for the Book!," a "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" primetime
special that will air on the Disney Channel this Sunday night starting at 6
p.m. ET / PT and 5 p.m. Central — this babysitting bow-wow finally gets to do
what Walt wanted her to do 60+ years ago. Which was join the Darling children
on their journey to Never Land.

"For us, it was kind of a no-brainer to do this,"
explained Mark Seidenberg — the producer / story editor of this Annie
Award-winning series. "I mean, on one side, we had Wendy, Michael, John
and their dog Nana. While on the other side,
we had Jake, Izzy, Cubby and their parrot Skully. So to our way of
thinking, it brought a nice balance to the project to have each set of three
kids bring an animal friend along on this adventure."

But at the same time, the "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" team
wanted to make sure — especially for this primetime special — that there was
plenty of connective tissues between Disney's 1953 full-length animated feature
and this Disney Junior animated series.

"So one of the first things we did when we first started
working 'Battle for the Book!' was go
over to the ARL. Which is Disney's Animation Research Library. And once we were
there, we then looked at a lot of the layouts and backgrounds that were
actually used in the production of Disney's original 'Peter Pan.' And so we
based a lot of our interpretation of what London
and the Darlings house & nursery looked like on that original production
material from the 1950s," Seidenberg continued.

"That was a real challenge," Rob LaDuca — the executive producer of
this animated series — admitted. "We're almost always in the jungle here
on 'Jake and the Never Land Pirates.' We don't do a lot of architecture on this
show. But at the same time, everyone who works on this Disney Junior show was
so excited that our characters were finally going to London
and meeting the Darlings. So our layout guys and our background painters, they
were determined to recreate the style of that 1953 Disney film and then meld it
with the style & the textures that we use on this animated series. And if
you look at the finished product, I think you'll agree that they really
succeeded."

But it wasn't just that Mary Blair-inspired look which
Seidenberg & LaDuca were determined to carry over from the full-length
"Peter Pan" animated feature to this preschool animated series. They wanted
to find other ways to directly connect these two projects.

"Take — for example — sound. The chimes that are used
in this primetime special to make Tinker Bell twinkle are the exact same ones
that were used back in the 1950s," Mark enthused.

"Yeah, the Imagineers had them stored away somewhere.
And we got them to dig these chimes out and let us use them whenever we're
recording any new scenes with Tinker Bell for 'Jake and the Never Land
Pirates,' " Rob continued. "Getting back to 'Battle
for the Book!" now, the animators who work on our show were clamoring for
scenes where they'd first get to animate Tinker Bell and then do Wendy. Given
that they'd all grown up watching Disney's 'Peter Pan,' it was quite a thrill
for them to finally get a chance to animate these heritage characters."

"Once production of this primetime special was
completed, we actually screened 'Battle
for the Book!' for our crew over in the theater at Disneytoon Studios and I
have to say that it really looked fantastic," Mark stated. "We were
like 'Wow. This looks great up on a big screen.' Especially those scenes when
the characters are flying over London."

"In the end, what we really wanted to do this primetime
special was bridge the past and the present. Create a version of London and
Wendy, Michael & John that fans of Disney's original 'Peter Pan' would
recognize that — at the same time — would also fit with the version of Never
Land and characters that we'd created for 'Jake and the Never Land Pirates,'
Rob concluded. "And the fact that — while we were doing all that — we
also managed to finally get Nana to Never
Land … Well, that was cool too."

By the way, just so you know, this may not be the last time that Wendy,
Michael, John and Nana return to Never
Land. Though LaDuca and Seidenberg
were rather tight-lipped when it came to talking about what the future may hold
for Jake, Izzy and Cubby (who are now in their third season on Disney Junior),
they did indicate that there are further adventures in the works.

"Let's just say that we have a few surprises coming up,
" Mark smiled.

But that's all off in the not-so-distant future. If you want
to watch something other than your standard dog & pony show this Sunday
night, be sure and catch "Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Book for the
Book!" on the Disney Channel. That way, you can then see Rob LaDuca &
Mark Seidenberg accomplish something that Walt Disney always wanted to do.
Which was send Nana to Never Land.

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Friday, October 24, 2014