10 Darkly Disturbing Disney Movie Theories

Ah, Peter Pan: the boy who wouldn’t grow up. With his impish grin and jaunty green outfit, there couldn’t possibly be anything disturbing about the innocent young lad afflicted with eternal youth, right? Wrong.

Ever wondered how Peter Pan keeps the Lost Boy population constant and steady? If we turn our attention to J. M. Barrie’s source material something rather creepy comes to light when he tells us: “The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out.”

‘Thins’ them out, eh? Because that sounds suspiciously like a euphemism for killing people off. It makes perfect sense really: we all know how much Peter hates adults and growing up, so why wouldn’t he kill off Lost Boys as they come of age and turn into everything he abhors?

This theory, of course, means that Captain Hook and his band of pirates aren’t the villains Peter paints them as. More likely, they’re former Lost Boys who managed to escape Peter before he offed them and now roam Neverland trying to put a stop to his murderous rampage.

At least in Barrie’s novel, the last batch of Lost Boys are adopted by the Darling Family in London and become successful adults. In the 1953 Disney movie, the Lost Boys decide to return to Neverland where they no doubt meet a sticky end at the hands of Peter.