Unlike many people, before I ever saw this cartoon or the Disney version, I read both of Barry's Peter Pan books, *Peter and Wendy* and the prequel *Peter in Kensington Gardens* and watched a number of televised versions of Sir James Barry's play (including the classic Mary Martin in rerun and a well-meaning effort with Sandy Duncan and Danny Kaye).
I loved the tale of Peter Pan. For all the joyful energy in it, what I particularly loved was the witty satire beneath the hi-jinks and the tale's knowing, poignant forgiveness towards every person's childhood: "thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless."
After all this, I was overjoyed to see the cartoon *Peter Pan and the Pirates*. Not only is this cartoon true to the books and the unsanitized versions of the original play, it expands upon them to turn an incisive Victorian fairy tale into a genuine fantasy work, with a world as intriguing as any ever created by Lewis in his Narnia books.
The very first episode even provides an icy elemental wizard/godling from whom Peter glibly steals treasures for his own amusement.
The one unfortunate thing about this series is that it ruined the Disney version for me. When I finally had the chance to watch Disney's Peter Pan on the big screen, I was deeply disappointed by the tepid treatment of the characters (as well as the naive racism). Disney's version paled in comparison to the original play, Sir Barry's books -- and this cartoon series.
