Peter Pan & Wendy is a puzzlingly bland take on one of the liveliest children’s stories of all time.

There is swashbuckling and the ticking crocodile and Smee, but the narrative always feels perfunctory and inert possibly because there’s just no spark between any of the characters, least of all Wendy and Peter, who is portrayed as a sulky kind of chap.

The movie is entertaining and has a professional polish; but it’s also very safe.

The boy who wouldn’t grow up gets a static, if handsome, do-over in Peter Pan and Wendy, David Lowery’s loving but muted adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s ageless tale.