Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated musical fantasy adventure-drama produced by Walt Disney Productions and was based on the 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, it is the 14th Disney animated feature film and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Radio Pictures.
Peter Pan was the final Disney animated feature released through RKO before Walt Disney founded his own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution, later in 1953 after the film was released (RKO was acquired by the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1959, becoming a part of the company's RKO General divsion). Peter Pan is also the final Disney film in which all nine members of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators. It is also the second Disney animated film starring Kathryn Beaumont, Heather Angel, and Bill Thompson, who co-starred together in the 1951 animated feature Alice in Wonderland.
The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. A sequel titled Return to Never Land was released in 2002, and a series of direct-to-DVD prequels produced by Disneytoon Studios focusing on Tinker Bell began in 2008.
