Starring the voices of Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Paul Collins, Heather Angel, and Bill Thompson, the film's plot involves a group of children who meet Peter Pan and travel to the island of Never Land to stay young, where Peter also attempts to evade Captain Hook.

The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, 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, as well as the final Disney film in which all nine members of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators

In 1935, Walt Disney expressed interest in doing an adaptation of Peter Pan as his second film following Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.^[4] However, the live-action film rights were held by Paramount Pictures. 

The copyright owner, the Hospital for Sick Children in London, unsuccessfully offered to have Disney make an agreement with Paramount. However, in January 1939, Disney obtained the animation rights to the play by outbidding Fleischer Studios, which was also developing animated feature films.

 By early 1939, a story reel had been completed, and by the following May, Disney had several animators in mind for the characters. Vladimir Tytla was considered for the pirates, Norman Ferguson for the dog, Nana (who also animated Pluto) and Fred Moore for Tinker Bell.

During this time, Disney explored many possible interpretations of the story. In the earliest version, the film would start by telling Peter Pan's backstory. 

But during a story meeting on May 20, 1940, Disney said, "We ought to get right into the story itself, where Peter Pan comes to the house to get his shadow. 

That's where the story picks up. How Peter came to be is really another story."

Disney also explored the idea of opening the film in Never Land with Peter Pan coming to Wendy's house to kidnap her as a mother for the Lost Boys. 

Eventually, Disney decided that the kidnapping plot was too dark, and he went back to Barrie's original play in which Peter comes to get his shadow and Wendy is eager to see Never Land.

In earlier scripts, there were more scenes involving the pirates and mermaids that were similar to those with the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Ultimately, these scenes were cut for pacing reasons.

The film concept was also a bit darker at one point than that of the finished product; for example, there were scenes involving Captain Hook being killed by the crocodile, the Darling family mourning over their lost children and Pan and the children discovering the pirates' treasure loaded with booby traps.