Belize is offering the Peters and Wendys of the United States a free trip to their country, after a video went viral claiming that Neverland, the island of eternal youth from “Peter Pan”, can be traced back to an atoll off its coast.
“Is your name Peter or Wendy? If so, we want to send you to Neverland. In Belize that is,” reads a tweet from the country’s tourism board.
Is your name Peter or Wendy? If so, we want to send you to Neverland. In Belize that is.
That’s right. @MatPatGT discovered Neverland is just east of Belize on the Turneffe Atoll, so we are sending a real-life Peter and Wendy there on a free vacay.
[email protected] pic.twitter.com/xt7q5k92dD
— Belize Tourism Board (@belizevacation) May 7, 2018
It’s a clever rebound off of a viral video produced by “The Film Theorists” which has been viewed more than 2.95 million times since being uploaded earlier this month.
Using somewhat contrived, but inventive reasoning, YouTube host “MatPat” builds an argument based on hints from the book and the animated movie, including references like “second star to the right and straight on ’til morning,” and their flight trajectory towards Big Ben, to deduce that Peter, Wendy, John and Michael Darling flew southwest of London to make a transatlantic journey.
From there, he uses the animated movie’s depiction of the island (again, just the imagination of the animators), to deduce its geographic properties (likely an atoll); the fact that Captain Hook was probably eaten by a large crocodile (American crocodile); and the real-life marauding pirate of the Caribbean, Blackbeard, to pinpoint Belize’s Turneffe Atoll as the land of eternal youth.
Enter the Belize tourism board, who gets wind of the viral video and decides to play off the seductive idea that their island features a real-life fountain of youth.
“That’s right. @MatPatGT discovered Neverland is just east of Belize on the Turneffe Atoll, so we are sending a real-life Peter and Wendy there on a free vacay.”
To enter the competition, however, Peters must be accompanied by a Wendy and Wendys, a companion named Peter. The contest is open to U.S. residents and closes May 14.
For more information, email [email protected]. JB
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