The ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ Sea Shanty Is An Ear Worm That Will Haunt Your Dreams

David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy movie, which began streaming on Disney+ on Friday, doesn’t really feel like a David Lowery movie… until the sea shanty scene.

As the filmmaker behind 2021’s The Green Knight— the unsettling and ethereal retelling of a King Arthur tale starring Dev Patel—you might expect Lowery’s take on Peter Pan to be, well, a little odd and a lot beautiful. Nowhere does that description feel more true than in the scene where Wendy (played by Ever Anderson), having been captured by Captain Hook’s men, is forced to walk the plank. Why? Because Lowery accompanies the scene with a hauntingly gorgeous sea shanty, sung a cappella by the pirate ship crew. Now this is the sort of gloomy and mystical antics you’d expect a David Lowery Peter Pan movie to pull.

Written by Curtis Glenn Heath, the song is called “Ode to the Falling,” and it starts with a snare drum beat and ominous slow clap. Then a few pirates open their mouths, and croak out a tune about “a route that unravels, where those who travel, don’t return, from the Earth.” Then a few more pirate voices join in, to bellow out a warning to listeners: “Seek the shore, forever more.” All the while, Wendy, her arms bound in a heavy, rusty chain, slowly steps toward the wooden plank where she is meant to fall to her death. Honestly, it’s metal as hell.

Yes, this is a kids’ movie, and yes, David Lowery apparently wants to scar children for life. But hopefully parents will forgive him, if only because that sea shanty absolutely slaps. The lyrics, written for the film are a little silly, and yet sound so forbidding in the context of the tune. Shout out to Curtis Glenn Heath for positively nailing it. Check out the lyrics to the song, as well as the songs in the Peter Pan and Wendy soundtrack, below.

“Ode to the Falling” lyrics from the Peter Pan and Wendy sea shanty:

A route that unravels, where those who travel,

Don’t return, from the Earth

So take a hop tiny, and bob on the briny

Seek the shore, forever more

Fair winds and following seas

Elude alligator, confront the creator

Thine eyes shall see, the mystery

Fair winds and following seas

And as you sink deeper, and stare at the reaper

Who waits on the tongues of leviathans

And there’s a lot of ’em, you won’t touch the bottom

And as we suggested, you’re slowly digested

Fish food and following sea

Into the water, no son or daughter

Escapes the brinks, they’ll certainly sink

Fair winds and following seas

Fair winds and following seas

Peter Pan and Wendy soundtrack song list:

• “All Grown Up” performed by Molly Parker, written by Daniel Hart

• “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!” written by Sammy Cahn and Sammy Fain

• “Behemooth” written by Curtis Glenn Heath

• “All Grown Up” performed by Ever Anderson

• “Ode to the Falling” written by Curtis Glenn Heath

You can listen to the full Peter Pan and Wendy score on Amazon Music and other streaming music services.