Nana is very caring toward Wendy, John, and Michael Darling and treats them as her own puppies. They cherish her as an important relative. When she was taken to her dog house for the night, it was considered a cruel punishment for them. Even when George took her there, he felt sorrow after seeing her saddened face. She is in charge of Wendy, John, and Michael's health, giving them medicine presumably every night.
Nana is first introduced as the Darling family's nursemaid. She was first seen doing her daily duties, cleaning the nursery and putting away Wendy, John, and Michael's toys and games. When Wendy is told she must grow up, she was shocked by the decision. When George begins to storm out the room, he trips over her. Both fall, but the rest of the family only comforts Nana.
George is shocked and sends Nana to her doghouse. As she was being dragged by her collar, Michael holds onto her tail trying to stop George from taking her to her doghouse, but Mary kindly stops him by picking him up and she waves at him sadly. She is heartbroken, as she never sleeps in her doghouse. George feels sympathy for her but claims Wendy, John, and Michael are not puppies and she is truly a dog. It's later revealed that sometime prior to the movie's events, Nana pounced on Peter when he came to listen to Wendy's stories. But in doing so, she somehow managed to get a hold of his shadow. During the song "You Can Fly", when Peter Pan took Wendy, John, and Michael on a trip to Neverland, Nana spots them flying out the nursery window with him. She is horrified and tries to stop them. Michael spreads some of Tinker Bell's pixie dust onto her. She begins to fly but is held back by the leash still attached to her collar and is left waving at them. At the end, when the children return home, she is happy to be taken back to the nursery, as George finally realizes he's been too hard on her and Wendy. She joins Wendy, George, and Mary as they watch Peter Pan fly away on the Jolly Roger.
Nana appears in the 2023 reimagining of the classic film where she serves as the Darling family's dog. Unlike in the original film, Nana does not wear a nursemaid hat on her head. Additionally, she also appears at the end of the film unlike in the original 1953 film where she only appears in the beginning of the film.
Nana is first seen walking upstairs into the nursery where she follows John and Michael into their room. As Wendy pretends to be Captain Hook with John pretending to be Peter Pan, Nana hears the commotion, fearing that her owner George would sense too much noise in the house, which John's sword suddenly breaks a nearby mirror which George hears the commotion. After George tells his children to have less noise in the nursery, he then takes Nana outside where he takes her outside into her doghouse. Soon as John, Michael, and Wendy are leaving for Neverland, Nana attempts to follow alongside them only to be sent back to her doghouse just as Peter, Tinker Bell, and the children of the Darling family arrive at Neverland.
After Wendy, John, and Michael return home to reunite with their parents, Birdie then grooms Nana who is at the nursery just as Nana notices the Lost Children inside their house at the end of the film.
Nana appears as an audio-animatronic figure in Peter Pan's Flight. She makes her most notable appearance in the nursery, next to the letter blocks that constantly fall, as she attempts to stack them, and outside next to her doghouse.
She also appears in the Peter Pan-themed Enchanted Window display along Main Street, U.S.A..
In the original book, Nana is a Newfoundland. She was based off Luath, a Landseer Newfoundland owned by J. M. Barrie.
Originally, Nana was going to journey to Neverland alongside Wendy, John, and Michael and have a comical subplot chasing after Tinker Bell. She was also intended to be the film's narrator. While she was dropped from that side of the story, she was given a notable role in the opening and ending of the film, becoming a beloved character from it. However, she did go to Neverland with Wendy, John, and Michael in the Jake and the Never Land Pirates movie, Battle for the Book.
