Steven Spielberg mentions to Empire that he was confident in the first act Hook and the epilogue, which are arguably the two tightest sections of the film.
He may have used production value to mask his own insecurity about the story, but it’s hard to argue that Hook did and still does look great.
The middle, the Neverland part, is seemingly where the director struggled and some of the pacing and tonal inconsistency bears that out.
Neverland was fully realized as a bright and colorful, fantastical world.