Deep Dive Disney 100th Article Special: Wes Looks at Hook

Ladies, Gentlemen, Alternatively Gendered Individuals, Friends, Family, Supporters and those who just randomly stumbled upon this article, welcome to the 100th Deep Dive Disney article. Holy Shit, we made it. If you’re reading this, be you a long-time friend, a new friend who I met through this project, or just someone who wants to read about an old fan favorite Robin Williams movie, I thank you. Without your continued support, I wouldn’t have made it past Peter Pan, which brings me to the subject of today’s article, the 1991 classic, Hook. Let’s get the obvious out of the way right at the top. Hook is not a Disney movie. You know this, I know this, everyone knows this. Yes, the blog is called Deep Dive Disney, but screw it, it’s my 100th article and this film clearly drew quite a bit of inspiration from the 1953 Disney classic so I’m making an exception for this special occasion. Besides, this movie has always been a personal favorite and I’m frankly just happy to be covering a Peter Pan movie that isn’t horribly racist. What's more, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the film, so there really is no time like the present to take a closer look. With iconic performances from Dustin Hoffman and the late great Robin Williams, this movie is a massive fan favorite and I want give it the respect it so richly deserves. So, what is our story? Hook is a film that asks the question: What if Peter Pan grew up? Well, turns out he’d grow up to be a workaholic lawyer who constantly misses his son’s baseball games and in general, is kind of a buzzkill. Peter Pan, now known as Peter Banning, no longer has any memory of Neverland and is now married to Wendy Darling’s granddaughter Moira with two kids, Jack and Maggie. On a trip to London to visit a now elderly Wendy, Jack and Maggie are kidnapped from their beds, a note pinned into the wall by a pirates dagger challenging Peter to a duel signed by Captain James Hook. Despite Wendy trying desperately to get him to remember, Peter doesn’t believe that he’s actually a magical flying child from some old fairy tale, that is until Tinkerbell shows up to drag him back to Neverland to save his kids from Hook and his pirates. When Hook sees what’s become of his great and worthy foe, he’s deeply disappointed and nearly kills him on the spot. However, Tink and Hook strike a deal and the pirates agree a temporary cease fire, allowing three days for the lost boys to whip Peter back into shape and hopefully remind him who he once was. While all that is going on, Hook, in the ultimate act of revenge, decides to brainwash Jack into accepting him as his true father. It’s a real bangarang of a film and I am super excited to gush over it. Let’s take look, at Hook!

Main Character:

When we first meet Peter Banning, he’s pretty much the antithesis of the person he unknowingly once was. He seems to have no sense of imagination, he has little to know lust for life, he drinks a lot, he’s afraid of heights and while he clearly loves his kids, he’s not great at showing it and often chooses work over going to events like Jack’s baseball game. On that note, I just need to say, I am sick to death of the “Parent works too much is a neglectful asshole” trope. I get how it can seem that way to a child and in fairness, a child’s mindset is sort of what causes Neverland to function, but in reality, providing for a family is expensive and a lot of parents I know work their asses off so their children can live in comfort and have food on their table. Sure, that means they may occasionally miss a baseball game or two, and yeah, that sucks, but that’s a small price to pay to give their children a comfortable life and hopefully provide for their future. Getting back to my point, Peter has clearly forgotten what it was like to be a child and has lost the happy thought that allowed him to fly. Once he arrives on Neverland, it overwhelms him. He wants to do whatever it takes to save Jack and Maggie, but as he is, he doesn’t stand a chance against Captain Hook. And while at first, the lost boys unorthodox training method doesn’t seem to work for him once he allows himself to use his imagination, he starts picking it back up. I actually really like the moment where he finds his happy thought and it’s the birth of Jack. I wasn’t a fan of the bit where he gets hit in the head and reverts to his twelve-year-old self, but I still think it ties into the themes which we’ll get to a bit later. Once he gets his act together and goes full Pan, he’s pretty awesome. He’s the cunning trickster hero from the Disney film, but also has matured a bit. He’s not fighting Hook just for the sake of it anymore, he’s fighting to save his kids, which certainly makes him easier to root for than the immature sexist twit from the 1953 version. However, what really makes this character work is the late Robin Williams’ performance. I mean it, if Williams is unable to bring a warm smile to your face in this film, then you don’t have a soul. Williams has some of the greatest comedic timing of any actor who ever lived and this movie has plenty of his trademark improvisations throughout, but he also handles the more serious moments well too. Watch the part where he gives a speech about what Wendy means to him, it feels very genuine. Apparently, Williams loved the original Disney movie and always wanted to play Peter Pan so I’m glad he finally got his chance.

Villain:

Wow, there’s iconic villain performances and then there’s this. I can only think of one other instance of an actor disappearing into a role that even comes close to Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Captain Hook and that’s Heath Ledger’s academy award winning performance as The Joker. That sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I swear I’m not. I have tried so many times to see Dustin Hoffman under all that makeup or hear his voice somewhere in Hook’s menacing accent, and I can’t. I only see and hear Captain Hook. Good form Mr. Hoffman, good form indeed. I know full well that I’m committing an act of Disney blasphemy by saying what I’m about to say, but I honestly believe that Dustin Hoffman’s Hook is a superior Captain Hook to Hans Conried’s from the 1953 Peter Pan. Don’t get me wrong, Conried was fantastic and I still maintain that Hook was the best thing about that film, but while that Hook was hilarious and fun, he was also pretty pathetic and rarely came across as a serious threat. Mind you, this Hook has his pathetic moments, but you never forget for a second that he is a seriously bad dude you buy that he’s more than a match for Peter Pan, even after he gets his mojo back. Every scene Hook is in is just dripping with sinister delight, reveling in every cutting remark volleyed against his old nemesis. This dude is so intimidating he even terrifies Cruella De Vil. Yeah, for those of you who don’t know, that one pirate who Hook tosses in a chest filled with scorpions is actually Glenn Close in drag, and that’s not even the strangest cameo in the film. I love how devastated he is to see what Pan has been reduced to. I always got the sense that even though Hook despises Peter Pan, it’s fighting with him that makes him feel most alive. Just watch him during the big pirate war climax, he’s clearly having the time of his life, which makes the glee he takes in killing Rufio all the more twisted. Speaking of twisted, wait until you hear what he does do Jack, but we’ll save that for a later section, but suffice to say, it’s pretty damn sinister. I also like the way Hook and Smee work off one another in this version. Smee in this version is played by the late Bob Hoskins, a role he would later reprise in another reimagining of Peter Pan for the SyFy channel in the early 2010’s. Smee is clearly not the brightest bulb in the box, but he’s still devoted to the captain and acts has his closest confidant. Hoffman and Hoskins play off one another so well and I wish there were more scenes with just the two of them. Also, they imply in this movie that Smee is something of a ladies man, which I found amusing. For all of Hooks bravado, ultimately Hook is little more than a pathetic old man obsessed with vengeance against a child who humiliated him. That’s why he seems sad when he sees that Pan has lost his mojo. He doesn’t just want to kill some loser businessman, he wants to face the great Peter Pan in one on one combat and humiliate him like Pan had done to him so many times in the past. And yet, Hook defeat happens as it always does, in humiliating fashion, as Hook cries for his mother before being eaten by the crocodile. Bottom line, Hook in this movie is next level incredible and the movie wouldn’t be as great as it is without him.

Side Characters:

I don’t have too much to say about Maggie, she’s pretty much your generic adorable little girl, but plays that roll very well. I do appreciate that she’s able to resist Hook’s attempt at brainwashing while Jack is not. Jack on the other hand, is clearly someone who just wants his father to pay more attention to him. You know that Peter loves him, but if you look at things from Jack’s perspective, you can see how he may think otherwise, which is why Hook has such an easy time manipulating him.

Tinkerbell, played by Julia Roberts, is, in my opinion, one of the weaker aspects of the film. Don’t get me wrong, Roberts does a decent job with the material, but I just don’t buy that this is Tinkerbell. If you recall, Tinkerbell in the Disney version was kind of a sociopath and from what I understand she’s even worse in the source material. This Tink feels more like a cheerleader or an overly enthusiastic camp counselor. Still, Julia Roberts works that pixie cut, literally.

The perpetually awesome Maggie Smith plays the aged Wendy, and she’s just wonderful. If it weren’t for Dustin Hoffman upstaging everyone, Wendy would be my favorite thing about this movie. I really do buy that this is who the original Wendy Darling would grow up to be, a kind-hearted woman who opened her heart and helped raise many orphaned children, much like what she once did with the Lost Boys. Not to mention, the way she is with the children is seventy billion kinds of adorable. I love how she says that the one rule in her house is that the children aren’t allowed to grow up and how she reads to them under a blanket fort in her old nursery. She even reminded me of my own grandmother in some scenes.

Phil Collins is in this movie as a police detective. This is a very odd cameo.

George Lucas and Carrie Fischer play a kissing couple on a bridge in one scene. This is also a very odd cameo.

And finally, let’s talk about the breakout character from this movie, Rufio, the leader of the lost boys in Pan’s absence, played by Prince Zuko himself, the incredibly cool Dante Bosco. This character is a ton of fun and comes across as a total badass, even with that ridiculous skunk hair with too much mousse. Bosco is a great actor and he does a great job with Rufio in all of his scenes. And while he’s antagonistic towards Peter at first, it’s clear that he grows to respect him, especially since his dying words are him wishing that he had a dad like him. That would be the end of the story, except for the fact that Rufio ended up becoming a super popular character, spawning many fan made spinoffs, including some made by Dante Bosco himself like the Bangarang origin film and the recent episode of Channel Awesome’s Fanscription where Bosco reprises the role in a theoretical sequel where Rufio survives. I’ll leave a link to the latter right here if you’re interested.

Memorable Scenes:

I absolutely have to talk about my favorite scene in the film, and you all know the one. It’s the famous “Don’t try to stop me Smee” scene. Let me set the stage. So distraught is Hook by what’s become of the former Peter Pan that he contemplates taking his own life, demanding that Smee not try to stop him, only to become enraged when he obeys his orders. Now normally, I’m not one to laugh at jokes about suicide, but I make an exception here, partially because Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins are so great together in this scene and also because it’s clear that Hook’s threat of suicide is far from genuine. He’s clearly just being a drama queen, evidenced by the fact that he expects Smee to save him. Smee’s comment of “Not Again” would seem to indicate that Hook has done this many times before and this is just routine for them. Either way, the scene is hilarious and always cracks me up.

Story:

Interestingly enough, the big takeaway lesson of this movie seems to be very much the same as the 1953 classic. That being finding a balance between maintaining a sense of childlike wonder and accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. Initially, Peter is too much of an adult. He has no imagination and is a complete and total buzzkill. Definitely not someone who’s equipped to take on a bloodthirsty pirate. However, when he gets hit in the head and goes full Pan, he’s nothing more than a hyperactive man-child who’s no use to anyone. It’s only when he’s able to reconcile the two aspects of who he is, the child and the adult, that he’s truly ready to take on Hook. He needs the childlike Peter Pan’s skill and cunning, but he also needs the compassion and sense of duty that comes with being a father to give him the proper drive to move forward. I really like that Peter’s happy thought is becoming a father, something synonymous with adulthood. One would think that in Neverland that would be a weakness, but Peter manages to turn it into a strength.

The Dark Disney(?) Factor:

Now that I’ve given my patrons license to request non-Disney material (provided that the price is right) I think I’m going to have to come up with an alternative title for this section. Anywho, this movie isn’t too dark, but there are some unsettling moments to be sure. Let’s see, there’s the death of Rufio, that was sad to see such an awesome character gleefully murdered by Hook. There’s a flashback to the first time Peter Pan meets Moira, his future wife, and kisses her on the lips while she’s asleep. That’s some Edward Cullen shit right there. And of course, there’s Hook’s brainwashing of Jack, which is really creepy and incredibly sinister. The way Hook twists Jack’s mind until he almost forgets his own father is incredibly disturbing. What’s worse is that Hook seems to have information he shouldn’t have access too, like how Peter missed Jack’s baseball game. I personally theorize that Hook sent Smee to the real world to spy on Peter, looking for a way to lure him back to Neverland. We know that the pirates must have a way to travel between worlds and that would explain why Smee is a garbage man at the end of the movie. In any case, it’s more than a little creepy.

Final Thoughts: I love everything about this movie. It's one of the best iterations of the Peter Pan story I've ever seen and it gets more and more enjoyable every time I watch it. I cannot think of a better movie to have chosen for my 100th Deep Dive Disney Article. In that spirit, I'd like to thank you all once again for your continued support. Having an outlet to indulge my passion for writing has helped me through many a tough time over the course of this past year. And even though the retrospective is finished, don't worry, we have plenty more coming soon. Stay tuned for some Christmas themed articles, more looks at the Twisted Tales series, several Top 10 and 20 lists, a detailed look at a popular Disney video game series, a Patreon sponsored Deep Dive on the movie Splash, a retrospective of the 2017 Ducktales reboot, a Gargoyles fan fiction I've been sitting on for sometime and so much more. But for now, I thank you all once again for helping me get this far, Wes, Out!