Hook

Steven Spielberg continued J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in 1991. Starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, Caroline Goodall, and Charlie Korsmo, Hook was released December 11. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, but lost to Williams in The Fisher King, and John Williams was given a Grammy for his score. The film grossed $300 million.

Despite saying he never would, Peter Pan has grown up into Peter Banning (Williams), a successful corporate lawyer. But Captain Hook (Hoffman) returns and kidnaps his two children (Korsmo and Amber Scott), causing Peter to return to Neverland, reclaim is youthful spirit and challenge his old enemy.

On one hand, Hook is fun to watch and greatly entertaining. It really doesn’t do anything new with the Peter Pan story, in some places it changing elements and too much time was spent on production design, which made the story suffer.

The only new idea the film presents audiences is that Peter Pan has grown up, even though he always said he didn’t want to. Beyond that, it’s really just the same story of Peter having to save someone from Captain Hook. It also makes a massive characterization change with Tinkerbell. Roberts acted her like she was the everygirl, happy, smiling and always optimistic. While she was smiling and happy in the original story, she was also incredibly vindictive and jealous, going so far as to have Wendy killed. Maybe she had a change of heart in the many years since she saw Peter, but it’s still quite jarring.

 Spielberg also spent too much time on production design and sets and not enough time with the story. The costumes are quite elaborate and the Lost Boys’ weapons are very interestingly designed. Couple that with how good the Pirate town area of Neverland looks for the time and the design of the hideout and it’s a very good looking film. Unfortunately, more time could have been spent trying to give the story a fresh take.

As said above, Hook is fun. It’s definitely not one of Williams’ best films and the story may not exactly be a new idea in regards to the source material. But that doesn’t stop it from being entertaining and a good way to pass the time.