HOOK (FILM)

'''Hook''' is a 1991 family action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins and Maggie Smith. The film is based on J.M. Barrie's ''Peter Pan'' and acts as a sequel to the events in the novel, focusing on a grown-up Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

References to Peter Pan

Musical score

External links

Plot

Successful lawyer Peter Banning (Williams) has become so engrossed in his work that he has lost touch with his wife Moira (Caroline Goodall) and his children Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). The family travels to London to visit Granny Wendy Darling (Smith), Moira's grandmother, who also raised Peter and other orphans. While the adults are at a dinner banquet honoring Wendy and her work, Jack and Maggie are kidnapped, with the only clue being a dagger-bearing note signed "JAS Hook, Captain", informing Peter that his presence is necessary to retrieve his children. Peter does not accept Wendy's assertions that this is caused by the real Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) and that he himself is the real Peter Pan. He instead gets drunk that night, and is dragged to Neverland by the fairy Tinkerbell (Roberts) after an argument.
Peter then wakes up and is in a pirate port. He walks around and is stopped by a group of pirates trying to steal his shoes, but Tinkerbell saves him and helps him acquire a disguise. He observes a speech by Hook, revealing his plan of having Peter's children as bait, and Peter reveals himself. Hook is disgusted at his nemesis' physical condition, but Tinkerbell convinces Hook to allow Peter three days to re-train him. Peter eventually ends up in the Lost Boys' treetop village, where at first none of the Boys think that he is the real Peter Pan, especially Rufio, the current leader. Eventually, the Lost Boys do believe, and help re-train Peter, especially hampered by his inability to fly.
Back on the Jolly Roger, Hook and Smee attempt to convince Peter's children that their parents never loved them. Although Maggie does not fall for the ploy, the oft-scorned Jack listens, and with the added effect of a pirate baseball game, comes to take Hook somewhat as an adoptive father. Peter is hit in the head by a home run Jack hit, and as a result, eventually finds a tree house where Wendy and her brothers once lived. He soon finds himself flying with his new-found "happy thought:" being a father, the reason he left Neverland.
Peter returns to give Hook the battle he demanded; the Lost Boys eventually join in the melee. Rufio unwisely challenges Hook to a duel, where he is killed, but not before telling Peter that he wishes he had a father like Peter. Peter, having rescued his children, wants to leave without a fight, but realizing that Hook will not stop, consents again to the duel, which ends when the crocodile tower seemingly comes back to life and swallows Hook and shortly after it belches loudly.
It is time for the Bannings to return home, so Peter passes on his sword and the leadership of the Lost Boys, and flies back to London with his children, where they are reunited with Moira and Granny Wendy.

Cast

★ Dustin Hoffman : Captain James A. S. Hook and voice of the airplane pilot

★ Robin Williams : Peter Banning/Peter Pan

★ Julia Roberts : Tinkerbell

★ Bob Hoskins : Smee, Captain Hook's Servant and/or bosun/Garbage Sweeper in Kensington Gardens

★ Maggie Smith : Granny Wendy/Middle-Aged Wendy

★ Caroline Goodall : Moira Banning

★ Charlie Korsmo : Jack "Jackie" Banning

★ Amber Scott : Maggie Banning

★ Laurel Cronin : Liza, Wendy's housekeeper

★ Phil Collins : Inspector Good

★ Arthur Malet : Tootles

★ Dante Basco : Rufio

★ Isaiah Robinson : Pockets, Lost boy

★ Jasen Fisher : Ace, Lost boy

★ Raushan Hammond : Thud Butt, Lost boy

★ James Madio : Don't Ask, Lost boy

★ Thomas Tulak : Too Small, Lost boy

★ Alex Zuckerman : Latchboy, Lost boy

★ Ahmad Stoner : No Nap, Lost boy

★ Gwyneth Paltrow : Young Wendy

★ Jimmy Buffett (uncredited): Shoe-Stealing Pirate

★ Glenn Close (uncredited): Boo Box Pirate

Production

During the casting process for the film, Joseph Mazzello was trying out for the part of Peter Pan but Spielberg thought he was too young. He made a promise with Joseph that he would be in another movie. Spielberg later put him in ''Jurassic Park'' as Tim Murphy. Maggie Smith who plays Granny Wendy has done stage work as Peter Pan on stage (since the part usually goes to a young woman by theater tradition). In the film, the Banning family flies to England on Pan Am. Coincidentally, Pan Am had already ceased operations just a week before the movie was released. Shooting began on February 19, 1991, and was completed on May, 1991.

References to Peter Pan

★ An elderly Tootles is one of the characters in the film, and is referred to as Wendy's "first orphan". Tootles was one of the original Lost Boys. In the book, all the original Lost Boys had been adopted by Mr. Darling (Wendy's father), though none of the others have roles in the film besides Tootles.

★ In both the book and film, Wendy greets Peter by calling him "Boy".

★ Granny Wendy recites a prayer-like speech as she leaves Maggie and Jack in the nursery, asking the lights to guard the sleeping babes. This is a reference to the book, in which Mrs. Darling says, "Night-lights are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children." (''Chapter 2: The Shadow'')

★ When Tinkerbell is first trying to get Peter to remember her, she says, "I drank poison for you!" This is a direct reference to the events in the book. (''Chapter 13: Do You Believe in Fairies?'')

★ The invisible dinner sequence is inspired by the lines in the book: "The difference between (Peter) and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners." (''Chapter 6: The Little House'')

★ After human-sized Tinkerbell kisses Peter, and he remembers he has to save his children, Tink says to him, "Go, you silly ass!" In the book, Tinkerbell repeatedly calls Peter a "silly ass".

★ A number of lines in the film's dialogue are directly lifted from the book. Among them are:

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★ "When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousands pieces and they went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies." In the film this is recited by Granny Wendy and Maggie Banning. In the book it is spoken by Peter to Wendy. (''Chapter 3: Come Away, Come Away!'')

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★ "I can’t come with you. I have forgotten how to fly. I’m old, Peter. Ever so much more than twenty. I grew up a long time ago." Spoken by an aged Wendy to Peter in both the film and book.

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★ "Strike, Peter. Strike true" In the film this is spoken by a defeated Hook to Peter. In the book it is spoken by a guilty Tootles to Peter. (''Chapter 6: The Little House'')

★ Some of the dialogue are modifications of lines in the novel, such as:

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★ When Peter confronts Hook for the final battle at the end of the film, they say: "Peter Pan, prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man, have at thee." This exchange is almost directly lifted from the book, ''Chapter 15: Hook or Me This Time'', the original line being: "Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man, have at thee."

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★ During the duel between Peter and Hook, Hook says "Thus perished Peter Pan". This is a flip of the original line "Thus perished Jas. Hook", which is from ''Chapter 15: Hook or Me This Time''.

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★ Peter's quote in the movie "to die will be an awfully big adventure" refers to a line in the book. (''Chapter 8: the Mermaid's Lagoon''). Though the original line is spoken by Hook when he attempts suicide.

★ In the movie, when Hook listens to Maggie singing, he is holding a strange cigar holder which branches out into two cigars. Hook has such a device in the book.

★ In the movie, Hook repeatedly talks about "Good Form" and "Bad Form!". In the book, Hook thinks about this after he has captured the lost boys.

★ Toward the end of the movie, Tootles says "I've missed the adventure again, haven't I, Peter?" This is in reference to the book, as it is mentioned that the reason Tootles was so humble was because, by some misfortune, he missed most of the adventures the Lost Boys participated in.

Musical score

The score for ''Hook'' was composed and conducted by John Williams. As in many of his fantasy-adventure scores, Williams makes extensive use of leitmotifs (musical themes related to characters, emotions and actions), using one or more themes in each song to describe on-screen story and interaction. In fact, Hook may have one of the most leitmotivically-dense scores of all time, with some 20 odd autonomous melodic ideas recurring through the movie. An incomplete sample, just from the officially released soundtrack, which omits about half of the written score:
#"Prologue" (Hook/Pan confrontation theme/Peter Pan theme #1)
#"We Don't Want To Grow Up" (Tinkerbell theme)
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#"Banning Back Home"
#"Granny Wendy" (Childhood theme, Wendy's theme)
#"Hook-Napped" (Prologue Theme, James T. Hook theme)
#"The Arrival of Tink and the Flight to Neverland" (Tinkerbell, Childhood)
#"Presenting the Hook" (Pirate theme, Captain Hook theme)
#"From Mermaids to Lost Boys" (Mermaid theme, Neverland Theme, Lost Boys)
#"The Lost Boy Chase" (Lost Boys theme #1)
#"Smee's Plan" (Smee and Hook theme)
#"The Banquet" (Lost Boys theme #2)
#"The Never-Feast" (Lost Boys #2, Childhood, When You're Alone)
#"Remembering Childhood" (Children, Childhood, Neverland, Prologue)
#"You are the Pan" (Pan Theme)
#"When You're Alone
★ (When You're Alone)
#"The Ultimate War" (Prologue, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Hook & Smee, Childhood, Lost Boys 1+2)
#"Farewell Neverland" (Neverland, Lost Boys, Wendy, and Tinkerbell themes)

★ Tracks 2 and 15: Music composed by John Williams/lyrics written by Leslie Bricusse. "When You're Alone" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1992.

External links

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