Episode #75: Hook
Listen to Episode 75 of the Podcast here while you enjoy the show notes.
SUMMARY - In Hook, Robin Williams plays Peter Banning; a husband and father who is consumed by his dealings as a high-powered lawyer. Shortly after returning to England to see Grandma Wendy, his kids get abducted and Wendy believes that Captain Hook is to blame. Peter refuses to acknowledge that Hook is real or that he may actually be the Peter Pan from the stories until Tinkerbell takes him back to Neverland.
Screenplay by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo; Directed by Steven Spielberg; and released on December 11, 1991.
FILM DISCUSSION
The opening scenes of the movie quickly show that Peter has becoming one of those business only, selfish business d-bags.
The set-up takes a while with obvious beats to show Peter is the opposite of his Pan persona and Wendy doesn't like it.
At times it felt like they focused too much time getting the visuals to mimic what we see everywhere else.
The special effects for 1991 are not bad at all and employ a good mix of computer and practical and composite imagery.
The balance of the script is off. We spend a lot of time with Hook and Smee
And a lot of time with Tinkerbell and her unrequited love
But not nearly enough time with the Lost Boys as we only get to know a couple of their names
Thudbutt and Rufio lead the way.
Peter's own daughter is largely an afterthought as most of the attention is spent on the strained relationship with his son.
The daughter simply disappears for a while.
There's a good bit of magic and wonder in here
Jon questioned whether or not Robin Williams was right for the part - or if maybe the script was too rigid to really bring his playfulness out.
It also wouldn't have hurt to cut out some of these cameos that dragged the pacing down a bit.
And we wanted more Nana the dog.
Awards Talk: The film earned several Oscar nominations but no wins. Art Direction/Set Decoration; Costume Design; Visual Effects; Makeup; Original Song “When You’re Alone”. At the Golden Globes, Dustin Hoffman was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical. The movie also had a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress Julia Roberts. For the MTV Movie Awards, it was only included in the 'Best hairdos' fake nominees montage (we're not sure if it's for Captain Hook or Rufio - let us know if you have a VHS copy of the show)
TRUE CRIME & POP CULTURE
This week we didn't have any true crime and we combined our pop culture to talk about music and TV by discussing the big winners of the 1991 Billboard Music Awards
Here's the full list of winners
Here are a couple low-quality videos showing performances during the show we were able to find
Whitney Houston, En Vogue, and LL Cool J
Here's some Mariah Carey stuff, including her award acceptance.
We also briefly talked about the 25th anniversary reunion of The Lost Boys cast from the movie
Hook was such a popular movie that it had it's own pop culture stuff released into the wild.
They made several video game adaptations
NES/Game Boy saw a platforming game
SNES/Sega saw a more in-depth platformer with different levels.
Amiga got a point-and-click adventure style
And in the arcades, there was a beat-'em-up where you could actually play as some of the Lost Boys!
But also, there were Action Figures - https://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=seriesitemlist&id=1438
There was a board game - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147685/hook
And there was a Topps card set that basically omitted Julia Roberts for whatever reason
RANKINGS & RATINGS
Nikki 1-5 star scale - 3 out of 5
Jon 0-4 star scale - 2 1/2 out of 4
Would you watch it again? - Yeah, we both would. Jon is not a fan of pirates or the Peter Pan story, but still thought this was good enough for another watch. We both wish there was more time spent with The Lost Boys and less with Tinkerbell. Robin Williams needed to be let free to improvise more as well but there's enough magic and whimsy to go around.
If you want to watch Hook, as of this recording in August 2022, it’s available on Starz, Digital Rental, VHS, DVD. Check your local listings.
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Join us next time for Hook available on Prime, Digital Rental, VHS, DVD
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