Peter Pan and its iterations
We start with J. M. Barrie himself and about his story.
James was born to a stonemason’s daughter, Margaret who married a weaver Alexander Barrie. He was constantly in the shadow of his gifted older brother David until in the winter of 1867, David was hit by a fellow ice skater, fell and died by a crack in his skill. After this, James worshipped his dead brother with devotion and just a hint of jealousy. “The residue of the calamity, as it eventually seeped into Barrie’s art, was the conviction that a perfect child who dies on the eve of his fourteenth birthday will be spared the degradation of growing up, and that the death will be outshone by the thought of the perfection—so blindingly, perhaps, that the boy will seem scarcely to have passed away at all.” (Lane).
He met his wife and gave her a St. Bernard dog as a present. Seem familiar? Later in the Kensington Gardens where he moved to, he met two boys, George and Jack. “One result of those flittings is that we regard [Peter Pan] as airy and innocuous. In truth, he is mean and green, a mini-monster of capering egotism; could there be any more dazzling proof of self-regard than a boy who first shows up in pursuit of his own shadow?” (Lane). In the earliest versions there is no Captain Hook because Peter has all the cruelty needed.
Captain Hook from Hook
An early Hollywood silent film adaptation ad been made of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan which had no dramatic text at this point. Although this film was “extremely respectful of the content and visual construction of the play, [it was] criticized by Barrie, who though that: “It is only repeating what is done on the stage … and the only reason for a film should be that it does the things the stage can’t do”(Theatrical). Stephen Spielberg’s Hook had mixed reviews. This author argued in order to see the aesthetic in a positive light, you have to accept that the settings intentionally remind people of pantomime as well as Spielberg’s cinematographic skills. “Spielberg does not content himself with the theatrical aspect of his settings, however also brings out the dramatic origins of Peter Pan through cinematographic techniques”(Theatrical).
The ”Histrionic Captain Hook”. “In the films, the captain’s first appearance is actively managed by the film makers so it is as impressive and spectacular as it was on stage.”(Theatrical) As J.M. Barrie put him in his tect: “Cruellest jewel in that dark setting is Hook himself, cadaverous and blackavised, his hair dressed in long curls which look like black candles about to melt, his eyes blue as the forget-me-not and of a profound insensibility, save when he claws, at which red spot appears in them. He has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and it is with this he claws. He is never more sinister than when he is most polite, and the elegance of his diction, the distinction of his demeanour, show him one of a different class from his crew, a solitary among uncultured companions [...]. A man of indomitable courage, the only thing at which he flinches is the sight of his own blood [...] he bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts. A holder of his own contrivance is in his mouth enabling him to smoke two cigars at once. (108)”(Theatrical).
Captain Hook from Peter Pan Hogan's 2003 (Theatrical)
Captain Hook from Pan 2015 (Theatrical)
Captain Hook from Disney's Peter Pan (Theatrical)
“In the other adaptations, the gender ambiguity of Hook is far less exploited but his initial appearance is no less striking than in Spielberg's version.” (Theatrical)
“In Disney's animated film, Captain Hook looks more like a dandy buffoon than a comic character which encompasses subtle elements of pathos”(Theatrical). We often feel for the villain because of Disney highlighting the points of human frailty.