Background
Peter Pan is one of those works that, since it exists now in the public domain yet continually appeals to children, is regularly resurrected by Hollywood. The original book/play by J.M. Barrie follows Victorian era siblings Wendy, Michael, and John as they are whisked off to Neverland, a world where children never age and are free to cavort and adventure. There, these siblings meet Peter Pan, a flying elf boy who, along with his Lost Boys and his fairy Tinkerbell, fight against a marauding pirate Captain James Hook and his dastardly crew.
This story has been retold in movies for years, with the most famous incarnation being the 1953 Disney film. In the past few years alone, there has seemed to be a glut of Peter Pan movies. Here are a smattering of adaptations that will make you go "oh yeah that was a thing..."
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| The new hotness... |
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| The late 2010's hotness |
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| The public domain horror cash-grab. |
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| The lore building pre-quel of course. Would you believe Hook started as an ally?!? |
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| I mean we all know the Disney one but I just love this poster. |
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| This one was an NBC live show that just couldn't be saved by Christopher Walken. Notoriously bad. |
Hook is often considered one of the most successful of these adaptations.
Hook was a 1991 Stephen Spielberg movie based around the idea of "what if Peter Pan, the eternal child prankster, grew up into a middle aged workaholic schlub and then had to relearn how to be Peter Pan?" In this story, Peter, never able to forget about Wendy, decides WAY too late to journey to our world to see Wendy, who is now elderly. Peter decides to stay, but subsequently forgets his past as Peter. He becomes a lawyer, raises a family, and then becomes the stereotypical 90's movie work monster Dad who never quite makes it to his son's baseball game. When Captain Hook returns and abducts Peter's children, he must journey back to Neverland and reconnect with his past to save the day.
The casting in this movie was pretty great. Peter is played by Robin Williams, who works extra hard to turn off his immense charm while playing the 90's deadbeat Dad, and then crank the charm up to max when playing Peter.
Tinkerbell is played by the 90's darling Julia Roberts, who does a pretty good job capturing the lovelorn nature of the mischievous sprite.
The cast also includes Dame Maggie Smith as Wendy...
Dante Brasco as the new leader of the Lost Boys and owner of a Triple Mohawk pompadour (seriously its a crazy haircut), Rufio...
...and then Bob Hoskins as Captain Hook's sidekick, Smee (god I miss Bob Hoskins).
Finally, and who I think is one of my favorite parts of the movie, you have Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, who just shouldn't work but absolutely kills it as a manipulative, theatrical, and menacing Captain Hook.
There is a whole arc where he becomes a surrogate father to the disillusioned son of Peter, and he gets the pirates to play baseball just so he can be at the game for his "son." He then gives Peter's son a little Captain Hook outfit! Amazing.
Overall, the movie is FINE. It is chock-full of nostalgia and kid friendly action, but it can also be a bit boring for an adult. Hell of a kids movie though with some beautiful set design (the crocodile!) and a lot of weird moments throughout that: the Lost Boys eat imaginary paint food, a crazy old man who has literally lost his marbles, and there is a part where they shove a Glenn Close in drag into the "boo box" of scorpions...so it's definitely an interesting watch at least.
There is also a point and click adventure for the PC, and then a whole suite of various action platformers for the Game Boy, Genesis, and otherwise that are all relatively unique games.
And this is the category that Hook for the Super Nintendo falls into, this one developed by Ukiyotei as their premiere game. They were a niche developer who only developed a few titles and ports of established licenses and properties before most of its staff emigrated to SNK. Their most unique title is the absolute hidden gem, and second game developed, Skyblazer for the SNES. Skyblazer is an absolutely gorgeous action platformer known for its detailed giant sprites, setting within Indian mythology, and for generally being a pretty good game. You can actually see the through-line from Hook to Skyblazer: both main characters have similar sprites, both feature flying as a key part of platforming, and both have lush and colorful visual design.
The Game
Hook is pretty by the numbers as far as platformers. You have 11 stages laid out on a relatively attractive world map, and it makes it clear you are retaking the Lost Boys' island home from the pirates inch by bloody inch. The first stage is you reclaiming your place as "the Pan" from Rufio in the Lost Boys' hideout, and you then travel across a whole wealth of environs which are not featured in the movie before ending the game at Captain Hook's ship "The Jolly Roger."
Peter, from the jump, looks like what you'd picture from Peter Pan, though he really doesn't move with the sprite-like grace I'd associate with with eternal boy. He walks at a ponderous pace, and it takes time and a flat stretch of ground for you to build up some momentum to start running. You can jump too, but your jump is also quite slow moving. Every so often, you will come across Tinkerbell, who will fill up your "fly" meter, and allow you to move omnidirectionally and with a bit more speed for about five seconds.
Peter is generally equipped with a sword, earned after defeating the first boss, Rufio, which also allows him to shoot energy blasts (you know, that famous Peter Pan super power). If Peter takes damage though, represented by a lifebar of leaves, he then drops his sword and is equipped with a short range dagger.
The game's enemies are either the Lost Boys initially, but then a mixture of random animals and a horde of different pirate types. There are pirates balancing on barrels, pirates swinging on ropes, big strong men pirates, and then of course your run on the mill scalawags. The game really likes to fill the screen with enemies of various types, slowing the game down even further as you methodically remove enemies since you can't easily avoid them.
Most of the stages are traditional left-to-right affairs, but the ability to fly means that you will also traverse up and down these slight maze like stages. This isn't as bad as many European or Western studios in terms of platforming mazes, and it isn't like you are searching for specific items, but sometimes the way forward can be a little difficult to parse. There is some attempt at stage variety, like a dark cave where the lights flicker on and off, or an auto-scrolling stage or two, but honestly this game is very by the book. You could tell the developers were trying their hardest to come up with a variety of locations while adhering as best they could to the film. There is a snowy mountain, a treetops level, a rocky cliffside, etc.
Some stages do end in a boss fight which are pretty darn simple. The first boss, Rufio, just tries to lunge at you, and dies in a couple hits. There are also a bevy of strange pirate contraptions, my personal favorite being the boss of the ice mountain, which is a pirate launching balloon bombs at you that you have to pop at the right moment so they land back on the boss. My favorite boss, just in terms of fun design, is Smee who is made up like the protagonist of Joust: riding an ostrich and trying to lance you with a spear. The final boss, a two phase boss fight against Captain Hook, is a bit of a let down. His first phase is painfully easy, and his second phase just allows him to shoot his hook at you.
Honestly, this is a pretty blase platformer, but some of the details do add a bit of flair to an otherwise drab experience. You really don't kill enemies, but instead make them inert by disarming them. Each enemy generally has an animation where they have been disarmed and then surrender. Peter, when defeated, turns back into a middle aged schlub and falls to the earth with no magic left. It also really helps that the sprite work and background art is really quite lush and colorful; it doesn't quite save the game or make it a classic, but it really helps make the game stand out.
The music is quite fine too!
Ads and artwork
Final Verdict
It is okay and apparently a collectors item (I'm going to stop giving prices as that really dates the blog as value lately has really shot up), and as far as licensed games go it is definitely sitting at a comfortable average as far as experience. It just really is nothing special, and just moves a bit too slowly. Next time we will either cover North America's July 1992 adaptation of a board game, or a gambling game!
