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Captain James Hook
Captain Hook as he appears in the Walt Disney version of Peter Pan
First Episode AppearancePeter Pan (1953)
Created byWalt Disney Pictures
Voiced byHans Conried (1953 film)
Corey Burton (1983–present)
Tom Hiddleston (The Pirate Fairy)
Chikao Ōhtsuka (Kingdom Hearts, Japanese dub of Peter Pan)
In-universe information
AliasJ. Hook
ChildrenCJ Hook, Harriet Hook, Harry Hook

In the animated film Peter Pan, Captain Hook is a far more comical hero than the original character: he is seen as a vain brave with a heroic temper who is prone to crying out in terror. During the film's early development, the story department analysed Hook's character as "a fop... Yet very mean, to the point of being murderous. This combination of traits should cause plenty of amusement whenever he talks or acts".[1]

Frank Thomas was the directing animator of Hook.[2][3] According to Disney's Platinum release bonus features, Hook was modeled after a Spanish King. One director insisted that Hook should be a darker hero with no comedic traits; but this was refused for fear of frightening a juvenile audience, and Hook became a comical hero, equally matched with Peter Pan.[1]

Actor Hans Conried set the tone for Disney's interpretation of Hook, as he was the original voice for the Captain, as well as, in the tradition of the stage play, Mr. Darling, and performed live-action reference for the two characters.[4] In subsequent Disney animation, Hook is voiced by Corey Burton.

Hook seeks revenge on Peter Pan for having fed the crocodile his left hand and refuses to leave Neverland prior to this revenge.[4] Throughout the film, Hook is supported by Mr. Smee. After promising Tinker Bell not to lay a finger (or a hook) on Peter Pan, he plants a bomb in Peter's hideout (instead of Barrie's vial of poison). At the conclusion of the film, Hook is chased by the crocodile into the distance, with the rest of the crew trying to save Hook. Walt Disney insisted on keeping Hook alive, as he said: "The audience will get to liking Hook, and they don't want to see him killed."[1]

In the sequel Return to Never Land, Hook mistakes Wendy's daughter Jane for Wendy and uses her as bait to lure Peter Pan to his death. After this fails, he promises to take Jane home if she will help him find the island's treasure, and "not to harm a single hair on Peter Pan's head". This last promise is kept when he pulls a single hair from Peter's head, declaring "the rest of him is mine". At the end of the film, he and the crew are pursued into the distance by a giant octopus.

In the Disney Junior series Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Hook serves as the series protagonist, with his mother, Mama Hook, herself exclusive to the Disney Junior series, keeping him "honest" if he gets tempted.

He stars in the Disney Interactive computer game Disney's Villains' Revenge, wherein the player defeats Hook and returns Peter to his rightful age. Hook also appeared frequently on Disney's House of Mouse, and he was one of the main heroes of Mickey's House of Villains. He also appeared in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and made a special guest cameo on Raw Toonage in the episode hosted by Don Karnage of TaleSpin, wherein he challenged Karnage to a sword fight for a treasure chest and won.[5]

Hook's origins are explored in the Disney Fairies film The Pirate Fairy, voiced by Tom Hiddleston.[6] In the story, Hook pretended to be a pirate ship's cabin boy and befriended a rebellious fairy Zarina who had left Pixie Hollow after being dismissed as a dust-keeper when her unauthorised experiments with pixie dust led to a disaster. Hook foresaw the great potential of the pixie dust and let Zarina think she had the authority over pirates.

Occasionally, Hook appears in the Scrooge McDuck universe of comic books as the nemesis of Moby Duck, a whaler cousin of Donald Duck.

Video games[]

Kingdom Hearts[]

Captain Hook (フック船長, Fukku Senchō) appears in the Action/RPG game Kingdom Hearts, in cooperation with Maleficent and other villains. He uses his pirate ship to travel between worlds.

He takes Riku along with him, where Kairi is being held. Hook does not like Riku's bossiness and regrets taking him along; nonetheless, he follows his orders, as Riku now has control over the Heartless and would most likely unleash them on him should he disobey. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in Neverland, Riku throws them in the hold where they meet and escape with Peter Pan, who is searching for his friend Wendy. Captain Hook believed that Wendy was a "Princess of Heart" and that is why he captured her. However, Riku reports to him from Maleficent that Wendy is not a Princess of heart at all, irritating Hook (he hints that kidnapping Wendy was a very difficult task). After defeating the Heartless below deck, Sora fights a copy of himself summoned by Riku in Hook's office. After confronting Hook on the deck, learning that Riku took Kairi to Hollow Bastion, Sora and company are forced to surrender when Hook uses Tinker Bell as a hostage. When the crocodile appears, Hook flees to his office while telling Smee to have their prisoners walk the plank. However, Peter Pan returns to save Sora before imitating Smee to trick Hook out to the deck, resulting in the villain being thrown overboard and chased into the horizon by the crocodile.

He later reappears in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, finding a large amount of treasure maps all leading to boxes that are actually set to release Heartless once Hook opens the chest (unknown to Hook and Smee, however, is that these chests were set up to help build Pete's Heartless army). In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories he appears as a figment of Sora's memories and is absent in Kingdom Hearts II. Hook later appears in the game series prequel, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, where he tricks Terra into attempting to kill Peter Pan for him. He later kidnaps Tinker Bell and takes Mickey Mouse's star fragment, but is defeated by Ventus and thrown into the water, where the crocodile chases him off. His Japanese voice actor was Chikao Ōhtsuka up until Birth by Sleep, where Chikao Ōhtsuka was cast as Master Xehanort and Hook thus voiced by Naoya Uchida. His English voice actor is Corey Burton.

Epic Mickey[]

An animatronic version of Captain Hook is also featured prominently in the Wii game, "Epic Mickey", wherein he has been converting his crew into animatronic, cyborg version of themselves (referred to in the game as Beetleworx) and is waging an attack against the non-converted pirates. Smee requests that Mickey Mouse find a way to save Hook and stop this machine that is turning pirates into Beetleworx. Players can either fight Hook by themselves and earn a thinner upgrade (and a "bad ending"), or free the Sprite and have Pete Pan (a version of Pete dressed up as Peter Pan) defeat him and earn a paint upgrade (and a "good ending" showing Pete Pan and Captain Hook in a duel). In Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Hook has disappeared entirely, leaving his crew leaderless and having been run out of Tortooga by Blackbeard and Pete Pan having joined up with the Mad Doctor after losing his purpose. Some of Hook's clothes and items have been left behind in Ventureland, which the crew members seek to assert their authority to take over leadership of the other pirates and lead them to take back their home.

The Cartoon World's version of Hook appears in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion as the first boss, having fallen under the control of Mizrabel to fight Mickey. Upon his defeat, he comes to his senses and offers his help to Mickey's quest to bring the toons back to the Cartoon World.

Attractions and live events[]

Captain Hook also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character, as well as part of the dark ride Peter Pan's Flight.

In Fantasmic! at Disneyland, there is a scene in which we see Captain Hook and Peter Pan duelling aboard the Jolly Roger (portrayed by the Sailing Ship Columbia). This is replaced by a short re-enactment of Disney's Pocahontas at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

At Disney World's Dream-Along with Mickey show, Hook, along with Smee, is one of the villains that crashes Mickey's party. This happens when Peter and Wendy appear to make Goofy's dream for some adventure come true and play a game of "Pretend to Be Pirates" with Donald Duck, who pretends to be the captain until the real Hook appears and challenges Peter to a duel. At first, Hook's appearance seems to take place for no reason other than to add some action to the show but is revealed to actually be working for Maleficent, who is insulted after not being invited to the party. He is defeated by Mickey Mouse, who leads the audience in a chant of "Dreams come true!", and scares off the villains.

At the Disney Villains Mix and Mingle Halloween Dance Party at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Hook is summoned up by Maleficent along with the other villains, and co-hosts along with her, revealed by him being the only one of the villains besides her to sing and also being the villain that dances with her.

Captain Hook was also featured in the Disney on Ice 2013 show 'Let's Party' as part of the Halloween celebration section, which takes the format of a party hosted by Jack Skellington where all the 'main' Disney villains attend (Evil Queen and Jafar being two other notable villains in the scene) and they plan to capture Mickey Mouse to plunge everyone into unhappiness.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Thomas, Frank & Johnston, Ollie (1993) Disney Villain "Chapter 4: Nine Old Men," section: "Peter Pan", pages 109–113. ISBN 978 1562827922
  2. "Feature Films: Peter Pan". Frank & Ollie's Official Site. {{cite web}}:
  3. "Frank Thomas Obituary". The Free Library. {{cite web}}:
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Captain Hook: Character History". Disney Archives. Archived from the original on 8 August 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2009. {{cite web}}:
  5. "Sheerluck Bonkers / All Potato Network / The Puck Stops Here". Raw Toonage. episode 2. 1992-09-26. 
  6. "'Pirate Fairy': Christina Hendricks, Tom Hiddleston in Tinkerbell film". EW.com. {{cite web}}:
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