Villains Profile: Captain Hook

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Last Halloween, my favorite segment to do around this time of year went on hiatus. Villains Profile, but it is returning this year as we look at villains associated with the sea. Starting with Captain Hook.  As always, this'll include Voice Actor, First Appearance, Personality, Lackey, Grand Desire, , Most Evil Deed, Demise, and finally Is Captain Hook A Good Villain? With that outta the way, let's begin.




Voice Actor


Hans Conried

Captain Hook was played wonderfully to a crisp tee by Hans Conried.   Conried was able to make Hook both threatening and funny at the same time.   One moment, you would be laughing Hook's crazy antics such as his fear of Tick Tock but then there are moments, where we see how cunning Hook can be such as when he manipulates Tinker Bell.    Now,  it is important to note that this movie kept up one major tradition that most productions save for NBC's Peter Pan Live!  use, the actor that plays Hook also plays Mr. Darling.

Other productions do more with this idea than this one but one of the key ideas here is that Hook to Wendy represents her father and growing up. In our co-review of the film,  The Second Opinion had this to say.

Now the play’s other big tradition, of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling being played by the same actor, is the one I always thought had something to it. Maybe it highlights the antagonistic role they both play, maybe it further hints at a time when George Darling went on an adventure of his own, or maybe it alludes to the real difference between growing up in the real world and life in Neverland, as only Mr. Darling is able to overcome his impatience and start to connect with his children.

And I think that is another great read on the relationship between these two.   Now,  as always  I like to bring up other villainous roles that these voice actors have played and Conried was also the voice of Snidely Whiplash

First Appearance



We first see good old James Hook on The Jolly Roger trying to find the hiding spot of Pan.   This ties a whole lot into what Hook wants in the movie as he set is on getting revenge against Peter Pan.   I don't think we've covered many revenge driven villains on Villains Profile before.   And considering what Pan did to Hook, you can totally get why Hook would want revenge.

And I think that makes him all the more fun to watch.




Personality




The DisneyWiki described Hook as vulnerable and I guess I can see that if you focus solely on his fear of Tick Tock and yes, those moments along with his outbursts towards Smee are funny and just as with Cruella, I think that Hook is one of the funniest Disney villains ever, he is also one of the more threatening.   I think the Villains Wiki put it best that after Pan fed his hand to Tick Tock, two sides came from that.  Hook's deep-seated hatred and thirst revenge against Pan and his paranoid fear of Tick Tock.  Those are perhaps the best ways to describe Hook and start as launching point for the kind of villain that Hook is.




Lackey


Mr. Smee

Smee being on the side of the villains has always humored me as he seems like a person that wouldn't hurt a fly.   I may have to find it but I remember Pretty Boy doing a blog about how if Hook represents Mr. Darling, Smee represents the motherly side.  And I guess I can see that but I dunno.  You can see from the relationship that he has with Hook, he genuinely cares for the Captain and will do anything that the captain wants.




Grand Desire



We touched upon this earlier but the biggest thing that Hook wants is revenge or rather kill Peter Pan.  And he will go through any means it takes to get the job done.  And he a hook for any situation, that can aid him.

Can I just say that I love the flatware hooks.  




Most Evil Deed



Now, this one is a bit tough to narrow down if you ask me because Hook has quite a few deeds that would qualify for this category but I think that I gotta go with Hook using Tinker Bell's jealousy to find the hiding spot of Peter Pan.  I think that this shows how manipulative and cunning Hook can be.  Sure, it's a small moment compared to other things such as kidnapping the Darlings and The Lost Boys and leaving the bomb with Peter.  But I went with this one because it played more on the emotion of a character and went after something that made Tink vulnerable.





Demise


Hook is one of the few villains whereas though, he seems to live at the end of the movie.   You could say, it's ambiguous (we will be ignoring the sequel) but there doesn't seem to be much of a death.   And I love this climax as it comes during a great sword fight and I think this gives us one of the more frightening Hook images

We also see him attempt get get under Pan's skin and Pan's ego does the get the best of him.   And that is what makes this final fight so fun.  But the old Codfish is defeated and plummets to the bottom the sea and is of course chased by Tick Tock.

Is Captain Hook A Villain?




Yes.   I think over time, Hook's edges have been softened a bit through things like Jake and The Never Land Pirates but if you go back to the original movie, you'll see that Hook wasn't just a funny villain.  He is smarter villain than people give him credit for and also one of the more threatening villains than people might think at first thought.  Join me next time as we look at....


Ursula