Hook - The way you (want to) remember it

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Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1991
Original Running Time:
142
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
109
Time Cut:
34
Time Added:
1
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
HOOK has enough flaws that it shouldn't work. But it does! The good parts pack enough emotional punch to carry the movie. This edit retains those good parts, cuts over half-an-hour of weak parts, tidies up much in between, and adds two deleted scenes. It keeps Peter's character development front and center, makes his and Hook's characters more consistent, and vastly improves the pacing.
Intention:
HOOK plucks my heart-strings every time, from seeing it in the cinema in '92 through making this fanedit. Yet it has so many flaws that I have a love-hate relationship with it.

My biggest issue is whether Peter is a big-shot lawyer who lacks imagination, or an insecure accountant who is worried to offend other people's sensibilities. I know what the script says, but I honestly can't tell from Williams' performance.

Next is Hook: Hoffman gives us moments of a pitch-perfect villain to be feared and taken serious, persuading us that the threat to Peter is real and dangerous. But those are mixed with a caricature of Disney's inept cartoon Hook, playing-for-laughs as the Hook & Smee comedic duo, and a depressed old man. Is Hook a villain I should love to hate, or one I should pity? The result is a little of both, but a lot of neither.

Then there's Spielberg. The man is brilliant at his trade, but here he seems distracted. Peter and Hook aren't the only uneven parts. He left in continuity errors (the kids' bedroom door has Hook's scratch, then doesn't, then does again), make-up mistakes (in two pick-up shots Thud Butt is clearly older), and odd time-management where some transitions take much longer than needed without pay-off, while others feel jumpy as if a cutaway shot was left out (the Mermaids under Hook's ship > Peter being hoisted up to the Lost Boys). Spielberg was possibly also distracted by his regret over not making this a musical (Williams’ gorgeous score certainly rises to that challenge).

HOOK, THE WAY YOU (WANT TO) REMEMBER IT excises most of these frustrating parts. The narrative is tighter, the pacing improved, the characters less ambivalent.
Other Sources:
- Teaser sourced from 35mm scan posted by Hook-Movie.com.
- Some musical transitions from the soundtrack CD (Expanded La-La-Land edition).
Special Thanks:
Everyone on Hook's forum thread, especially Dwight Fry and DigModiFicaTion, for their suggestions and feedback.
Release Information:
Digital
Special Features
1080p (2.40:1)
5.1 AC3
English subtitles
Cuts and Additions:
- Use the original Teaser as opening credits (the magnifying glass gliding over the map).
- Cut opening shots of school audience so the film opens on stage.
- Cut baseball game and Peter's office.
- Trim airplane, to make Peter less scared, remove reference to (now cut) videotape, and improve pacing. The airplane captain's announcement (voiced by Hook!) is mostly retained.
- Mute/trim part of Peter's grumbling on snowy steps at Wendy's house.
- Trim Jack telling Wendy what work Peter does, for pacing.
- Cut Peter going into empty kids room, for pacing. Put Moira line over exterior shot.
- Trim Peter-Moira dialog before she throws out his phone, for pacing.
- Trim to Wendy telling her bedtime story, for pacing.
- Trims when putting kids to bed, for pacing and to make Peter a little less frantic.
- Mute Wendy's prayer to keep the kids safe that night, too obvious.
- Cut scarily lit shots when kids get kidnapped. Instead, the only foreboding shot that's retained during the gala dinner is the dog barking.
- Cut Peter making fun of driver's name.
- Trim / mute a few pointless lines in Wendy's bedroom.
- Trim Peter in kids room, for pacing.
- Trim some weak Peter shots on Hook's deck.
- Add cutaway shot between the Mermaids and Peter being hoisted up to the Lost Boys (using later cut shots of Tinkerbell and a Lost Boy).
- Many cuts and trims in Lost Boys home. Less clueless sniveling (see the pattern?), no skateboards, tighter pacing.
- Cut Hook's plea-for-attention from Smee, and trim remainder of scene for pacing.
- Add deleted scene of Lost Boys introducing themselves to Peter, trim part of the original exchange, to make Peter look less scared and Rufio less insecure.
- Trim Hook's school lesson.
- Cut Maggie telling Jack that Neverland makes you forget, because she's wrong! It makes you forget (track of) time, not memories. E.g. Thud Butt remembers his mom, Tink and Hook remember Pan as a kid. If Neverland is an escapism construct, then it makes sense why Hook wants no clocks on the island: he wants you to lose track of time so that you'll stay in Neverland!
- Small trims to Neverfeast dinner, for pacing and to reduce Rufio's jealousy.
- Cut young Wendy's song: wrong sentiment here, song is placed over second half of end credits.
- Cut 'mom' mention from Peter / Thud Butt talk, because she's no longer shown in the flashback.
- Cut ticking clocks in Hook's clock museum, making Hook less silly.
- Cut pirate killed at baseball game: it's funny but Jack doesn't react to it at all, that's just not right! Trim more bits of the baseball game for pacing.
- Cut mom and jealous Tink from Peter's flashback, to tighten the narrative.
- Cut flying Peter undoing Rufio's pants.
- Cut kid 'surfing' past at end of Peter getting sword back.
- Cut big Tink, including Peter forgetting about his kids immediately after he rediscovers that they're his happy thought. Feels inconsistent: if Neverland makes you forget such important stuff that quickly, how could anyone remember their name?
- Cut the shorter of two times fat boy rolls down stairs.
- Cut Rufio saying he wanted a daddy. It detracted from his death being the inspirational moment.
- Mute Hook's "Where are you going?". Twice, to make Hook less baffled.
- Mute Croc's growl and burp. I prefer to think that Hook ceased to exist because everyone stopped believing in him. Like the Neverfeast food: if you don't believe, it doesn't exist.
- Mute Peter's 'thank you for believing' as he leaves Neverland.
- Trim kids returning to their bedroom.
- Add very short deleted scene of Peter returning to London, to replace the scene with Smee as a street sweeper (that raised so many questions, it distracted from the story).
- Small trims when Toodles gets his marbles, for pacing.
- Replaced the second part of the end credits music with "When You're Alone". Replaced non-scrolling part of the credits to fit the new length of the music.
- Use AC3 audio track from the 4K disc because I find the sound stage a bit cleaner than the 1080p blu-ray's DTS track (from an editing perspective it makes no difference: neither has a clean center channel).
- Add English subtitles. Note: The blu-ray's subtitles were a lazy/cheap job with style inconsistencies. It missed small bits of dialog that aren't essential to the story but add flavor to the characters.
Cover art by lapis molari (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image

Trailer

User reviews

13 reviews
 
62%
 
38%
5-7 stars
 
0%
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1-3 stars
 
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Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.1(13)
Audio Editing
 
8.5(13)
Visual Editing
 
8.7(13)
Narrative
 
8.8(13)
Enjoyment
 
8.9(13)
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Overall rating
 
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
So this film will be forever flawed, as a kid i didnt care much for it. When i revisited it as a 30 something with my ex, i noticed the majority of the problem was it takes forever to get the Neverland. This edit fixed that, it's still slow to start but that has been remedied as much as possible with this, the definitive edit!

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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(Updated: February 27, 2023)
Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
7.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Wait, you mean to tell me this ISN'T the original? The map with Hook's hand was trailer footage and not the real opening? Get out of town!

Tight is the best I can describe this edit. Every scene flows naturally and organically from one to the other, some cuts creating more powerful moments as a result of the lost content. Peter promising to be at his son's baseball game, and the next scene being him arriving at an empty baseball field hits way harder than an extended sequence would have. I like that the edit cuts out Hook's attack and keeps the audience guessing alongside Peter, keeping us in the dark for as long as possible before Tinker Bell confirms what we were beginning to suspect all along. The trims around many scenes keep the story focused, delivering smoother characters arcs across a shorter running time, to the point where it feels like it was a cut from Spielberg himself! I miss "I wish I had a dad... like you." but in the context of this edit, you're not bound to notice it's absence, as Rufio's arc is a little bit toned down from the original, which may be the only real mark against the edit narrative wise. The two deleted scenes were also integrated well, though the music was a touch loud during the first one (which honestly I wonder why that was cut, we learn the names of the other Lost Boys in there?!)

There is a leftover shot at 33:46 and a few awkward audio cuts as a result of the scenes being gone (along with a weird dip in the audio when Maggie is trying to take Hook's, erm, hook), but as far as I'm concerned the edit lives up to the title. It is the definitive version of Hook.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Owner's reply March 05, 2023

Thanks for spotting and pointing out the loose frame. I found and fixed it.
Maggie's voice drops for a brief moment, but as far as I hear it that's the actress halting her sentence and is in the original. I don't hear any audio mistakes in that scene.

N
Top 500 Reviewer 15 reviews
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Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
7.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Wow, It was fast to watch, and good vibe that got, THIS should've been the official cut for it, really, it could've been a great sequel to 53's movie Peter Pan. I DEFINITETLY recommend this edit.

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Yes
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Digital
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(Updated: April 02, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Would be difficult to believe that more than half an hour has been removed from this film, no loss at all of narrative coherence. Since I only saw it once (and at least fifteen years ago) just a few absences stuck out immediately, big Tinkerbell, the baseball game at the beginning and the "scarily lit shots when kids get kidnapped". I was surprised when my first reaction to the latter was of disappointment, I suppose that this particular sequence left a greater impression on a young me than I thought, but on reflection and comparison I think that it rather does give away a bit too much and dilute the suspense.

Otherwise this edit lives up to its title and was a nice revisit, only just realised that this film contains the embodiment of Prince Zuko while the 2004 live-action "proper" adaptation of Peter Pan (the one I grew up with) stars Admiral Zhao as Hook himself! The purist in me wonders though if there could be a way of altering Tinkerbell's statement about the way to Neverland back to "Second to the right and straight on till morning." (is it a coincidence that Star Trek VI from the same year features the same "incorrect" line?), never saw the Disney animated version this references and the modification from the original irrationally irks me!

Technically excellent, only issues I noticed were a couple of audio cuts (80 mins in, bookending the shot of Peter looking over the cliff where he says "I have a plan") sounding a little abrupt. Thank you lapis molari for sharing your work!

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
P
Top 50 Reviewer 82 reviews
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Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I live in a household divided on the subject of Hook, as I don't have the love for it that a lot of my generational cohort does (although weirdly, I remember liking the comic adaptation a lot), and my partner counts it as one of her favourite childhood films. Well, I came away really impressed by how coherent and streamlined lapis managed to make the character arcs in the film, although Julia Roberts' Tinkerbell gets shortchanged a bit, I'm OK with that as her crush on Peter was nonsensical and slightly off-putting anyway. Nevertheless, she does seem rather surplus to the film now. Anyway, Dustin Hoffman gets to shine as the good captain, Robin Williams is less pathetic and more just a beleaguered but likeable yuppie dad, and Bob Hoskins' Smee steals the show, as he should. The title sequence lifted from a trailer is a vast improvement as well.

And ultimately my ladyfriend, as expected by the title, found Hook every bit as good as she remembered -- if not better.

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
R
Top 10 Reviewer 156 reviews
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