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.

Intentions:

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.

Change List:

- 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.

Additional Notes:

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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.