Today, we are rewatching the 1991 movie Hook, starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman and directed by Steven Spielberg.
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Show Notes:
Decor inspiration:
Granny Wendy’s House
The children’s bedroom: a balcony with windows that open so you can step out, antique vibe, dollhouse, beds with canopies, fort that they built, cool old crystal chandeliers, tasteful and interesting wallpaper, and historical stuff.
Granny Wendy’s bedroom: every inch of the wall was covered in art and gold frames.
Little touches throughout house with hints for movies: ship in bottle that is Captain Hook’s ship, lots of candles, and lots of frames.
Lost Boys Treehouse Compound
More a fantasy playground to take your kids to
Not something you would want in your yard
Long table, skateboard ramp, zip lines, sling shot, and their own sleeping quarters
Captain Hook’s Cabin
Fireplace with creepy cravings
Little miniatures
Lots of collections: vintage mirrors and shoes
Dropdown bed
Oil painting of himself
Other cozy inspiration (fashion, food, drink or anything?)
Amazing costumes, especially the baseball uniforms
Magical mermaids
Rate this movie from 0 to 5 Hooks
Emma – 12 hooks for visual but 3 crocodile burps for storyline
Elsie – 6 hooks
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Episode 222 Transcript:
Elsie: You’re listening to the Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy, comfort listen. Today, we’re rewatching the 1991 movie Hook, starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, and directed by Steven Spielberg. I’m so excited. I love this movie. This is one of my favorite movies from my own childhood and I absolutely constantly push it on my children. So I think it had to be done. Goldie was actually, we were watching it yesterday to prep for this and she asked me, she said, isn’t your podcast for grownups? And she was like, why are you watching a kid’s movie?
Emma: That’s a good question, Goldie. Yeah. Very perceptive of you.
Elsie: I know, right? But I mean, I feel like if you’re a millennial person, you grew up with Hook. Probably. I hope you did. If not, I’m sorry because it’s in some way society failed you because it really is the ultimate.
Emma: It is unhinged in all the best possible ways. And there’s so many famous people in it. It is just famous person, famous person, famous person. It’s crazy. So great movie. So if you haven’t seen it, here’s a synopsis. Basically it’s Peter Pan grown up and he has forgotten that he was Peter Pan and Captain Hook comes back and kidnaps his children and Peter Pan has to go back to Neverland. Remember who he was. He’s Peter Pan. He can fly. He can fight. He can crow and save his children from Captain Hook. And Captain Hook, meanwhile, is low key trying to get the kids to love him because he thinks that it will make Peter Pan jealous and sad. And that’s pretty much the plot of the movie. It is a two and a half hour movie though, for how short that plot is. This is like one of the longest kids movies that I can think of.
Elsie: Yeah, I think it actually is one of the longest kids movies of all time. I mean that is very long. I watched it in like three settings, and I didn’t even get finished all the way. But I watched it last year, so I felt like I was close enough.
Emma: We planned, my husband and I, we were like, okay, as soon as Oscar goes down, make a fast dinner and start this movie because it is long, and we are tired. We cannot stay up till midnight watching Hook so, had to get started. It’s long, it’s a long one.
Elsie: Okay, memories from when you first watched this movie. So we had this movie on a VHS tape as children. So it was very repeated. We kind of had like The Robin Williams collection, like, pretty much this one and Mrs. Doubtfire, though, are for me like my very frequently rewatched, so, I probably watched it like a hundred times in life, you know, because when you’re a little kid, at least in the 1990s, in the era before Disney Plus, you just rewatched the movies that you owned so many times.
Emma: Yeah, I feel like we had, like, eight VHS tapes of kids stuff that we watched was like Little Giants, Hook, Mrs. DoubtFire, Sister Act 1, Sister Act 2, Rookie of the Year, you know, and the reason I remember them is because we watched them so many times because you would just rewind them. And then watch them again because you didn’t have streaming. That wasn’t how TV worked back then.
Elsie: Yeah. I think that when I think back to my childhood, me watching this, I had a lot of attention towards Tinkerbell. And like Julia Roberts’ little Tinkerbell, and not as much now. Now I feel like it’s more like equally spread out through all the characters, but yeah, it’s a beautiful movie. I don’t think as children, we really appreciate that, but one of the reasons we wanted to do it for the podcast, it really is like a beautiful interior design movie. So if you need something to watch with your kid, that also is beautiful for you, and can keep your attention in some way, this is something we recommend.
Emma: Yeah. Visually, this movie is a 10 out of 10 or more. It’s just incredible. All the costumes, all the interiors, all the props, everything about the visuals is incredible. It looks like they made it like a Disney world and filmed at it. You know what I mean? It’s crazy. And yeah, as a kid, the two things that I remember sticking out to me was there’s a scene where a character gets in trouble with Captain Hook. He thinks that they’re a traitor and they put him in a box and they call it a boo box and they put a scorpion in with them in this chest box. I remember as a kid thinking that was so scary and as an adult, I also think it is so scary. I also like for whatever reason in the early 90s, scorpions were a bit of a thing because I think there’s a scorpion in one of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movies. And it’s very scary too. So I remember being very scared of scorpions as a kid, even though it wasn’t like something that we really have in Missouri. I don’t even think we have them at all around here.
Elsie: Yeah. No, Nova has watched all the Honey I Shrunk the Kids recently. And I will say we’re not going to do them in a rewatch probably. But I highly recommend them. I do think they aged well and they’re still just as good, like very good.
Emma: And then the other scene I loved as a kid and still love now that I think holds up for all the love that I had for it is the food fight scene. It’s kind of the scene where Peter Pan is becoming himself again, because he can’t see they’re having a feast and he can’t see it. It’s like a make believe feast. But then as the scene goes on, he starts to see the food. And it’s kind of the moment that in the movie where he’s becoming childlike again, he can see the things that the children see. And so it’s this special thing in the movie, but visually it’s like, the food is kind of made out of paint. It almost looks like they just like acrylic painted like pies and colored whipped cream. And so they have this food fight that the food doesn’t really look like real food necessarily, but it’s extremely colorful and it mostly all looks like whip cream.
Elsie: It’s paintball food.
Emma: Yeah, it’s like paintball food, but it’s really fun and it’s the most beautiful food fight scene. And as a kid, I remember thinking like, man, I really want to have a food fight. That looks so fun. Like it was like the best.
Elsie: Yeah. I love that. Oh my gosh.
Emma: I love it.
Elsie: Okay. So we’re going to really break down the decor inspiration from this movie. So anything we would use in our own home, which to me was a shocker, but I do have some love, hate, strong reactions, et cetera. Okay. So the three main like spaces that I feel like are the keys. Tell me if you think I’m missing any are Granny Wendy’s house in London. And the Lost Boys treehouse in Neverland, and Captain Hook’s cabin on the pirate ship in Neverland. Is there anything else you think?
Emma: No I think those are the ones, like, those are the spaces I think of for sure. So Granny Wendy’s house, it’s in London, so they’ve gone on an airplane and they’re in London now and the premise is kind of like they haven’t been here in like 10 years or something, they haven’t seen her in a long time. When they walk into her house, it’s like the moment where I was like, oh yeah, this is a Christmas movie, cause it’s like Christmas time, they’re visiting her for Christmas. And there’s a tree up, and like, so her house is a little bit decorated for Christmas, but I feel like you can see what it would be decorated all year round too. But yeah, so if you also want a low key Christmas movie, I think this fits the bill. Turns out it’s Christmas at the beginning of the movie.
Elsie: That’s a cool observation. Okay, so the two parts in her house that I was very, like, focused on are the children’s bedroom and also Grandma Wendy’s bedroom. So, first we’ll do the children’s bedroom. I mean the children’s bedroom is like the most magical part of Peter Pan besides Neverland. Like it’s always magical because it’s like this high up like lofty bedroom with a balcony. It always has a balcony. It always has windows that you can open up and walk out of.
Emma: So Peter Pan can fly and go to the nursery because that’s the premise of the old story.
Elsie: Yeah, and this one is very beautiful with wood details, lots of like an antique vibe and it has a doll house. It has beds with a canopy, like a fort that they’ve built. It’s perfect. I mean, I think it’s like the ultimate children’s bedroom, so I loved it. I would take all of that for my own house. There’s nothing about it that I wouldn’t accept.
Emma: I think it would fit in your house too. It’s more grandma and less spooky than your house, but it’s a lot of the same stuff. Like really cool old crystal chandeliers, really tasteful, interesting wallpaper, historical stuff. Like, yeah, I could see Goldie living in that kid’s bedroom and liking it. Although she’d be like, where’s all the princess stuff? I need more princess stuff, but it’s kind of close.
Elsie: So yeah, we can put a few extra princess things in there. Okay, and then the other room that just, like, threw me was Grandma Wendy’s bedroom. So in the scene where they, like, the children have just disappeared, they’re, like, laying in her bed all together, just, like, talking about, like, what to do. Her bedroom is so good, and I was like, I think I can use all of these ideas for my own bedroom. Because, just like, the way the bed was situated with the tables and the wallpaper and everything, it kind of looked like I could translate it. And, so the thing that was special about it, that I think my bedroom’s missing now is that kind of like every inch of the wall was covered with art and like gold frames. Like it was just really full and it made me realize that maybe mine is like a little bit too empty for what I really want.
Emma: Well, she’s a grandma.
Elsie: True.
Emma: It takes a lifetime to curate that kind of collection, but you know, you can try to do it in the next year. I know how you will.
Elsie: I can and I will. Yeah.
Emma: Kind of throughout the house like both those rooms and then kind of the downstairs They show us that just like little details of knick knacks and things because the house is very full But they’ll show like a ship that’s inside of a bottle and you realize later that it looks just like Captain Hook’s ship. I thought there’s lots of little I don’t know if they’re really Easter eggs, but definitely like the set designers were like, this is Wendy’s house, and she’s been to Neverland a bunch of times. So a lot of her tiny knick knack decor is going to kind of reflect some Neverland things, and it does, and it’s really cute. It’s kind of like the Home Alone house in that way where there’s a lot of little things that you don’t realize until you’re really looking and then you’re like, Oh.
Elsie: It’s similar to the Home Alone house, but just a little more antiquey because the Home Alone house, it’s very 90s. Yeah, like very 80s, 90s. And this one is a little more historic. But it does have that, like, full, rich feeling with, like, lots of candles, lots of frames, lots of, you know, just details. And I think that that’s probably, like, one of the top things that I’m attracted to, like, why I can’t identify as a minimalist. Even though I wish I could be just like I like things so full.
Emma: There’s nothing in you that’s minimalist.
Elsie: Well, I mean, I want to be like I want to be less wasteful, you know so like I want like the minimalist mindset, but I actually want like a maximalist home.
Emma: Granny Wendy has a maximalist home and it’s Yeah.
Elsie: I think I’m going to take a screenshot of her bedroom and just finish off my bedroom exactly the same because it’s so perfect. So yeah, when you’re watching, catch that bedroom and you’ll see exactly what I mean. I don’t know. I feel like there’s like this special thing when there’s art even like behind the lamps, you know what I mean? Yeah, like it’s just very full because right now it’s like I have my whole bed and on that whole wall and the walls beside it all there is one painting above our bed and now I know that is not good.
Emma: Your bedroom could go more. Yeah, the fireplaces 10 out of 10.
Elsie: Yeah. I love it. Okay. So do you want to do the treehouse?
Emma: Yeah, let’s talk about the treehouse. Which is actually, I feel like, misleading because it’s really more of a series of treehouses. It’s more like a little community of treehouses.
Elsie: Let’s call it a treehouse compound.
Emma: I want to know if there’s a treehouse HOA and you have to adhere to certain things when you move in.
Elsie: It is very consistent, so I think there probably is.
Emma: Yeah, oh yeah. There’s some kind of something going on there.
Elsie: Okay, so for me, like, the treehouse is one of, I mean, it is like the most epic, like, set of the movie. There’s nothing from it I would use in my home. It’s more like what you would want for like a fantasy playground that you could like take your kids to, you wouldn’t necessarily want it in your yard or anything, but like, it’s so big and magical and how they have, you know, they’re like long table where they can all eat together and it’s perfect.
Emma: It has like skateboard ramps, it has zip lines, it has this like slingshot that they’re trying to help him remember how to fly and it just shoots him into this big like pool of paint basically. But they each kind of have their own little sleeping quarters. It’s like they have their own little treehouse section that’s like where their bed is and where they sleep at night because it shows them all waking up in the morning because they’re like, Peter Pan’s here. He’s back. But then they find out it’s just old Robin Williams and they’re like, he doesn’t remember us. But yeah, it’s an epic, epic treehouse compound. And I can see why none of the kids want to go home because it looks so fun. Just play all day and just be little monkeys out there for sure.
Elsie: Yeah, it’s incredible. I think it would make a good, like, thing at a theme park or something, you know, to make, like, that into, like, a giant playground that you can climb on and zip line. My kids love a zip line.
Emma: It has to have a skate ramp somewhere for kids who know how to skateboard because it’s a big part of it. There’s a basketball section where they’re playing basketball. Yeah, it’s just, it’s cute. It is like a weird playground, like a weird playground where they sleep in the trees. It’s so cute. And you see Rufio, you see the clock that Tinkerbell sleeps in. What else? There’s just a lot of like moments around the tree house area that are very epic. I already mentioned the food fight, but I feel like that’s like a big scene in the movie. And yeah, it’s an epic part of the movie for sure.
Elsie: Ah! Yeah, I love it. Okay, so I have this, like, happy memory before our grandma, Carina, passed away a few years ago, she kind of like had these like grand ideas, like one of the things I loved about her was she just got these like very intense, sort of like, borderline fantasy ideas of things she wanted to do for real and I think I inherited that trait from her. Yeah. It’s very like, I don’t know, it always made me happy, but one of the last things I remember that she was talking about was that she wanted to build another, so she lived in a log cabin that she built herself and it was beautiful. I would say like a medium sized log cabin, like it wasn’t small. It wasn’t a big mansion. It was like, you know, three bedrooms or something. And she said that she wanted to build another cabin and then she wanted it to be accessed through a bridge in the air. And I was like, oh my gosh, like this is, that was the thing about her that I like most treasured was just like, I don’t know, it’s like she was still a little kid in her heart. Like, she was a dreamer. And I wanna be that way. I admire that about her.
Emma: I admire that about her, too. It’s fun, dreaming up till the end.
Elsie: Yeah. I wish that I would’ve made her draw a picture, though, because the way I imagined it probably wasn’t the way she meant it. But it might’ve been, I don’t know.
Emma: It makes me think about, like, when hospitals are connected, like, over a road with a bridge like that or something. And it actually is really cool. It’s fun to walk across, like, Oscar loves those kinds of things. Well, and I was like, are you gonna build the other cabin over the pond, so you need the bridge, so you walk over the pond, or the bridge just goes over nothing.
Elsie: What’s the point of the bridge? Yeah.
Emma: Which is fine, but usually there’s a reason, like it goes over a road or something.
Elsie: Anyway, it reminded me of a treehouse when I was thinking about it. And you know, like sometimes I go down one of those rabbit holes of like the treehouse cabins, you know. Like Airbnb, if you go on there, it starts like recommending things to you and then it’s like very easy to go down a rabbit hole for me.
Emma: I’m always looking at treehouse Airbnbs. It’s just interesting.
Elsie: Yeah, I think that they’re really cool. So maybe one day. So let’s do Captain Hook’s cabin. This part was the part that really, like, shocked me. I was like, this is a vibe, and I would actually take everything in his cabin. Like, for my own home exactly. It’s a good vibe in there. And I wasn’t expecting to be like, I think I am Captain Hook. Like, decor wise. It was perfect. It was perfect. So it had a fireplace with creepy carvings, which you know is like one of my top of the tops. It had like little miniatures, which I love. And then he had just like a lot of collections. Like when he sits down and he has like eight vintage mirrors. It was like, oh my gosh, I think I’m him.
Emma: All his shoes. And they’re all exactly the same, but they just show them lined up. It’s like, cool. Yeah.
Elsie: , The drop down bed. Okay. So if you haven’t watched the bed, it comes down from the ceiling some way, somehow. It just has a pulley or something and a bed just sort of appears from the ceiling. So that part is really cool. A good solution. I’ve never seen anyone do that in a small apartment, but probably someone should. Even better than a Murphy bed. I mean, I think it might be better than a Murphy bed because you don’t have to use a wall on it.
Emma: No. It just comes right down from the ceiling. So I think too, like his cabin feels like a little bit of a very fancy old man and later in the movie they kind of reveal that he’s even older than you might think he is. Like one of the things in Neverland is that you don’t age while you’re there. Although you kind of do. There’s some problems with that in the storyline. But that’s, you know, whatever. That’s besides the point. The idea behind Neverland is they’ve broken all the clocks because Captain Hook is scared of clocks because of the crocodile and time stands still. But you kind of see that Captain Hook has aged a lot and he is a fancy old man, which really matches his cabin and bedroom a lot. And his best friend, Schmittie.
Elsie: Yes. Best man, whatever he is. Yeah, it is a whole vibe, and I think it is my favorite interior in the movie, which is like a shocker, but so cool. Okay, the last thing I have down is he has an oil painting of himself. And I really think that if you want to be Knives Out aesthetic, which I do, that’s like the number one thing you have to have. So I think it’s time for me to put that on my list. And I want one for everyone in my family, not just myself, but like, I want an antique looking oil painting of our family members so bad. So I have to make that happen.
Emma: We were at a museum over the weekend and it had like old, you know, oil paintings, you know, as a museum. And they had some kids ones. And I was like, oh my gosh, you have to get something of your girls. Cause I was picturing Marigold, looking kind of like a little queen to be in her portrait cause she will. She’s dressed like that every day anyway. And I just think it’s so timeless and weird and cool. And yeah, it’s a thing to cherish forever.
Elsie: It’s definitely a move. So I’m excited to do it. It’s just so rare in this day and age, people don’t just commission oil paintings of their family anymore. Not enough.
Emma: They really don’t.
Elsie: Okay, well, I commit to it. Everyone, you can hold me accountable, I promise.
Emma: Also dogs, I think we need more oil paintings of dogs too, in my opinion.
Elsie: I like that. Or if you’re a cat person, whatever. Okay, other cozy inspirations. Was there any fashion, food, drink, anything else?
Emma: Ido think the costumes in this movie are incredible. Whoever the costume designer, the whole department, they did a beautiful job. Some of my favorites, though, is actually the scene where they kind of set up this baseball game because Captain Hook is trying to win over Jack and he plays baseball and like his dad didn’t show up. Peter Pan didn’t show up to his last baseball game and it’s like showing what a bad father he is like he’s not involved in his kids’ lives. So anyway, Captain Hook sets up this baseball game to kind of have a moment with him and the outfits that the other pirates are wearing it’s like an old timey Baseball outfit. They’re like red velvet and just way over the top ridiculous. I was like, every costume in this movie is bananas and so good. It’s like they went hard with the costumes. I love the Tinkerbell dress outfit. I love her street wear too. And I feel like if we don’t mention the mermaids at some point, then we’ve really missed the mark on the Hook episode.
Elsie: Oh yeah. Marigold walked in while we were watching the mermaids and then she wanted me to keep rewinding it.
Emma: Yeah, their makeup, their hair. I mean, they’re underwater, so I don’t know exactly how they accomplished all that. I remember as a kid thinking like, wow, these mermaids look so cool because they’re really colorful and different looking than mermaids in other movies, I guess.
Elsie: Yeah, I think they are the best mermaids ever. Very magical. Okay, I’m into the total aesthetic. Like, the beginning of the movie where they’re just, like, boring rich parents, I’m into that aesthetic. I’m into the ending, I’m into all of it. I think it’s just, like, I don’t know, like, the perfect, like, mix of, like, traditional and whimsical. And, you know, I, like, tried to do a Peter Pan theme in one of our rooms, but then it didn’t work out because the chandelier wouldn’t fit.
Emma: Yeah.
Elsie: And then I had to move it. But maybe I should do a Peter Pan theme in a different place. I don’t know. Or it can just be spread out throughout. True. Just a little bit everywhere, like Grandma Wendy. I think I could identify that way. Okay.
Emma: Because you kept the ship chandelier, so it’s already around.
Elsie: 100%. I mean, it’s a big part of my personality. It’s a big chandelier. Everyone behold, if you come into my home, you will get the tour. You will see the ship.You will not miss it. Okay. Is there anything else?
Emma: I mean as we’ve mentioned I think visually this movie is off the charts for me. Like it’s just beautiful sets, beautiful costumes, even down to like Rufio’s hair, how they change Peter Pan’s hair once he transforms and remembers who he is like Robin Williams hair. They really go for it. And I love it so much. And as much as I gush about this movie and love this movie, I would also have to point out that I think that there are some problems with the story. I kind of feel like it could have taken like one more draft. It’s just a little strange. So one the movie’s pretty long for a kid’s movie, but as I was watching it, I was like, okay I’m gonna think through what I would cut if I was gonna try to get this down to be two hours instead of two and a half and there really isn’t a lot of scenes. Like it kind of does all fit in there pretty good. So it’s sort of surprising in that way. I would probably cut the scene where Tinkerbell becomes large and she basically hits on Peter Pan. So I feel like it doesn’t make sense with the rest of what her character does throughout the movie, where she’s basically helping him to get his kids back. And then she has this moment where she’s like oh, you’re Peter Pan again and you kind of forgotten your kids. Maybe I’ll hit on you. It’s just this kind of like what are you doing.
Elsie: Just gonna see what happens.
Emma: I Feel like they just wanted to show her dress. It’s the one time in the movie where she becomes life size and she has this beautiful like princess dress on. And it is beautiful. And it’s Julia Roberts who plays Tinkerbell. So I get like what they’re doing, but visually, 10 out of 10. Story wise, I don’t know what they’re doing with that scene.
Elsie: They just didn’t want to waste Julia Roberts being tiny the whole time.
Emma: Yeah, that makes sense. I get that. And then there’s just this other part where they’re kind of talking about his origin story. They do a flashback and they’re like, Peter Pan ran away. But what they really show is this stroller that rolls away from its mom who’s talking to another mom on a bench and then the baby’s like laying in the street in the rain. And that’s the Peter Pan ran away. I’m doing air quotes right now. I’m like, why did they show a baby getting lost? That doesn’t make me feel like Peter Pan ran away that makes me feel like he’s just lost which the other kids are called Lost Boys, so I’m like, it’s just strange. Then also, if you’ve read the old book, seen the old one, you know the story of Peter Pan. It does have a bit of a thing where like, all of the women or girls in the story like Peter Pan. There is this kind of weird thing with that. Like, Wendy’s kind of in love with him, Tinkerbell’s kind of in love with him, Tiger Lily’s kind of in love with him. It’s just sort of a thing. And in this movie, they do that too, but there’s a lot of different generations of women. And so it’s very weird. And it’s just a little like, you’re like, huh. If I don’t think about that very much, okay. But if I think about it at all, story wise, I am not sure what we’re doing. I don’t know about that. That’s a little odd because he marries Wendy’s granddaughter. Anyway, it’s just a little weird.
Elsie: I think sometimes you don’t want to look that closely. So you should take your readers off for that.
Emma: Yeah, I kind of think if you want to just enjoy this movie for the visuals, you are in for a treat. It is gorgeous, but don’t think too hard about some of the storylines. It’s weird.
Elsie: If you wanna like analyze it in detail though, you can email Emma and it sounds like you have a friend who wants to do that with you.
Emma: Well, there’s also like the alligator at the end eats Captain Hook. This movie’s been out forever, so spoiler, Captain Hook gets eaten by the crocodile, but the whole movie, the crocodile is basically a statue. And they’ve kind of talked about how they’ve, I think killed the crocodile and stuffed it, but then in the end it falls on him, doesn’t move at all, just falls on him, and he disappears. I guess he gets sucked up in there, but you hear the crocodile burp. So then I guess you know he’s still kind of alive, I guess. The crocodile burp for me is just like what’s happening? I don’t know. So anyway, there’s some things about the story where I’m like, yeah, I don’t know, I don’t know about that. But I love this movie. It doesn’t really even ruin it for me at all but I have no idea. I think it could have taken one more pass on the draft.
Elsie: Yeah, baby getting rolled away in a stroller. How does that even happen in any universe ever?
Emma: Then it falls out of the stroller into the street and Tinkerbell finds the baby. I don’t know. It’s a problem, I think. Story wise, it’s a problem.
Elsie: Aww. Well, I think it’s a very creative take on Peter Pan, because I’ve watched a lot of these movies with my kids. And as children, we watched the Mary Martin version, where there’s a woman, a blonde lady with short hair who plays Peter Pan. That was one of our VHS tapes. I like this one. It’s aged really well. It’s very beautiful. It’s very magical. And I think that if we’re being honest, every version of Peter Pan has some kind of problem because it does have like some racism and some things that like some people think that like you shouldn’t even read Peter Pan or watch any movie, you know, because it’s like, it’s a little tainted and I get that. So I think that yeah, I don’t know, Peter Pan is like a tricky thing to tiptoe around, but I do think it’s a magical story, and I do think that things, you know, that were written like a hundred years ago often have problems.
Emma: Yeah, I like that they’re doing a grown up Peter Pan who has to remember his past. I think that’s an interesting premise.I would give it like 12 out of 10 hooks for visuals and then just like, you know, like three crocodile burps out of five for storyline.
Elsie: Okay. I’m gonna give it six out of five hooks just because I didn’t recognize Dustin Hoffman the whole time I was watching it.
Emma: So, One of my favorite of his performances.
Elsie: I’m in love with him. I think I have a crush on Dustin Hoffman a little bit. Anyway, now I’m like, I get it. I get it. Anyway, okay. All right, let’s do some trivia. This trivia is really good. You want to go first?
Emma: Yeah. Okay, so there are a lot of famous cameos in the movie. So George Lucas and Carrie Fisher are the kissing couple on the bridge when Tinkerbell is taking Peter back to Neverland. You really like can’t even hardly see them.
Elsie: I didn’t know that at all.
Emma: They’re just like lifting up off the ground because she gets a bit of fairy dust on them and the idea is they’re having a happy thought. And happy thought is what makes you fly. You really don’t even see them, so it’s funny that it’s famous people. Glenn Close is the bearded pirate who gets locked in the boo box.
Elsie: That’s epic.
Emma: Which until you know that, I feel like you don’t even know that it’s a woman at all. And Gwyneth Paltrow is a young Wendy. And then this one I didn’t even realize at all in the movie, but my husband did. It’s Phil Collins is the police inspector. Just Yeah, Phil Collins is in it. I don’t know.
Elsie: Jeremy has a big Phil Collins thing, so I think I would recognize him, probably, from all his, like, sorry, but, like, very creepy album covers. His album covers are so intense. Okay. The line spoken by Rufio, you’re dead jolly man, had to be spoken backwards by Basco, as the scene was shot and then played in reverse. So the sword blade would come away from Robin Williams face instead of toward it. His actual spoken line was, na me lod – I head rhy you that sounds really hard to perform to me. So they did great.
Emma: Rufio nailed it because you can’t tell, it just sounds like he says, you’re dead, jolly man. Yeah.
Elsie: Oh my God, this next one’s my favorite one. Go ahead.
Emma: This one’s wild. Okay. Steven Spielberg and Michael Jackson’s friendship ended due to this movie. Several years earlier, Spielberg had told Jackson of his desire to make a live action version of Peter Pan, a character and story that Jackson was famously obsessed with, as we all know, because he had Neverland. According to Spielberg, from then on, Jackson was under the impression, completely mistaken impression, that Spielberg had promised him the lead role. And when he subsequently didn’t get the part, Jackson took the perceived snub extremely personally and never spoke to Spielberg again.
Elsie: Honestly, like, I relate with that level of, like, petty. If I feel like you stole a dream out of my head and then didn’t let me be a part of it. Yeah, I relate with it. I get it, at least.
Emma: But I also feel like, can you imagine Michael Jackson Instead of Robin Williams in this movie?
Elsie: I actually have never seen Michael Jackson act. Do you know if he ever acted or like what made him feel like he could be an actor?
Emma: I don’t really know if I have.I’ve seen music videos of him.
Elsie: Yeah. No, I know he can dance. I know he can dance, but like, I bet if you do enough music videos, you probably feel like you can be an actor because there is a lot of acting in the videos. But like, you know, he did the zombie.
Emma: Yeah, I think musicians often are, you know, performers and they can translate, but I just don’t see Michael Jackson.
Elsie: And it’s a comedic role, but I also feel like, I hope that Steven Spielberg at least offered him a cameo, because I feel like he could have done a cameo if it was that special to him. He could have found a maybe he didn’t want to do it. I don’t know.
Emma: I mean, it sounds like everyone got a cameo if they wanted one because they had a lot of weird ones.
Elsie: If it’s like Peter Pan or nothing, I feel like that’s kind of, that’s a little on you. Okay. The scene where Peter passes his sword to one of the lost boys was improvised. None of the cast knew that he would pass the sword except for Robin Williams and Steven Spielberg, so the reactions of the boys were genuine. Aww.
Emma: All the little boys who play the lost boys nailed it in this movie. They’re all really good and quirky and fun and I believed them and I thought they were cool as a kid and as an adult now I’m like they’re adorable and I just want to hug each of them. So I loved the casting of all the lost boys in this movie. They’re so cute. Okay, Steven Spielberg has beaten himself up over Hook throughout the years. He said that he felt like a fish out of water and didn’t have confidence in the script. Perhaps his thoughts are best summed up in the statement from a 2013 interview. I want to see Hook again because I so don’t like that movie and I’m hoping someday I’ll see it again and perhaps like some of it.
Elsie: Oh no, that really hurts because I love it so much. I think he is hard on himself, though, about his movies, generally, because I heard he was like that about Gremlins, which is also another, like, absolute banger. So, I mean, I guess he maybe just has very high standards, which that’s probably why he’s Steven Spielberg, but I don’t know. I feel like he should just, like, let this be one of the greatest children’s movies of all time.
Emma: Yeah, I also feel like this and to an extent Gremlins, they’re very different obviously, but they’re both a bit wacky. They’re both a bit out there stretch like this isn’t Jaws. This is something else and I think they’re wonderful, but it probably is kind of hard to artistically love something that’s so wacky like it’s just you know I think anytime you stretch yourself as a creative, it can be hard to love the result.
Elsie: Honestly, I bet it’s just like, he remembers these, like, few critical things people said, which everyone can relate to that. It’s like, when you make art, you always remember the worst review. You do. You just always remember.
Emma: Do I love the script of this movie? No. But do I love this movie? Oh my gosh, yes. So I kind of feel like Steven Spielberg made it.
Elsie: Okay. Well, we’re gonna write him a letter and we will set things right and we’ll make sure.
Emma: You did a great job, Steven. Yeah, we’ll make sure that he knows. I’m sure you care what we think. You did a great job.
Elsie: Okay. Dame Maggie Smith, being only 56 years old at the time of filming, was aged by makeup to play 92 year old Grandma Wendy. I did wonder about that. I was like, how? Cause we’ve been watching Harry Potter a lot and I’m like, how does she look the same? Like just eternally always the same. That’s very interesting. I feel like she was kind of like Betty White in that way. Like it was like she was kind of doing like an old person’s costume before she was really old.
Emma: I wondered if they were planning to do more flashbacks and then they didn’t. Because most of the time that she’s in the movie, she’s the 92 year old with the heavy makeup. And the makeup looks great. Very convincing. But yeah, I was like, oh, this actress, she’s not really that old.
Elsie: She’s still alive right now. Yeah. And this movie’s from when we were a little kid.
Emma: She’s a wonderful actress, but I was like, why did they cast her? Why didn’t they cast someone older? Because most of the time she’s old in the movie, but maybe they were planning to do more flashbacks or something, but then it didn’t work out. Cause they were like, oh, it’s already two and a half hours.
Elsie: I think I picked the right person. I think she’s great.
Emma: It was just kind of a, you know, like, well, okay she’s just in heavy makeup the whole time. All right. I don’t know. Okay.
Elsie: Okay. So, I guess that’s everything for Hook. We love this movie. We would love to hear from you your rewatch requests. So it can be anything. It can be a kid’s movie, it can be a new movie, it can be an old movie. The one thing though it has to have is, like, rewatchability, where you could watch it, you know, like, you’ve watched it many, many times in your life and you’re never tired of it. And the second thing, it has to have like, just like the cozy, the aesthetic. We did do Jurassic Park, which is probably like the most unhinged thing we ever did.
Emma: Jurassic Park is awesome.
Elsie: Did we do Gremlins already or were we doing it next year? I bet we’re doing it next year.
Emma: I feel like we just talk about it all the time.
Elsie: Okay. I was just starting to think about all the Steven Spielberg movies, but anyway. Okay. Are we his biggest fans? I know I’m the biggest Gremlins fan.
Emma: I also love Minority Report.
Elsie: But we’re not doing Minority Report for the podcast.
Emma: Why not?
Elsie: Oh no! Okay. Send us your request. If you want Minority Report, then I need to know that one other person besides Emma in this whole world would want that. But yeah, I think we do want to keep doing these semi forever. As many years as we’re doing the podcast, we will keep doing movies because they’re our favorites and they’re really fun. Anyway, it’s time to go to a joke or a fact with Nova. Hey Nova, what do you have for us this week?
Nova: A fact.
Elsie: A fact? We haven’t had a fact in a while.
Nova: Yeah, I thought we should change it up. And so let’s do this fact. Did you know, like, in the old days, Skateboarding was called sidewalk surfing.
Elsie: What? Are you serious?
Nova: Yep.
Elsie: That’s a cool fact. I didn’t know that. I want to go sidewalk surfing. Do you want to go?
Nova: Maybe.
Elsie: Okay. Have a good week, everyone.
Nova: And I’ll tell you one more fact to make you not really want to do it. It’s one of the dangerous sports.
Elsie: Oh, most dangerous sports.
Nova: Because a lot of people have, like, scraped themselves. Or hurt themselves, like, a lot. Maybe, like, 100 people every year.
Elsie: Oh gosh!
Nova: Or even more. So you may not want to be one of those people in the hospital. . So I wouldn’t count on it if you don’t want to get hurt.
Emma: All right. Thanks so much for listening. You can submit questions or rewatch ideas at podcast@abeautifulmess.com or you can call and leave us a voicemail, but just remember to make it concise. So think about it ahead of time if you want to leave a voicemail because we like to play them in the episodes. And that number is 417 893 0011. We’ll be back next week, and we are going to be deep diving into buying furniture for your home.
