Second star to the right….

and straight on til morning. This quote is from Sir James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Since the characters introduction in 1902, the boy who never grew up has been the subject of stage plays, movies, cartoon series, books, AND PEANUT BUTTER. In 1991, Steven Spielberg brought to the big screen an adventure that few thought imaginable: a grown up Peter Pan in the film Hook.

Robin Williams is cast as lawyer Peter Banning who has no time for his young son Jack’s baseball games and carries his cell phone wherever he goes. In an ironic scene at the beginning of the movie, the cell phone goes off during his daughter Maggie’s performance of (what else) “Peter Pan.”

The Banning family travel to London to honor Granny Wendy and her orphanage. While there, Jack and Maggie are kidnapped by Captain Hook. Wendy informs Peter that he is indeed Peter Pan and the children have been kidnapped in an attempt to lure him to Neverland for one final battle. Unwilling to believe Wendy, Peter is eventually knocked out and dragged by Tinkerbell to Neverland.

The title character is played magnificently by Dustin Hoffman. The makeup makes him almost unrecognizable. Part of the fun in watching the DVD is seeing how many actors you can discover in the background: Phil Collins and Glenn Close both have small cameos.

Hook makes even the most stubborn of adults believe that buried deep inside of themselves there is a bit of the kid which all of us have inside. A great family film.

Jamy Shaffer