The consensus on Hook is that, well, it's terrible. But as the film turns 30, IllusiveKen makes the case that Robin Williams helps its Peter Pan transcend the film's shortcomings:
There are all kinds of creative reasons one might pull an old story off the shelf, dust it off, and try to retell it. Times change, and our assessment of popular characters or mythical constructs have to change with them, or at least fit into our hearts in a different way. Then there is the most obvious reason:, you don’t have to pay anybody any royalties or hustle around for any movie rights to make your big blockbuster movie about a character people already know.
We are introduced to Peter Banning , a boring lawyer dude enslaved by 1991’s chonkiest cell phone. He, his wife and the kids he neglects pack it all up and head to London for a stuffy function in honor of Granny Wendy . We are told in no uncertain terms that the Peter Pan stories were based on the bedtime stories of her and her siblings.
Whether or not you enjoy the proceedings likely depends on whether Williams’ Pan and Dustin Hoffman’s Hook do anything for you. If you were going to cast an adult version of the boy who wouldn’t grow up, it’s hard to envision a more apt choice than Williams. This was a generation’s introduction to him, before he would go on to motor through impressions in, before the drastic heel turn he would attempt in his late career with movies like.
There is also a lot that works better than people gave it credit for. Williams bounces off his child co-stars pretty effectively, every scene with Hoffman and Bob Hoskins’ Smee is funny, and the movie gave the world Dante Basco, who plays the bad boy Pan heir apparent Rufio and has gone on to be great in lots of other stuff. John Williams’ score is one of the most thematically complex things the man ever composed. The movie also, crucially, took a stance on what it was actually about.