#neverland 2011

[not-wholly-unheroic]

Another lovely piece from Instagram artist victorian_ash_1819 based on Syfy’s Neverland but with Disney characters. I looooove this so much!

[biromantic-bibliophile]

Good dad Captain Hook

While most villains only have one kid, across all the various Descendants media, Captain Hook actually has three! When you think of Captain Hook's kids, Harry is probably the first to come to mind. But before Descendants 2 even aired, we learned that Hook has two daughters as well: Harriet, who was introduced in The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz, and CJ, who was introduced on the animated miniseries Descendants: Wicked World.

Descendants isn't the only universe in which Captain Hook is a father. On the TV show Once Upon a Time, Hook and his wife Emma have a daughter named Hope, and an alternate reality version of Hook has a daughter who grows up to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

In the movie Hook (1991), Hook kidnaps Peter Pan's kids to bait Peter into returning to Neverland as an adult, and he actually turns out to be a terrific stand-in dad for Peter's son Jack. (I'm going to continue nagging everyone to watch Hook because it's so freaking good!!)

But my biggest piece of evidence for Hook being a good dad comes from an underrated Peter Pan prequel series titled Neverland (2011). This series is a two-episode TV show about Peter Pan's origin story. At the beginning, we learn that Peter and the Lost Boys were once pick-pockets on the streets of London... and guess who was taking care of them? James "Jimmy" Hook. That's right, Captain Hook was basically Peter Pan's stand-in father.

[lands-of-fantasy]

Captain James Hook on Film and TV

On stage, traditionally the actor who plays Captain Hook also plays Mr. Darling. In movies this was done with Jason Isaacs in Peter Pan (2003) and Stanley Tucci in Peter and Wendy (2015).

Tucci actually had a triple role, as in the film the Peter Pan book is being read by children at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Tucci plays local Dr. Wylie. In real life, author J. M. Barrie donated the rights of Peter Pan to this hospital.

In Once Upon a Time, Hook first appears in season 2.

[thewebspinner]

[havvabreak]

Captain James Hook

Neverland (2011)

Rhys Ifans

[the-one-who-died-at-the-end]

Ah yes, Sify's Neverland or how I like to call it: Peter's not good very bad weekend

[robindrake93]

Just watched syfy’s Neverland (2011) and that was so delicious. Fuel on my fire, if you will.

[pezboisworld]

Ever seen the 2011 miniseries Neverland?

Have I? I watched the premiere on the SciFi Channel.

This question scratched a very nostalgic childhood fascination with the fairy story. Specifically, the Victorian and Edwardian period. This series came out after the well received Tin Man series from 2007. A sci-fi re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz that is my personal favorite adaptation of the fantastical story. I was hoping Neverland 2011 would meet the same expectations. Kudos for actually hiring an indigenous actress and incorporating her in an interesting way. There was more to explore with the Peter Pan Lore in a steampunk style setting. Aging up Peter is understandable. Every adaption does it because a 6 year old with a full mouth of teeth murdering pirates for fun is unsettling. A 11-16 year old murderer is acceptable to address the themes so I'll take it. The ads made it seem like Neverland was going into a darker tone, but that darker tone was more real world issues rather than Peter Pan lore in general.

The relationship between Hook and Peter was fresh for the time. It was more Fagan and Dodger from Oliver Twist than Hook and Peter.

All in all, I enjoyed it. It's definitely higher than most adaptations.

One day I'll get my gritty Peter Pan steampunk or science fiction loose adaptation, but it's been over a decade since I've seen it. Maybe I'll appreciate it more on rewatch.