Movie review: Hook

I have been wading through the animated sludge that is the state of kids movies these days (Gnomeo and Juliet, Alpha and Omega), biding my time until Lena can finally appreciate the finer cinematic feats, (Gilmore Girls, All Movies With Ryan Gosling) and we have finally arrived.

This afternoon Lena and I watched Hook.

Ru-fi-OHHHHH

Bangarang! Bangarang Rufio!

Ok so that's like the summation of all memories I have of this film. Lena and I have been reading Peter Pan at night, some Disney-to-book version, and it. sucks. I remember Peter Pan as a kid, and being enthralled by the lost boys, and the concept of not having to grow up. It's only after College Enlightenment (tm) and reading more and more kids books and young adult fiction, that I started to realize that in literature boys have all the fun. And the thing about that is that girls read these books and identify with the boys. But boys don't have  to do this. Because they're given enough of their own sex role models to identify with. Gosh what was I saying? Oh yeah, Peter Pan sucks because the boys have all the fun, and all the women are perpetually jealous of each other. Tinkerbell hates Wendy because she gets Peter's attention. Then the mermaids are jealous of Wendy, then Wendy is jealous of Tiger Lily when Peter starts paying attention and then Wendy is all like "I am your mother!". So in the entirety of Peter Pan (the Disney version) All the women are jealous of other women, and then motherhood. This is not the message I want my daughter to hear when she is growing up. "I will be jealous of other women and then become a mother." WORST IDEA EVER. 

Although like I said before, I grew up watching Peter Pan, and this wasn't ever an issue because I just identified with the Lost Boys. Problem solved. 

Back to Hook. Still the boys get all the fun, but I forgot how many messages were in this movie. I was seriously crying from the part where they all start throwing food at each other until the end. The themes! Imagination! Believing in yourself! And then Robin Williams' transformation--when he says to his son, "You're my happy thought" I just completely lost it. Clearly I over-identified with this movie today. Oh and then Rufio goes to fight Captain Hook and then I was like, "Shit. Rufio totally dies in this." Waterworks!

Ok I'm overly emotional, and this was in no way a movie review. Hook was way deeper than I remembered. Lena spent the entire time waiting for the Indians to come. (I may or may not have falsely advertised the movie.) And then I spent all this time being like, "Imagination!" "Identity!" "Growing up!" 

Imagination. Identity. Growing up.