Norman891

You too?! Man, I had nightmares from that scene for YEARS as a kid. Maybe that’s partly why I felt so bad for Hook.

I’m actually gonna complain for a second about how many people I see calling Disney Hook a coward… Like, I get it. Disney plays up the interactions with the crocodile for laughs. BUT…if you didn’t have the same background music…if the crocodile was after one of the heroes and not the villain…nobody would think it would be unreasonable for someone to be terrified in Hook’s position. The scenes with Monstro in Pinocchio are not that different from what we get with Hook but because the characters being chased are the heroes, it’s taken more seriously and the chase scene feels less funny and more legitimately scary.

But to get back to your question… Oh my goodness, poor Hook would just…probably be trying not to have a heart attack and straight up die of fright. On the one hand, there uh…there’s more room in there…. 😬😬😬😬 So less claustrophobic I guess??? On the other…

Y I K E S.

I mean, the crocodile is huge as it is. But Monstro has like…a whole small boat in there?? And room to spare?? Just…no thanks!! That whale is MASSIVE. And Mr. Smee couldn’t even do anything to help like he can with the crocodile. What are you gonna do to stop a creature that big?

Favorite horror movie characters 662/♾️

From its earliest days on stage to the upcoming Disney live-action film, Peter Pan has provided audiences with one of the most widely recognized amputee characters in media history. The iron claw, now associated with all pirates, is an iconic image…but how realistic would it have been for a captain who lost a hand or arm in battle to find himself wearing a hook? I decided to do some digging to find out.

The earliest known use of a prosthetic hand dates back to the 200s B.C. when Roman general Marcus Sergius lost his right hand during the Second Punic War and had an iron hand fashioned to hold his shield while he fought with his left hand. There isn’t a ton of information on what this replacement “hand” may have looked like (whether it was primarily functional or also cosmetic) but it may have resembled a much later design (c. 1504) worn by German knight Goetz von Berlichingen, also known as “Goetz of the Iron Hand” This hand, though crafted with great detail to look realistic, was also designed to let the wearer grasp a shield, reins, etc. Although the gripping motion required adjusting the device with the remaining natural hand, the design looks surprisingly modern. 

Goetz von Berlichingen’s Iron Hand

Around the same time period in the Mediterranean region, Ottoman seaman Oruc Reis–also known as Baba Oruc (”Father Oruc”),  later misheard and Westernized as Barbarossa (”Redbeard” in Italian)–lost his left arm in battle, replacing it with a metal prosthetic and earning the privateer the nickname Gumus Kol, meaning “Silver Arm” in Turkish. Much like Marcus Sergius, we don’t have a good idea of this prosthetic’s appearance. 

The first major historical figure to use an actual hook in place of a hand was privateer Christopher Newport, who lost an arm while attempting to capture a Spanish galleon in 1590. Newport is also known for helping establish the colony of Jamestown alongside the more popularized John Smith and others in 1607. 

Artist’s Rendering of Christopher Newport

Another infamous sailor who lost a limb, Admiral Horatio Nelson, is virtually never depicted with a prosthetic of any sort but is responsible for the development of what would come to be known as “The Nelson Fork,” a combination knife and fork designed to make cutting and eating food easier for those missing a hand. Though Nelson lost his arm in 1797, variations of his cutlery design are still in use today.

A Nelson Fork, or as I like to call it, a “Knork”

During the Victorian Era, some false hands had a very steampunk/cyborg look to them. In fact, they rather resemble Long John Silver’s cyborg arm in Disney’s Treasure Planet. (Fun Fact: While attempting to see if they could seamlessly blend CG with traditional 2D animation, Disney did a test run of some existing footage of Hook with Silver’s cyborg arm.)

A Victorian False Arm (left) and Disney’s Test Footage of Hook with Silver’s Cyborg Arm (right)

Meanwhile, in the U.S., many soldiers were coming home from the Civil War with missing limbs, and the widespread need for practical prosthetics led to the development of a sort of “Swiss Army Knife” prosthetic with detachable parts, including cosmetic false hands, hooks, cutlery, and what appears to be either a brush or a toothbrush.

A Civil War Era Prosthetic with Attachments

In fact, many of these sorts of prosthetic attachments are similar to what we see Hook use in the Disney film and are still used by amputees today.

The Captain’s Case of Hooks (left) and Catalog Images of Modern Prosthetic Attachments (right)

You’ll notice that among the modern attachments featured is–you guessed it!–a hook! In fact, because of its versatility and cost-effectiveness as a prosthetic hand replacement, variations on the concept of a hook became quite popular during the 1800s/1900s and still exist today.

A Collection of Hooks from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The modern split hook, first developed in 1912 and popularized in the aftermath of WWI & WWII, is perhaps the most common sort of hook used in modern times. It typically features a sort of harness that goes across the chest/back and over the shoulder opposite the missing limb. This design likely influenced the image of Cyril Ritchard’s two-pronged claw in the 1960s stage version of Peter Pan and Jason Isaacs’ prosthetic apparatus in the 2003 film. 

A Modern Split Hook (bottom left), Cyril Ritchard’s Hook (top left), and Jason Isaacs’ Hook (right)

In the aftermath of the World Wars, although technology has allowed for the development of some truly remarkable bionic inventions, the continued need for practical, cost-effective prosthetics has led to the development of a variety of attachments designed for work as well as leisure activities. 

Enter Jake and the Neverland Pirates. While the show maintains Hook as a villain, because it is designed for children, he is portrayed more as a bully with low self-esteem than a truly evil, threatening character. We’re meant to like him, and while the audience laughs at his antics and feels sorry for him for many reasons (Dude has some SERIOUS bad luck!), the hook itself isn’t one of them. One thing I love about the show is that it takes the stereotypically “scary amputee villain” and turns him into a sympathetic grump with a collection of really cool hooks that any kid would envy. Some of them are admittedly a bit far-fetched and fanciful (But who DOESN’T want a whirly-hook that lets you fly?)…but surprisingly, many of the attachments are a fairly accurate representation of what’s out there. For example, need to build something or hang a picture on the wall? There’s a hammer hook for that.

A Veteran from One of the World Wars with a Hammer Attachment (left) and Captain Hook’s “Hammer Hook” from Jake and the Neverland Pirates (right)

Or maybe you want to play a game of golf… 

A Man Using a Prosthetic Attachment to Hold a Golf Club (left) and Captain Hook’s Golf Club Hook from Jake and the Neverland Pirates (right)

YUP! It’s real! (Okay, so the attachment is made to HOLD a golf club. It’s not a club itself…but the concept is the same.)

Ask anyone on the street to name a canonically disabled character, and there are a few who immediately come to mind—Daredevil, Professor X, Bucky Barnes, Geordi La Forge, and both Anakin & Luke Skywalker just to name a few. Hook should also make that list but ironically, even though his very NAME suggests his disability, it’s easy to forget that he is, in fact, an amputee.

In part, I think this is because historically, it has been intentionally glossed over in many film and TV versions. He is almost never shown without the iron claw attached at the end of his arm, and even the subject isn’t spoken about much in film. For example, in Spielberg’s 1991 film, Hook, and in Fox’s Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990-1991) we see a few shots of Hook sleeping in his bed and yet still wearing his prosthetic. Likewise, no matter how many times Disney’s (1953) Hook gets his clothes shredded by the crocodile, we never see his injured arm fully laid bare. (In fact, in the few shots where his left shirt sleeve has been torn off, the hook seems to be almost physically unable to be separated from his body. The skin simply stops near the wrist and then we have the iron base of the claw with no sort of harness to actually keep it in place.) Even when Peter begins to tell the story of how he cut off Hook’s hand to the mermaids, he barely gets a few words in before the audience’s attention is purposefully redirected to the captain himself in all of his glorious villainy so we don’t get to thinking too much about the fact that the entire reason he has that hook to begin with is because our hero seriously injured him. We aren’t meant to think of Hook as much beyond the stereotypical “scary amputee villain” character because if we examine him too closely, we’ll start to humanize him and risk asking questions that the filmmakers aren’t prepared to answer. (How did the hand loss occur? Was it a fair fight? Who started it? How much should we sympathize with Hook? How much should we trust Peter?)

More recent visual media has, however, made some improvements in this area. In particular, I’d like to take a closer look at two very different (but equally important) portrayals of Hook that have occurred in the last few decades—Jason Isaacs’ Hook (from P.J. Hogan’s 2003 Peter Pan) and Disney’s more recent spin on the captain in Jake and the Neverland Pirates (2011-2016).

Isaacs’ Hook—arguably the most Barrie-like incarnation we’ve seen on film—is introduced to us in a way unlike any other. He’s not standing proud out on the deck barking orders at his crew or strolling through the forest in search of Pan’s hideout (though we certainly see those moments later). Instead, our first glimpse of the captain shows us who he is underneath all the silk and ceremony—a troubled man pained both mentally and physically by the loss of his hand.

Looking disheveled, he wakes from a dream about Pan and slowly raises the injured arm for the audience to see. It isn’t the nice, smooth stump one would expect to see if a surgeon had performed the operation. Instead, it looks as though the hand had been crudely cut away. The skin is uneven and scarred. And while we aren’t meant to pity Hook here—the man can clearly take care of himself—we are supposed to see his humanity and recognize that he has experienced trauma. Suddenly, he isn’t just a villain anymore—he’s a person who not only experienced immense physical pain when he lost his hand but continues to experience discomfort daily when he dons the leather harness that must be wrenched tightly into place to keep the claw secure during battle.

It’s a brief scene overall, lasting only a few minutes, but it adds a lot to his character and the story as a whole. His disability isn’t the main focus but it is openly and respectfully acknowledged. This version of Hook—intended for older children and adults—shows us the darker, more complicated parts of the Captain in a way that hits unsettlingly close to home. Suddenly, his intense responses to the crocodile (and ticking) seem less comical and more akin to the PTSD response one might expect from a soldier who lost a limb in wartime from an explosion hearing fireworks go off.

Another more recent take on Hook that does a good job of normalizing his status as an amputee character is Disney’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates series. While many adult Hook fans have complained about the series making the character too silly, I believe that for the intended audience (pre-school kids), it actually does a great job of showing that disability isn’t something to be feared or made fun of. Taking their target audience into consideration, Disney did a lot in the Jake series to tone down Hook’s scarier elements both in terms of his personality (more of a bully with self-esteem issues than a truly dangerous villain) and his physical appearance (He is visibly less angular with more rounded edges to everything from his facial structure to the claw itself). In an interview, Corey Burton even explained how he vocally changes up a few things between his “traditional” Disney Hook sound and the voice he uses for Hook in the show. He also mentions in one interview that some people were concerned that “a guy with a hook for a hand might be too scary” for little ones, but the series makes it seem so natural that it really doesn’t feel like a big deal. While in the original film, we only see Hook changing out the claw once (for a fancier golden hook), in the Jake series, it happens so frequently that there is literally an entire episode (“Captain Hook’s Hooks”) that is focused on all the different attachments he has and includes a fun song about them.

Although some of the “hooks” are rather outlandishly imaginative and altogether improbable if not impossible in real life, there are many that DO mimic actual modern prosthetic attachments (a hammer, for instance, or attachments that allow for recreational activities like sports or fishing). In fact, the captain’s set of hooks are made out to be so interesting and fun that Disney Jr. actually had an online game called, “Ready, Set, Hook,” where the player had to help Hook and Smee choose the right prosthetic attachment to complete a set of challenges. What’s more, they even released a set of toy “hooks” for children so they could pretend to be the one-handed captain himself!

Jake’s version of Hook may not be the intimidating character we have come to expect, but he’s a likable guy with a cool set of hooks who bridges the gap in explaining physical disability and prostheses to young children. In the show, Hook doesn’t feel “other” for missing a hand; rather, switching out prosthetic attachments are so much a part of who he is that nobody thinks twice about it.

Oh, man, you haven’t heard my Disney spiel yet. So…listen…I know this is borderline crack-theory territory but…when I was little, my two favorite villains were Hook and Cruella. Because they and Jafar were always hanging out together in Disney clips, I sorta assumed they were all particularly close friends…maybe even a love triangle. That eventually morphed into a storyline where Hook and Cruella ended up together and, having found love, ultimately got their happily ever after and stopped being villains because they had better things to do. Jafar, meanwhile, became the primary villain in my headcanon storyline for them because he was angry about his two best friends “betraying” him. (Also…low-key kinda headcanon that Hook is distantly related somehow to King Stefan because Hans Conried was the live-action reference model for them both and originally did Stefan’s voice too before he was later replaced.)

But yeah, some villains he has just…NEVER liked. Even was he was a villain. Gaston just annoys the heck out of him because villain or not, he believes you don’t treat a lady like that. Ever. He would have been on Belle’s side even back in his villain days. And Frollo….yeah…. “My” Hook had an abusive father and would not have tolerated the way Frollo treats Quasimodo well. Also just…don’t use God as an excuse for your own revenge. Hook is obviously fine with revenge in his villain state but he doesn’t make excuses for it. And once again… DON’T. TREAT. WOMEN. LIKE. THAT. Hook will come after you. He’s a pirate but he’s also a gentleman. As a villain, he was fine with murder and betrayal and plenty of other questionable habits but not a guy trying to make a woman love him against her will.

After showcasing Japan’s expert ways of subverting expectations with designing characters, i decided to give it a shot too 😅, though I still tried to make them have the ‘’correct feel’’ of what characters they are supposed to be. I also switched Hook’s claw because there was a time where Disney legitimately gaslight me into thinking it was meant to be on the left hand and i felt nostalgic for that for some reason. My own attempt at subverting expectations, except the crocodile, as i can’t think of a way to subvert expectations regarding a crocodile given the many ways one can draw an animal. Plus, she’s there, always there…

The prosthetic hand created for Spanish Jackie played by Leslie Jones in Our Flag Means Death S1 (2022) - cre. David Jenkins

Make-up department head: Nancy Vincent Hennah

I'm sorry he's just so pretty.

Ooooh, man… Why you gotta keep giving me good fic ideas when I know good and well I don’t have time to write them all! 😂 (Just kidding, I am actually excited for the inspiration. I have been wanting to write again. Just didn’t have a good idea of WHAT. Now, actually having the TIME to write…. That’s another story.)

The woods carry sounds in their slow rhythms, sounds that only a heart can hear.

- Kira Jane Buxton

Short and chubby Hook.

And ones that are more clearly based on Disney;

Then we have an odd combination of the two with the Funky Fables Hook being short yet resembling Disney’s take

And then we have Japan Hook(s) who don’t seem to follow any sort of particular trend, like;

Lich Hook

This bow-tie wearing Hook who to me looks like he should be a villain in an 80s anime for kids, although he is also chubby.

And then we also have… this guy.

And honestly, for how shockingly utterly not James Hook looking he is, he’s at the Moment my favorite out of these; The complete anhiliation of canon, the insanity of his look, the fact it’s actually a really awesome design if you forget he’s supposed to be Jas. Hook, and the funny implications he’s among the more badass Hook(s)m with his eyepatch, peg leg and bandages giving the impression that he’s survived multiple battles that however took a troll on him, yet despite it all he remains absolutely jacked and able to stand on two feet despite the fact his hook is probably bigger than his head. And obviously, the sheer fact he possesses a huge serpent as a pet and keeps it coiled around him despite his overwhelming fear of the crocodile, which this version does not actually disregard, as ‘’Giant Hook’’ (Let’s call him that) is portrayed as becoming panicky and a wreck or either straight up freezing while incoherently mumbling to/repeating himself whenever he years the tick tick of the clock (like how the Funky Fables!Hook tends to respond to the crocodile first by freezing before shrieking ‘’CROC-CROCO-CROCODILE!!’’ at the top of his lungs and then ‘regressing’ into almost a scared child, being brought to tears at one point and hugging onto the leg of the big one of his bumbling henchmen duo as if he were with his mother).

Although I’m aware these designs may not get as positive of a response compared to mine given my very specific fascination for these things, I hope it could be a lil Interesting to look at regardless ✌️)