The best Peter Pan I ever saw was at the Barbican Theatre in London starring Joss Ackland as Hook, circa 1982 (I was seven). It kept all the darker edges and political incorrectness, Hook was properly menacing, and I swear to this day that was a real crocodile. A landmark childhood experience.

Peter Pan on the big screen hasn't fared so well, and much as I adore Spielberg as a director, Hook was a disappointment to me.

If you'll forgive me for quoting myself, here's what I wrote about Hook in this piece:

https://medium.com/fan-fare/ten-bad-films-by-ten-great-directors-59204ff5ca8

"It comes off as something of a mid-life crisis project, almost as though he’s having a tantrum about moving on to more grown-up projects, kicking and screaming: “I won’t make Schindler’s List! You can’t make me!”

If Spielberg wanted Hook to recapture the soaring spirit of E.T. then for the most part, he failed. Big names Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman do their best with the material, but I think a straighter adaptation of JM Barrie’s timeless classic would have suited Spielberg better. The opening section in London is atmospheric, with menacing Hook scratches on the wall after the children are abducted, but once the action shifts to Neverland, it all gets rather pantomime and lacking in menace, not to mention carefully politically corrected (no Indians here).

Maddeningly, there is one absolutely superb sequence in Hook, when Peter Pan remembers his childhood in flashback. It is frustrating because it briefly captures the Edwardian melancholy of the play and again hints at what might have been, had Spielberg stuck to the original story. On the plus side, the one genuinely outstanding element of Hook is John Williams’s score; one of his absolute best. The film is undeserving of it."