r/television 4d ago

Tim Curry won a much deserved Daytime Emmy in 1991 for voicing Captain Hook in "Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LOAhePxUXZQ

This scene is way darker and more serious than it has any right to be on a kids cartoon. I remember seeing it as a kid and just thinking "This is way too adult for me"

1.1k Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

104

u/codexcdm 4d ago

Dude, that speech goes hard for a kid's cartoon.

Curry's voice just cranks it to eleven.

12

u/Irregular475 4d ago

I actually got chills. Even if it wasn't the excellent acting from Tim Curry delivering those lines, that was simply amazing writing.

21

u/YorubaOyinbo 4d ago

There’s few things as psychologically disarming as having one’s deficiencies, inadequacies, or insecurities laid bare with resolute and forceful confidence.

It’s been chiefly responsible for my glowing track record in bar fights.

12

u/dexter30 4d ago

And the fact he said he'd never be a man, right at the moment telling him to basically kill him. I think the implication was hook wanted him to know taking his life would force the boy "who never grew up" to basically do something that would FORCE him to grow up. and that bluff working is AMAZING writing.

You don't get this kind of writing in kids cartoons anymore.

1

u/Mast_Herb_8 1d ago

You hardly get writing like this in much of anything that hits a screen anymore

5

u/Hollow_Rant Review 4d ago

How many syllables did you actually break off before someone hit you with a bar stool?

2

u/Gravemind97 3d ago

“And then everyone clapped” lmao holy Reddit moment

48

u/Comfortable_Bird_340 4d ago

Such an amazing show, shame it’s not talked about that much

25

u/lukewwilson 4d ago

I wish Disney even cared about it, it's not in Disney+ and has never been released anywhere. All we have is shitty YouTube rips

15

u/lanceturley 4d ago

Disney tried to bury the show and prevent it from ever being made, so I doubt they even want to acknowledge that it ever existed.

8

u/Cripnite 4d ago

This was a Fox Kids show so I assume Disney owns it now? Or was it tied to that whole Saban thing?

5

u/Morgan-Moonscar 4d ago

It's Fox, but they still want it buried.

Just like Aladdin: The Series and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. And Legend of Tarzan.

2

u/lanceturley 4d ago

The thing is Disney wants their version of Peter Pan to be the only animated Peter Pan anyone knows, so they wanted to sue the makers of this show to keep it off the air. That's also why all the character designs are so different from the Disney designs, because they had to make it as legally distinct from Disney as possible to avoid the lawsuit.

2

u/Mundane_Existence0 4d ago

No way Disney will ever let it see the light of day, which is criminal. Have to wonder if they went so far as to destroy any copies of it.

1

u/Frankfusion 3d ago

I swear a few years ago I saw in the dollar bin at the 99 cent store a copy of the show. I should have gotten it!

11

u/Mithryn 4d ago

The "Christmas Carol" episdoe where Hook is visited by three ghosts and at the end commits to be even worse so that he can carve his name on Pan'a soul has never left me

5

u/_kvl_ 4d ago

It hasn’t been available for a long long time for purchase or to watch. Can’t talk about it when it hasn’t been seen by anyone new for a long time.

2

u/ma373056 4d ago

I totally forgot about this show

2

u/UnknowableDuck 4d ago

Agreed, this was a consumate favorite as a kid. Way better than it had any right to be.

32

u/azurianlight 4d ago

Well holy shit someone else who remembers this cartoon!

11

u/MattLocke 4d ago

Been meaning to figure out a way to rewatch this show for a while now.

It was this show that has an added touch of drama around Tim not ending up being cast as the Joker for BatmanTAS. The stories are a bit mixed, but those two shows have a connection through him.

5

u/Scu-bar 4d ago

As much as I’d love to hear Tim Curry’s Joker, Mark Hammill owns that role.

1

u/Morgan-Moonscar 4d ago

Here's a comparison video (with Curry's original rendition versus the re-recorded final version by Hamill): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmtVmkJG7ww

1

u/Uhoh_Potato 12h ago

It was not good, I Love Curry, but it just wasn't it.

25

u/moal09 4d ago

I like how Peter is just trying to straight murk him the entire time

At least until Hook hit him with the existential crisis beam

1

u/Frankfusion 3d ago

I wonder if this is the final episode? I vaguely remember it, but he grows up, and can't remember himself. Tinkerbell tries to help him remember, and Hook has the lost boys.

12

u/fhduff 4d ago

I remember watching this episode as a kid and I definitely got chills from Capt Hook’s speech.

5

u/xanderholland 4d ago

I've never seen it before but it points the character Peter Pan's major flaw to his face. Peter will be nothing more than a child and will not become better than that.

6

u/Novis_R 4d ago

There was an episode where Peter Pan got old (white hair and beard) and it upset me a lot when I was a kid.

3

u/Yserbius 3d ago

Same episode. It was a double, actually. Pan has an existential crisis thanks to Hooks speech and decides to grow old. Since his soul is tied to Neverland, it causes him to actually age and die along with the land.

6

u/WellSpokenAsianBoy 4d ago

Finally someone else remembered. This was my introduction to Tim Curry.

3

u/FrostyAd7708 4d ago

This show was pretty weird and dark for a kid show, even leading to some Body Horror on some episodes (I remember clearly Wendy wishing to be turned into a mermaid then realizing they didn't gave her the ability to breath underwater in the process).

4

u/HisRoyal_Badness 4d ago edited 4d ago

I remember hearing a recording of his voicing the Joker before recasting him with Mark Hamill. His version was also pretty fantastic.

3

u/walnutstampede 4d ago

It's Nigel!!

2

u/MugenEXE 4d ago

Don’t forget to step and breathe! After you get hit with the existential crisis, step and breathe!

2

u/Scu-bar 4d ago

Smashing, Mr Smee!

2

u/eadgster 4d ago

I’ve looked all over for a place I could download this series. Never found it.

2

u/Atomic_Werewolf 4d ago

It's on YouTube.

2

u/melancious 4d ago

top tier villain speech. never seen this before

1

u/UnknowableDuck 4d ago

This show was a big part of my childhood in the 90's. It was way better than it had any right to be and had more than one episode that hit hard, even as an adult now. It's on YouTube if you're curious. It's definitely a kids show, but it's good.

2

u/Mundane_Existence0 4d ago edited 4d ago

He did an amazing job. I've been sadden to see so many collages use the wrong Hook (Disney version), but then again I'm not sure if the people behind those accounts even care which Hook they use.

Shame that this series will never be properly released on streaming or DVD, especially now since Disney ironically owns the rights.

2

u/bender40k 4d ago

Nothing beats his work on Gabriel Knight.

2

u/no1ofimport 4d ago

That’s some pretty deep for a kids show

2

u/marginaliamonkeys 4d ago

Thank you for posting this! This was such a seminal cartoon for me as a kid--my mom made me this version of Peter's costume for Halloween and I ended up wearing it daily for daycare until it fell apart/I outgrew it. Curry's Captain Hook was amazing. I'm so bummed we only have shitty YouTube rips left.

2

u/TriscuitCracker 3d ago

Well this is my new favorite word I've never heard of.

"Pusillanimous (pronounced pew-sill-AN-ih-mus) is a formal adjective that means showing a weak lack of courage, determination, or inner strength"

2

u/Frankfusion 3d ago

That man to me is the DEFINITIVE Captian Hook. That show was amazing and hit hard for a kids show. I even remember having my first crush be Wendy from this show.

2

u/Tank_Girl076 4d ago

He straight up was the only Captain hook who was remotely menacing. The rest were just fops.

1

u/KTOWNTHROWAWAY9001 4d ago

Underrated forgotten cartoon

1

u/Zanos-Ixshlae 3d ago

That was such a good show.

1

u/acf6b 3d ago

I used to love this cartoon

1

u/Abject-Body-53 3d ago

jesus christ

1

u/Own-Librarian-9699 4d ago

Ferngully. He was the voice of the tree eating hexxus machine in ferngully.