Neverland – a Brutal Retelling of the Hook Origin Story

Before Wendy and her brothers, before the Lost Boys, there was Jim.  How Jim came to Neverland, we are not told (I like to imagine that he was rescued from a shipwreck by Neverland’s immortal inhabitant).  Speaking of which, the Peter Pan you will see here is hardly recognizable from his usual media representations.  Cute? Yes.  Psychotic? Absolutely. Here, his overriding desire is to rid the world of any adults that cross his path.

Unfortunately, time does not stand still and Jim has come to realize that instead of helping his friend hunt down grown-ups, he  is just about to become the hunted.  I will leave the rest to you to watch, but this is a hugely entertaining animated short, with action right from the very start, which only lets up for some brief moments of exposition. In other words, fantastic.

When Jim realizes that Peter's homicidal tendencies are about to be directed towards him, he knows that he must get away from his former friend as soon as possible.

You might have a certain ennui around Peter Pan and Captain Hook origin stories - they have been done - and done very well - by others.  However. this animation joins that pantheon of entertaining Pan multiverse retellings admirably.  It's short, punchy and will leave you breathless by the end - and longing for episode 2!

It’s amazing that this is a student film, from ESMA in France.  The artwork and animation is seamless and as well as the character animation I particularly liked the design of Hook’s ship, the Jolly Roger (see below). The story certainly explains Hook’s abiding hatred for Pan – an our sympathy is now unambiguously with him – up to a point. Although the victim, originally, it’s a shame that his adult response is one of revenge. However, if it wasn’t then there probably wouldn’t be much of a story here! 

Neverland was directed by Hortense Mba, Jean-Baptiste Ealet, Lola Raimbaud, Louis Xillo, Lucas Payet, Mario Latcher, and Thomas Godechot. The wonderful music is provided by Nicolas Jubert with voices by Juliette Cayette and Lily Mulheran.  Great work from the sound artists, too - José Vicente, Guilhem Favard, Tristan Le Bozec, Mickaël Merrheim, Yoann Poncet.  I can envisage long and successful careers in the animation industry for all of them.

Watch Neverland below…