Jake and the Neverland Pirates: Guys! Hook is Ballin'!!!

 

So I watched Jake and the Neverland Pirates back in 2021. I'm not afraid to admit that it kind of fuzzies my opinion of the shows as I make retrospectives of them. That, and I only watch 13 episodes unless I like it a whole bunch. 

It always seems like such a more interesting show than it actually is. People sing its praises, and its Disney Junior's first original. We finally got to the era where we start getting lore in our baby shows. In this show, Jake becomes Captain Jake, and not much else really happens. We meet a lot of characters, but the ones I ended up meeting I wasn't too keen on, except the Ariel Winter mermaid.

5:50 PM · Apr 1, 2021 "thsi fucking baby mermaid is obsessed with surfing"

I can't really say much about the show's lore and minor characters, but I can say a bunch about the characters from the original story, particularly Hook and Smee.

11:08 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "are hook and smee... boy best friends????"

(Also, if you guys want like, a four and a half hour analysis on baby shows that is way better than what I have to discuss, you should totally check out this video by The Wacky Delhi. Has a lot of good info in it, and it talks about Sofia the First and Lion Guard too, which we've discussed here in varying amounts of detail.)

Anyway, the reason I specifically talked about the time I watched these outside the tweets is because I watched the actual film Peter Pan earlier this year with a good friend as sort of a Hans Conried movie marathon, which, in case you are not aware of the films Hans Conried has been in, basically means we really just sat through absolute dogshit. It's fine though we were stoned as fuck.

But yeah. Peter Pan is not a good movie. I do not need to tell you this. But it does make me understand why they'd make a cartoon with Hook and Smee in it. They're objectively the best characters in Peter Pan. Hook, like many of Hans Conried's characters, has this absolute perfect mix of sleazy and pathetic that all the tumblr girlies were talking about last year. Meanwhile Smee serves as the cheerful and relaxed foil to Hook's hotheaded impatience.

Of course, it's not quite as intense in Jake and the Neverland Pirates (some of Hook's more fierce moments are replaced with that sort of villainous manchild nature common in Disney's baby shows), but the relationship is still fun to watch.

Also the voice acting is just. Amazing... Naturally Hans Conried and Bill Thompson have been dead for 3-4 decades at this point, but. Man. Idk I just have a lot of respect for voice actors who are able to do amazing impressions. That kind of stuff inspires me a lot.

10:58 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "corey burton's impressions are impeccable... you ought to get an ear for that he can do a crazy good hans conried impression"
10:59 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "this is all i am going to talk about"
10:59 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "i didnt realize it was jeff bennett playing smee he does an amazing job as well."

Another thing I really enjoy is the modernization of the characters. They aren't necessarily "hip" with the times, but they have a sort of more modern humor to them.

11:12 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "i do enjoy hook having stuff instead of his hook there i think that's just really fun"

Look at him. He's literally ballin.

Genuinely though, I think one of my favorite episodes of this show was the season 1 episode "Off the Hook," which had a skateboard wash up on the Neverland shores, and Captain Hook learning what the hell this wheely rolly thing (the actual terminology) is.

And like. It makes sense, considering skateboards came about after the novel of Peter Pan!

8:11 PM · Mar 28, 2021 "kind of obsessed with the terminology "wheely rolly thingy""
10:22 PM · Mar 28, 2021 "i am rotating hook on a skateboard in my mind. greatest image"

 

 

 

 

 

10:23 PM · Mar 28, 2021 "does captain hook know what memes are"
10:23 PM · Mar 28, 2021 "probably not. he doesnt know what a skateboard is."

And even though I don't like the other characters, there is some appeal in seeing Peter Pan show up.

4:06 PM · Mar 30, 2021 "PETER PAN IS SINGING AN EMO SONG????"

 And even the Darling children show up in an episode where Captain Hook steals the book of Peter Pan, which is magical and contains the memories of their adventures in Neverland.

6:31 PM · Apr 6, 2021 "WENDY WROTE A FUCKING BOOK ABOUT PETER PAN AND IS READING IT TO HER BROTHERS A LA FUCKING.... ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS...."

 

 

 

 

 

6:33 PM · Apr 6, 2021 "so the plot of this TWO PARTER EPISODE is that hook wants to destroy a book
u would presume this is a magical book but no it's just a regular book written by a child that makes him look bad."
6:47 PM · Apr 6, 2021 "these kids just have really shit memory."
6:51 PM · Apr 6, 2021 "the book is magical actually i just want to imagine they're foolish"

 Unfortunately... It gets a little old. 

6:03 PM · Apr 1, 2021 "honestly the appeal of having captain hook in the cartoon has finally started to bore me"

And other than Hook and Smee, none of that is really important. This show is about Jake and his Pirate Crew (two other kids and their bird friend), who were entrusted to protect Neverland by Peter Pan himself, so you know these pirates are GOOD!!! And they also solve problems for money.

11:09 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "this show is a little capitalist i think"
2:01 PM · Mar 27, 2021 "ngl i was expecting more kids on jakes pirate crew. there's only 3 including jake. idk i want everything to be an ensemble comedy"
8:16 AM · Mar 29, 2021 "The principles of jake and the neverland pirates are infuriating they’re pirates but they’re good people. If you are a pirate you have to suck at least a little. Come on. Also the pirate problems don’t sit right with me"

And I guess that means it's time to ah... Address the elephant in the room. I don't usually like to talk about parts of a show that are commonly discussed unless I have something constructive to add to them, but...

"Good Pirates Don't Steal" was something of a mantra as I watched this show. My friend Tabs, who had watched a lot of this show as well, was particularly bothered by it, and the show really does go into this theme of "Good Pirates Don't Steal." It's really interesting to see these upstanding members of society in this sort of lawless world. But it's also a saccharine kids world, so like. Whatever. Let's talk about the other pirates.

11:23 AM · Mar 27, 2021 "there's a live action segment at the credits where two pirates just sing a song."

 

This show is filled to the brim with pirate shanties, which I think would be well appreciated by any shanty fans, and they're all done by these guys, Captain Bogg and Salty, known as Sharky and Bones in universe. I don't really have much to say about them but I do like that they got pirate themed children's entertainers to do the music for their show. Also a friend of mine knows them, which is pretty cool. Love having indirect connections to famous people.

The show had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, the bit got old a bit too quick... And it's not the most memorable of shows. At the very least, it's still better than the source material.

Overall Rating for Jake and the Neverland Pirates: D Tier