Sort of ironic when you consider that Peter Pan was way in the avant garde of male bashing. In fact the crushing dominance of the father figure was the driver of the whole fantasy.
Well, I guess we don't have to worry about that anymore!
The Dustin Hoffman Captain Hook version of Peter Pan came around the time of my divorce.
I think you make a decent point about the father being the original villain, but I came to see the father in a different light. It was one, I thought very insightful in that movie.
Traditional fathers did work long hours, spend less time with their kids, and probably let those kids down more than they should have. It was the role fathers were raised to play.
They devoted themselves to their vocation, increased their wages as they could, and above all, provided for the family. The relationships with the children were at times more or less relegated to the mother. And part of the mother’s duty was to explain to the kids that dad loved them, but worked hard to provide for them, and was thus an honorable man.
The separation or dissatisfaction of the boy with his dad, and the replacement of his father with Captain Hook, was a classic turn of events. His father in the end drops everything else, and risks it all to save his son. The re-establishment of that connection, can be seen as a very positive model for how young men sometimes are alienated from their fathers, but come to understand them later in life, and reconnect.
During a time in my life where I was having a tough time regarding severely cutback access to my kids, somewhat of a normal things for dads, I actually found the relationships within this movie to be sort of a study of men’s relationships, and that there is hope when all seems lost.