Mr. Smee

**Mr. Smee** is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 1953 animated feature film, *Peter Pan*. He is Captain Hook's loyal first mate, though his bumbling behavior often prevents him from being much help.

## Background

### Development

Unlike previous villain sidekicks, the filmmakers felt that Smee was the first sidekick to have a truly memorable part in the story. Animator Ollie Johnston was given the job to animate. Johnston once noted that Smee was one of his favorite characters to animate, as he wasn't just the villain's lackey, but a fully realized personality of his own in the story.

### Personality

“*Smee has that bumbling way about him. He’s always trying to keep up and wants to try to make everybody happy—like the Mom who wants everybody to stop fighting and be friends and make nice and for the world to be every color of the rainbow. But every once in a while, you’ll hear—and I try not to do it too often—that little edge of “Boy, this job is really hard and I am a little tired of it."*”
―Jeff Bennett, the current voice actor of Smee
In spite of serving a feared captain and being part of a crew of brutal pirates, Mr. Smee is, ultimately, a kind-hearted character. Even though he makes attempts to perform villainous acts, his gentle nature often gets in the way of this; his ultimate agenda usually focusing around keeping peace and some form of stability within Captain Hook's life.

Overly eager to please, Smee can easily be described as a chronic bumbler and appears to have minimal intelligence, overall. Because of this, he often annoys Hook and often finds himself facing the latter's wrath. While Smee clearly fears Hook, mostly as a result of his dangerous temper, he has shown to be outrageously loyal, to the point of unabashedly jumping into action to protect the captain, specifically from the jaws of the crocodile, who is surprisingly docile when dealing with Smee.

Aside from his loyalty and relationship with Hook, Smee was shown to have his own agendas throughout the original film, such as convincing Hook to leave Never Land as he, and the rest of the crew, long for the days of plundering the seven seas, which has been put to a halt as a result of Hook's obsession with killing Peter Pan. Notably, however, this stemmed from the harassment and threats from the crew, who saw Smee as a means to communicate with the captain, as the latter is far more tolerable of his first mate. Even so, Smee has shown to support the idea, for the "health and happiness" of the captain.

### Physical appearance

Smee is a diminutive, portly gentleman with an odd, hourglass-shaped head. He has shoulder-length, white hair (though the top of his head is bald) and thick, black eyebrows. His eyes are black and close-set, and they are often half-closed. His nose is round, large and pink, and the rest of his skin is slightly pink as well. In terms of attire, Smee wears what seem to be very simple, brown sandals, a short-sleeved shirt with alternating sky blue and white horizontal stripes and exposing his stomach, and teal shorts. He also wears half-moon glasses and a red stocking cap with a red pom-pom ornament on top.

## Appearances

### *Peter Pan*

Smee's first appearance was in the original *Peter Pan* movie. He is Captain Hook's first mate and henchman. However, he initially doesn't seem to be much liked by the rest of the crew (though this may be solely due to their boredom from the captain's obsessive hunt for Peter Pan over actual pirating and that bullying Smee is merely to pressure him into personally convincing Hook to give up the search). At the beginning of the film, Smee comes out of the cabin, he wishes the Crew a good morning, but they angrily grab him by the shirt and tell him that there's nothing good about the morning because they're stuck on the island of Neverland and not pirating. Wishing to give up the quest for Peter Pan, they bully Smee into trying to persuade their Captain to comply with their demands to go back out to sea again (even though Smee himself was already wanting to give up the quest for the same reasons). Smee fails to help Hook forget about his obsession with Peter Pan so that the crew can go to sea like they wish. When Tick-Tock the Crocodile appears, Captain Hook becomes frightened and begs Smee to save him from the creature. Smee shoos off the animal and decides to soothe Hook with a shave. Soon, Peter appears with the Darling children, and Hook orders Smee to gather the crew for an attack.

Smee is later seen rowing a rowboat with Captain Hook and a captive Tiger Lily past the Mermaid Lagoon as they make their way to Skull Rock. Smee is fooled by Peter's imitation of Hook and begins to free the Indian Princess, before being corrected by the real Hook. As Hook uncovers Peter's identity, Peter offers Smee a pistol with the dare of trying to hit him. He misses, and instead, Smee apparently hits Hook. Hook, however, turns out to be alive, much to Smee's joy, but Smee is forced to rescue Hook when he is being attacked by the crocodile. Captain Hook jumps onto Smee's rowboat and orders Smee to row for the ship before falling back into the water. Smee rows back to Jolly Roger himself, leaving Hook to frantically swim away from the pursuing crocodile.

At some point, Smee learns of Tinker Bell's banishment through the talk from the crew and suggests to a now despondent Hook that they leave. His reasoning is that "an island with women trouble is no place for a respectable pirate". This gives Hook the idea to play on Tinker Bell's jealousy of Wendy. Smee captures Tinker Bell, and Hook is able to convince the fairy to reveal Peter Pan's hiding place (with help from a drunken Smee). Smee then accompanies Hook and assists in the capture of the children. During the final battle, Smee quietly attempts to escape by going aboard a rowboat. As he lowers himself and the rowboat onto the sea, the rest of the pirate crew fall on the rowboat. He is last seen calling for Captain Hook, who swims past them as he tries to flee from the crocodile.

### *Return to Never Land*

Smee is first seen reluctantly joining Hook and the pirates to London. There, they kidnap who they believe is Wendy, but is actually her daughter Jane, and rushes back to Never Land. Once there, Smee pulls out a bucket of chum to lure a giant octopus to devour "Wendy". The entire plan was to lure Peter Pan which it does. Peter battles the octopus and is believed dead. Unlike Hook, Smee is saddened by the sight of Peter's apparent death. Right after, Peter returns and Captain Hook is attacked by the octopus, Smee attempts to save the captain but the captain escapes himself and orders Smee to fix the plank so he can make him walk it.

Later on, Smee is giving Hook a massage to calm his nerves but a run in with the octopus prevents this. Smee successfully shoos the creature away and calms the captain. Smee then joins Hook to Never Land to find Peter. Smee openly complains and admits he's tired of searching the island but silenced by the menacing Hook. Later on, Smee and Hook advise a plan to capture Peter and reclaim their treasure.

At the final battle, Smee battles Tinker Bell to save Hook but is thrown overboard. Smee and the pirates then swim away in fear when the octopus envisions them as fish.

### *House of Mouse*

Smee has received numerous cameos alongside Captain Hook in the television series *House of Mouse*.

In "Ask Von Drake" Smee is shown placing the Captain's hook onto his arm.

In the episode "Donald Wants to Fly", Smee can be seen witnessing Donald's (with Hook cowering behind him) flight and cheering for the latter when he finally gains the ability through Peter Pan's help.

In the episode "Super Goof", Smee stole Scuttle's telescope and gave it to Hook to observe Super Goof flying.

In "Pluto vs. Figaro", Hook feared he was under attack, causing himself and Smee to launch a cannon, which landed in Goofy's mouth.

In "Goofy's Menu Magic", when the club was flooded with stew, Hook and Smee can be seen rowing a boat through the waves of stew.

Smee made a cameo in *Mickey's House of Villains*, as he helped the other villains take over the House of Mouse.

### *Jake and the Never Land Pirates*

Smee appears in the series as a secondary antagonist. In the show, Smee is bumbling, but a tad more clever and sensible.

Smee partakes in all of the Captain's schemes and, like Hook is foiled every time. Also despite being loyal, it is shown several times he does not actually enjoy his work. Aside from being Captain Hook's sidekick and best friend, he is also the Captain's cook as in the film and usually the cause of his ultimate failures. However, there was one occasion where Smee actually showed excitement in his work, the episode "The Sword and the Stone".

In spite of being on the villain side, Smee and the young pirates are on good terms ever since Smee teamed up with the "sea pups" to find Captain Hook. It is unknown how Hook feels about the alliance though when Smee thanked the pirates, Hook shouted: "Whose side are you on, Smee!"

Despite their different views of the "sea pups", Smee and Hook seem to be much closer, with a strong bond of both friendship and trust. Smee is always at Hook's side to offer both comfort and a voice of reason to his hot-headed Captain.

In the episode "Mr. Smee's Pet", he has a chameleon named Blinky.

Mr. Smee plays a larger role in the episode "Ahoy, Captain Smee!" where he is left in command of the *Jolly Roger* after Captain Hook gave up his title of captain and abandoned ship with Sharky and Bones, leaving Smee to deal with the sinking ship. Luckily, Jake and his crew were sailing nearby and decided to help. Izzy used her pixie dust to lift the *Jolly Roger* from the Never Sea allowing Smee to patch the hole. With the danger over, Hook, Sharky, and Bones returned aboard the Jolly Roger. Hook orders Smee to return his title as captain, but Mr. Smee shocks Captain Hook by deciding to remain as captain for a while. It wasn't until Hook saved Smee's life during a treasure hunt that the first mate decided to return Hook to commands.

Smee was also the center of the episode "Smee-erella", which introduced First-Mate Mollie, Smee's love interest.

### *The Pirate Fairy*

Smee makes a brief, special cameo at the end of the film set two decades before the events of the original *Peter Pan*, after James (the younger version of Captain Hook) meets his defeat at the hands of Tinker Bell and her Pixie Hollow friends. Smee is seen sailing on a ship where he spots James stranded in the middle of the NeverSea. After spotting the washed up captain, Smee compliments the hook he's carrying around (alluding the iconic hook he'll one day gain), to which James replies by furiously demanding Smee to rescue him. Being that Smee was absent during the rest of the movie, it is highly possible this is the moment in which he and Captain Hook meet for the first time. Unlike Hook, however, Smee's appearance hasn't altered whatsoever, revealing he's far beyond Hook in terms of age.

### Other appearances

Smee appeared in a cameo with Captain Hook at the end of the second episode of *Raw Toonage*, after Hook defeats Don Karnage in a sword duel to get his treasure. Smee is shown rowing the boat out to sea with Hook and the treasure.

## Trivia

* While appearing in the trailers for *Mickey's House of Villains*, Smee does not appear in the final film.
* Smee is the polar opposite of his boss; he is actually sweet and kind while Hook is hot-tempered and cruel.
* In the original story of *Peter Pan*, Smee was depicted with an Irish accent.
* In the original story, Smee was not Hook's first mate but rather the ship's bo'sun. The position of the first mate was held by Starkey.
* Mr. Smee's appearance in the first two *Epic Mickey* games was later used on the *Jake and the Never Land Pirates* episode, "Captain Scrooge".
* In the original novella, Smee named his cutlass "Johnny Corkscrew" because he wiggled it in the wound.
* Also in the original novella, Smee and another pirate named Starkly are the only pirates to not be killed by the Lost Boys. Smee retired from piracy, becoming a sea-side merchant.
* Mr. Smee became Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle Meets Peter Pan.*
* Mr Smee guest star to help his boss get his revenge on Thomas, Twilight and their friends.
* Mr. Smee also appears in *Norman and Spud's Treasure Hunt.*

## Gallery

Smee in Return to Never Land.Smee and Hook in House of Mouse.Smee as he appears in Jake and the Never Land Pirates.Smee in The Pirate Fairy.Smee with his captain, HookMr. Smee defeated again with Captain Hook and the other piratesMr. Smee with Jake, Izzy, Cubby, Skully, Captain Hook and Peter PanSmee with Sharky and Bones