1001 Animations: Hercules

Show: Disney Animated Canon
Episode: N/A
Year: 1997

Writer(s): John Musker, Ron Clemens, Donal McEnery, Bob Shaw, Irene Mecchi, Kaan Kalyon, Kelly Wightman, Randy Cartwright, John Ramirez, Jeff Snow, Vance Gerry, Kirk Hanson, Francis Gelbas, Mark Kennedy, Bruce M. Morris, Doug Dougherty, Thom Enriquez

This is one of the most unusual entries in the Disney canon. While it made more than enough money in its theatrical release and easily tripled its budget, it did, however, underperform compared to its predecessors such as The Lion King and even The Hunchback of Notre Dame; it made less money than those films. And yet, it got its own TV spinoff prequel, which was pretty good. Now let's get to the film itself.

 

I LOVE Greek mythology! In fact, this movie is the reason for that. It introduced me to the gods of myth and legend such as Zeus, Poseidon and even Hades. Of course as an adult, I'm well aware that this movie is a bastardization of the source material. Beyond making Hades into Satan, of course, just to give you an example of how far apart this film is compared to The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Zeus is actually a loving and FAITHFUL FATHER compared to the crazed adulterous rapist he is in the myths. You can probably figure out the other differences yourself if you, y'know, read once a while, so I'm not going to bog this thing down as a comparison! Honestly, this movie is one of the few times where trying to make a less than admirable guy from myth into a pure hero works itself out.

 

When Funimation originally dubbed Dragon Ball Z, they altered Goku's personality to make him seem a lot more openly heroic than he really was. In the original anime and manga, he's a selfish, gluttonous, book dumb hillbilly who only cares for a good fight and just so happens to fight villains to protect his loved ones. He cares more about a good fight above all else, but will fight to protect those he loves all the same. So he's a very flawed individual, not your typical SUPERMAN boy scout they made him in the dub. With Hercules, it's the only way they could really handle a guy who was tasked with fucking an ENTIRE STABLE of women to get at least one pregnant! He was manipulated into murdering his mortal parents in the original mythos.

 

I can perfectly understand why the Greeks hated this movie: it is a mockery of their great mythology; I am aware of this, but at the same time, I don't really mind even being a massive fan myself. Despite this, fluffing up a very adult mythology it in and of itself is a mature film for Disney. Megara is the type of woman who outright believes all men are rapists for example; she never says it but she comes CLOSE! Speaking of which, the way Hades manipulates her throughout the film comes off a lot like an abusive boyfriend taking advantage of his girl. Hades wants her to use her body to find Herc's weakness. And at no point is it really played for comedy, despite how funny this movie is.

 

That’s another thing: even though this thing Christianized Greek mythology, it does really well to balance its comedy and serious moments. Hades himself is my favorite Disney villain, and easily the most likable of the bunch. It comes not just from being voiced by James Woods, but being the perfect mix of suave and diabolical. Sure his plan isn't foolproof, even I could tell the flaws with simply using monsters to fight for him since he's IMMORTAL! But all the same, he's such a charmer it's hard to notice. And he's the closest thing we will get to James Woods playing The Joker. I really do understand Hercules' desire to be a true hero, to go the distance and give it his all! Sure he gets famous and beloved by everyone, but it takes more than fame to really be a hero; it takes sacrifice and being willing to do anything to help those in need.

 

I have to give credit to the art style here as well. It isn't as glorious as Aladdin, but it has a nice palette to it and the characters are very sleekly designed; the beginning where we see all the Gods on Mount Olympus have some of the best character designs from Disney, truly making them otherworldly and radiant, with color coding for identification! True, the CGI for the Hydra hasn't aged the best; but it’s still pretty scary! And they did actually put in some research to real Greek mythology for what it's worth, like referencing 9 of Herc's 12 labors in one way or another. I never would've guessed Scar was the Nemean lion; he really does make a very handsome throw rug!

 

I'm not the biggest fan of Gospel music, but the music they use here is really nice. I'm actually surprised Danny DeVito could sing so well! It kind of sucks Hades never got to have his own song, but at least I can remix it to Voltaire's "Land of the Dead". "Go the Distance" is a great song, but it isn't as good as Mulan's "I’ll Make a Man Out of You".

 

I am kind of disappointed they didn't use the fact that the Titans were essentially original gods and just made them generic elemental beings with a CYCLOPS among them, but they were merely pawns in Hades' scheme, so whatever. Still, I wanted to see Cronus. I get why mythology fans hate this movie, even as a Greek Mythology nerd myself, though I love this thing. Honestly, if this were a movie made for adults, I feel it could've been truer to the text and all, allowed to get away with all the sex and raunch they wanted because in the myths, it all had purpose to it. That's the only way you could explain James Woods being here, besides doing it for his kids, of course. Even though it isn't the best Disney film, I recommend you see this if you have the time and judge it for yourself. I've grown to accept that as its own thing, it's pretty good; Hercules isn't meant to be completely true to the Greek myths; it's just another interpretation, but a pretty well done interpretation all the same.

Hercules is owned by Disney.

1001 Animations is from

Regulas314