Hercules (A Walt Disney Masterpiece) | Tate Donovan, Susan Egan

Hercules (A Walt Disney Masterpiece) | Tate Donovan, Susan Egan | SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD

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Hercules (A Walt D...

	Hercules (A Walt Disney Masterpiece) Tate Donovan, Susan Egan Walt Disney Home Video, 1998 average customer review:based on 170 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Disney Cartoon

Great Music (From Zero to Hero is my favorite) and Fun Story. A must have on any Disney DVD Collection

SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD

This movie has to be one of my all time favorite movies. The music is amazing and the voices are really good. I'd definately recomend this movie to anyone. It's a must-buy or at least a must-see.

A Legend from the Disney Point of View

At this point the Disney animation juggernaut started to show signs of definite weakness. The Little Mermaid revitalized classic animation. Beauty and the Beast took animation to an all time high, the only animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. Aladdin set box office records and became the second animated film to win the Best Picture, Musical or Comedy Golden Globe. Then The Lion King smashed all records. But after that it's been down hill. (Box office that is not quality.)

Keeping with success, Alan Menken was hired to write the music but they were looking for a new lyricist and choose David Zippel who took Broadway by storm with City of Angels and what a great choice.

Running out of good fairy tales, Disney went to Greek mythology and the legend of Hercules. Now this follows the Greek myths as well as many of the animated fairy tales did. (Which means not very well.)

Trying to make the movie hip like Aladdin, they created a Greek Chorus (Lilas White, Roz Ryan, LaChanze, Cheryl Freeman and Vaneese Thomas), that resembled the Supremes or En Vogue, to be musical narrators of the film. The film's plot is about Hades taking over Olympus.

The film begins with Zeus (Rip Torn) and Hera (Samantha Eggar) having a son, Hercules. Down in the underworld, Hades (James Woods) is planning his revenge on Zeus but the fates tell Hades that his plot would be foiled by Hercules. The only way for Hades' plan to succeed is to eliminate Hercules but you can't kill a god. So Hades sends two minions, Pain and Panic (Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer) to poison Hercules and make him mortal. But as it happens, they get interrupted and Hercules is part human and part god. But to live on Olympus, you must be all god.

Baby Hercules is raised by a local farmer. Hercules grows up and realizes his extraordinary strength but cannot control it. This makes Hercules an outcast in town and he sets out on his own (Go the Distance). When he arrives at the Temple of Zeus, he finds out his history. He also finds out the only way to become a god again is to perform a selfless act of heroism.

So Hercules sets out to be trained by a famous Centaur, Philocetes (Danny Devito). The reluctant Phil takes Hercules on. After he is ready, Herc and Phil set out to make Herc a hero. He quickly goes from "Zero to Hero". Hades quickly notices that Hercules is not mortal and decides to distract him with another minion, the beautiful Megara.

Hercules saves Megara (Susan Egan - Belle of Beauty and the Beast) and falls for her but Meg feels "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" (This is the best song in the show and should have been nominated for an Oscar). Now that Hercules is distracted, Hades moves forward with his plan and releases the Titans to invade Mount Olympus. In the deal Meg is killed but Hercules cannot release her so he goes to the sea of souls to rescue her soul.

As this is a Disney film, you know that all ends up happy but this whole film is done for the fun of it and so a happy ending is acceptable.

This film is a cross between classic and modern. Hades is like a talent agent and when Hercules becomes a hero he is marketed.

DVD EXTRAS:
Music Video - No Importa La Distance by Ricky Martin

Making of Hercules featurette - This is a featurette that is about the making of the film from the voice cast to the music by Menken to the artists who created the characters and the film's directors and producers. What makes this different from the typical "Making of" featurette is it goes behind the animation process and gives you insights to the process.

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This movie is one of the kids...... Favorites

Although I know I have heaped praise on several other Disney films...this film could have been better. Overall, I thought it was entertaining but there were several elements I disliked.

First off the Greek gods were simply hideous, save perhaps for Zeus and Hades (who's was designed to be hideous and was nevertheless, well-rendered), as was baby and teen Hercules. I mean, I'm aware this is a cartoon but for these characters, caricature was overwrought and grotesque to the point of distraction (especially the baby).

Secondly, this just wasn't as funny as certain other Disney films. I found the humor rather flat and meant for the 7-13 year old crowd (or thereabouts). My kids enjoyed it especially my daughter (7). The fact that Disney wasn't faithful to the myth doesn't, in itself, bother me; in fact, I can't fault them for it. For a film designed for general audiences, Hercules can't be a love child and there can be no mention of Zeus's wife Hera (Herc's mom in this movie) being Zeus's sister, (which of course she's most likely not in the movie). Despite this, I feel there might've been better ways to skirt around these issues and still make an entertaining movie. Again Hades is cool and remember able villain, also because of course of James Woods, who excellently voiced him. The love story of this story was disappointing also. The movie is filled with some nicely done action sequences though.

Lastly, there was an air of frivolity around this movie that I couldn't get over; a feeling that it was just a bit too goofy and wasn't taken near seriously enough.

Although it's far from being the best Disney movie and perhaps maybe even the worst Disney of the nineties, I still love some of the elements in this movie. The action is one of them. Don't expect an animated masterpiece but expect an enjoyable movie instead. Let it simply entertain you! All in all, I consider it neither as terrible as some seem to, nor as great as others apparently do.

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