Hercules

1997 mythology cartoon

Rating: 15/20 (Abbey: 10/20; Emma: 13/20; Buster: 2011/20 [Best movie ever!])

Plot: Hades gets word that Zeus's kid might get in his way when he's trying to take over the universe and sends his thugs to take away the titular future-hero's immortality and do away with him. They screw it up because one of them is Bobcat Goldthwait. Hercules grows into a young adult, finds himself a satyr to train him, meets a girl, and starts ridding Greece of treacherous monsters. But Hades might have one last trick up his sleeve.

I'm really not sure about the fiery Baptist music in this. Sure the movie needs a Greek chorus, but that "Gospel truth" stuff didn't really seem to fit. Actually, I'm not sure I liked any of the songs and none of them are memorable save for the lively "Zero to Hero" sequence. The animation style is a vibrant combination of old and new and seems to preview the look and tone of the superior and more cohesive Emperor's New Groove which came out a few years after this one. Olympus looks cool, and the gods and goddesses are all sorts of shiny and colorful. I'm not sure who gave the animators the go-ahead to give Zeus such wacky nipples, and I'm not sure whose idea it was to make Rip Torn the King of the Gods, but it is cool how he goes three-quarters when he hurls those lightning bolts. I did like their decision to make Danny DeVito's character Philoctetes look exactly like Danny DeVito but was confused about why that character was sans nipples. He's a good character. At first, I wondered if he was necessary or just a way to pass time like that stupid snowman in Frozen, but without DeVito, we wouldn't get that Karate Kid reference in this thing. And references to Mr. Miyagi always make things better. I didn't really like how Hercules himself looked, especially the in-between age one with the humongous calves and normal-looking everything else. The character moves and seems to have a lot of the same facial expressions as Aladdin, doesn't he? "Meg" (Why's she named that anyway? Shouldn't she be Persephone?) has beautiful animated curves and maybe the best hair of any female Disney character. And there's some cleavage. I think I recall this movie not doing very well, and it was probably because we're a Christian nation. Christians don't like other deities, and they definitely don't like cleavage. It's a double whammy of sin. They do seem to like stories about bad guys trying to kill babies though. Meg gives a great example of bad cartoon character acting when she starts crying at one point, but I'm not sure how Christians feel about bad acting. Of course, everybody (as in, you guys) was right about the Hades character. He is a great villain, kind of a concoction of other Disney villains in a way. I'd probably put him right before the Queen of Hearts on my villain list a few posts ago. James Woods gives him a presence and this unexpected personality. I like his eyes, the yellow drooping eyes of a villain who is kind of tired of all this shit, and the blue fire hair that turns into angry fire when he's pissed, the scrawny fingers, and the pointy teeth fit the Lord of the Underworld perfectly. And I like how the Disney folk were willing to go a little dark with the character. Shape-shifting sidekicks Pain and Panic are fun, too, and both Bobcat and Matt Frewer give the characters personality. I think I like my villain sidekicks more on the bumbling side. I also liked how the mortals were drawn and the shapes of their body parts, comically exaggerated caricatures to distinguish them from the deities. Their absurd pointed noses, their flab, their gnarled bits, their stretched necks. There's just so much variety and color to all of this. And I love the backgrounds, bits of sky almost reminding me of the rotoscoped backgrounds in Wizards. And how cool is that whirlpool of souls? There's a dark Disney image for you, something that could have come straight out of Fantasia. The animation never feels like it has a consistent voice, but it always keeps you on your toes, especially during the action scenes with all the flying around, the stomping hulking Titans, the monsters, comic destruction. Man, I loved how the Hydra moved around. I was digging it when it just had a single head, but things got really cool when it had fifty or however-many. I'm not sure I liked that Pegasus sidekick of Hercules though. The gags are hit and miss, as are the anachronisms--5,000,001 served, references to indoor plumbing ("It's gonna be big."), a mythological high five, Zeus called "Mr. Hey You Get Off of My Cloud," the wanna-buy-a-sundial guy, all the puns, and references to I Love Lucy, Midnight Cowboy, Marilyn Monroe, Nike Air Jordans (too easy)--but there are definitely some funny moments. Some of it's groan inducing, but it does keep things lively and unpredictable. And the "small underworld after all" was nice. This was much better than I expected it to be, and a lot more fun. Even if you don't like the characters, the conflict, the songs, or the animation, you'll still have a fun enough time trying to catch all the mythological allusions stuffed in there. I wonder if Disney ever had plans to explore the stories of the other characters in this world?