Hercules (1997 film)

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Hercules is a 1997 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 14, 1997. The thirty-fifth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, and stars the voices of Tate Donovan, Rip Torn, Susan Egan, Danny DeVito, James Woods, Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Frewer, Samantha Eggar, Josh Keaton, Lillias White, Paul Shaffer and Charlton Heston. The movie depicts the adventures of Heracles (known in the movie by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology. The storyline also draws inspiration from The Karate Kid and Rocky.

Though Hercules did not match its predecessors, it still took over $99 million in domestic revenues [1] and over $252,700,000 worldwide. The movie was later followed by Hercules: The Animated Series, focusing on Hercules during his time at the Prometheus academy and Hercules: Zero to Hero, a direct-to-video movie.

1 Summary
2 Overview
3 Plot
4 Credits
- 4.1 Voice cast
5 Crew
6 Annie Awards
7 Soundtrack
- 7.1 Awards and nominations
8 Anachronisms
9 Pop-culture references within the film
10 External links

[edit] Summary

A god, mortalized by Hades and his minions as an infant, tries to find what it takes to be a true hero in order to regain immortality and his rightful place among the gods.

[edit] Overview

In the film, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera. In the Greek myth, Heracles (or Herakles) is the son of Zeus and a mortal, earth-born woman, Alcmene. Alcmene and her husband, Amphitryon, appear in the Disney's Hercules version, as Hercules's "foster parents".

Hades, voiced by James Woods, is cast as the villain. This idea is similar to that of the Hades of the Marvel Universe, who wanted to overthrow Zeus and was an ambitious, scheming god. In the movie Hades is a fast-talking, manipulative deal maker with a fiery (literally) temper, who hates his job as lord of the underworld and plots to overthrow Zeus.

Disney took considerable liberties with the "Hercules" myths, since some of the original material and characters were deemed inappropriate for younger viewers by the Disney studios moral standards, such as Hercules being conceived through a god posing as a mortal woman's husband, and of his stepmother Hera's attempts to kill him. Disney also made use of stereotypes when designing the look of the characters, particularly the gods, such as depicting the Moirae as demonic hags (merging them with the Graeae), the Muses as five gospel-singing divas, and the Titans as brutish giants.

Due to the name's prominence in Western culture, they went with the Latin Hercules rather than the actual Greek Herakles (Ἡρακλῆς). In the series, the god Dionysus was also portraied with his Roman name, Bacchus.

The Disney version of Hercules has almost nothing to do with the Heracles myths, and should not be regarded as the actual stories about the mythological hero; rather, it is a spin on the character and the culture of ancient Greece. (The film does contain a brief reference to The Twelve Labors and other myths pertaining to the character, however, such as the Erymanthian Boar. In the movie, Hades sends these monsters to him, rather than their being encountered as they are in the myths). Some other Greek myths are appropriated, as well. One is the myth of Bellerophon, from which was taken the winged horse Pegasus and the scene where Hercules is swallowed by the Hydra (for Perseus it was the dragon Cetus) and cuts his way out. Another is the myth of Orpheus, who goes to the underworld to try to bring back his love, Eurydice. The most obvious is when Hercules is fighting a titanic battle with the Hydra, a lizard-like monster who regrows three heads for every one severed. According to Apollodorus it regrows two heads instead of three. Many other myths are mentioned, like the ones of the Argonauts, Pandora's box, the Trojan War and the Gorgons (which Hercules says he had slayed)

Because noted British caricaturist Gerald Scarfe (who contributed the animated segments for the film adaptation of Pink Floyd's album "The Wall") designed the characters, the film has a quirky visual style unusual in recent Disney films.

[edit] Plot

The film begins with the five muses "Goddesses of the arts and proclaimers of heroes" telling the story (in "The Gospel Truth") of how the almighty Zeus came to power and prevented the monstrous Titans from ruling the world (loosely based on the mythology of Zeus overthrowing his father, Cronus, and the Elder Titans in the Titanomachy and imprisoning them in Tartarus). This leads to the day Hercules is born to Zeus and Hera, much to the pleasure of the other gods... all except Hades, who receives word from the Fates that Hercules will one day rise to power and prevent Hades from taking control of the world. He sends his minions, Pain and Panic (a duo reminiscent of Ares's mythological sons, Deimos (dread) and Phobos (fear)), to kidnap Hercules and feed him a potion that will strip him of his immortality; however, they are interrupted and, while Hercules becomes mortal, he retains his god-like strength (for the potion to fully work, Hercules had to drink every last drop, but missed one when they were interrupted).

Hercules grows up to be a misfit, challenged by his incredible strength and unable to fit in with other people. His adoptive parents finally tell him that he was once a son of the gods and that he must go to his father, Zeus ("Go the Distance"). Zeus tells him that he must prove himself a true hero before he can join the other gods on Mount Olympus. Along with his flying horse Pegasus, Hercules goes to Phil, an unhappy satyr who has failed to train a true hero yet; he decides to take on Hercules as his final attempt ("One Last Hope").

After training with Phil, the three of them attempt to save Meg, a damsel in distress, from Nessus, a centaur. A smitten Hercules barely succeeds and Meg returns to the forest, where she is revealed to have sold her soul to Hades in order to save her lover's life; her lover abandoned her and now Meg must do favours for Hades in order to avoid an eternity in the underworld. When Hades learns that Hercules is alive, he is enraged and plots to murder him again.

When Hercules tries to prove himself a Hero at Thebes, Hades sends the Hydra to kill him. After a lengthy battle, he prevails by using his strength to cause a landslide. He soon becomes a national, multi-million-dollar celebrity as a result ("Zero to Hero"). Realizing that his plans are jeopardized, Hades sends Meg out to discover Hercules' weaknesses, promising her freedom in return. Hercules is disappointed to learn from his father Zeus that he has yet to become a true hero, and then spends the day with Meg, who finds herself falling in love again ("I Won't Say I'm in Love"). When Hades intervenes, she turns from him, much to his dismay.

Phil learns of Meg's involvement with Hades and tries to warn Hercules, who ignores Phil and knocks him to the ground in an outrage. Discouraged, Phil leaves for home. Hades arrives along with a captured Meg and makes Hercules a deal: If he surrenders his strength for the next twenty-four hours, Meg will remain free of harm. After making the deal, Hades frees the Titans from their prison and sends them to attack Olympus; one Titan, however, is sent to kill Hercules but ends up hurting Meg. As a result, the deal is broken and Hercules' strength is returned. Hercules, along with Pegasus and Phil, saves Olympus from certain doom and Hades returns to the underworld. Meanwhile, Meg's thread of life is cut by the Fates due to her injuries, killing her.

Hercules arrives and demands for Meg to be revived, but Hades shows him that she is currently trapped in the River Styx, a river of souls where all the dead go. Hercules tempts Hades into trading his soul for Meg's, hoping to return Meg's body to the surface before he is killed within the river. Hercules jumps in and his lifeline is about to be cut by the Fates, but his amazing courage and willingness to sacrifice his life proves him a god, preventing the line from being cut, and he successfully returns Meg to the surface. Hades tries to talk his way out of the situation but Hercules punches him, knocking him into the Styx. The other souls grab him and pull him down into the stream.

Hercules revives Meg and goes to Olympus, but when Meg's entrance is denied, Hercules chooses to become mortal and stay on Earth with her. Hercules is acclaimed a hero on Earth and Olympus alike, Zeus creates a constellation in his image and Phil is remembered for being the one to train him ("A Star is Born").

[edit] Credits

[edit] Voice cast

Actor	Role
Tate Donovan	Hercules
Danny DeVito	Phil
James Woods	Hades
Susan Egan	Megara
Rip Torn	Zeus
Samantha Eggar	Hera
Bobcat Goldthwait	Pain
Matt Frewer	Panic
Josh Keaton	Young Hercules
Jim Cummings	Nessus Additional Voices
Paul Shaffer	Hermes
Hal Holbrook	Amphitryon
Barbara Barrie	Alcmene
Amanda Plummer	Clotho
Carole Shelley	Lachesis
Paddi Edwards	Atropos
Keith David	Apollo
Lillias White	Calliope, Muse of Epics
Vanéese Y. Thomas	Clio, Muse of History
Cheryl Freeman	Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy
LaChanze	Terpsichore, Muse of Dance
Roz Ryan	Thalia, Muse of Comedy
Charlton Heston	The Narrator
Wayne Knight	The Pottery Salesman

Singer	Role
Roger Bart	Young Hercules

[edit] Crew

Crew Position
Directed by	John Musker Ron Clements
Produced by	John Musker Ron Clements Alice Dewey
Written by	John Musker Ron Clements Bob Shaw Don McEnery Irene Mecchi
Songs by	Alan Menken David Zippel
Original Score by	Alan Menken
Associate Producer	Kendra Haaland
Art Director	Andy Gaskill
Production Designer	Gerald Scarfe
Film Editor	Tom Finan
Artistic Supervisors	Barry Johnson (Story supervisor) Rasoul Azadani (Layout supervisor) Thomas Cardone (Background supervisor) Nancy Kniep (Clean-up supervisor) Mauro Maressa (Effects supervisor) Roger L. Gould (Computer Graphics supervisor)
Artistic Coordinator	Dan Hansen
Supervising Animator	Andreas Deja (Adult Hercules) Randy Haycock (Young & Baby Hercules) Eric Goldberg (Phil) Nik Ranieri (Hades) Ken Duncan (Meg) Ellen Woodbury (Pegasus) Anthony DeRosa (Zeus & Hera) James Lopez (Pain) Brian Ferguson (Panic) Michael Show (The Muses) Dominique Monfrey (Titans & Cyclops) Richard Bazley (Alcmene & Amphitryon) Nancy Beiman (The Fates/Thebans) Oskar Urretabizkaia (Hydra)
Production Manager	Peter Del Vecho

[edit] Annie Awards

Result	Award	Winner/Nominee Recipient(s)
Nominated	Animated Theatrical Feature
Won	Individual Achievement in Producing	Alice Dewey (Producer) John Musker (Producer) Ron Clements (Producer)
Won	Individual Achievement in Directing	John Musker (Director) Ron Clements (Director)
Nominated	Individual Achievement in Character Animation	Ken Duncan (Supervising Animator - Meg)
Won	Individual Achievement in Character Animation	Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator - Hades)
Won	Individual Achievement in Effects Animation	Mauro Maressa (Effects Supervisor)

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack

[edit] Awards and nominations

"Go the Distance" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, but lost both to Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On."

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes One Last Hope on the purple disc, and I Won't Say I'm in Love on the orange disc. And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes I Won't Say I'm in Love on the blue disc and Go the Distance on the green disc.

[edit] Anachronisms

Many events of Greek mythology are mentioned by the various deific characters within the film in the past tense, either explaining the events to Hercules or referencing an example. However, several of the events mentioned occurred either during or after the life of the mythological Heracles. These include:

The quest for the Golden Fleece: The quest for the Golden Fleece, featuring Jason and the Argonauts, took place during the life of Heracles and featured him as a member of the Argonauts. However, the Argo itself has apparently been disassembled and Hercules has no first-person knowledge of its adventures.
Orpheus: In the beginning of the movie, Hermes flies in and says that Orpheus made the floral arrangement in the bouquet he is carrying. However, Orpheus was a contemporary of Heracles.
The Trojan War: The war occurred a generation after the life of Heracles, and in fact featured his son as a participant, but Hades makes a reference to the defeat of the Trojans with the Trojan Horse.
Achilles: In addition to referencing the Trojan War, several characters mention the mythological figure of Achilles, who lived a generation after Hercules and took part in the Trojan War. This is also true of Odysseus, who is mentioned as having lived before Hercules, and, as is additionally implied, dying after Achilles.
Gorgons: Hercules says to Zeus that he slew a Gorgon, although only one of the Gorgons could be killed (Medusa), and she was already slain by Perseus at about the same time as Hercules's Twelve Labors.

[edit] Pop-culture references within the film

Template:Trivia

Hermes gives Hera a bouquet of flowers, a play on FTD, who use him as their mascot.
"Go the Distance" is a term from boxing, meaning to last all fifteen rounds. It is also a quote from Rocky.
A beverage that Hercules sponsors is named "Herculade", a spoof of Gatorade. This also works as a pun in Britain where many carbonated drinks are named with the "-ade" suffix, particularly Lucozade.
"Air Herc", a brand of sandal seen throughout the film, is a spoof of the shoe brand Air Jordan.
When the Tornado Titan appeared there was a sheep caught in its winds, similar to the cow in Twister.
During the "Zero to Hero" sequence, next to the Hercules store is a shop called "Aphrodite's Secret", a spoof of Victoria's Secret.
During the song "I Won't Say I'm in Love," the Muses are portrayed as singing busts with one bust laying broken on the ground. This is possibly referenced to in Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion, a 2003 film.
During 'Zero To Hero', a constellation of Marilyn Monroe can be seen. However, in the original trailer, it was Sebastian from The Little Mermaid.
During the scene in the movie where Hercules is rescuing two children from a cave-in in a gorge (which was actually a staged calamity to lure Hercules into danger), one of the children can be heard saying; "Someone call IX I I", which are the Roman numerals for 9-1-1.

Image:ScarinHercules2.jpg

Scar's skin in Hercules.

During the final number, "A Star is Born", Hermes can be seen playing the piano, a reference to Paul Shaffer, who is the voice of the character and the piano player on The Late Show With David Letterman.
Meg makes a reference to a "Peloponnesian minute", a play on the New York minute.
Phil refers to Thebes as "The Big Olive," a reference to "The Big Apple" (New York) but with a Greek twist (olives are a well-known product of Greece).
When Phil and Hercules arrive in Thebes they are immediately side-swiped by a speeding chariot. The driver yells at them and Phil responds "Hey, I'm walking here!"; a reference to the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy
This same scene can be seen as a mythological reference to Laius, king of Thebes, who meets his demise due to his refusal to give way to his son Oedipus on a road on his chariot.
Meg refers to "the greatest thing since they put the pocket in pita." Pita is a Greek pocket bread, a reference to "the biggest thing since sliced bread"
In the scene where an artist is doing a painting of Hercules on the vase, the lion skin Hercules is wearing is really that of Scar from The Lion King, a reference to the skin of the Nemean Lion, which Heracles frequently used. (Scar also showed up in "Zero To Hero," where he leaps towards Hercules and is defeated (once again depicting his battle with the Nemean Lion.) This can be seen most clearly when he takes it off. This is also a play on Zazu's line in the Lion King, "He'd make a very handsome throw rug", referring to Scar. Hercules' supervising animator Andreas Deja was also the directing animator of Scar.
Also in the scene Phil is listing off things for Hercules to do but is actually naming off the Twelve Labors Hercules had to do in Greek mythology; included in the list are the cleansing of the Augean Stables and the Retrieval of the Girdle of Hippolyta. The film makes many other references to the labors, including a shot of Hercules fighting the Erymanthian Boar, his entrance into Tartarus on the back of Cerebus, and the featured battle with the Lernaean Hydra.
When Meg was walking in the forest to find Hades, she spotted Pain and Panic, disguised as a rabbit and a gopher. The rabbit and the gopher are designed exactly as a reference to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In the sequence where Hades takes over Olympus, he yells down to Zeus "Zeusy, I'm Home." This is a reference to Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy.
When the cyclops is invading the city, all its civilians are running and screaming in terror. A random civilian emits the Wilhelm scream in the 2nd shot containing many civilans running in many directions.
In one scene, Hercules, Pegasus, and Phil are seen practicing crane techniques from The Karate Kid.