Hercules 1997
This not one of Disney’s more famous animated movies, but a friend at work who grew up watching it said it was one of the better ones. There are some great elements there, directed by the same two people who did The Little Mermaid and Aladdin with music by Alan Menken, who worked on most of the big Disney renaissance movies, but there is something a little off about it. One thing I like about it is they stayed true to a lot of Greek mythology, which doesn’t need much embellishment, like the Fates passing around their one good eyeball. I’m sure many other parts of Greek mythology are destroyed, but I liked seeing that they fit in some “actual” mythology. While they leave out most of the labors of Hercules, many of them get at least a nod or a mention. James Woods as Hades is a highlight of the movie and probably one of the better Disney villains ever. His sidekicks, including Bobcat Goldthwait, are kind of weak. Meanwhile, Hercules’ sidekick is the satyr Philoctetes, or just “Phil,” played by Danny DeVito, and is very good. The romantic interest, Megara ("Meg"), is okay. Sparks don’t fly too much, though she and Hercules have a couple of good scenes.
The animation is fine, but not as good as Aladdin. The computer animated Hydra is pretty impressive, but everything else is kind of by the numbers. There are gospel singing Muses along to sing parts of the story. They are good, but the music isn’t as strong as in some of the previous Disney classics.
In the end, this isn’t Disney’s best work, and marks part of a decline that would last another decade or so, but it isn’t garbage either. The basic story is pretty good and there is a lot of humor thrown in, though maybe not as funny as they would have liked. It is certainly easy to watch, which couldn’t have been easy to do with a movie based on Greek mythology. The Blu-ray disk I got from 2014 has a great picture, but the extras are incredibly weak, with a VHS-era “making of” feature that isn’t that great, and a bonus Spanish language video with Ricky Martin. And that’s it for the bonus features. I think maybe because Hercules doesn’t have a strong legacy at Disney that they didn’t try to bring people together for any new featurettes.
Written: 25 Feb 2017
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital