Hercules

I am really interested into Greek Mythology, and I am interested enough to see how Disney handles this type of fantastical culture. This is the story about a powerful celebrity of a hero named "Hercules," a hero who has been born a god, but is later raised by humans. To get back to his former home where he belongs, he must become a great hero. The result is quite a mixed bag. From beginning to end, the movie cannot decide what kind of movie it wants to be, a wacky lighthearted cartoon, a mature family film that is not afraid to show it's underlying dark side, or a dynamic transcendent gem of it's genre, but it is totally uneven, and this kind of "on-and-off" approach is not handled carefully. It starts off with a "not-so-dark" narration by Charlton Heston, but then the singing soul muses popped in and said that his narration is making this movie "a tragedy." This does not help, because the movie does get dark anyways, especially when Hades loses his temper, when Hercules fights the dreaded Hydra in an entertaining scene, the dramatic climax, and a gloomy patho in the third act. The movie does have a few surprises, but there are also a few predictable moments. The comedy is both a hit and miss. The pop-culture references just seemed to pass by without a tickle to the funny bone. The artwork of the animation is nice to look at, and the character designs of the title character and princess Meg are also nice, but I am not going to say that the animation overall is good; The animation does have a sharply swift sense of humor at times, but mostly it just looks like a wacky cartoon that cannot take itself seriously. But, when it does, it takes itself way too seriously on the scarier side, especially with Hades and the Hydra. The computer-generated animation does not blend in with the traditional hand-drawn animation really well, it is noticeably low-quality. The animation could've been better if the animators make the animation a spectacular blend of cartoony animation with realistic animation, and a seamless blend of CGI and hand-drawn style. As an animated musical, it is solid; the musical contains soul music, gospel music, and showtunes. The soul muses are sprightly as they did a great job with the musical numbers, but there are two redundant musical numbers in particular that are played during the more somber elements of the former, yes, they wanted to make the movie whimsical and lighthearted, but it just does not work for the emotional value or even the entertainment value. There are some decent songs sung by the other characters that do work. The voice-acting is one of the most amusing aspects of the movie, but the characters are average at best. Tate Donovan is great as the title character, he sounds young, care-free, yet enthusiastic, and even dramatic. As a character, there is hardly anything special to him. Susan Egan is good as princess Meg. But Meg is by far the most boring damsel-in-distress, she is a one-dimensional lady who's personality is both gloomy and cloying, and she also told a lie. The chemistry between the two is not handled that well, they have no depth, no twists and turns, and nothing deep. Hercules is a handsome famous hero with no confidence, and Meg is a damsel-in-distress who loves nobody else but Hercules. Danny Devito is the funniest voice-actor in the cast, he is a major standout as Phil, and hilarious, even if he is not perfectly funny. Phil is a supportive friend for Hercules. Groovy yet furious, Hades is a decent antagonist, and James Woods has the pitch-perfect voice performance to match. His fiery fury may be too scary for kids under the age of seven. Pain and Panic are funny henchmen. In conclusion: The adults will find Disney's "Hercules" okay for a family film and acceptable for kids, and the kids will enjoy it. Flawed yet sufficiently entertaining.

I mean I get it "Hercules" is supposed to be a hero. I have 3 Main Problems 1. The movies got it so wrong even the name "Hercules" is the ROMAN verison. "HERAcles" is the greek version his name meant to please Hera 2. Hera is NOT a loving mother she threw frigging Hephestus off of Olympus just because he was ugly 3. HADES US NOT A BAD GUY. I REPEAT HADES IS NOT A A BAD GUY. ZEUS IS. HADES DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG. SURE HE KIDNAPPED PERSPHONE,BUT THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A PRETTY BOMB RELATIONSHIP.

Ok... I personally very much enjoyed the movie. Hercules is a good hero with a good trainer and overall everybody had good character design. My one problem is that they aren't going along with the mythology... They're using the Roman version of his name, the Greek version is Heracles, and hades technically isn't the bad guy in the old myths. So... Good movie, but it doesnt follow the original myths well.