HERCULES
RATING: 6.5 / 10 --> So-so
Review Date:
May 24, 1998
Directors:
Ron Clements and John Musker
Writers:
Ron Clements, Don McEnery, Irene Mecchi, John Musker and Bob Shaw
Producers:
Ron Clements, Alice Dewey and John Musker
Actors:
Tate Donovan as the voice of
Hercules
James Woods as the voice of Hades
Danny DeVito as the voice of Phil
Susan Egan as the voice of Meg
Genre:
Children's Animation
Year of
Release:
1997
Disney's 35th feature-film foray into the world of cartoon
animation is set within the mythological world of the ancient
Gods, in the historical setting of Greece.
PLOT:
Greek God Zeus's son Hercules is kidnapped by a couple of
incompetent underlings of the evil Hades, accidentally placed
down to Earth, and brought up by some human beings. To recapture
his God-hood, Hercules must prove to his real father Zeus, that
he can be a true hero. While all of this goes on, the menacing
Hades prepares to take over as the ruler of the after-life.
CRITIQUE:
Uninspired, semi-interesting, and sometimes funny cinematic
attempt by Disney to cash in on another marketable historical
myth. This film seemed destined for success, but didn't seem to
fully hit all of the right notes on its way to the concert. I
thought that it basically lacked the heart of THE LION KING
(7.5/10), the humor of ALADDIN (7.5/10), and the romance of
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (8/10). I was most disappointed by the lack
of realism in the "love" that ultimately materialized
between Hercules and the New York-accented Meg. I found it to be
quite weak.
The hero story line was nice, and cool to keep track of, but
ultimately the romance, the songs or the bad guy have to stick
out for a children's animated tale to fully succeed, and
unfortunately for Disney, this one contained no such stickout.
Having said that, James Woods did make an excellent bad guy voice
for Hades, but the character itself never seemed to be such a
real threat to anyone but himself (Word on the street is that
Hades was originally scripted as a slow, menacing character until
James Woods auditioned for the role and impressed the casting
directors with his rapid-fire style. The script was rewritten,
but Woods ad-libbed many lines.)
The songs in the film were passable, but could someone please
explain the connection between the re-occurring Motown quintet in
a film set in ancient Greece? Another aspect of the film that
didn't seem too kosher in my opinion was Hercules' trainer in the
film, Phil (DeVito), who is generally supposed to be cute and
adorable in films as such, but stood as half-man, half-goat in
this movie. Not your cutest character ever invented by the
Mickey-crew, that's for sure!
All in all, I would recommend this film to all kids (mind you, I
don't see this becoming a classic by any stretch of the
imagination), and some adults who are interested in viewing a
quick (88 minutes), harmless animated story about the Greek Gods,
and some hip, quirky one-liners from James Woods. If not, warm up
those nachos, and go out to rent any of the three Disney films
that I suggested earlier. You've got heart, humor and romance on
the tab. Make your choice.
Little Known Facts:
Danny
DeVito stands
5"0, hails from New Jersey (hence the name of his production
company: Jersey Films), and has been married to the infamous
barmaid from the super-successful TV sitcom "Cheers", Rhea Perlman since 1982.
Ron
Clements and John Musker have also co-written and
co-directed ALADDIN (8/10), THE LITTLE MERMAID, and THE GREAT
MOUSE DETECTIVE.
During one scene in HERCULES, when Phil (DeVito) is hit by a
discarded painter's palette he cleans himself up using a lion's
fur that bears a striking resemblance to Scar from THE LION KING
(7.5/10).
(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
Movie Reviews by Berge Garabedian