Hercules (1997)

Written by Ron Clements, et al.
Directed by John Musker & Ron Clements

Watching this movie is worth it just because of these five ladies!

After the more serious fare of Pocahontas and especially The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it’s not so surprising that the next film, Hercules, lightens the tone considerably, becoming a bit of a satire of superstars and superheroes. Sure, there’s some dark elements scattered here and there, but nothing like what we’ve seen in the past few films.

The biggest thing I’ve always liked about Hercules is its art direction, with the Greek style of design not only on the architecture, but finding its way into the design of the characters, as well. Look at the curls in Meg’s hair, for example. They match the curled tops of Greek columns. It’s an awesome little detail, and the film is chock full of them. The animation isn’t 100%, though: the animation of the Hydra is great in theory, but it never quite succeeds; in most cases, it looks just as bad as The Rock as The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (and bonus points if you understand what I’m talking about!).

James Woods’ performance as Hades is top-notch

The film doesn’t really follow the original Greek myth (mostly because it’s DARK (like, REALLY DARK)). What it does do, is give a great send up of celebrities (Herc’s endorsement deals are such great visual gags), and the overall pace of the film feels like it follows that of a superhero origin story. Hades also gets to be the bad guy here, and, love him or hate him, James Woods plays an excellent villain. There’s something or other about planets aligning and whatever, it doesn’t really matter, because “James Woods as the villain Hades” is REALLY all you need.

Somehow, Meg is copying exactly how I look whenever she’s on screen

Hercules himself doesn’t really interest me all that much (although “Go the Distance” is a pretty great song), Danny DeVito is...Danny DeVito (BUT GOOD GOD WHO LET HIM SING WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS), but Meg is someone I just don’t get. Sure, she gets a great little number, but she is SO. ANNOYING. Yes, she’s tough as nails and all that. The problem is, in her first scene, she comes off as so unlikeable, that when later when a column falls on her, I was like, “Okay *shrug*”. It’s hard to root for someone, or care about someone falling in love with them, when you DON’T MIND THAT A COLUMN FALLS ON THEM. It’s indicative of a bigger problem.

Hercules underperformed at the box office. Possibly because of competition, possibly because of missing target audiences...whatever the reason, it’s a shame, because it’s a fun little film. Toe-tapping songs and some great humor make this more of a hidden gem of the Renaissance than its companions.

FINAL GRADE: B+