Mixed Feelings

Wow... I will try to take this from the beginning.

I didn't watch Hercules when it was new. In 97 I was 14 and Disney movies were starting to feel too kiddy for my adolescent tastes, but this one in particular didn't appeal to me at all. I was already a big fan of Greek mythology and this version seemed like it was trying to paint the mustache in Mona Lisa.

I was thirteen years old and also a Greek mythology fan already back in 1997. And yet, I loved "Hercules". I knew that Disney couldn't follow the original story by the letter, but they got the general athmosphere of the Greek mythology universe right, and that was the most important thing in my opionion.

So... the movie is OK. It still gripes me how much it's Disneyfied and even Christianized with the whole Hades being the villain. There's no excuse for Hercules to be the son of Zeus and Hera. I hear it, people, "it's Disney and for the kids", but... so what? Are we really going to assume kids can't understand or shouldn't be exposed to any inplication of sex? It's not like all Disney movies have the need to be Winnie the Pooh. Bambi's mother, Mufasa and so many other creepy/scary/traumatic moments pushed the envelope before, so why not here? Hercules even has scenes that could be even more controversial, like when he's wearing the fur of Scar or swimming in the pool of the souls to rescue Meg.

Exactly how is Hercules wearing the fur of Scar "controversial"? And well, this is Disney. They will rather show the protagonist's mother of father die, or give us some disturbing images, than mention a bit of sex.

The important thing would be to make Hercules a DEMI god, not a power sapped god, by having his father being Zeus and his mother being Alcmene, so that Hera can be the villain instead of Hades.

Hercules is also always referred to as a demi-god in the TV series, never a "power sapped god". And he also never is referred to as "son of Zeus and Hera", only "son of Zeus". Go figure, but I guess it was a nod to how it was in the original story.

The adultery part is not even necessary if that is really so taboo. The plot could simply be that Zeus is looking for a wife and Hera wants him to marry her, but he wants to marry Alcmene and so visits her disguised as human. The other gods would convince Zeus that he can't marry a human, so he accepts Hera as his wife but they find out about Hercules and she tries to kill him before Zeus finds out about the baby fearing that he will make him change his mind and be together with Alcmene. So, Hercule's plot would be to become a hero to save the people and also to mend both his relationship with his unaware father and his father's and Hera's.

But that sounds much too complicated than how Disney eventually chose to tell this story.

As it is, the movie doesn't make much sense to me. Hades manages to turn baby Hercules into a mortal by giving him a ungodding potion. Ok, if he has access to that why not take the short route and give it to Zeus? The Olympians are shown to be so dim-witted and oblivious to his intentions he could just come to any number of parties and get them all drunk in ungodding potion.

My theory is that it was like this: Such a potion must be very hard to come by, and I guess Hades only had enough to use it on a baby. And even though Hercules was a baby, every drop was needed to make him a mortal, and he still kept his god-like strength.

The movie only has Alcmene and Amphitryon as disposable caretakers of baby Hercules, gone the minute he learns his true nature. Even the Kevin Sorbo Hercules did a better job with them. Hercules becomes a hero just because he wants to meet his biological parents and ditch the people who raised him, because he doesn't "belong". That's pretty shallow.

Alchmene and Amphitryon was never supposed to be the focus of this movie. Call them "disposable caretakers" if you want to, but by the time Hercules was a teenager, they had pretty much already done what they could do for him. And if you remember, everybody else would only tease and mock Hercules. Can you blame him for wanting to leave his village? Alchmene and Amphitryon were also seen in the last scene, so Hercules did not forget about them.

Intelligence and purity.

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I do love the movie, but I must say you bring up some legitimate points.

I never realized that Hades could just kill off Zeus by using a potion.

One huge problem I have with the movie is the fact that Zeus has ridiculous standards on what makes a true hero. Hercules almost committed suicide to become accepted, and that made Zeus really a jerk.

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"The good stuff? Meg and Phil. They are great."

Couldn't agree with you more! I just saw the movie again and lifted my rating from 6 to 7, only for two reasons: Meg and Phil. Meg especially is propably my favourite Disney heroine ever! I loved the "I won't say I'm in love" -song, it felt SO real and filled with emotion. It is unusual for side characters to go through that sort of developement provess in a Disney movie.

Rest of what yer saying is true. Altough it didn't bother me THAT much, still: the movie could have been a lot better with the changes you proposed there.

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And here is another thing, that I didn't say anything about in my last post: People keep complaing about how this movie ripped off "Superman", when Superman is actually based on the mythological character Hercules.

Intelligence and purity.

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