HERCULES
HERCULES may bear little more resemblance than the name of the Greek hero we read about in school but it nevertheless is the recounting of a heroic effort. And it tells the young who will love the film that you do not call someone a hero because he can perform feats of strength; true heroism, Father Zeus tells son Hercules, involves feats of the heart. That message is delivered in this palatable animation that involves humor mixed with some irreverence.
The film opens with a Greek chorus (the Muses) relating the latest on the celebration of the birth of Hercules on Mt. Olympus where the Greek gods live. Zeus, a proud daddy, gives his son a winged horse named Pegasus as both he and his wife Hera beam at their infant son and Pegasus cuddling.
With the appearance of Hades we are made aware that there is a plot afoot to have the Lord of the Underworld, usurp the throne from Zeus. The Fates told Hades that in 18 years, when the planets align, it will be the most propitious time to take over. However, they warn him, that unless Hercules is in some way out of the picture, Hades' attempt will not succeed. Aided by his two dimwitted monsters, Pain and Panic, Hades has baby Hercules kidnapped. A drug deprives him of his godliness, turning him into a mere mortal, but the monsters fail to deprive him of his super-human strength.
Something tells our hero that he is "different." Determined to find out why he feels that way, he goes to a statue of Zeus who suddenly comes to life, and now father and son are at last re-united. It is then that Zeus tells his young son he can only return as a god to Mt. Olympus if he does something heroic on Earth. He also advises him to get help from the legendary hero-trainer, Philoctetes, affectionately known as "Phil." This is one of the highlights of the film with the animation of Phil looking exactly like Danny DeVito, the distinctive voice of Phil and the source of much of the film's humor. Great casting.
Before Hercules attains true hero status, he meets Megara, a sultry Greek beauty who works for Hades. Before "Meg" can do Hercules any harm as per her boss' bidding she realizes she has fallen in love with our hero.
Voices of the many wonderful animated characers are supplied by Tate Donovan as the adult Hercules; Phil's voice is that of Danny DeVito, Hades voice is that of James Wood. Meg, the seductress, uses the voice of Susan Egan. Zeus and wife Hera are given voices by Rip Torn and Samantha Eggar. Pain and Panic are Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer. Voice of the Cyclops is supplied by Patrick Pinney; Hal Holbrook lends his voice to Amphitryon with Alcmene being Barbara Barrie's voice. Hydra, the octopus-like demon is given voice by Oskar Urretabizkaia.
Songs are by Alan Menken with lyrics by David Zippel. Music is fine and the lyrics are witty but I still yearn for something comparable to the songs we used to sing and hum long after we had left the theater: Give me a "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go . . ."
Directed by John Musker
4 bytes
4 bytes = Superb 3 bytes = Too good to miss 2 bytes = Average 1 byte = Save your money
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews