THE MAN. THE MYTH. THE MOVIE.
Hades, god of the underworld, turns Hercules, son of the Greek god Zeus, into a human being; now, in order to regain his divinity, Hercules must prove that he’s a hero. Disney doesn’t mind Hollywoodizing every legend they can get their hands on; this liberal take on the old Greek story was criticized, but at least it doesn’t portray historical figures as in the case of Pocahontas (1995). The directors made Aladdin (1992) and this film has a character and star to rival the Genie and Robin Williams; James Woods is very funny as Hades. Unremarkable songs aside, the dangers of idolatry is an effective theme and the technical qualities are first-rate.
1997-U.S. Animated. 93 min. Color. Produced by Alice Dewey, John Musker, Ron Clements. Directed by John Musker, Ron Clements. Screenplay: Ron Clements, John Musker, Don McEnery, Bob Shaw, Irene Mecchi. Songs: Alan Menken, David Zippel (”Go The Distance”). Voices of Tate Donovan (Hercules), Susan Egan (Megara), James Woods (Hades), Danny DeVito, Rip Torn, Samantha Eggar… Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Frewer, Hal Holbrook. Narrated by Charlton Heston.
Trivia: The style of the animation was inspired by that of the British satirist Gerald Scarfe. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 1999 and an animated series in 1998.
Last word: “I said ‘look, I’ve got nothing to lose here. I’m not right for this. I’m certainly not right for that version of it’. So they said ‘how would you do it?’, and I did it [at this point, James does a snippet of his performance from Hercules], and they went ‘hold on a second’. And I started talking, and they came back said ‘look, would you be willing to do something? Would you be willing to wait a month. To do this scene that way, and let us do what we call a pencil run’, or whatever they call it, where they actually pencil the scene in, and show the concept. I said ‘okay’, and I adlibbed the whole scene, and they got it, they came back and said ‘we’re taking a risk, but we’re going to go with it’.” (Woods, Den of Geek)
