I spent some time with friends this week and we decided to put in a movie, that movie was Hercules. Hercules was one of Disney's films that came out of the Disney Renaissance of the 90's. Hercules was among the last of the movies released during this period of growth, which are often classified as being weaker and having lower box office numbers than movies released earlier. So let's see how Hercules fares on it's own.
The Film Itself...
Hercules can be summarized quickly as the rise of a hero, Hercules. There are other elements in there, like the romance between Hercules and sassy Meg, along with the torment Meg faces. The basic story mostly focuses on Hercules rise to becoming a hero with secondary focus on the romance. Now both of these parts are handled adequately and are fine and good, but I find the Meg backstory way more interesting and stronger than the main plot.
The animation is okay at best. There are some very interesting character designs, like Meg and Hades, that are very distinctive and interesting. However there are some characters that are very bland, the biggest example being our main hero Hercules. The background art is very similar as it can be very distinctive at certain times and bland at other times. However, there is enough distinctness in the animation to give the animation an average rating.
The music is okay, most of the tunes are nice but there are only maybe one or two songs that are really noteworthy ("Go the Distance" and "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)"), but the voice-acting is quite impressive and is probably the greatest strength of this movie. Danny Devito provides his distinctive voice for Phil, which fits perfectly. Susan Egan is able to play off both Meg's wit and make Meg such a sympathetic character for audiences to fall in love with, but the best performance is given by Mr. James Woods. He plays this villain more like a used car salesman, slick and conniving, but it really works and makes Hades such a unique villain.
Final Word
So is Hercules a hero or a zero? In my opinion, neither. Almost everything in this movie is average, from the plot to the animation to the music. The only thing that makes it rise above the fray is the voice-acting. Nothing about this movie is bad, it just doesn't really do anything extraordinary. It's a movie that's fun to watch for a night, but not one to seek out for your movie collection.
Hercules- RENT
