This week’s Disney animated movie that I watched for the first time was "Hercules". Even though I hadn’t seen the film, I was a little familiar with some aspects of this version of the story because Disneyland had a daytime parade that I believe commenced concurrent with the release of the film. I absolutely loved that parade, even with not having seen the film. It was bright and energetic and fun. I watched that parade many times and never got tired of it. Because I’d enjoyed the parade so much, I was looking forward to seeing the film, but it wasn’t quite the journey I expected.
My initial emotion early on in the film was confusion. Yay, there’s a baby boy, and he’s so loved by his mom and his dad, Zeus, king of the gods.
There were aspects of the film that I thought were more frightening than I’d have expected for a film with a large target audience of young children. I thought the Fates were a bit scary, especially with the notion that they only had to cut a string to end your life, and the joy with which they seemed to do it. I did think the Hydra was pretty cool, even if a bit terrifying, especially as it continued to grow multiple heads. When Hercules first started fighting it, I couldn’t even tell if it was supposed to be a Hydra. I said something to the husband about it not having enough heads, and the husband said to wait, this was only Hydra 1.0.
When the part of the story came up about the planets lining up and how that would give Hades the power to release the Titans, it completely made me think of "Thor: Dark World", how the alignment of the Nine Realms was going to wreak havoc upon the universe. For a second, I wondered how the Dark Elves were going to show up, but, spoiler alert, they didn’t. Hercules vs. Dark Elves will have to wait for another crossover event.
Generally, I thought the film was fine, but that was it. Yeah, it was ok. Just ok. Nothing really jumped out at me. I did notice that I was losing interest in parts and had to make myself keep paying attention. I was surprised that baby Hercules was not as cute as I expected him to be. Disney has a thing about how they draw adorable babies, and Hercules was not that. Maybe cause he’s supposed to be muscular and strong? Baby Pegasus, though, was just as cute as I’d seen him as a plush toy.
One thing that really surprised me was that I was completely not into the Muses. They were one of my favorite parts of the parade. I absolutely loved them, and sometimes, if I was walking near the parade route when the parade was going, and I knew it was close to their float appearing, I’d stop and wait to see and listen to them. They were fantastic. I don’t know what it was about the film version that just didn’t hit with me.
Because of the parade and the various other uses of the songs in Disney activities, I’m of course familiar with Zero to Hero and Go the Distance. In the versions I’ve heard, both are really energetic and peppy and cheery and much more orchestrated. I didn’t find that to be the case in the film. I can sort of understand with Go the Distance (I guess that was Hercules’ “want” song?), but the delivery of the song in the film didn’t really convey what I thought the words were trying to convey. He should be confident that he can in fact go the distance or show a little bit of self-doubt that he’d be able to, or some combination of both, but it just seemed very flat, not conveying any particular emotion at all. I also thought the end title version of the song, sung by Michael Bolton, was a bit odd. Bolton’s delivery of the song was much more angsty, but not in a way that made me feel anything. I’d be curious to hear a version of the song that didn’t have a lot of musical accompaniment, a sort of inspirational pep talk that Hercules gives himself. I think that would be very powerful. Not sure who I’d want to sing that. I do know that my reactions to hearing the songs in the film is tainted by all of my exposure to them away from the film. Don’t know what my thoughts would have been hearing them for the first time as orchestrated in the film.
I think part of my disinterest in the film stems from the fact that I’m not a fan of two of the actors who voice prominent characters, Danny DeVito and James Woods, so having to listen to them so much of the time wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. Every time Hades was on screen, I kept thinking about Rasputin from "Anastasia", which oddly enough was released the same year as "Hercules", and how I’d have much rather listen to Christopher Lloyd as Rasputin. I was surprised that I wasn’t very impressed with Susan Egan as Megara. I’m more familiar with her as Belle from Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast. I didn’t really care for her character or her characterization, or the vocal choices made for her. She had a bit of a Southern madame in her voice that I wasn’t keen on, and I didn’t think her one song showcased her voice at all.
Since there wasn’t anything in the film that really grabbed my attention, and there were some negatives to me (I really couldn’t get over the missing Hera story point), I don’t expect that I’ll ever watch the movie again. There isn’t anything that I really want to watch more closely at or for or experience again. I wouldn’t refuse to watch it, but I wouldn’t put any effort into doing so. But I’d jump at the chance to watch the parade again.
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