| Hercules | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Ron Clements John Musker |
| Produced by | Ron Clements John Musker |
| Written by | Ron Clements John Musker Barry Johnson |
| Narrated by | Charlton Heston |
| Starring | Tate Donovan Danny DeVito James Woods Susan Egan Rip Torn |
| Music by | Alan Menken |
| Editing by | Tom Finan Robert Hedland |
| Studio | Walt Disney Feature Animation |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution |
| Release date(s) | June 27, 1997 |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85 million |
| Box office | $252,712,101 |
Hercules is a 1997 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fifth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The film is based on the legendary Greek mythology hero Heracles (known in the film by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology.
Though Hercules did not match the financial success of Disney's early-1990s releases, the film received positive reviews,[1] and made $99 million in revenue in the United States during its theatrical release and $252,712,101 worldwide.[2]
Hercules was later followed by the direct-to-video prequel Hercules: Zero to Hero, which served as a midquel to Hercules: The Animated Series, a syndicated Disney TV series focusing on Hercules during his time at the Prometheus academy.
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Long after Zeus, ruler of the Greek gods of Mount Olympus, defeats the Titans and locks them deep in the bowels of the earth, he and his wife Hera give birth to a son, Hercules. All the gods of Olympus celebrate Hercules's birth except for Zeus's jealous brother Hades, who was forced by Zeus to work as lord of the dead in the Underworld, and seeks to overthrow his brother. Hades learns from the Fates that in eighteen years, a planetary alignment will reveal the location of where the Titans are trapped, allowing him to free them and take over Olympus, but only if Hercules doesn't interfere. Hades sends his minions Pain and Panic to kidnap Hercules, bring him to Earth, and kill him after giving him a potion that will turn him mortal. However, Pain and Panic are unable to give Hercules the entire potion which, while still making him mortal, allows him to retain his godlike strength. Hercules is then found by a farmer and his wife, who raise him as their own son, to which saddens Hercules' parents, for even though he's their son, mortals are forbidden to enter Mount Olympus.
Over the next sixteen years, Hercules grows up into a misfit, his strength seen as a nuisance to all the locals. After being rejected by the townsfolk when he accidentally destroys the marketplace, Hercules questions where he truly belongs. His foster parents reveal how they found him with a medallion bearing the symbol of the gods, so Hercules travels to the Temple of Zeus, where the almighty god's statue comes to life and reveals his past and true lineage. Zeus explains that Hercules can become a god again and return to Olympus if he can become a true hero, so he sets out on his old childhood friend Pegasus to find the satyr Philoctetes—"Phil" for short—a trainer of heroes. Phil has long-since retired after failing to train a successful hero, but is convinced to train Hercules after being struck by lightning.
After his training is complete, Hercules sets out with Phil and Pegasus to the city of Thebes to prove his newfound worth. Along the way, Hercules saves a woman named Megara—"Meg" for short—from being pestered by the centaur Nessus, and becomes attracted to her. Unbeknownst to Hercules, Meg is in league with Hades after selling her soul to save a man she once loved, but had left her for another woman. Discovering Hercules to still be alive, Hades sets up a trap for him outside of Thebes where he is forced to battle the Hydra. However, Hercules manages to defeat the Hydra, and is praised by all of Thebes as a hero. Hades continually sends every mythological monster against Hercules but the hero prevails every time. Hercules is treated like a celebrity, but Zeus informs him that he is not a true hero yet.
Meg is sent by Hades to find Hercules' weakness, but she falls in love with him instead. Phil discovers Meg to be working for Hades and attempts to warn Hercules, but abandons him after an ensuing argument. Realizing that Meg is Hercules' weakness, Hades uses her to make a deal with Hercules in which he must give up his powers for an entire day in exchange for Meg's safety, using this time to free the Titans and take over Olympus, while Hercules is crushed by Meg's deception and loses the will to fight. One of the Titans, a Cyclops, is sent to Thebes to eliminate Hercules. Meg convinces Phil to return to Hercules, motivating him into battling and defeating the Cyclops through improvisation. However, Meg is mortally wounded by a falling column to save Hercules, though it breaks Hades's deal of Meg not being harmed and restores Hercules's powers, allowing him to defeat the Titans. Unfortunately, he is too late to save Meg from dying.
Hercules confronts Hades in the Underworld and offers his soul to reclaim Meg's. Hades accepts, but only if Hercules can reclaim it in the River Styx, which gradually saps his life force as he swims. However, his will to sacrifice his life for Meg awakens Hercules as a true hero and restores his status as an immortal god. Hercules successfully retrieves Meg's soul and punches Hades into the River Styx, where he is dragged to the depths by vengeful souls. Hercules returns Meg's soul to her body and brings her back to life, and is brought to Olympus where the gods welcome him back into his old home. However, Hercules is unable to live without Meg because she is human cannot enter Mt. Olympus. So, Zeus allows him to stay on Earth as a mortal to stay with the one he loves. Zeus creates a constellation of Hercules in the night sky, allowing the world to hail him as a true hero, a goal that Phil hoped for so he could be remembered that he trained a great hero.
Production for the film took place from late 1994 to early 1997.
The character design was based on Greek statues and artist Gerald Scarfe's work in Pink Floyd The Wall. Each major character in Hercules had a supervising animator. Andreas Deja, the supervising animator for Hercules, commented that the animation crew he worked with to animate Hercules was the "largest [he] ever worked with". He previously worked on other characters (like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King) with about four animators on his crew, but he had a team of twelve or thirteen for Hercules.[3] Given Deja had worked with three villains before, he was first offered Hades, but asked to animate the protagonist instead - "I knew if would be more difficult and more challenging, but I just needed that experience to have that in your repertoire."[4] With regard to Megara, supervising animator Ken Duncan stated that she was "based on a '40s screwball comedienne" and that he used Greek shapes for her hair ("Her head is in sort of a vase shape and she's got a Greek curl in the back.") Nik Ranieri, the supervising animator for Hades, mentioned that the character was "based on a Hollywood agent, a car salesman type", and that a lot came from James Woods' ad-libbed dialogue. He went on to say that the hardest part in animating Hades was that he talks too much and too fast, so much so that "it took [him] two weeks to animate a one-second scene". Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for Philoctetes, cited Grumpy in Snow White and Bacchus in Fantasia as the inspirations for the character's design.[3]
The actors' performances also influenced the way the characters were animated. Deja integrated Donovan's "charming yet innocent quality" into Hercules' expressions. Goldberg mentioned that they discovered that Danny DeVito "has really different mouth shapes" when they videotaped his recordings and that they used these shapes in animating Phil. Ranieri watched James Woods' other films and used what he saw as the basis for Hades' sneer.[3]
| Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists | ||||
| Released | May 27, 1997 | |||
| Genre | Pop, gospel, R&B, soul | |||
| Label | Walt Disney | |||
| Producer | Alan Menken, David Zippel | |||
| Walt Disney Animation Studios chronology | ||||
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Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Hercules. It consists of music written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel, with vocals performed by Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Roger Bart, Danny DeVito, and Susan Egan among others, along with the successful single version of "Go the Distance" by Michael Bolton. For the Spanish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was redone by Ricky Martin and released as a single under the title "No Importa La Distancia" and was also very successful, both inside and outside the United States. In the Turkish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was sung by Tarkan, who also performed the vocals for the adult Hercules.
"Go the Distance" was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, but ultimately lost both to Celine Dion's monumental hit "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.
Belinda Carlisle recorded two versions of "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" as well as a music video for promotional purposes. Though the English dub eventually opted not to use it, several foreign dubs have it in place of the reprise of "A Star Is Born" in the ending credits. These dubs include, but are not limited to, the Swedish one, the Finnish one, the Icelandic one and the Russian one. Curiously enough, the DVD release of the Swedish dub has replaced it with the reprise of "A Star Is Born".
Track list:
Marketing and promotion for Hercules began even before the film's theatrical release. Several Hercules toys, books, and other merchandise were produced,[5] and a parade was held at Times Square during the film's premiere two weeks prior to its theatrical run.[6] Hercules was also received the first Disney on Ice adaptation before the film was theatrically released.[7] A tie-in video game, titled Hercules Action Game, was developed by Eurocom and released in July 1997 for the PC and PlayStation.[8]
The film's first home video release, on VHS, was February 3, 1998 in the US as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection series. A Limited Issue came out on DVD November 9, 1999, followed by on August 1, 2000, a re-issue to VHS and DVD as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection.
A video game based on the film was released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 1997, later put on the PlayStation Network online service for the PlayStation 3.
Disney intended for the film to have an open-air premiere at Pnyx hill, but the Greek government declined after Greek media and public panned the film. A Greek newspaper entitled Adsmevtos Typos called it "another case of foreigners distorting our history and culture just to suit their commercial interests".[9]
After a one-theater release on June 15, 1997, Hercules had its wide release on June 27, 1997. With an opening weekend of $21,454,451, it opened at the second spot of the box office, after Face/Off.[10] The film grossed only $99 million on its domestic lifetime, something Disney's executives blamed on "more competition".[11] The international totals for Hercules raised its gross to $253 million.[2]
As of 2008, Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of critics gave positive reviews based on 48 reviews.[1]
Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a positive review of the film, enjoying the story as well as the animation. Ebert also praised James Woods' portrayal of Hades, stating that Woods brings "something of the same verbal inventiveness that Robin Williams brought to Aladdin".[12]
| Result | Award | Winner/Nominee Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Nominated | Animated Theatrical Feature | |
| Won | Individual Achievement in Producing | Alice Dewey (Producer) John Musker (Producer) Ron Clements (Producer) |
| Won | Individual Achievement in Directing | John Musker (Director) Ron Clements (Director) |
| Nominated | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | Ken Duncan (Supervising Animator - Meg) |
| Won | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator - Hades) |
| Won | Individual Achievement in Effects Animation | Mauro Maressa (Effects Supervisor) |
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