"Hero to zero!"

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2012)

I was afraid. As you would all know, Greek mythology has been twisted and turned by loads of people. So much, in fact, their original origins are unknown, because so many "remakes" were made. Worse, this was a Disney production. Disney surely has some great films, but others are cringe-worthy. So what would it be? I watched the film as a class study of Greek mythology, and I'm proud to say the source material hasn't been tampered with THAT much..
First things first: great animation. For a 1997 film, the landscapes were beautiful to see, and this is a person who's seen all the CGI-made films nowadays. My favorite design was the hydra, who seemed 3D-like. They did a great job visualizing the characters and their designs, almost making us forget the fact they were, in fact, animated. Second things second: the music. At first glance, you would never know this is an adventure slash musical film. I really enjoyed the gospel singers and the songs snipped in from Hercules and Meg. They were nice to hear, and the gospel singers enhanced the stories by adding a new form of narration. Third things third: the plot. This is where the film falls apart, for me, because the writers obviously try to lean towards their initial audience. They stripped away some of the Greek mythology by trying to make it a family film, but they end up stripping too much away. There was some clever jokes packed in, especially dozens of pop- culture references, but none of them made up for the fact that they took too much away.
Bad things stop there. Hercules was a very fun film that doesn't take too much away from becoming a fraud. It packs in clever references to Greek mythology, packs in lush animation, and packs in a key item in animations: heart. I recommend for anybody wanting to see a film that can still be enjoyable albeit forgetting some of it's source material.
8/10.