get him to the Greek

Rating: 5/10 (3 October 2017)

I should admit that I've never read the original Greek myth. It was obvious that Disney was going to take more than a few liberties with their adaptation. What I liked more than anything were the pop culture references (i.e., Midnight Cowboy). I guess that like a lot of Disney's movies from the past 20 to 25 years, "Hercules" is all about giving the tykes something to find cool while the adults can laugh at the pop culture references. Having the muses narrate the story like a gospel song gave it an interesting dimension, as did the depiction of Megara as a femme fatale. And you gotta love Danny DeVito's over-the-top performance as a manic Philoctetes.
Anyway, it's not any sort of masterpiece, but enjoyable enough for its length. Among the other cast members are Paul Shaffer (David Letterman's bandleader), Frank Welker (Fred on "Scooby Doo" and Ray on "The Real Ghostbusters"), Amanda Plummer (Honeybunch in "Pulp Fiction") and Charlton Heston (who else but the king of sword-and-sandal epics could give the opening narration?).