Hercules

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2005)

The Greek legend has always been in popular culture, some call him Herecles, but he is commonly known as Hercules, strongest man ever to live (in fiction), so this Disney film brought him to life. Basically baby Hercules is born on Mount Olympus, and Hades: Lord of the Underworld (James Woods) has plans to take over, but can't with this new God in the works. So Hades' henchmen Pain (Police Academy's Bobcat Goldthwait) and Panic (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' Matt Frewer) kidnap Hercules, and turn him mortal, apart from the last drop which means his God-like strength remains. Growing up, young Hercules (Josh Keaton) feels like an outcast unable to control his strength, so his foster father Amphitryon (Hal Holbrook) and mother Alcmene (Barbara Barrie) show him the symbol of the Gods they found on him. After going to the Temple of Zeus, and gaining the wings of horse Pegasus, his true father Zeus (Rip Torn) tells him to seek Philoctetes the satyr (Danny DeVito), the trainer of heroes. He trains him until grown up and Hercules (Tate Donovan) is ready to fight, and after he meets Meg (Susan Egan), and defeats the constantly head growing Hydra his dreams start coming true. Hercules has become the most famous person in Thebes, and Greece, from all his fights with Hades' monsters, but Zeus tells him he still hasn't proved himself a true hero. Hercules then gets his chance to spend time with Meg, and they are truly in love with each other, she even tells Hades, who owns her soul, that she won't help hurt him. Hades knows that Hercules' weakness is his love for Meg, so he blackmails him to give up his strength to let loose the feared Titans from their prison and take over Greece. But his powers come back when Meg is hurt, and he saves her soul from the Underworld, punches Hades into the sea of souls, and Hercules has proved himself worthy to be a God, but he decides he would rather stay on Earth with Meg. Also starring Samantha Eggar as Hera, Paul Shaffer as Hermes, Charlton Heston as the brief Narrator, Wayne Knight as Demetrius the Pot Maker. Woods is great as the sometimes sarcastic and cool acting villain, and DeVito is also great as the grouchy and easily annoyed trainer. The animation is as good as your going to get, the characters are all good, and the story is simple and fun, it is an easily enjoyable animated musical adventure. It was nominated the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Song for "Go The Distance". Good!