Fast forwarded through most of the songs and battles...

Rating: 1/10 (24 March 2005)

Hercules is hands down, the worst of the Disney animated films, and I have seen most of them. There is too much bad here for me to recommend it to anyone.
The songs weren't very good. Hercules' main song sounds like "Eye of the Tiger" or worse, a South Park parody, which I am sure wasn't their intent, but it was laughable. The Muses' gospel song clashed with the whole Greek myth idea and I have no idea why someone thought that was a good idea. The animation itself seemed flat as compared to other features. Even the plot line wasn't that interesting, full of pop culture references until you burst, characters that weren't very intriguing and really the only suspense came from seeing how badly Disney could mangle Greek myth. I suppose kids are more sophisticated these days and need more adult acting cynical characters and modern culture references in order to keep their ADD in line, but I would like movies with good characters, good animation and a plot.
I know it is a Disney film and it is for kids. But I remember at that age, I was reading the real Greek myths. Watching this could mess kids up when they read actual mythology. For example, Hera and Zeus were not a loving couple and Hera tried to kill Heracles with snakes not Hades. The reason? Because Hercules was born to a mortal woman and Zeus. Now, I know Disney thinks they are sly for changing Megera's name to Megara, so they could make her anything they wanted, but it comes off as confusing to anyone who knows myth. Hercules killed Megera later on in the story, but I suppose Disney can't have anything bad happen in their stories, even their fairy tales aren't so Grimm. Even giving them that, they could have done better than this. Even making something completely their own would be better than this. Why do a take on the Greek myths at all? Why not just do something modern?
And the difference between features like Hercules and older ones like Snow White and Cinderella, is that the older movies have charm and you can see all the work and talent that went into them. The modern Disney fare, other than Beauty and the Beast, is produced a lot faster and the product looks rushed, without much soul. Like another reviewer, I didn't find myself excited by any of the songs in this one and I like a lot of the Disney soundtracks. It's just a dud on too many level to make it watchable except by very small children who don't know better and Disney fanatics.