Official Synopsis
Taken from the gods as a newborn and adopted on earth, Hercules is just an awkward pillar of strength trying to fit in. What he wants most is to impress his father Zeus. When Hercules discovers Hades’ sinister plot to take over Mount Olympus, he goes from zero to hero and, with the help of his pals Pegasus and Phil, discovers that real strength comes from the heart!
I love how this film flows — it’s as intense as the protagonist.
{media load=media,id=2788,width=720,align=center,display=inline}
The film starts off quick with an emotional, yet humorous introduction to our hero Hercules (Tate Donovan). A child that is plucked from Mount Olympus and nearly killed by the jealous brother of Zeus, Hades (James Woods), so that Hades can avoid his tragic fate told to him by his soothsayers. Thankfully, Hades’ henchmen screw up and don’t kill him as a child. Avoiding death, Hercules is raised by humans on earth and ends up growing up quick.
The years go by in the film and we get to see Hercules go through growing pains of being a half-God/half-man, and we are shown how he struggles internally living an isolated and nearly purposeless existence. Then Hercules goes off and randomly meets a hero trainer, Philoctete (Danny DeVito), who convinces him that Hercules is worth a darn and helps whip him into hero status.
The opening act of the film does a great job with developing and building our protagonist properly. The story gives enough time to not only shape the life of Hercules, but also introduce all the emotional and outside elements that are making his life difficult. Some of the emotional material could really speak to a younger crowd of outsiders, who are struggling to look for a purpose. It’s heavy stuff to include in an animated film, but impressively handled by the end.
As the second act opens up, we have Hercules hitting his full stride and being all he can be in preparation for his ultimate fight against Hades and his group. His bump in the road is a girl named Meg (Susan Egan), who Hercules is smitten on (yep, used ‘smitten’), but sadly Meg ends up breaking the hero’s heart when she double-crosses him. She’s a tragic character and one that is used well within this world to derail him from his ultimate goal of getting back to Olympus, whether she wants to or not.
There’s a lot of things that could have gone wrong with the second act because it gets enormously complicated. Thankfully, it works itself out and by the end of it our hero gets what he deserves, and is left with a large predicament to overcome — mainly stopping Hades, who has also unleashed the menacing Titans on the world to cause unending destruction. So, again, there’s a lot against our hero by the end of the second act and while he seems to have it together enough to get the job done, Meg is used properly to unravel all of that in the story.
The third act moves along properly and surprises with a heart-wrenching moment. I won’t give it away for those of you who have not seen it, but just prepare yourselves. This is why the story of Hercules is a strong one.
For my money, had we not been sent Hercules for review on Blu-ray, I would have certainly gone out and bought it. I like the story, it’s kid-friendly, but it isn’t your typical Disney animated flick. It lies somewhere between The Black Cauldron and Sleeping Beauty in terms of darkness and heroic feel. It’s certainly in my top 10 Disney animated features.
If you haven’t seen it, see it on Blu-ray.
Speaking of which, Disney once again proves that it is unrivaled when it comes to translating hand-drawn animation to an HD format. There is not a single imperfection in Hercules. The colors featured in this Blu-ray are vibrant, lively and most importantly without any graininess to them or featuring any artifacts. This 1997 film certainly does a great job of featuring some of the most beautiful animation and also a wide range of colors. Blues, yellows, browns, reds, greens and pretty much any other color in the spectrum is featured with this release in exquisite eye-popping perfection. In other words, you won’t be disappointed with the transfer for this movie. No color banding or compression issues exist in this transfer. Definitely a keeper.
On the audio side of things, you get DTS 5.1, so while there isn’t any 7.1 love going on here, you still get the some of the best audio, and this movie uses it very well. The aspect ratio is 1.78:1 for you film fanatics.
On the features side of things, here’s what to expect:
– From Zero to Hero Sing-Along
– “No Importa La Distancia” Music Video
– The Making of Hercules
For such a gorgeous release, I think the special features section was lacking a bit. I do like the ‘making of’ featurette, but I would have given anything for some director commentary or just maybe a little bit more about the film. Hercules is a great film and it deserves a little extra love, but what you get in this section is decent at best.