Hercules (1997 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hercules is a 1997 American
animated musical film produced by
Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by
Walt Disney Pictures. The 35th
animated feature in the
Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was directed by
Ron Clements and
John Musker. The film is based on the legendary Greek mythology hero
Heracles (known in the film by his
Roman name,
Hercules), the son of
Zeus, in
Greek mythology.
Though
Hercules did not match the financial success of Disney's
early-1990s releases, the film received positive reviews,
[2] and made $99 million in revenue in the United States during its theatrical release and $252,712,101 worldwide.
[1]
Hercules was later followed by the direct-to-video
prequel Hercules: Zero to Hero, which served as a
midquel to
Hercules: The Animated Series, a syndicated Disney TV series focusing on Hercules during his time at the Prometheus academy.
Plot
After imprisoning the
Titans beneath the ocean, the
Greek gods Zeus and his wife
Hera have a son named
Hercules. While the other gods are joyful, Zeus' jealous brother
Hades plots to overthrow Zeus and rule
Mount Olympus. Turning to
the Fates for help, Hades learns that in eighteen years, a
planetary alignment
will allow Hades to locate and free the Titans to conquer Olympus, but
only if Hercules does not interfere. Hades sends his minions
Pain and Panic
to dispose of Hercules. The two succeed at kidnapping and feeding him a
formula that turns him mortal, but fail to remove his superhuman
strength before Hercules is found and adopted by the farmers
Amphitryon and
Alcmene.
Years later, the teenaged Hercules becomes an outcast due to his
strength, and wonders where he came from. After his foster parents
reveal the necklace they found him with, Hercules decides to visit the
temple of Zeus for answers. The temple's statue of Zeus comes to life
and reveals all to Hercules, telling him that he can regain his godhood
by becoming a "true hero". Zeus sends Hercules and his forgotten
infant-hood friend
Pegasus to find the
satyr Philoctetes—"Phil"
for short—who is known for training heroes. The two meet Phil, who has
retired from training heroes due to numerous disappointments, but
Hercules inspires him to follow his dream to train a true hero who will
be recognized by the gods. Phil trains Hercules into a potential hero,
and when he is older, they fly for
Thebes. On the way, they meet
Megara—"Meg" for short—a sarcastic damsel who Hercules saves from the
centaur Nessus.
However, after Hercules, Phil, and Pegasus leave, Meg is revealed to be
Hades' minion, having sold her soul to him to save an unfaithful lover.
Arriving in Thebes, Hercules finds himself unwanted by the
downtrodden citizens until Meg appears, claiming two boys are trapped in
a gorge. Hercules saves them, unaware that they are Pain and Panic in
disguise, allowing Hades to summon the
Hydra
to fight Hercules. Hercules continually cuts off its heads, but more
heads replace them until Hercules kills the monster by causing a
landslide. Hercules is seen as a hero and a celebrity, but Zeus tells
Hercules he is not yet a true hero. Driven to depression, Hercules turns
to Meg, who is falling in love with him. Hades learns of this and makes
a deal with Hercules, to give up his powers for twenty-four hours and
Meg will be unharmed. Hercules agrees, losing his strength, and is
shocked when Hades reveals that Meg is working for him.
Hades unleashes the Titans who climb Olympus and capture the gods, whilst a
Cyclops
goes to Thebes to kill Hercules. Phil inspires Hercules to fight and
kill the cyclops, but Meg is crushed by a falling pillar saving Hercules
from it, allowing him to regain his strength. Hercules and Pegasus fly
to Olympus where they free the gods and launch the Titans into space
where they explode, though Meg dies before he returns to her. With Meg's
soul now Hades' property, Hercules breaks into the Underworld where he
negotiates with Hades to free Meg from the
Styx
in exchange for his own life. His willingness to sacrifice his life
restores his godhood and immortality before the life-draining river can
kill him, and he rescues Meg and punches Hades into the Styx. After
reviving Meg, Hercules and his friends are summoned to Olympus where
Zeus and Hera welcome their son home. However, Hercules decides to
remain on Earth with Meg with his parents' blessing. Hercules returns to
Thebes where he is hailed as a true hero as Zeus creates a picture of
Hercules in the stars commemorating his heroism.
Cast
- Tate Donovan as Hercules, based on the mythological deity Heracles. Supervising animator Andreas Deja
described Hercules as "...not a smart aleck, not streetwise, he's just a
naive kid trapped in a big body", and that Donovan "had a charming yet
innocent quality in his readings". Donovan had not done any voice-over
work prior to Hercules. Deja integrated Donovan's "charming yet innocent quality" into Hercules' expressions.[3]
- Danny DeVito as Philoctetes/Phil. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for Philoctetes, cited Grumpy in Snow White and Bacchus in Fantasia
as the inspirations for the character's design. Goldberg mentioned that
they discovered that Danny DeVito "has really different mouth shapes"
when they videotaped his recordings and that they used these shapes in
animating Phil.[3]
- James Woods as Hades.
Producer Alice Dewey mentioned that Hades "was supposed to talk in a
slow and be menacing in a quiet, spooky way", but thought that James
Woods' manner of speaking "a mile a minute" would be a "great take" for a
villain.[3] Woods did a lot of ad-libbing in his recordings, especially in Hades' dialogues with Megara. Nik Ranieri,
the supervising animator for Hades, mentioned that the character was
"based on a Hollywood agent, a car salesman type", and that a lot came
from James Woods' ad-libbed
dialogue. He went on to say that the hardest part in animating Hades
was that he talks too much and too fast, so much so that "it took [him]
two weeks to animate a one-second scene". Ranieri watched James Woods'
other films and used what he saw as the basis for Hades' sneer.[3]
- Susan Egan as Megara. Supervising animator Ken Duncan
stated that she was "based on a '40s screwball comedienne" and that he
used Greek shapes for her hair ("Her head is in sort of a vase shape and
she's got a Greek curl in the back.").[3]
- Frank Welker as Pegasus. Ellen Woodbury served as the supervising animator for Pegasus.
- Rip Torn and Samantha Eggar as Zeus and Hera, Hercules' birth-parents. Anthony DeRosa served as the supervising animator for both characters.
- Lillias White, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan and Vanéese Y. Thomas as the Muses (Calliope, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Thalia and Clio respectively), the narrators of the film's story. Michael Snow served as the supervising animator for the Muses.
- Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer
as Pain and Panic, Hades' henchmen. James Lopez and Brian Ferguson
respectively served as the supervising animators for Pain and Panic.
- Patrick Pinney as the Cyclops. Dominique Monfrey served as the supervising animator for the Cyclops.
- Hal Holbrook and Barbara Barrie as Amphitryon and Alcmene, Hercules' adoptive parents. Richard Bazley served as the supervising animator for both characters.
- Amanda Plummer, Carole Shelley and Paddi Edwards as Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, the three Fates who predict Hades' attempt to conquer Olympus. Nancy Beiman served as the supervising animator for the three characters.
- Paul Shaffer as Hermes. Michael Swofford served as the animator for Hermes.
- Jim Cummings as Nessus. Chris Bailey served as the animator for Nessus.
- Wayne Knight as Demetrius
- Keith David as Apollo
- Charlton Heston has a cameo role as the opening narrator.
Production
Production for the film took place from late 1994 to early 1997. The character design was based on Greek statues and artist
Gerald Scarfe's work in
Pink Floyd—The Wall. Each major character in
Hercules
had a supervising animator. Andreas Deja, the supervising animator for
Hercules, commented that the animation crew he worked with to animate
Hercules was the "largest [he] ever worked with". He previously worked
on other characters (like
Gaston in
Beauty and the Beast,
Jafar in
Aladdin, and
Scar in
The Lion King) with about four animators on his crew, but he had a team of twelve or thirteen for Hercules.
[3]
Given Deja had worked with three villains before, he was first offered
Hades, but asked to animate the protagonist instead - "I knew if would
be more difficult and more challenging, but I just needed that
experience to have that in your repertoire."
[4]
Music
Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the
soundtrack for
Hercules. It consists of music written by composer
Alan Menken and lyricist
David Zippel, with vocals performed by
Lillias White,
LaChanze,
Roz Ryan,
Roger Bart,
Danny DeVito, and
Susan Egan among others, along with the successful single version of "
Go the Distance" by
Michael Bolton. For the
Spanish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was redone by
Ricky Martin and released as a single under the title "No Importa La Distancia" and was also very successful, both inside and outside the
United States. In the
Turkish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was sung by
Tarkan, who also performed the vocals for the adult Hercules.
"Go the Distance" was nominated for both the
Academy Award for Best Original Song and the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, but ultimately lost both to
Celine Dion's monumental hit "
My Heart Will Go On" from
Titanic.
Belinda Carlisle recorded two versions of "
I Won't Say (I'm in Love)"
as well as a music video for promotional purposes. Though the English
dub eventually opted not to use it, several foreign dubs have it in
place of the reprise of "A Star Is Born" in the ending credits. These
dubs include, but are not limited to, the Swedish one, the Finnish one,
the Icelandic one and the Russian one. Curiously enough, the DVD release
of the Swedish dub has replaced it with the reprise of "A Star Is
Born".
Track list:
- "Long Ago..." - Charlton Heston
- The Gospel Truth/Main Title - Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
- The Gospel Truth II - Roz Ryan
- The Gospel Truth III - Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
- "Go the Distance" - Roger Bart
- Oh Mighty Zeus (Score)
- "Go the Distance (Reprise)" - Roger Bart
- "One Last Hope" - Danny DeVito
- "Zero to Hero" - Tawatha Agee, Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
- "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" - Susan Egan, Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
- "A Star Is Born" - Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
- "Go the Distance (Single)" - Michael Bolton
- The Big Olive (Score)
- The Prophecy (Score)
- Destruction of the Agora (Score)
- Phil's Island (Score)
- Rodeo (Score)
- Speak of the Devil (Score)
- The Hydra Battle (Score)
- Meg's Garden (Score)
- Hercules' Villa (Score)
- All Time Chump (Score)
- Cutting the Thread (Score)
- A True Hero/A Star Is Born (End Title) - Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
Release
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This section requires expansion. (February 2009) |
Marketing
Marketing and promotion for
Hercules began even before the film's theatrical release. Several
Hercules toys, books, and other merchandise were produced,
[5] and a parade was held at
Times Square during the film's premiere two weeks prior to its theatrical run.
[6] Hercules was also received the first
Disney on Ice adaptation before the film was theatrically released.
[7] A tie-in
video game, titled
Hercules Action Game, was developed by
Eurocom and released in July 1997 for the
PC and
PlayStation.
[8]
Home media
The film's first home video release, on
VHS, was February 3, 1998 in the US as part of the
Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection series. A Limited Issue came out on DVD November 9, 1999, followed by on August 1, 2000, a re-issue to
VHS and
DVD as part of the
Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection.
Video game
A video game based on the film was released for the
PlayStation and
Microsoft Windows in 1997, later put on the
PlayStation Network online service for the
PlayStation 3.
Reception
Disney intended for the film to have an open-air premiere at
Pnyx hill, but the Greek government declined after Greek media and public panned the film. A Greek newspaper entitled
Adsmevtos Typos called it "another case of foreigners distorting our history and culture just to suit their commercial interests".
[9]
After a one-theater release on June 15, 1997,
Hercules had its wide release on June 27, 1997. With an opening weekend of $21,454,451, it opened at the second spot of the
box office, after
Face/Off.
[10] The film grossed only $99 million on its domestic lifetime, something Disney's executives blamed on "more competition".
[11] The international totals for
Hercules raised its gross to $253 million.
[1]
Critical reception
As of 2008,
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of critics gave positive reviews based on 48 reviews.
[2]
Film critic
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times wrote a positive review of the film, enjoying the story as well as the animation. Ebert also praised
James Woods' portrayal of Hades, stating that Woods brings "something of the same verbal inventiveness that
Robin Williams brought to
Aladdin".
[12]
Awards and nominations
-
-
-
- Blockbuster Entertainment Awards[16]
-
- Favorite Animated Family Movie (Nominated)
- Favorite Song from a Movie - "Go the Distance" (Nominated)
-
| Result |
Award |
Winner/Nominee Recipient(s) |
| Nominated |
Animated Theatrical Feature |
|
| Won |
Individual Achievement in Producing |
Alice Dewey (Producer)
John Musker (Producer)
Ron Clements (Producer) |
| Won |
Individual Achievement in Directing |
John Musker (Director)
Ron Clements (Director) |
| Nominated |
Individual Achievement in Character Animation |
Ken Duncan (Supervising Animator - Meg) |
| Won |
Individual Achievement in Character Animation |
Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator - Hades) |
| Won |
Individual Achievement in Effects Animation |
Mauro Maressa (Effects Supervisor) |
References
- ^ a b c d "Hercules (1997)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ a b "Hercules (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Quick Draw Artists". Disney Adventures: 44–49. September 1997.
- ^ Interview: Animator Andreas Deja, DVD Movie Guide
- ^ Grossman, Wendy (June 26, 1997). "Disney flexes marketing muscle for Hercules". chronicle.augusta.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.[dead link]
- ^ Gest, Emily (June 10, 1997). "DISNEY'S READY TO ROLL WITH HERCULEAN LABOR". www.nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ Wasko, Janet (2001). Understanding Disney: the manufacture of fantasy. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-7456-1484-1.
- ^ Disney's Hercules at Eurocom
- ^ Byrne, Ciaran; Julia Llewelyn Smith (October 9, 1997). "Greeks put Hercules on trial". The Nation: C6, C8.
- ^ Weekend Box Office Results for June 27-29, 1997 - Box Office Mojo
- ^ Hercules Is Too Weak to Lift Disney Stock, The New York Times
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1997-06-27). "Hercules review". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
- ^ "1997 (70th)". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "HFPA Awards Search". www.goldenglobes.org. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: 1998". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: 1998". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "Nineteenth Annual Youth in Film Awards 1996-1997". www.youngartistawards.org. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
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