Have you ever heard the phrase "guilty pleasure?"
It basically means that you know something is bad for you, and you feel guilty about it, but you enjoy it anyway.
The crux of that phrase is that you have to feel guilty about what you're enjoying.
I have loved Hercules since I was a little kid, and it ranks as my number one Disney film (not including Pixar). Now, it has somewhat poor reviews, due in part to several things: One, the accuracy to the myth. Two, the song choice. And three, the main character. Only one of those three requires a bit of repair, but the other two... They are perfectly fine.
So, let's go over them.
Accuracy
One problem people have with the film is that it is not accurate to the myth, so much so that the movie is banned in Greece for "falsely representing (Greece's) history." But, the inaccuracy isn't a bad thing
The accuracy to the original myth deviates immediately at the beginning of the film. The titans are no longer the sons and daughters of Gaia and Uranus, but has been replaced with Elementals representing disasters (earthquakes, volcanos, tornadoes, ice age/winters) and a cyclops (actually one of Gaia and Uranus's children banished to Tartarus for being ugly). Honestly, that sounds more interesting than Hyperion and his lot, since it is gods versus the elements, instead of a bunch of gods fighting each other.
The second change, is that Hercules is no longer a roid-raging wife and child killer. Now he's a fallen god because Hades (who is actually Zeus's brother, and an ally of Hercules in the myth) wanted to take over Olympus and was told that if Hercules fought he'd lose. And as a fallen god, he is on a quest to restore his god-hood by becoming a true hero (which pretty much means just risk your life for those you love. Or perform necromancy, the Greeks were weird so it could go either way). Again, more interesting, because our protagonist doesn't start out with our hatred for killing his wife and children.
The plot then follows Hercules as he tries to become a true hero. All his trials are reduced to monsters being sent by Hades to kill him, which only serve to prop him up as a bigger hero. (And actually if Hades had done the smart thing... Like quietly poison him in his sleep, or just not send monsters after him, Hercules wouldn't have been as much of a threat.) While the trials are downgraded (He mentions fighting a gorgon, which = Medusa, and he should've been turned to stone for looking at her, yet he is unaffected.) one is elevated, making one of the best scenes in the movie in my opinion: The Hydra battle. If they had followed the myth, the hydra would've been much smaller than Hercules, with the difficulty in defeating it being the growing of the heads, which is rather boring, like watching a guy try to solve a Rubik's cube for a couple hours. In the film, the hydra is massive, and could crush Hercules just as easily as eat him, which makes it much more awesome. Deviations from the original aren't bad.
People take umbrage with these changes, like other works Disney has adapted to animation. They always claim that it is "dumbing it down" or making it "kid-friendly."
Yeah, what else would you expect them to do? You expect them to have the protagonist bloodily murder his family? If you want an accurate portrayal, the history channel probably did a show on the Trials of Hercules. But, you are not going to get an accurate portrayal from a kids company.
Here's the thing: They are not in the business of accuracy. They are in the business of money. An R rating on an animated movie won't sell a lot of tickets (except for the oblivious demographic). So the story will change to get a lower rating, with other changes included to interest children and therefore families.
Personally, I prefer this version. Yes it isn't accurate in the slightest, but it is entertainment. You aren't watching a movie to see if they got the mythos right, you're watching for fun. So what makes accuracy = fun to people?
The Song Choice
Admit it, you liked the songs.
There is nothing wrong with the songs. They are all very memorable, and very, very good. Hell, the movie would translate well to a small-theatre musical given the style of music.
Thing is, people consider it "out of place." They think that Gospel music doesn't fit well... It makes sense to me:
- "Gospel" is a term from Greek plays, as is the term "Greek Chorus" which is a group of people who comment on the collective action in one voice.
- The film contains a lot of the Religion of Greece, and Gospel is religious music. Sure it is Christian religious music, but it is still a style of singing.
It is rather clever. Also, there isn't really any alternative that would make sense. I can scarcely imagine Hercules with Pop, or rap (it did exist back in the '90's), or rock... Hercules actually might've been worse without the gospel.
The Main Character
Now this is the real problem with Hercules... It is Hercules himself.
He's dull. He's actually a pretty good example of a Mary Sue. He's super strong, really nice, is able to save the gods from the villains when they can't save themselves (you know, being gods and all), breaks his deal with the villain at the end (where it isn't actually the villain trying to do anything evil, he's just doing his job, with equivalent exchange being a factor as well), and performs necromancy on a body at least two to three hours dead (Why does necromancy keep popping up in all these kids movies?). And through all that, we are expected to like him because he is the hero.
Here is Hercule's personality: He is a wide-eyed idealist country boy who wants to prove himself. Riveting...
Look, there is nothing wrong with that personality per say... Take this example:
This is Applejack. (Yes she's a pony. Ignore that, we are focusing on character here.) She shares many traits of Hercules: She's strong, nice, friendly, and is also a simple farm girl. The difference is that she has some draw backs to her personality. She's stubborn and prideful for starters, to the point where it sometimes endangers her and those around her. Not to mention, she does get rather short with her friends when they insult her or she thinks they have, but she is loyal to them all the same. She is also a terrible liar.
So what do we take from the comparison between Applejack and Hercules? Hercules has no flaws. He is dull because he has no drawbacks. He only gets mad once in the entire movie, and it is at the one time where him being mad is actually in the wrong, meaning he has two moods: Happy, and depressed. He spends the entire movie in one of those two.
So, to start repairing Hercules, we must make him mad at some point. And I choose this point:
In the climax, Hercules faces off with the Cyclops, who is destroying the city. Instead of being depressed about Meg, he should be angry that the Cyclops is killing people he's supposed to be protecting. At this point, he made a deal with Hades that sapped his strength. So what better than to make Hercules a badass by defeating the Cyclops without his strength?
That leads into the next point of repairing Hercules: Make him smart. He shows a little bit of this in how he will check the math of other people, but that disappears after the training sequence. He needs to be either book smart, or strategy smart, and use that in battle. In the battle with the Cyclops, he should be leading the Cyclops away from the city, where he can no longer hurt people, and then use his head to figure out how to bring him down. That'd make him show compassion for the civilians he is saving (since in the rest of the movie it seems like he only cares about proving that he's a true hero), as well as showing that he is still a hero without being strong.
But that leads to a third point: Strength consistency. Hercules's strength varies throughout the film. One moment he can lift a rock that probably weighs more than 10 cars, and another he cannot cave in a centaur's skull with a couple punches. He's just as strong in the beginning as he is later (maybe a little stronger), but in the beginning he is a little clumsy. Have him retain that, let him be a little clumsy, accidentally destroy some chairs or something. It is good comedy fodder to have someone who is clumsy be super strong.
To quickly come back to the Hercules and Applejack comparison... The reason why people love Applejack, is because she's fun. She's a joy to watch, and the comedy that comes form her character is fun to watch as well. Hercules doesn't get very many good lines, and is almost never funny, making him less fun to watch.
So, I shall quickly sum up the changes needed to make Hercules a true protagonist: the ability to feel anger, the desire to protect the citizenry, a brain, some nerve... and some clumsyness. We want to root for our hero because they are badass, or because we like to watch them. Just being the protagonist isn't enough.
Hercules is a good movie. I only wish that I could go back in time to talk to the screen writers, and tell them what they need to do for Hercules...
And no, that is not a waste of a time machine. Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act was put into time-law for a reason people!
This has been Fixer Sue! And remember, don't mess with the time stream!
He's dull. He's actually a pretty good example of a Mary Sue. He's super strong, really nice, is able to save the gods from the villains when they can't save themselves (you know, being gods and all), breaks his deal with the villain at the end (where it isn't actually the villain trying to do anything evil, he's just doing his job, with equivalent exchange being a factor as well), and performs necromancy on a body at least two to three hours dead (Why does necromancy keep popping up in all these kids movies?). And through all that, we are expected to like him because he is the hero.
Here is Hercule's personality: He is a wide-eyed idealist country boy who wants to prove himself. Riveting...
Look, there is nothing wrong with that personality per say... Take this example:
This is Applejack. (Yes she's a pony. Ignore that, we are focusing on character here.) She shares many traits of Hercules: She's strong, nice, friendly, and is also a simple farm girl. The difference is that she has some draw backs to her personality. She's stubborn and prideful for starters, to the point where it sometimes endangers her and those around her. Not to mention, she does get rather short with her friends when they insult her or she thinks they have, but she is loyal to them all the same. She is also a terrible liar.
So what do we take from the comparison between Applejack and Hercules? Hercules has no flaws. He is dull because he has no drawbacks. He only gets mad once in the entire movie, and it is at the one time where him being mad is actually in the wrong, meaning he has two moods: Happy, and depressed. He spends the entire movie in one of those two.
So, to start repairing Hercules, we must make him mad at some point. And I choose this point:
In the climax, Hercules faces off with the Cyclops, who is destroying the city. Instead of being depressed about Meg, he should be angry that the Cyclops is killing people he's supposed to be protecting. At this point, he made a deal with Hades that sapped his strength. So what better than to make Hercules a badass by defeating the Cyclops without his strength?
That leads into the next point of repairing Hercules: Make him smart. He shows a little bit of this in how he will check the math of other people, but that disappears after the training sequence. He needs to be either book smart, or strategy smart, and use that in battle. In the battle with the Cyclops, he should be leading the Cyclops away from the city, where he can no longer hurt people, and then use his head to figure out how to bring him down. That'd make him show compassion for the civilians he is saving (since in the rest of the movie it seems like he only cares about proving that he's a true hero), as well as showing that he is still a hero without being strong.
But that leads to a third point: Strength consistency. Hercules's strength varies throughout the film. One moment he can lift a rock that probably weighs more than 10 cars, and another he cannot cave in a centaur's skull with a couple punches. He's just as strong in the beginning as he is later (maybe a little stronger), but in the beginning he is a little clumsy. Have him retain that, let him be a little clumsy, accidentally destroy some chairs or something. It is good comedy fodder to have someone who is clumsy be super strong.
To quickly come back to the Hercules and Applejack comparison... The reason why people love Applejack, is because she's fun. She's a joy to watch, and the comedy that comes form her character is fun to watch as well. Hercules doesn't get very many good lines, and is almost never funny, making him less fun to watch.
So, I shall quickly sum up the changes needed to make Hercules a true protagonist: the ability to feel anger, the desire to protect the citizenry, a brain, some nerve... and some clumsyness. We want to root for our hero because they are badass, or because we like to watch them. Just being the protagonist isn't enough.
Hercules is a good movie. I only wish that I could go back in time to talk to the screen writers, and tell them what they need to do for Hercules...
And no, that is not a waste of a time machine. Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act was put into time-law for a reason people!
This has been Fixer Sue! And remember, don't mess with the time stream!
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