Disney's Hercules

Disney's Hercules is fine just the way it is. Tone-wise, the film was going for something lighthearted and fun, so keeping the darker aspects from the source material out of it was probably for the best. I welcome generalizing Hercules' 12 trials into his quest to becoming a hero. Showing 12 different trials on screen would have gotten boring. However, if the film wanted to go for a darker tone, a la Hunchback of Notre Dame, keeping the part of Hercules' story where he isn't Hera's child would've given us a much better villain in Hera. Hades is great, but it would be interesting to see how Disney would tackle this kind of relationship.

Reflection on Disney's Hercules

I welcome a number of the choices made for Disney's adaptations that make it far easier for audiences to understand. Although I recognize that the 12 feats of strength are central to the original myth of Hercules, depicting all of them in such a manner as Disney would animate them in wouldn't be feasible for a feature-length film, so getting it down to just the hydra, the most recognizable, is a good choice that gets Hercules's strength across as interestingly as possible while still remaining at a brisk pace. I also like the removal of Hera's fits of madness, as for adapting the myth into a movie, it makes the story unnecessarily convoluted and removing it doesn't affect Hercules' character in any major way. I do not like the reducing of names down to more typical western names, however, as it appears to almost utterly whitewash the film. Also, although his performance is incredible, Hades as a villain is incredibly cliche and doesn't create any significant relations between the hero and the villain, such as in The Lion King, and I feel that altering this from the myth is a detriment to the story.

Hercules

This Disney version of the Hercules movie is fun family friendly version of the original. Disney definitely took out some of the gory details of the original myth. I think they definitely should have added the part of him fighting the lion, I think the photo shoot scene would have made much more sense this way. I think keeping his family in the movie was a good change from the original. Without his parents telling him about his past he would have never gone to find Zeus. I find it weird while watching knowing that in the original that Hera tried to kill him and in this one she is the loving mother. But having him be her son makes the movie again flow better.

Hercules

Disney’s Hercules was a fun and family friendly version of the original Greek myth, and, with that, they made some essential changes to the story. The biggest of these is the addition of Hades as the villain in the story. In the original myth, Hera was the one who tried to kill Hercules, and I think this change was good. By adding the god of the underworld as the villain, they make the storyline more friendly and obvious for young audiences. They are also able to make jokes for older audiences that they wouldn’t have been able to make with Hera as the villain. Disney also made Hercules have a single love interest: Meg, and this was a necessary change for him to be a family-friendly hero. It also allowed them to create a complicated love story that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. However, Disney also made Hercules a perfect hero, except for his naivety, which was an interesting change since he was far from perfect in the original myth. I don’t think I would change Disney’s work, but if they included some bigger character flaws for Hercules it would make the story closer to the original myth. Overall, Disney’s changes, when considering their audience, were both creative and essential for the movie. 

Hercules and Disney....

I think that Disney did a good job of cutting out the parts that would turn away audience members. I liked the fact that Disney decided to make a good parental relationship between Hercules and his parents. It was so cute to see Zeus and little baby Hercules happy together even though we know that is not true. If Disney would have included Hercules' true colors and showed him having orgies and murdering people, it would have definitely turned away a big audience. I enjoyed the cutesy way the story was depicted. I think that when watching, it should be made clear that the actual myth of Hercules is very different than the wholesome and sweet story that Disney created. Overall I liked the way Disney changed the story in order to fit the family friendly atmosphere.

Disney vs. The Myth

In the Disney version of Hercules, they take the original myth and mold it into the ideal hero story. Hercules was given heroic attributes that helped him win when faced with extreme evil. Hercules is strong, family-oriented, and fought to save the world from Hades. These are all ideal attributes of an American hero. I feel it was completely necessary to change to story to make it a more wholesome tale, and that is okay. The original myth is filled with gruesome moments and overall a not very heroic Heracles. That would not be suitable for a Disney film by any means. Although they changed so much of Hercules' original myth, I thought overall, the movie did a great job paying homage to the toga movies of the past in a new and animated way.

Should Disney's Hercules Be More Like Heracles?

The Hercules film that Disney made is a great story as it is, but it is completely separate from the myth of Heracles. I think that the myth of Heracles is a type of hero that we as modern-day Americans do not really consider to be much of a hero due to his problematic tendencies, which is why it made sense for Disney to change it to a "feel good" movie. The hero arch of Hercules becoming a hero by defeating monsters and Hades, while also falling in love, makes it easier for American audiences to connect and root for him. Hercules starts out different from normal humans, but then uses his differences for good. The fact that he also chooses love over becoming a God is something that American audiences can appreciate more than if he had chosen to leave Meg. I do not think Disney should've incorporated anything from the myth,  because it simply wouldn't be appropriate for a family-friendly, kid-friendly audience, and it wouldn't have had a satisfying ending in my opinion. Heracles is much too gruesome a myth to be animated and made a light hearted musical, so I welcome the completely different story of a cliché Disney hero.