Compared to Hunchback the year before, this was certainly a
sillier film, but for the most part Hercules’ fun zany atmosphere works really
well in spite of its cliché riddled plot.
One of its greatest assets is of course its villain –
there is no doubt that James Woods is hilarious as Hades, but he manages to be
a credible threat at the same time. The eponymous protagonist seems pretty bland
by comparison, but at least Meg follows in Esmerelda’s footsteps as a fun and fierce
female lead. The music is also very enjoyable, as the whole soundtrack has a
fun feel good atmosphere to it, which lifts the whole film up overall. Another
thing that lifts it up is its humour, as even outside of Hades’ parts, it’s a
really funny movie. One final positive note – this film’s unique and more cartoonish
style really works, as it knits the whole atmosphere together.
Hercules' only downfall is that the story is very by the numbers,
which is the last thing Disney needed when its classic Renaissance formula
started to run dry. It has tons of plot points we’ve all seen a million times
before. The underdog who doesn’t fit in, the person whose lies are revealed at
the climax, the person who ‘becomes the mask’, (as TV Tropes would say), the
ending where the hero has to stay true to his heart (and now I’m thinking of
Mulan next week and getting excited). It’s not bad, there just isn’t a lot of
creativity to it.
Overall, Hercules is a really fun and enjoyable film, even
if the story isn’t one of the best in the canon.
Ratings
Good guys: Although
Hercules is a fairly bland protagonist, Meg is awesome enough to get the good
guys a 6/10
Bad guys: Hades
is tied with Yzma for the funniest villain in the canon, so he gets 8/10
Animation: The fun
animation style of this movie gets 7/10
Music: The solid
soundtrack gets 8/10
Plot: Although it’s
not really awful, the story is its only downfall, so it gets 5/10
Overall score: 34/50
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