Hercules

Does anyone else feel that the quality of an animated series is inversely proportional to that of the movie? Hercules, for example, was one of the least celebrated Disney movies, but the show is one of the most innovative and entertaining cartoons ever made.

Several of the AL regulars, but most notably Tara, did their best to convince me that the show was worth a look. The final clincher, though, came while I was flipping through my Disney trivia book and discovered that Eric Idle was one of the characters. Being that I am quite a fan of Mr. Idle’s, I immediately began watching the show hoping against hope that I would be lucky enough to catch one of the episodes in which his character appears. Luckily, he is at least something of a regular, so it wasn’t long before he came on. Even so, I had already managed to get myself totally hooked on the show.

I love ancient Greece almost as much as I do Egypt, so I was initially terrified what they could have done to desecrate the mythology further. Luckily, Tad Stones was the executive producer, so it was in good hands and it actually worked. Hades (James Woods), Pain (Bobcat Goldthwait), Panic (Matt Frewer), and the Muses (Cheryl Freeman, La Chanze, Roz Ryan, Vanéese Y. Thomas, and Lillias White), the only truly enjoyable characters from the movie, return for the show, Hercules (Tate Donovan) himself gets a makeover – he’s an awkward high-school student, now – and is much more fun, and a host of new characters is introduced. Cassandra (Sandra Bernhard), who fans tend to identify with Daria, and Icarus (French Stewart), who lost more than a few marbles on his legendary flight, are Herc’s best friends. Adonis (Diedrich Bader) and his girlfriend, Helen of Troy (Jodi Benson) are deliciously superficial classmates. The Olympians and other mythical characters are portrayed perfectly, though not necessarily orthodoxly (which is an actual word, btw). And Robert Stack is great as Bob the Narrator. My favourite characters by far, though, are Mr. Parenthesis, the guidance counselor and aforementioned Eric Idle character, and Trivia, voiced by Ben Stein. Is it really necessary for me to explain why?

Like the movie, the show takes some (read: many very large) liberties with classic Greek mythology (they seem to revel in stepping on the toes of Perseus, Theseus, and other heroes). Unlike the movie, however, it gets away with it without ticking me off too badly. This is probably due to the fact that I was never particularly fond of any of the heroes, but I do quite like teenaged Hercules, so I don’t mind too much that he is stealing their glory. It does sort of sadden me that a whole generation of kids is going to think that Hercules defeated the Minotaur when Hercules did plenty that they never really got into, but I do hope that at least a few will be interested enough to look into the stories for themselves.

The writing is very witty and fast moving. Between the wonderful humor and the bright animation, it is almost impossible to resist. It has a very warm, friendly feel, as though even the villain would be fun to hang out with after a filming session. The character interaction is marvelous, and… It feels like this sentence needs something else, but my mental inkwell has run dry, and I need to clean my room, in any case.

Hercules was produced by Tad Stones (YAY!), directed by Phil Weinstein, and written by Robert Askin, Michael Merton, and Jon Weisman.

Thanks to The Gospel Truth and The Officially Unofficial Hercules Site for the pictures.

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