Hercules 1997 Film Review

 

The Disney Renaissance is an era that spawned many classic films many of which are being remade by the company. Well not every one of those film can be well regarded or well liked as is the case with the film that i'm about to review as this film really doesn't get alot of attention by people when they talk about the Disney Renaissance or Disney in general and so then join me as I review the film that brings a classic Greek legend into the world of animation with the film in question being called simply just "Hercules" enjoy.

The plot of this is Hercules finds out he is the son of a God and so in order to gain access to Mount Olympus he has to become a true hero and stop Hades once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being rather simple and very easy to follow as well as being very entertaining and engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Tate Donovan as Hercules , Danny DeVito as Philoctetes / Phil and Susan Egan as Megara. Also starring in this film is Rip Torn as Zeus , Samantha Eggar as Hera , Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain , Matt Frewer as Panic , Patrick Pinney as The Cyclops , Hal Holbrook as Amphitryon , Barbara Barrie as Alcmene , Amanda Plummer as Clotho , Carole Shelley as Lachesis , Paddi Edwards as Atropos , Paul Shaffer as Hermes , voice acting legend Jim Cummings as Nessus , Tall Theban and the Elderly Theban , Wayne Knight as Demetrius , Keith David as Apollo , Charlton Heston as This Films Narrator , voice acting legend Frank Welker as Pegasus , Josh Keaton as Young Hercules and James Woods as Hades.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films cast turning in some fairly solid performances which is truly shocking as this film mostly made up of very little known actors with the odd well known actor sprinkled in and so it was shocking to see good performances in this film.

Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Walt Disney Feature Animation , Hanho Heung-Up Company , Richard Purdum Productions and Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with the films 2D animation more then holding up all these years later however the same thing cannot be said for the films 3D CGI animation which has aged very poorly.

There are somethings that this film got wrong which history will pick up on like the fact that Hercules is meant to be doing these favors for Zeus so he can his godhood back and yet in real life he was doing them just to survive. With the other thing being how this film portrayed the character of Hera as in this film she is portrayed as a kind loving woman who loved Hercules and yet in real life the opposite is true as she was a vengeful woman who hated the fact that Zeus had many children with many other women with her not even loving any of his children and it's a shame that they didn't take this approach with the character in this film as it would have made the film all the more interesting.

As a comedy this film does work fairly well as this film does have alot of painfully moments in it but at the same time when this film tells an unfunny joke you really do notice it. As alot of this films really funny jokes come from the lines that James Woods ad-libbed his scenes with Susan Egan and alot of this films unfunny jokes come from both Hercules and Pain and Panic with their jokes just feeling like their trying to hard to be funny where as Hades and Meg just are funny and so seeing them crack some really funny jokes together makes the film more entertaining and it makes Hades himself a more entertaining villain in the process.

This film is of course a musical which has songs written by Disney legend Alan Menken and David Zippel. With this films best song for me being "Go the Distance" which is just a fun song and it's a song that's not only really well written but it's also really well sung with the same thing also being true for "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" with both songs doing a good job of advancing both Hercules and Meg as well as giving us some genuinely good and underrated Disney songs and I do think that the filmmakers missed out on not having Hades sings a song just because any song with that character is just going to sound amazing and it's a song that would have fitted in with this films more gospel type of musical style as well.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty two minuets and forty six seconds. Which is a bit on the short side for this film as this film has alot to setup and still a decent story and it just can't do that in that short of a running time as such I really do think that the film would have benefited from being at the very least five minuets longer as then it would allow the film to fully develop it's and to also fully develop alot more of it's characters as both or something that sadly suffers from this films short running time but i will admit that this film does have some pretty decent pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt hat the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films action being very creative with the film making great use of Hercules's strength and giving us some really cool action scenes and it's in these action scenes where the films animation really does simply just leap of the screen in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film is truly underrated Disney film that does deserve to be looked at and talked about as it's great way to introduce little kids into a Greek legend that they might not be all that two familiar with in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does means that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this very film being obviously the official Disney fandom wiki page since really alot of this films images that are really from this very film and that are all currently still up and of course still on the great the official Disney fandom wiki page and all of the images are all really fairly freaking high in picture quality and as well as them all really being really fairly freaking high in definition.