Disney's hercules: how many inaccuracies can you find?

Chimeranick

New Member
I was watching Disney's Hercules with my little cousins the other day and spent the whole time thinking; "that's wrong.....that too....didn't happen that way. Disney had so much good material to work with but they still goofed it all up. My favorite is that in the movie Hera is Hercules' real mother and she loves him. In the mythology Hercules is the result of an affair between Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Hera saw him as a symbol of Zeus' infidelity and hated his guts.
 
Wow! I knew Disney had produced a Hercules movie so I was very afraid. However I didn't know it was that bad! Terrible.
That's okay, though, when I was eleven and that show Hercules The Legendary Journeys came on, I liked it (mainly because it was the love child of Sam Raimi's crew) but the inaccuracies were apparent even to my little kiddie mind. Hercules' most adventurous tales begin after Hera strikes him with madness, causing him to murder his own wife and family, essentially giving him a reason to leave and go adventuring, seeking solace for his terrible deed. I guess this wasn't exactly congruent with the lighthearted attitude adopted by the show, so in the very first episode, Hercules goes into his room and basically just says "hey, honey wake up," when a giant flaming meteor slams into her and destroys the whole place. Don't get me wrong I liked the show, it's just that it was the most obvious and shameless cop-out in television history.
I recently relived the moment after signing up for Netflix. Hilarious!
I couldn't find the clip on youtube on the meteor incident but here's an example of exactly just how "lighthearted" the show could be. Honestly I have respect for any show that just refuses to take itself too seriously.
 

Chimeranick

New Member
One thing I did like about the movie though. If you look closely at the scene where Herc is posing for a painting wearing the skin of the Nemean lion you can see that the lion is actually Scar from The Lion King. Nice.
 

Chimeranick

New Member
Wow! I knew Disney had produced a Hercules movie so I was very afraid. However I didn't know it was that bad! Terrible.
That's okay, though, when I was eleven and that show Hercules The Legendary Journeys came on, I liked it (mainly because it was the love child of Sam Raimi's crew) but the inaccuracies were apparent even to my little kiddie mind. Hercules' most adventurous tales begin after Hera strikes him with madness, causing him to murder his own wife and family, essentially giving him a reason to leave and go adventuring, seeking solace for his terrible deed. I guess this wasn't exactly congruent with the lighthearted attitude adopted by the show, so in the very first episode, Hercules goes into his room and basically just says "hey, honey wake up," when a giant flaming meteor slams into her and destroys the whole place. Don't get me wrong I liked the show, it's just that it was the most obvious and shameless cop-out in television history.
I recently relived the moment after signing up for Netflix. Hilarious!
I couldn't find the clip on youtube on the meteor incident but here's an example of exactly just how "lighthearted" the show could be. Honestly I have respect for any show that just refuses to take itself too seriously.
I actually JUST saw that scene the other day on Netflix too!!! We didn't even see her face before she was blasted into ashes!! BOOOM....Okey dokey, shall we go adventuring?
 

Nadai

Active Member
I knew that was Scar! No one believed me!
I remember watching the cartoon and seeing that Herc's best friend is Icarus and thinking... isn't he supposed to be dead?
 

Chimeranick

New Member
Yes, Icarus is very, very dead. And Icarus and Heracles never met. Also, Hades wasn't really all that evil. He just had a really crappy job. Yeah, he kidnapped Persephone but out of loneliness, not malice.
 

Jonny Capps

Member
Hercules never rose Pegasus. It's Disney. I mean, they made the twelve-year old Pocahontas into a hot early-twenties woman. You can't really expect them to be true to the source.
 

Chimeranick

New Member
My problem is that they had such a great story already, why did they have to screw with it like that. And don't even get me started about Pocahontas, she's got her own thread on here where we can scream about that. And yes I can expect them to be true to the source. I'll be crushed every time but I can expect whatever I please. Oprah calls that "empowerment".
 

Jonny Capps

Member
My problem is that they had such a great story already, why did they have to screw with it like that. And don't even get me started about Pocahontas, she's got her own thread on here where we can scream about that. And yes I can expect them to be true to the source. I'll be crushed every time but I can expect whatever I please. Oprah calls that "empowerment".
Touche.
 

FreyjaLilith

New Member
When has Disney ever been accurate? They take stories, and make their own version of them, usually making themn more 'kid friendly'. I admit, I nerd rage when it comes to The Little Mermaid, its my favorite Hans Christian Andersen story. But, you know..when I watched Hercules I had to be nine years old or so. I loved the movie, I still do. And silly as it may sound, it is what got me interested in Greek mythology. Of course I learned the true version of Hercules/Heracles, I can still enjoy the movie knowing its not the real version.

Also with Hades stealing Persephone..wasn't that the doing of Aphrodite? Its been a while, but I remember reading she pretty much made him fall in love with her..unless that's a different version.
 

Chimeranick

New Member
When has Disney ever been accurate? They take stories, and make their own version of them, usually making themn more 'kid friendly'. I admit, I nerd rage when it comes to The Little Mermaid, its my favorite Hans Christian Andersen story. But, you know..when I watched Hercules I had to be nine years old or so. I loved the movie, I still do. And silly as it may sound, it is what got me interested in Greek mythology. Of course I learned the true version of Hercules/Heracles, I can still enjoy the movie knowing its not the real version.

Also with Hades stealing Persephone..wasn't that the doing of Aphrodite? Its been a while, but I remember reading she pretty much made him fall in love with her..unless that's a different version.
Dude was surrounded by death!!!! It probably didn't take much convincing for him to try and get some feminine company.
 

Sedia

New Member
When has Disney ever been accurate? They take stories, and make their own version of them, usually making themn more 'kid friendly'. I admit, I nerd rage when it comes to The Little Mermaid, its my favorite Hans Christian Andersen story. But, you know..when I watched Hercules I had to be nine years old or so. I loved the movie, I still do. And silly as it may sound, it is what got me interested in Greek mythology. Of course I learned the true version of Hercules/Heracles, I can still enjoy the movie knowing its not the real version.

Also with Hades stealing Persephone..wasn't that the doing of Aphrodite? Its been a while, but I remember reading she pretty much made him fall in love with her..unless that's a different version.
Disney dosnt have a good track record when it comes to getting the stories right. I mean it wasnt a kiss that woke snow white. It wasnt a kiss that woke sleeping beauty. The little mermaid didnt live happly ever after with the prince. The stepsisters mutilated their bodies in the original cinderella. Bell has at least two mean sisters in Beauty and the beast. Dont get me wrong I still love Disney, but like you said they are never accurate
 

Chimeranick

New Member
Disney dosnt have a good track record when it comes to getting the stories right. I mean it wasnt a kiss that woke snow white. It wasnt a kiss that woke sleeping beauty. The little mermaid didnt live happly ever after with the prince. The stepsisters mutilated their bodies in the original cinderella. Bell has at least two mean sisters in Beauty and the beast. Dont get me wrong I still love Disney, but like you said they are never accurate
And the entire film of Sword in the stone (which I actually quite enjoy) is told in the first 7 or 8 pages of Morte d'Arthur, and pretty much the entire cast of Hunchback of Notre Dame dies.
 
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