Show Disney Rebounds And Finds New Classic In Hercules By Charles Barnard Managing Editor After releasing their last two animated movies which was below par to Disney standards Walt Disney Pictures returned to the drawing board and found a new classic with Hercules Walt Disney Pictures' Pictures full- full length animated feature is set in the world of Greek mythology and follows follows follows fol fol- fol- fol lows the life of the legendary hero Hercules voice by Tate Tate- Donovan and his quest to return home to Mount Olympus To accomplish this goal Hercules is told that he must become a true hero To help him on his quest Hercules has the help of his winged horse Pegasus and the counseling of his his' trainer Phil for short Phil Danny DeVito is a cynical satyr who's been disappointed one too many times in his attempts to train the greatest hero ever but reluctantly reluctantly reluctantly agrees to help the young Hercules A long the way Hercules and his friends are side tracked when they meet the Grecian beauty named Susan Egan The villain in Hercules is the God of the Underworld Hades James Woods Hades has plans to take over Mount Olympus but i knows knows that Hercules has the power k to stop him He sends his two o henchmen Pain Pam Bobcat Goldwait and Panic Matt Frewer along with every type of monster he has hasto hasto hasto to find out what Hercules weakness weakness weakness weak weak- ness is Hades discovers Hercules only weakness is his feelings for Meg Along the way Hercules discovers discovers discovers dis dis- dis- dis covers that being popular is not the same as being a true hero for that can only come from your heart Some of the other characters we meet including the Gods Zeus Rip Torn Hera Samantha Eggar and Hermes Paul Shaffer Overseeing production of Hercules were John Musker and andRon andRon andRon Ron Clements the same film making making making mak mak- ing team responsible for The Little Mermaid and Aladdin and it shows They went back to those 7 JI I- I y k t ir 2 y C 7 ii things that made Disney movies so much fun Hercules is a very funny movie for all ages Children will laugh a along along along long the way but Disney wrote a alot alot alot lot of the jokes for the adults in the crowd Many of the little things that show up in the movie such as Air Herc Here sandals only add to the humor value for adults The music in Hercules also took tooka a turn for the better Oscar winning composer Alan Menken teamed up with lyricist David to come up with some songs that are just fun Instead of using music that would sound somewhat Greek in origin they chose to use gospel music to tell the story of Hercules Songs such as Zero to Hero The Gospel Truth Go the Distance and I Wont Won't Say return Disney back to the days of Aladdin Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid when the soundtrack was a valuable part of the movie The animation and the voices for this film was very well done In contrast to the last two Disney movies Hercules was done in very sharp and bright colors The animators animators animators ani ani- ani- ani also did a great job of making making making mak mak- ing the characters almost look like the actors that do their voices This is most obvious with the character of Hermes He looks just like Paul Shaffer who does his voice I highly recommend Hercules to anyone Of course it is great if you are taking children to it but I also recommend it to for anyone that wants to go out and see a fun movie 4 J r Y f. s sT T a A i jL A 1 t 1 0 A I VF V F 0 S Y J Photo Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures Top En route to the town of Thebes Hercules his trainer Phil and a winged horse named Pegasus are distracted by the sounds of a damsel in distress in Disney's new movie Hercules heros hero's welcome as they enter the town of f Thebes Bottom Hercules and Pegasus gets a h M u u u. u |