THE DUMBING DOWN OF HERCULES
Thesis
Disney’s Hercules was part of the revitalization of Greek and Rome in Hollywood in the late nineties to early two-thousands. This is through its creative interpretation of the epic, plot tools like comic relief and original take on Greek mythology.
Slavery
In an attempt to appeal to a youthful audience, the film must exclude some harsh realities seen in many of the prior films. The concept of slavery is light-heartedly depicted in the relationship between Hades and Megara. Megara sold her soul to Hades in order to ensure her boyfriend at the time lived. Her boyfriend left her and Megara now serves the will of Hades. Although harsh in its own way it is the only depiction of slavery, when in reality slavery was a booming enterprise in ancient Greece. Love is at the core of this “slavery” making it much more justifiable rather than greed which is usually associated with slavery.
Slavery is a reoccurring theme of many epics we watched prior to Hercules. Many plots revolve around this concept: the slaves revolting in Spartacus, the master slave relationship in Quo Vadis just to name a couple. Unlike those films however, Hercules does not depict humans chaining humans to slavery but, god to human. In a way, this makes it more acceptable because the gods already have control over humans in the film. Hades, unlike the other gods, is the only one manipulating people in this film to his bidding. This results in him being perceived as more evil.
Comic Relief
In order to appeal to appeal to a juvenile audience, the film requires comic relief. This tool is accomplished through the whimsical characters of Pain and Panic. In the film, they are the submissive sidekicks to Hades. Their dueling personalities creates scenes of humor when the frightening Hades is on screen. The inept behavior of these two is depicted in their attempt to kill Hercules as a child through poison. They steal him from Olympus and feed him the bottle of poison but are forced to scurry off whilst the last drop of poison hits the floor leaving Hercules mortal but with super strength. Immediately following this they shapeshift into snakes in an attempt to kill Hercules but even as a baby he is able to stop Pain and Panic. Pain and Panics bumbling behavior undercuts the evil of Hades, inevitably leading to his plans failing.
The Chariot
In addition to slavery, the iconic chariot is twisted into a more comical and thus childish item in the film. Rather than having Hercules partake in an epic chariot race to prove himself, like both renditions of Ben Hur, Hercules and his trainer Phil are almost run over by one. Chariots are portrayed as car like in the city in order to allow children to feel more connected to the story as they all know what a car is and the dangers of it. This scene resulted in the spouting of the iconic line “I’m walking here!” out of Phil. In addition to appealing to children this scene also is a reference to Midnight Cowboy in which no child would get. Disney is known for including jokes or references to adult films in order to appeal to the parents forced to watch the movie with their kid.
Gore
Lastly, is Hercules dulled down take on death in order to make it more child friendly. After experiencing the movie 300 this movie is child’s play. Blood if that’s what you can call the green stuff that spills from the hydra’s heads is nothing compared to the gore of any of the other movies. Many of those films rely heavily on gore to satisfy their older audience. The best example of any gore in the movie is the hydra fight scene. After chopping of its heads the audience sees its green blood ooze out. Rather than rely on blood, the film uses stereotypical cartoon animations to portray pain. The most common example is when someone is hit on the head and a bump immediately rises. Through this portrayal of pain and injury Disney maintains its “G” rating whilst including violence.
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