The Characteristics Of Disney's Hercules And The Greek Myths

Hercules have you met him? This movie was produced by Ron Clements and John Musker. The movie is about Hercules who is the son of Zeus who becomes a hero. After training with Phil he goes off with Pegasus his flying companion to become a hero. During Hercules journey he goes through 3 parts of a hero's journey.

“Hercules demonstrated his strength right from birth. He choked the serpents that had been sent to him by the jealous Hera.” (classicsunveiled.com)

In the film, “Hercules”, there were many comedic characters incorporated. The creators of this movie wanted and needed to incorporate things to make it popular to the masses, therefore they added things like love and comedy. In this case they added characters like Pegasus, Phil, Pain, and Panic. However in the myths there is no need to incorporate any comedic relief because these were written to give us an accurate dictation of the Greek Gods and Goddesses and all of their tales. Therefore they needed to be gorey, painful, and difficult. While the Disney version needed to appeal to the masses and capture their attention right

Authors, poets, and film directors have all used ancient stories to create new pieces of literature and film works for modern times. The animated Disney film Hercules (1997) and the myth of Hercules share the background of audience-driven narratives; however, Disney's aspiration to fill the theaters and earn money results in an unblemished narrative, while the original myth portrays an imperfect model to a flawed humanity.

Since the days of mythological origin to the origin of pop culture, various mythological stories have been adopted and presented to newer generations. Some of these presented adaptations of mythological stories have significantly been modified in order to be deemed entertaining by audiences in a pop culture generation. Thus, my study will seek to compare mythological hero's during their time to how they have been depicted in modern day. Moreover, my study will analyze the similarities and differences between the Greek hero Heracles and his replica character, Hercules, depicted in Disney's adaptation of this myth. Although there are few similarities between the two versions, the differences between Heracles and Disney's Hercules are

There are many cultures around the world that value different character qualities. Some of these are expressed through the stories that are passed down from generation to generation. A very popular story many cultures have their own spin on is Hercules. This story originated from Ancient Greece, but many people in American society are more familiar with the Disney version than the original. The basic storylines of these versions are the same, but some of the intricate details that help define the cultures these stories come from, vary. These changes help highlight the differences between American society today and Ancient Greek society in the time this story was written. The most significant changes in these two stories is the childhood of

Disney’s Hercules depicts the classic mythical tale of the infamous demi god. Evil Hades, Hercules grows up on Earth but has godly strength from which he doesn't know originates. When he discovers his immortal heritage, Zeus calls him to return to Mount Olympus to become the champion he is destined to be. Eventually, Hercules evolves to be a famous hero with the help of Pegasus and Phil the satyr. Through his journey he takes on mythical monsters, Titans, and Hades. In the end it is his sacrifice that make him a true hero.

All throughout history, heroes from all types of stories have gone through the same journey. Joseph Campbell researched several stories as well as Greek mythology and created a template that every main character or hero follows in each story. Campbell stated that each hero begins his journey in his normal world until he experiences a call to action, which causes the hero to find a mentor and go through several tests and other setbacks until he faces his biggest fear and eventually finishes his quest and returns home. In the Disney movie Hercules, the main character, for which the film is named, follows the journey laid out by Campbell. Hercules follows this journey from his normal life, which he lives until he is called to action and meets

Then, he is suddenly forced into an unknown environment; a huge difference between his regular circumstances and his new one is established (Vogler). Hercules, who is the hero of the film Hercules, is presented as the baby of loving parents and Greek gods Zeus and Hera, who reside on Mount Olympus. Zeus creates a winged horse named Pegasus, since he wants Hercules to have a friend. Everything in their life is perfect. However, baby Hercules is unexpectedly stolen in the middle of the night by Pain and Panic, the devious minions of the wicked Hades (Hercules). They almost take Hercules’ powers after they give him a mystical potion. A loving couple, Amphytryon and Alcmene, discover Hercules all alone and decides to adopt him. Hercules grows to be a young man, but the citizens of his town despise him and call him a freak because of his strange power. Hercules’ ordinary world is composed of all these events.

Take a minute to look at the world around you. Notice how different people are. Notice how lucky some people are. Notice how unlucky some people are. Notice the amount of people who are so famous or popular. Then notice those who are nobodies. Disney’s Hercules is a film about a young hero, Hercules, who was born a God, but was forcefully taken of everything but his strength. He was taken of this by Hades, the God of the underworld, who is out to destroy the other Gods of the world and destroy Olympus forever. Throughout the movie Hades is faced with the fact that Hercules may return to stop him from pursuing his evil plan. Hades goal is then to defeat Hercules and finish his scheme . In the film Hercules, the writers use the evil genius to reveal, that humanity will use many resources in order to make themselves seem better than others because they fear that since they may be less fortunate than them, they may be overlooked by the society around them.

Hercules, or known in Latin as Heracles, was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity. In art, Hercules was portrayed as a powerful, muscular man wearing lion's skin and armed with a huge club. He was also described as being a macho man buffoon, who was very impulsive. Hercules’ home and birthing place is in Thebes, Greece. Thebes is a city in central Greece. It plays as an important setting in many Greek myths, such as the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and many other important roles in Greek Mythology. The demigod, Hercules has an interesting origin, he is most famous for his 12 labors, and leaves a legacy in words and expressions.

Hercules dreams of becoming a god in the movie, and he does everything in his power to achieve that. He knows that he has to become a hero first, so he searches for Philoctetes most commonly referred to as Phil, a trainer. Hercules trained and worked nonstop to become a hero, so he could become a god. With his hard work ethic and perseverance, he made his dream of becoming a god reality. Phil also promoted working to accomplish dreams and goals. He wanted to be the trainer that created the best hero. When Hercules first came to him, Phil was reluctant to help him and had nearly given up on his dream. Eventually, Herc convinced him; Phil was then focussed and gave his best effort to train Hercules to become the hero he strived to be. By the end of the movie, Phil was famous for being the trainer of Hercules, the renowned hero. Although he almost gave up on ever achieving his dream, Phil stuck through it and at last he had become famous for training the best hero. Oppositely from the movie, Phil was not a character in the myth. American culture changed the myth to invigorate strong work ethic and

     The inhabitants of different cities had their fears put to rest when Heracles came to town. Many of the twelve tasks that Heracles endured involved killing things that had the people living in fear. The people of the cities as well as continued generations following considered Heracles to the greatest of heroes. The Disney version, Hercules, the Latin name for Heracles, was a completely different version. Its portrayal of the story was inaccurate in a lot of ways. It painted the picture as Hercules’ enemy being Hades. It depicted Hercules through the eyes of what society considers a hero now.

The myth of the Greek hero Hercules and the one seen in the Disney movie have a lot of differences, but also some similarities. For example, one difference is in the Disney movie Hercules only performed 7 labors, but in the Greek myth Hercules had to complete 12 labors. However, a similarity is that in both versions Hercules had to endure the hero’s journey. There are many other differences and similarities worth mentioning.

The twelve labours of Hercules is a myth because it is a story passed down all the way to today’s generation, making it be a traditional tale. Hercules is originally a Roman god; however, it is similar to the Greek’s version of Heracles. This myth is originally from the Latin language--which is typically used by the Romans. The twelve labours of Hercules was originally written by Peisanders and was then lost in 600 B.C. Hercules was born a demigod with supernatural powers that established the patterns of life as we know it. According to Synnøve Des Bouvrie and Bascom’s definition, the 12 labours of Hercules is a myth because it is traditional, remote, and true.