Disney’s Hercules

What Is It? It’s the Disney version of the trials of Hercules, taking bits from past Disney Renaissance films while removing the gore-laden bits of the original Hercules story. It also utilizes the weird-ass artwork of Gerald Scarfe mixed in with Greek vase painting aesthetics. And also some Las Vegas glitz and glam for some reason. Features a clever spin on the damsel-in-distress trope and one of Disney’s more memorable antagonists.

Why It Needs Remaking? It’s not a matter of “if” but rather “when” since Disney is already doing remakes for the late 90s/2000 films. So how about some course correction from our side?

The eventual remake can combine both the 1997 film and the non-canon TV show Hercules: The Animated Series which honestly was fun to watch since it brought in a ton of characters and demigods from Greek mythology. Having Hercules start out in hero academy with the crazy Icarus, to him going out to be a full-fledged hero ala the original film would mean some key additions to make it better than the 1997 film.

But above all else, keep James Wood’s Hades and Susan Egan’s Megara. You can tweak their backstories a bit, but keep their personalities because that’s the only reason the 1997 movie was worth a damn. As for art style? Keep the Scarfe/Greek painting look but make it CG and with a filter of sorts to make it all “pop out” and be vibrant.

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