Hercules (My Version)

Hercules is a 1997 American animated musical fantasy comedy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Caravan Pictures and Great Oaks Entertainment and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 35th film in the Disney Animated Canon and the eighth entry in the Disney Renaissance. Hercules was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker from a screenplay written by Clements, Musker, John Hughes, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi, and produced by Roger Birnbaum, Hughes, Ricardo Mestres, Alice Dewey, Clements and Musker. The movie is an American fantasy tale very loosely based on Ancient Greco-Roman mythology, more specifically the adventures of Heracles (known in the movie by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus. It stars Tate Donovan as the titular character alongside Susan Egan, Danny DeVito, James Woods, Rip Torn, Samantha Eggar, Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Frewer, with Hal Holbrook, and Barbara Barrie. Lillias White, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, and Vanesse Thomas are also provided as the voice of the Muses.

Hercules takes place in Ancient Greece where the king and queen of Mount Olympus, Zeus and Hera, have a baby son, Hercules. One fateful night, the god of underworld, orders his companions Pain and Panic to turn Hercules mortal as Amphitryon and Alcmene find Hercules and raise him. When Hercules turns to a teenager, he travels to the temple of Zeus as he rides on Pegasus to get training from Philoctetes, the trainer of heroes. As Hercules becomes muscular, he meets a damsel named Megara who has fallen in love with Hercules himself while he performs the 12 labors in the city of Thebes so he can be a true hero of Greece.

Released on June 21, 1997, Hercules underperformed expectations during its theatrical release, only taking $252,712,101 at the box office worldwide. This was mainly due to competition from other studios. Though Hercules did not match its predecessors, it did receive positive reviews from critics who praised its screenplay, direction, songs, animation, visual effects and vocal performances (particularly Donovan, Egan, DeVito, Woods, Goldthwait and Frewer).

Hercules spawned a direct-to-video spin-off Hercules: Zero to Hero, where it also spawned an animated television series Hercules: The Animated Series on Disney Channel.