Hercules: Zero to Hero

Hercules: Zero to Hero is a 1999 comedy-drama adventure and fantasy animated television film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Walt Disney Video Premiere with animation production by Walt Disney Animation Australia, Toon City Animation, Inc., Manila, Philippines and Walt Disney Animation Japan. The film is a direct-to-video followup to 1997 animated feature Hercules. It was released on August 17, 1999. The film serves as a package film combining three episodes of Hercules: The Animated Series as flashback segments.

The film casts James Woods as Hades, Corey Burton as Zeus, Tate Donovan as Hercules, Susan Egan as Megara, Robert Costanzo as Philoctetes, Frank Welkeras Pegasus, Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain and Matt Frewer as Panic.

Plot
The film briefly gives Hercules' history after defeating Hades for good, in which he marries Meg and revisits his teenage years. In particular, it shows an adolescent Hercules's enrollment and the beginning of his adventures at the Prometheus Academy, a school for gods and mortals, which Hercules supposedly attended during the time when he was training to be a hero with his mentor, the satyr Philoctetes.

Voice cast
The TV series reunited most of the original voice cast from the 1997 film. This was Paddi Edwards' last film, in which she provided the voice of Atropos.
 * James Woods as Hades
 * Corey Burton as Zeus
 * Tate Donovan as Hercules
 * Susan Egan as Megara
 * Robert Costanzo as Philoctetes
 * Frank Welker as Pegasus
 * Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain
 * Matt Frewer as Panic
 * Paul Shaffer as Hermes
 * Eric Stoltz as Theseus
 * Richard Simmons as Physedipus
 * Eric Idle as Parenthesis
 * Sandra Bernhard as Cassandra
 * French Stewart as Icarus
 * Diedrich Bader as Adonis
 * Barbara Barrie as Alcmene
 * Jodi Benson as Helen of Troy
 * Michael Dorn as Minotaur
 * Paddi Edwards as Atropos
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Cyclops Head#1
 * Wayne Knight as Cyclops Head#2
 * Cheryl Freeman as Melpomene
 * Brad Garrett as Orthus
 * Kathie Lee Gifford as Echidna

Releases
Hercules: Zero to Hero was first released on home video on August 17, 1999.

Critical reception
Michelle Erica Green of LittleReview gave the film a rating of B+, writing that while the film "lacks the dazzling visuals of the feature film upon which it is based...it's hard not to be charmed", adding "the characters are all clever and original despite their mythic origins".[1] Conversely, Antagony & Ecstasy gave a scathing review, writing that as the film "was assembled of four episodes of the Hercules cartoon that had already aired in 1998 and 1999", it was "perhaps the single grubbiest cash-in of [all the direct-to-video released]", adding "Zero to Hero was already going to be at such a low level of accomplishment even relative to other DTV projects".[2]

In a review, Vern Perry of the Orange County Register described the Disney formula as "Just give 'em what they like. And keep it up.", noting that's what the company has done with these two 1998/1999 releases. He added that this film benefited greatly from the return of some of the original voice cast including Tate Donovan and James Woods.[3]