Hercules (Disney)

This one starts off rough, frequently annoying and at times downright childish. One song is sung by Danny de Vito; that should tell you pretty much all you need to know. But hang in there -- it improves as the story unfolds. That story is, in certain respects, one of the film’s major weaknesses; the original myth of Hercules gets mangled in many ways, to some extent in order to bowdlerize a few of the more mature aspects of the tale. That makes this a difficult watch for anyone who takes their knowledge of the Greek myths seriously. (How fortunate then that to today -- and even upon first release in the mid ‘90s -- so many people know so little of the ancient stories.) As for this relatively modern take, the performance by James Woods as Hades is a strong point; he nails it, almost but not quite achieving the fast-talking, whip-smart and funny territory last achieved by Robin Williams’ Genie. The use of a gospel choir to serve as an almost literal Greek chorus is intriguing though uneven; the singing is fine, though slightly incongruous with the Hellenic roots of the story. (The device also introduces one of those grating mischaracterizations of the source material; there were nine muses, not five. It hardly would have damaged anything to just throw four more backup singers into the mix, for the visuals if nothing else.) Ultimately, the movie comes together, to the point where the viewer actually does root for Herc to become a real hero, and for his girlfriend Meg (one of the other highlights of the flick, not least because she is drawn to be smoking hot -- one of the most attractive animated characters in all the Disney canon). The rest of the animation is, like much of the production, uneven; some of the visuals are great, some so-so. While there are a few standout drawings here and there, some of the visuals show less attention to detail than the breathtaking graphics of earlier films. (The decision to make most of the gods look downright weird doesn’t come across as well-conceived.) Bottom line: this is hardly a classic, and it has obvious flaws, but the film gives its audience just enough good stuff to sneak in over the line into positive territory. The PURR is barely a whisper, but it sounds about right nevertheless.