Hercules

Sara: 0:07

Hello and welcome to Mouse Ears and a Movie, a Disney animation conversation. I'm Sara Farrell Baker, joined by my cohost, Chrissy Woj.

Chrissy: 0:16

We are two grown women avoiding responsibility and watching cartoons. Every episode we'll be watching a Disney or Pixar animated feature chosen at random from The Bucket.

Sara: 0:25

The Bucket.

Chrissy: 0:27

Then we will reconvene here to share our thoughts, some behind the scenes knowledge and probably make some weird noises.

Sara: 0:33

This week we watched the 1997 Walt Disney Pictures animated feature film, Hercules. It is the classic Disney story of a villain wanting to kill a baby dead. We're in ancient Greece where the new baby of Gods Zeus and Hara, Hercules, is almost murdered and mostly turned mortal. Baby Herc is strong as shit, but now he can die. When he grows up and learns the truth about his fancy parents in the sky, Hercules sets out to become a hero and return to Mount Olympus. To refresh our memories, here's Chrissy with a Hercules Olaf recap treatment.

Chrissy: 1:04

It began with a child born of Gods. Once born with magical powers soon became powerless. Turned human by his evil uncle's minions. His desire to be included, infinite. Whoops, sorry, Penelope. Hercules, it's you. Let me help you with that. No, I got it. Maybe we should call him Jerkules. I have often dreamed of a far off place where a hero's welcome would be waiting for me. Didn't know you had a famous father, did ya? Surprise! Well, at least he has his parents. His parents are gods. Oh, hi. I'm Hercules. I need you to train me. No way kid. I'm Zeus's son. My answer is two words. Zap. Okay. I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle this. Ma'am, I believe you're too close to the situation. It wasn't my fault. It was this wonder boy, Hercules. Why does that name sound familiar? Hercules is still kicking. Brain flames. We can still reverse this. Let's get ready to rumble. Giant monster. The giant monster is dead. Wait, it's back with three heads. Hercules' wins. Zero to hero with no time flat. I won't say I'm in love. Name's Hades, Lord of the dead. How are you doing? War! Megara is dead. You like deals. Let's make one. The thread won't cut. Hercules is a God. I'd rather be human with her. A star is born. The end.

Sara: 2:25

Hercules! So this movie was released on June 13th in 1997. It's the 35th Disney animated feature film and the eighth in the Disney Renaissance. It received positive reviews, but mixed feedback on the music, which I do not understand. Cause I don't love most of the movie. Most of the movie bores me, but the music is fantastic.

Chrissy: 2:47

It's kind of hard to believe that it's part of the Renaissance other than the Alan Menken.

Sara: 2:50

Another thing that got a lot of flack was the animation style. I very much agree with that. I get, they were trying to make things look Greek, but it got really distracting at points. Whenever you would get a side profile of young Hercules, he looks weird as crap. It's something where like his cheeks like come out. Like it's just, it, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. And then everyone has like swirly ears and swirly nipples, and I'm just, I don't get it.

Chrissy: 3:15

What I thought was interesting though, this is that weird combination with the flat style with the Muses and then there's this other style with the story. And we see that a lot Like I know Moana does it.

Sara: 3:27

We see it with the Muses. We see it as the pottery type, painting things. Yes. Montage stuff. The stained glass in the beginning of Beauty and the Beast. I'm trying to think if we see this anywhere else. I mean, in the early Disney movies, when you've got the big story book opening, and they go through the pages. It really brings in kind of a period relevant art form into the storytelling. I love that about Moana. I love the tapestry or whatever it was that her grandmother was telling the story of Maui from.

Chrissy: 3:55

The Muses, you can't go wrong with the Muses.

Sara: 3:57

The Muses! We get a Greek chorus.

Chrissy: 4:00

It's an enjoyable interlude in this mostly disney channel original TV show.

Sara: 4:06

They're my favorite part aside from, I freaking love Danny DeVito in this movie. I love him, but I don't know why I love Phil so much. Maybe because I am also a grumpy part goat, but

Chrissy: 4:18

I could take him or leave him.

Sara: 4:19

I just I love it. Ugh.

Chrissy: 4:20

I mean, I love you, but I could take him or leave him. Like my favorite characters in the movie, obviously the Muses make the movie fun, but like Meg, Hades and Pegasus. But as you probably have already figured out, I'm a big fan of sidekicks and I'm a big fan of villains and, there's just something about Meg. She's one of the best parts of this.

Sara: 4:40

So Susan Egan plays Meg and she originally played Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. I think she went on to try to audition for other Disney roles, eventually gets cast as Belle on Broadway. When the role of Meg comes up, she goes to Alan Menken and says, I want to be Meg. I want to try out for this. And he's like, oh, you're really like, you're too sweet for this. You're very Belle. Meg has a lot more sass. She's very headstrong. And Susan Egan just said, just let me try.

Chrissy: 5:07

She's super like misanthropic. Is that the word? Misanthrope?

Sara: 5:10

I don't know words.

Chrissy: 5:11

Hold on. Give me a second. Cause I think this is the right word. A person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society. Yea, that's exactly what I was going for. She's super misanthropic and hates men particularly. But that's because she's been broken and hurt.

Sara: 5:25

Not even just like a bad breakup. Her boyfriend is going to die somehow. And she decides to sell her soul to Hades, to save him. And then this boyfriend goes and finds another lady. He's like, okay, I'm alive. Thank you for that nice favor. Smell you later.

Chrissy: 5:40

I'd be pissed too. So Susan Egan rocks the role.

Sara: 5:43

And James Woods as Hades, I will say, this is the one thing I will ever tolerate James Woods in cause I cannot stand the man, he is a fantastic Hades and their casting process for the role of Hades was insane. They went through so many different iterations of this character. The Hades that we end up with is not the Hades that they originally envisioned for this movie. In the early stages, Danny DeVito says, Hey, why don't you guys cast Jack Nicholson? He'd be great for this. But Jack Nicholson is way too expensive. Disney offers him, I think, half a million dollars and Jack Nicholson comes back with how about like 10 to $15 million, and also half of the merchandising profits from Hades merchandise and Disney said, no, thank you. And so Then they went with John Lithgo who tried his damnedest for nine months to do Hades and they just could not get what they wanted out of it. And he eventually, after nine months was released from that role. They tried Kevin Spacey, Phil Hartman, Jerry Lewis, so many others. And then James Woods comes in and is doing this fast-talking sleazy car salesman interpretation that they had not envisioned for the role, but turned out to be so perfect. They saw Hades as like a very slow- talking, gruff, like someone that you would think like John Lithgo could really knock out of the park.

Chrissy: 7:03

I cannot imagine John Lithgo in this role.

Sara: 7:06

Because the Hades that we got is not a Lithgo Hades. James Woods really put his spin on this and it ends up making Hades one of the most beloved villains.

Chrissy: 7:16

One of the best characters in this movie. Also Pain and Panic. Excellent. Oh my God. Huge fan of the casting of both Pain and Panic. So you've got Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain who, every time I hear his voice, all I can think of is Scrooged. And then for Panic, you've got Matt Frewer who, I don't know who Max Headroom is, but apparently he's a big deal. Max Headroom is like a eighties character that he played and that still resonates with people. I think I was too young for him, but I know him from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He was big Russ, the next door neighbor.

Sara: 7:48

Then we also have Rip Torn as Zeus. And as soon as I start hearing Zeus speak, my head just starts screaming, like Patches O'Houlihan!

Chrissy: 7:56

Who dat?

Sara: 7:57

Patches O'Houlihan from the movie Dodgeball.

Chrissy: 8:00

Oh yeah. I haven't seen that.

Sara: 8:02

So disappointed.

Chrissy: 8:03

I'm not a Stiller fan.

Sara: 8:04

No one's a Stiller fan. Stiller's incredibly irritating.

Chrissy: 8:07

How does he keep making movies?

Sara: 8:09

Cause he keeps playing really unlikable characters and he does that like chef's kiss.

Chrissy: 8:14

Nobody wants to watch it. I mean, that's wrong. I don't.

Sara: 8:18

We also have in our title role, Tate Donovan is playing Hercules. And if you are a child of the nineties slash early aughts, you may remember Tate Donovan from The O.C. He was Jimmy Cooper, Marissa Cooper's dad. And he's also, if you ever watched Friends, is Joshua.

Chrissy: 8:37

I got neither of those. So we get Alan Menken back doing the music.

Sara: 8:42

Love some Zero to Hero. Very much love I Won't Say I'm in Love.

Chrissy: 8:47

Oh, I have been singing that since it came out. That's always been one of my favorites.

Sara: 8:52

I was really into One Last Hope, Danny DeVito's number.

Chrissy: 8:55

That makes sense since you really love Phil.

Sara: 8:57

I love Phil and it's very like dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, duh, just one of those. Very classic Broadway.

Chrissy: 9:07

Big jazz, big band.

Sara: 9:10

I'm getting Hello, Dolly with a very gruff New Yorker vibe.

Chrissy: 9:14

And then we get Go the Distance, which was the song they had up for Oscar nod. But it did not win.

Sara: 9:19

It did not stand a chance. 1997 Oscars

Chrissy: 9:23

dominated by Titanic.

Sara: 9:26

Poor Michael Bolton, going up against Celine Dion, belting out how her heart will go on. No one stood a chance.

Chrissy: 9:33

Far. Wherever you are. I mean, come on. You can't help having that breathy just, oh, it's so fun.

Sara: 9:42

And poor Michael Bolton and his, what? His clarinet? His saxophone? I don't know what he does. No, who am I thinking of? Not Michael Bolton. Kenny G.

Chrissy: 9:50

Poor Alan Menken.

Sara: 9:52

And lyrics by David Zippel. He is responsible for the lyrics from Mulan. So when Hercules was released, it did not do great at the box office. It underperformed. I feel like that should have been expected because it followed Pocahontas and Hunchback, which were just not well received, not well loved when they came out. And Disney released Hercules in response to the backlash they received over Pocahontas and Hunchback. Those films were considered too dark. To which I say, ya think?

Chrissy: 10:25

So let's take a really dark story and make it really fucking bright and shiny. Hercules is not the child of Zeus and Hera. That's just this happy little let's give some Sleeping Beauty vibes with the perfect parents and the perfect baby. And then the villain comes in and he's all like, I want to take over and this baby's going to be my downfall, so let's boot him. Not a fan of how they change it. So Hercules is actually a demigod, which means that he's already a human with powers. He could be killed already. We don't need to drink a potion because he's already there because he's Zeus's son with Alcmene who is a mortal woman. Zeus tricked her into getting pregnant. Disguised himself as her husband Amphitryon and banged her. And they had a baby. Hera hated the baby. There's no like Hades villain in the actual Hercules story. Hera is the villain. She's the one sending the snakes to kill him. She's the one doing all the bad shit.

Sara: 11:24

So yeah, you put a big Disney shiny bow on it.

Chrissy: 11:27

It's like trying to take the Hunchback of Notre Dame and making it a happy movie.

Sara: 11:31

It doesn't work. No, it works. Like it works much better than Hunchback did, but I just thought it was kind of boring and predictable and not really.

Chrissy: 11:40

It was like a cartoon animated series.

Sara: 11:43

So our movie opens and it is narrated by Charlton Heston.

Chrissy: 11:48

Who's boring as fuck.

Sara: 11:49

Very much so.

Chrissy: 11:50

And then the Muses roll in and they're like, get outta here, man. Let's pump up the jam.

Sara: 11:54

And we get The Gospel Truth as our opener. Our Muses are just on fire. The casting of the Muses, we have some Broadway royalty. Lillias White as Calliope. We have Vanéese Y. Thomas as Clio. Cheryl Freeman as Melpomene. LaChanze as Turpsichore. I'm not even gonna, I freely admit to butchering this Muses name, but Turpsichore. I don't know. And Roz Ryan as Tahlia. We have Tony winners. Great belting singers in this. It is the most fantastic girl group we could hope to get out of a Disney movie.

Chrissy: 12:30

So The Gospel Truth tells us the story of the Titans and how Zeus banished all the Titans. And now the gods are throwing parties every day up in Mount Olympus, which is where we start our story.

Sara: 12:42

With the baby party.

Chrissy: 12:43

All the gods. Baby Pegasus.

Sara: 12:46

Made from clouds. They're all celebrating the arrival of baby Hercules. We see Hermes. We see Aphrodite. We see Poseidon, lots of Greek gods all over the place. And then Hades arrives and Hades is Zeus' brother. He is not a big fan of the baby.

Chrissy: 13:06

And Zeus gets to party up in Mount Olympus and Hades is confined to the underworld because somebody has got to make sure dead people end up dead. And he shows up at this baby party. This is where I get all of these Sleeping Beauty vibes. Disney made this entire part up. You're just stealing your old material here, guys.

Sara: 13:25

So Hades is not super into being confined to the underworld, and he would like to overthrow his brother Zeus. So when he returns down to the underworld, he visits the Fates. These three old, witchy lookin ladies that share an eyeball that tells them the future tells them the fate. They also are the ones who cut the threads of life when it is a mortal's time to join the underworld. When they have their meeting with Hades, they tell him the planets are going to align in 18 years and he will be able to release the Titans and defeat Zeus, but only if he offs Hercules first.

Chrissy: 14:01

Dun dun dun.

Sara: 14:03

One thing I did not notice, but my husband pointed out while we were watching, he like stops the movie and he's like, hold on, hold on, hold on. There's only six planets. That's because the Greeks were only aware of six planets at the time. With your naked eye, you could see like the Earth that you were standing on and Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They are the only planets that the Greeks could see at the time.

Chrissy: 14:25

So Hades gives Pain and Panic a potion to make Hercules a mortal. He's gotta drink the whole thing, otherwise they can't kill him. And there was one drop left. The shape-shifting snakes are like, trying to kill the baby and the baby's like ERRR let's just tie you in a knot and toss you. Cause he's super strong.

Sara: 14:44

He misses the last drop of that potion. And so the part of his godliness that is left is this crazy strength that he's born with. Pain and Panic. They've tried. They have failed. There is still a very alive baby Hercules. And then they say, eh, buddy's mortal. It'll be fine. Hades will probably be cool with it. We'll go home and we just won't tell him. So then Amphitryon and Alcmene find baby Hercules and they raise him as their own.

Chrissy: 15:11

Herc grows up a little bit and super strong baby becomes super strong kid becomes super strong, gangly, awkward AF teen who doesn't understand his own strength. Nobody wants to play with him and nobody wants to hang out with him and nobody wants to him to help. And he just wants some companionship that isn't his parents, like most gangly teenagers.

Sara: 15:34

He wants some friends.

Chrissy: 15:35

And then we get Go the Distance, which is a lovely I Want number. It's not about becoming a hero. It's about like being a part of a community, being a part of something.

Sara: 15:46

Little fun fact. While he's singing his song, there is a shooting star that goes across the sky. That is not a shooting star. That is Pegasus, checking on his buddy Hercules. It's a voyeuristic Pegasus. So after Hercules has just broken a ton of crap and is feeling pretty down in the dumps about his place in the world and how different he is, Alcmene and Amphitryon decide to tell him the truth about his parents, that he is the son of Zeus and Hera. So he goes to Mount Olympus where there is a statue of Zeus. It comes to life, scares the living shit out of him, and then tells him, Hey son, you must become a hero, a true hero. So you can become a God again. Zeus, summons, Pegasus so they can be buddies and work together. And he sends Hercules to train with Philoctetes.

Chrissy: 16:33

And like, so I really, I know it is the opposite of what Zeus actually is, but I really appreciate Zeus's character He's not one of my favorites, but he's just so bumbly and goofy. It's like, he's very much like the dad in Roseanne, a Dan Conner from Roseanne. It's just this big, goofy, happy do-do-do dude.

Sara: 16:55

So when we find Philoctetes, he is a Seder. Half man, half goat, played by Danny DeVito, known as Phil. He is retired because all of the gods that he is trained, have sucked. He has trained Achilles. He has trained some other ones I can't remember the names of, because they sucked.

Chrissy: 17:13

I don't think Perseus sucked. Perseus did good shit.

Sara: 17:15

But didn't he like not go the distance?

Chrissy: 17:18

No, he like slayed Medusa and rescued Andromeda

Sara: 17:22

Was he defeated by something stupid like an ankle? Or a heel?

Chrissy: 17:25

I am bothered by this because the only one I know who actually was defeated by something stupid was Achilles. And the only reason I know that is because I have an Achilles tendon.

Sara: 17:34

Doesn't everyone?

Chrissy: 17:35

I don't know. I just know that's how I know that.

Sara: 17:42

So Phil is saying like, I'm done, I'm retired. I'm not training anybody. Sorry, buddy. And then Zeus, like tasers him from the sky, sends a lightning bolt down and Phil agrees! Changes his mind. Okay, fine. I'll train Hercules. And we go into One Last Hope.

Chrissy: 17:56

All of a sudden Phil's like, all right, I'm not just in, I'm super in. I guess when you get a little bit of hope, you might as well take it all and throw down.

Sara: 18:04

And if you're going to put your hope on anybody, son of the king of the gods is not a terrible choice.

Chrissy: 18:09

Probably a solid bet. So they head out to Thebes, but on their way, Hercules is like, wait a minute. That looks like a damsel in distress. Let's go check that out before we get to Thebes, and we meet Megara, who's in a bit of a bind with Nessus. We think she's a damsel in distress. Herc thinks she's a damsel in distress. She says, she's a damsel in distress. But we find out after Hercules beats him up, she's actually working for Hades.

Sara: 18:40

Yeah she was supposed to be recruiting Nessus. And through this Hades finds out that Hercules is alive and he is not pleased. Pain and Panic are about to get it. And we hop back over to Phil and Hercules as they arrive in Thebes. The big olive. It is a city in turmoil where everyone rolls their eyes at heroes because they never come through.

Chrissy: 19:02

Hades works out a little plan to get Herc while Herc is trying to get some work. But nobody wants him to do hero stuff because they're like, yeah, we don't trust you. And so Meg runs in and is like, wonder boy. Oh, thank God I found you. Which is supposed to be bad for her. But this is actually bringing all of these people who have no faith in him to be like, wait a minute. She's gotten him to come and rescue these two little boys who are stuck under a rock. And he's all like muscle muscle. I got this. Boom! Run along little boys. The little boys are played by Pain and Panic.

Sara: 19:35

And so Hercules frees these boys without knowing they're Pain and Panic. And it turns out it's a trap and the Hydra comes out from a hole under the rock.

Chrissy: 19:42

And the Hydra's another one of the Hercules monsters that like in the actual myth, he defeats the Hydra. But before he defeats it, he has to find out that Hydras, once you chop off their head, they just get more heads.

Sara: 19:56

So Hydra eats Hercules, but he slices himself out from the inside chopping off Hydra's head and three more grow back. And Hercules seems to think that the clear solution here is just more head chopping. I'll just chop off more heads.

Chrissy: 20:10

Just keep doing it. Just.

Sara: 20:13

This was a really complicated scene to animate because in the end, the Hydra ends up having, I think, like 30 heads and they needed them to move succinctly. And so there's a lot of computer animation going on here. And I think it took something like a week. No, it was way more than a week. It was a lot of time. It was a very large amount of time to animate four minutes.

Chrissy: 20:33

Well, I mean it's kind of wild when you think about any kind of scene in any kind of movie, like live action animation, the amount of time that goes into a single cell or a single scene is just wild.

Sara: 20:45

In this giant battle, Hercules finally causes a rock avalanche and it kills Hydra. For a second. They think it's killed Hercules too, but he bursts out of his claws and he's celebrated for being a hero.

Chrissy: 20:56

Zero to hero!.

Sara: 20:57

We get my favorite Muses tune, Zero to Hero. Throughout the song, it's just a montage of Hercules defeating a ton of monsters and Hades being pissed and sending more monsters and Hercules defeating those monsters and his fame just grows and grows. He's a action figure and he's a shoe.

Chrissy: 21:13

Merchandising. Merchandising. Then Hades is all like, Meg, I'm gonna need you to find out what Hercules' weakness is. They've all got them. Go get his.

Sara: 21:24

To which she says, like he has no weakness, but let's go figure it out. And in the meantime, Hercules goes to Zeus. He goes to see his dad. Cause he's like, look, I've defeated all of these monsters. I am a hero. I'm so famous. I'm an action figure. I'd like to come be a God now. And Zeus has to tell him, like, sorry, you're still not a true hero, but I'm also not going to tell you what that means or how to do it.

Chrissy: 21:47

Yeah. You have to figure it out on your own, kid. Geez.

Sara: 21:49

And Hercules is bummed that his dad won't just like fix it. So he just spends the day with Meg. A little date day. They go to see Oedipus. Hercules ends up breaking the arms off of the Venus de Milo and Meg gets poked by Cupid's arrow. It's a very cute gardeny, statuey kind of placed they're in.

Chrissy: 22:06

It's very Aladdin.

Sara: 22:07

Another fun fact is that in the scene, Meg trips and Hercules places her on a bench, he picks her up and puts her on a bench. And it's not a bench or at least not just a bench. I think it's called Scola, which is a bench tomb, common in Pompei. The ancient Greeks just kind of sat on their dead all the time.

Chrissy: 22:24

So when Herc heads off Meg is just feelin Cupid's arrow. And we get one of the greatest love songs of all Disney, I Won't Say I'm in Love.

Sara: 22:36

It's so good.

Chrissy: 22:37

It's so real too.

Sara: 22:38

Susan Egan knocks it out of the park. She belts it out, about how she's not going to say out loud. No way she is not in love with Hercules. No. Because she's already been hurt before, she can't fall in love again. She's been burned. She won't do it.

Chrissy: 22:53

But it's too dang late.

Sara: 22:54

And a tiny Easter egg is that in the scene, we get a row of Muses busts and they are arranged the same way the Haunted Mansion's busts are.

Chrissy: 23:02

So Hades catches up with Meg. She has not found any weaknesses and that's because she can't see that she's his weakness.

Sara: 23:13

But Hades sees it.

Chrissy: 23:14

And so all of a sudden we get human bait, of course. And Hades uses Meg to get Hercules, to give up his powers so that he can take over the world.

Sara: 23:26

They make a deal. You give up your powers for a day. Meg won't get hurt and we're just going to see what happens. Otherwise I'm going to kill her.

Chrissy: 23:33

Herc gives up his powers, and then as soon as he gives up his powers, Hades is all, oh yeah. Great work, Meg. You did a good job.

Sara: 23:40

Sells her right out.

Chrissy: 23:42

And Herc is like well fuck. I'm out. Fuck love. Fuck everything.

Sara: 23:45

Breaks poor little Hercules' fragile baby heart.

Chrissy: 23:48

Poor thing.

Sara: 23:49

That's his weakness.

Chrissy: 23:50

So the Titans are released. The Titans head up to Mount Olympus, capture everybody. Zeus's caged in a mountain. And, uh, Hercules has to go to work.

Sara: 24:01

Even though he does not have his crazy powers, he goes on to fight the Cyclops. And then he is able to defeat the Cyclops through his whit and all of the shit that he still has left aside from his Godness. And a column falls down and it's about to fall on Hercules, but Meg jumps up and pushes them out of the way and it lands on her.

Chrissy: 24:22

But now, Hercules can lift it up because Meg got hurt and Hades' deal is kaput.

Sara: 24:28

So now Hercules is at least a strong demigod again.

Chrissy: 24:32

Jumps on Pegasus, head's up to Olympus and is like, all right, I gotta do this thing. And he does. He takes out the Titans and frees the gods and Zeus is all like, woooo, my son is the best. But.

Sara: 24:44

Meg kicks it while Herc is up on Mount Olympus. And as her soul is getting sucked into the underworld, Hercules jumps into the river Styx, this like death river after her. And it should kill him. It reminds me of Harry Potter, in the sixth book with all the dead crap, the dead lake around the horcrux thingy.

Chrissy: 25:02

A hundred percent.

Sara: 25:03

There we go. That's the words for things. So doing this should kill him. Like you go into this river thingy and like you're now detached from your soul and your soul's going into the underworld. But, this act, sacrificing himself to try to save Meg is heroic enough that he is now a true hero.

Chrissy: 25:19

And the Fates try to cut his thread of life, but it's gold and he's a God and they can't cut it anymore.

Sara: 25:26

And so Hercules carries Meg soul out of the river and just gives Hades a nice big shove, pushes him right in.

Chrissy: 25:33

Pain and Panic are like, Ooh, should we go help him? What if he never gets out? That's a good plan. All right. Let's just ignore that.

Sara: 25:41

That is a lesson in being nice to your evil henchman. You may need them one day.

Chrissy: 25:46

So Hercules' heads up to Olympus and his parents are all like cheering and everybody's cheering and he's the hero and they're like, you're a God, man. Welcome to your new home. But uh.

Sara: 25:57

He decides actually I'm going to go be human. I'm going to stay on earth with my Meg. She's alive now. It's real cool. And so after he returns to earth, Zeus puts a constellation of Hercules in the sky, something that Phil had dreamed of for one of his guys. One day, they're going to put one of these heroes that I've trained up in the stars and people will look up and they'll say, Hey, that's Phil's boy.

Chrissy: 26:20

And Phil gets his boy.

Sara: 26:22

And that's the end. So yeah, it wasn't bad, but it was just meh. It was fine.

Chrissy: 26:28

I've always really liked Hercules, but watching it this time around, I was just kind of bored. And there's some movies I can watch over and over and over again. This ain't one of them.

Sara: 26:37

This is a much loved movie for a lot of people, but I feel like it's mostly loved because of the music and we loved the music.

Chrissy: 26:43

And we love the characters that everybody loves.

Sara: 26:46

You know what I just realized? We have no villain song in this movie.

Chrissy: 26:49

Hades deserves a number.

Sara: 26:51

This movie, it was reviewed well, ish, but the standout thing among all of the reviews was James Woods was fantastic as Hades. We don't get any kind of a like, Be Prepared, Poor Unfortunate Souls, any of that kind of jam. It's such a campy, fun character that having his own musical number would have punched things up. I'm bummed they didn't do that. So, we'd love to hear your thoughts, guys. You can send us an email at mouseearsandamovie@gmail.com. You can find us on social media and let us know what you think about whether or not they should give us more Muses.

Chrissy: 27:28

Cowards. So that's it for Hercules. It is time to find out what our next movie is going to be. I've got The Bucket and it is filled with the names of Disney and Pixar animated features. Every episode we will choose a new movie out of The Bucket and our next movie is Fantasia.

Sara: 27:49

Fantasia. Okay. Well, that's the end of our show guys. I am Sara Farrell Baker, and you can find me across social media @sarafarrellbaker. Chrissy Woj, where can we find you on the internet?

Chrissy: 28:01

You can find me on Instagram @quirkychrissy and Twitter @quirky_chrissy. Follow along with us next episode, when we'll be discussing Fantasia. Until then you can find us online at mouseearsandamovie.com, on Instagram/TikTok @mouseearsandamovie and on Twitter @mouseearmovies.

Unknown: 28:18

See ya real soon.