Hercules: The Animated Series is an animated series based on the Disney's 1997 feature film and the legendary myth, the series follows teenage Hercules training as a hero as well as trying to adjust to life. With his free-spirited friend Icarus, his future-seeing friend Cassandra and his teacher Philoctetes ("Phil"), he battles his evil uncle Hades. Like all teenagers though, Hercules has to worry about peer pressure when the snobbish prince Adonis who ridicules him.
| Hercules | |
|---|---|
| File:Disneyhercules.jpg Cassandra, Hercules and Icarus | |
| Created by | Walt Disney Television |
| Starring | Tate Donovan Robert Costanzo French Stewart Sandra Bernhard James Woods Bobcat Goldthwait Matt Frewer Corey Burton Frank Welker Paul Shaffer Diedrich Bader Robert Stack |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | August 31, 1998 – January 16, 1999 |
Synopsis
Disney's Hercules, like the animated series Disney's The Little Mermaid, is based on his teen-aged adventures, though, unlike the series, it is not a prequel to the film of the same name (Disney's The Little Mermaid featured tales of a 15 year old Ariel which occurred before the start of the theatrical film). Nor is it truly a sequel like Disney's Aladdin (whose tales takes place after the original film). Rather Hercules features events which occur midway through the actual film, during his years in training on the Isle of Idra under the tutalage of Philoctetes (Phil) the Satyr. Many of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses only glimpsed during the film pay visit to the young hero-to-be, but are they around to help or hinder him. Hades is a constant nuisance. Winged stallion Pegasus also reappears, as does Philoctetes (“Phil”).
Disney’s revamping of Greek legend moved to the small screen in the fall of 1998. Disney’s Hercules had the Greek god still in "geek god" mode, before his “Zero to Hero” transformation. In the series, "Herc" was enrolled at Prometheus Academy, a school for both gods and mortals. Since events occur before young Herc meets and falls for the lovely Megara (Meg), he is joined by two new friends Cassandra (comedian Sandra Bernhard) and Icarus (French Stewart of "3rd Rock from the Sun").
Disney’s Hercules debuted as part of Disney’s One Saturday Morning block, joining Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Doug. The show proved to be as big a hit on television as it had been in theaters, still going strong in the early 00's.
Disney's Hercules reruns on Toon Disney early in the morning.
Characters
- Hercules (Tate Donovan) - the god turned mortal hero-in-training.
- Philoctetes (Robert Costanzo)- the satyr hero trainer. One of the few characters from the movie whose voice actor (Danny DeVito) didn't return.
- Icarus (French Stewart) - the boy who escaped from the Labyrinth appears as a complete nut (he was "brain-fried" by flying too close to the Sun). Despite his accident, Icarus still flies every chance he gets resulting in a few more encounters with the sun. Icarus is very adaptive and hence could adjust to about every situation. He could become an ultra serious soldier at boot camp to a nearly identical version of Hades himself. Thankfully, at the end of each episode, he reverts to his own odd self. His father, Daedalus (David Hyde Pierce), is a teacher in the academy.
- Cassandra (Sandra Bernhard) - the Trojan War prophet appears as an anti-social girl, that has visions of the future (usually bad) once in a while. Icarus is completely in love with her, but she does not share his affections nor does she take his feelings for her seriously. Although, Cassandra does regard Icarus as a friend.
- Adonis (Diedrich Bader) - a narcissistic, self-obsessed prince who bullies Hercules and Icarus every chance he has. He even annoys the gods which resulted in one of them even putting a curse on him once. Adonis believes that anything can be solved with power and money.
- Tempest (Jennifer Jason Leigh) - an Amazon, daughter of Hippolyte. She sports a moehock and is very tough. In the Amazon culture, the women fight and work while the men stay at home baking cookies and cleaning the house.
- Bob the Narrator (Robert Stack), helped by the Muses
- Helen of Troy Helen was the sweetest and feminine character of the series. She was the most popular girl in the academy and Adonis' girlfriend. Helen tries her best to keep Adonis from being a jerk but mostly fails. She likes Hercules but as a friend. She is a princess like in the myth.
- Zeus (Corey Burton) - the king of all gods. Contacts his son through his temple. He is seen to be a silly god in contrast to the mythology. He showed lavish love for Hercules despite the distance between them and helps him out whenever he could. Sometimes, causing Herc even more trouble than before.
- Hades - (James Woods) - the lord of the underworld, but makes a lot of plans to get Olympus which was presumably adopted from Marvel Comics' version of Hades who is far more evil than he is but he was spoofed to such an extent. His crazy assistants, Pain (Bob Goldthwait) and Panic (Matt Frewer), have also returned from the movie. He is disappointed about being named Pluto in the episode "Hercules and the Romans", a pun that Pluto is Mickey Mouse's dog. He failed in his attempt to marry Persephone as well.
- Hera (Samantha Eggar) - Hera in the Disney's Hercules movie plays as the mother of Hercules due to the reasons that the Disney characters wanted to avoid spousal jealousy, though many cartoon versions of Hera do present spousal jealousy though Hercules' origin is not entirely revealed. Hera was just as loving to Hercules as Zeus but she is in more control and helps keep Zeus under control.
- Morpheus (Jonathan Katz) - God of sleep, is and has a little brother called Phobetor who wanted to become god of sleep but Zeus said that Thanatos can't be God of sleep because of ,"seniority."
- Phobetor He became the god of dreams and nightmares after a failed attempt to make Morpheus look bad. Hercules and Morpheus convinced Zeus to give the job of dreams to Phobetor since he was much better at dreams and nightmares than his brother.
- Ares - (Jay Thomas) - the war god, just wants to destroy things and prove the superiority of Sparta much like in the myth but to a lesser extent. He hates using 'egghead' words and is very much a muscle sort of god. But his sister, Athena (Jane Leeves) is always there to spoil things. Some fans assume he and Hercules are full brothers, since in the myth, he is a son of Hera and Zeus.
- Boreas - the god of the north wind, seems to have a grudge against Ares for beating him up when Sparta was being created. Aeolus or any of the other winds do not appear so in the show he may be the god of all of the winds.
- Apollo (Keith David) - god of the sun. He rides a chariot around and has very dark skin.
- Aphrodite - (Lisa Kudrow) goddess of the love, with a theme song that even she thinks is annoying. Shown to be engaged to Hephaestus but only in one episode. She has pink skin and blonde hair.
- Demeter- (Florence Henderson) Goddess of agriculture.
- Persephone- Daughter of Demeter, father unknown. Hades tried to marry her but failed.
- Cupid - (Tom Arnold) the god of passion also appears. Not stated to be a son of Aphrodite.
- Bacchus - (Dom DeLuise), god of the vine, nearly sinks Phil's island with his revelry.
- Trivia - (Ben Stein), god of when three roads meet. considered unimportant and not invited to Hades' pool party (actually a mind control plot.) speaks in a monotone. In actual mythology this name belongs to Hecate. Depicted as a god of Trivial Information, sort out Hercules to help maintain order in the world while the other gods were victims of Hades' mind control plot.
Heroes
- Hercules see main characters.
- Hylas is the, "the bad boy of rowing" al though in Greek mythology he is the son or was raised by Heracles.
- Orpheus is a teen idol.
- Meleager usually is with Nestor. He can see very far.
- Nestor is usually is with Meleager he can hear very far.
- Agamemnon is a drill seargent for the SparO.T.C.
- Achilles is an old hero who everyone except for Hercules as forgotten. He was once trained by Phil but he failed.
- Odysseus the cunning king of Ithaca.
- Telemachus the prince of Ithaca.
- Jason the leader of the Argonauts.
- Lynceus the helmsman of the Argo.
- Mentor the tough chief police man.
- Chipacles a city-state trooper who takes his job very seriously.
- Melampus is a nerd that goes to Prometheus Academy. He is dating Cassandra which makes him Icarus' rival. Icarus once tried to hurt Melampus but was stopped by Hercules.
- Alectryon is a retired hero and a Rooster. When ever he crows anyone who is asleep wakes up.
Jr. Prometheus Academy
- Alexander the Great is a geek who can't tie his shoes. Hercules is his mentor.
- Brutus is a bully and a centaur.
Guest characters
- One episode featured Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus has a "superhero" mentality, and even has his own alter-ego, the Grim Avenger. He has a habit of narrating his own exploits and is known to make dramatic entrances. The Minotaur causes havoc in temples. Hercules and Theseus team up to defeat him.
- Another episode featured the Titan Prometheus himself.
- One episode featured a cross-over with Aladdin, in which Hades and Jafar team up to destroy both their respective enemies (ignoring the fact these two series seem to take place a thousand years apart from each other).
- One episode deals with Egyptian gods and the dual role of the Greek gods in Rome. At the end of the episode, Icarus gives all the gods their Roman names i.e. Zeus gets "Jupiter", Hera gets "Juno", etc. Hades is infuriated at receiving the name "Pluto". As he storms out of the room in a rage, Hades shouts: "Pluto?! I wouldn't name my dog Pluto!"
Toys
There have been toys on the show based on popular toys that we have now.
Hercules- based on Superman, Batman and G.I. Joe -It's a toy of the Hercules that was sold after Hercules killed the Hydra.
Malibu Aphrodite doll- based on Barbie -Owned by a child named Callisto.
Episodes
| Original Air Date | Title |
| 08/31/98 | Hercules and the Apollo Mission |
| 09/01/98 | Hercules and the King of Thessaly |
| 09/02/98 | Hercules and the Secret Weapon |
| 09/03/98 | Hercules and the Assassin |
| 09/04/98 | Hercules and the Big Kiss |
| 09/07/98 | Hercules and the River Styx |
| 09/08/98 | Hercules and the Techno Greeks |
| 09/09/98 | Hercules and the World's First Doctor |
| 09/10/98 | Hercules and the Pool Party |
| 09/11/98 | Hercules and the Prince of Thrace |
| 09/12/98 | Hercules and the First Day of School |
| 09/14/98 | Hercules and the Tapestry of Fate |
| 09/15/98 | Hercules and the Living Legend |
| 09/16/98 | Hercules and the Return of Typhon |
| 09/17/98 | Hercules and the Owl of Athena |
| 09/18/98 | Hercules and the Visit From Zeus |
| 09/18/98 | Hercules and the Girdle of Hippolyte |
| 09/21/98 | Hercules and the Bacchanal |
| 09/23/98 | Hercules and the Underworld Takeover |
| 09/26/98 | Hercules and the Driving Test |
| 09/29/98 | Hercules and the Comedy of Arrows |
| 10/02/98 | Hercules and the Hostage Crisis |
| 10/03/98 | Hercules and the Parent's Weekend |
| 10/05/98 | Hercules and the Disappearing Heroes |
| 10/08/98 | Hercules and the Argonauts |
| 10/10/98 | Hercules and the Prometheus Affair |
| 10/14/98 | Hercules and the Drama Festival |
| 10/16/98 | Hercules and the Phil Factor |
| 10/17/98 | Hercules and the Hero of Athens |
| 10/21/98 | Hercules and the All Nighter |
| 10/29/98 | Hercules and the Song of Circe |
| 10/30/98 | Hercules and the Trojan War |
| 10/31/98 | Hercules and the Caledonian Boar |
| 11/02/98 | Hercules and the Dream Date |
| 11/04/98 | Hercules and the Big Games |
| 11/06/98 | Hercules and the Jilt Trip |
| 11/07/98 | Hercules and the Epic Adventure |
| 11/10/98 | Hercules and the Falling Stars |
| 11/12/98 | Hercules and the Golden Touch |
| 11/13/98 | Hercules and the Minotaur |
| 11/14/98 | Hercules and the Poseidon's Cup Adventure |
| 11/16/98 | Hercules and the Son of Poseidon |
| 11/18/98 | Hercules and the Twilight of the Gods |
| 11/20/98 | Hercules and the Griffin |
| 11/21/98 | Hercules and the Muse of Dance |
| 11/24/98 | Hercules and King For a Day |
| 11/25/98 | Hercules and the Pegasus Incident |
| 11/28/98 | Hercules and the Kids |
| 12/11/98 | Hercules and the Big Sink |
| 12/16/98 | Hercules and the Big Lie |
| 12/21/98 | Hercules and the Prom |
| 01/04/99 | Hercules and the Spartan Experience |
| 01/09/99 | Hercules and the Gorgon |
| 01/13/99 | Hercules and the Complex Electra |
| 01/16/99 | Hercules and the Green-Eyed Monster |
| 02/08/99 | Hercules and the Long Nightmare |
| 02/10/99 | Hercules and the Arabian Night |
| 02/12/99 | Hercules and the Aetolian Amphora |
| 02/15/99 | Hercules and the Romans |
| 02/17/99 | Hercules and the Yearbook |
| 02/19/99 | Hercules and the Odyssey Experience |
| 02/22/99 | Hercules and the Grim Avenger |
| 02/24/99 | Hercules and the Spring of Canathus |
| 02/26/99 | Hercules and the Big Show |
| 03/01/99 | Hercules and the Tiff on Olympus |
Trivia
- The series supposedly takes place during the time frame in the movie when Hercules is being trained by Phil. However, this brings up an error in continuity. In the movie, Hades is unaware that Pain and Panic failed to kill Hercules as a child, and only learns of Hercules's existence after Hercules defeats Nessus, 18 years after the failed attempt. In the series, however, Hades is fully aware that Hercules is still alive, and even acknoweleges him as Zeus's son.
- Hercules is shown in the film and in this series to be a son of Zeus and Hera but in the mythology, he is an illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman.
- Hercules's short attention span is somewhat referential to Hercules in Marvel Comics seeing that Hades can easily manipulate him in both Marvel and Disney.
- Hades's desire to overthrow Zeus is taken from the Marvel version of Hades although in here, his methods are a lot less severe.