Hercules is actually such a profound movie
Like I can't say I'm not biased, it's been my favorite Disney movie for practically my entire life. I was three when it came out and became instantly utterly obsessed with it.
But re-watching it over the past week, several things have occurred to me.
It may have the most emotionally complex second act low point of any Disney Renaissance film.
- Hercules is told that he's not a true hero yet by Zeus (his biological father)
- He falls out with Phil (his surrogate father) after Phil tells him that the girl he's in love with has been playing him for a sap
- 5 minutes later, Hades pops up and talks him into giving up his strength for the next 24 hours, on the condition that Meg will be safe from harm
- immediately after making said deal, discovers that Meg HAS been a double agent this whole time and has his heart broken
- he has lost pretty much everything and is practically suicidal, to wit
- when all hell breaks loose in Thebes, he goes out to fight, knowing he will probably be killed because he feels he has nothing left to lose and allows himself to be beaten up and publicly humiliated
- When he IS almost killed by a falling pillar, Meg saves him and is crushed herself. This gives him back his strength because Hades promised she wouldn't get hurt, but she dies as a result.
In fact this movie may be what helped me understand the CONCEPT of death as a child.
The scene where Hercules plunges into the Styx to retrieve Meg's soul, rapidly aging in as the water literally sucks the life out of him may be one of the greatest sequences in animated history.
Something that really hit after I learned the mythology of Hercules when I was older - Hercules also dies in this movie.
In actual Greek mythology, Hercules dies after having his mortal skin stripped off with poison, leaving only the immortal being underneath.
Likewise I'm Disney's film, Hercules dies in the Styx. He is restored to immortality through the virtue of his sacrifice.
Most Disney couples are willing to die for each other, but Hercules and Meg DID.
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