Picture this: you're scrolling down through Twitter as usual, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip, news, or whatever else you use Twitter to do. Someone that you follow has retweeted a picture that someone drew to commemorate the 20th anniversary of one of your favorite movies. You stop and stare at the tweet in question, refusing to believe what you are reading.
"There's no way that movie is 20 years old now!" you think to yourself.
You quickly open a new tab and look up the release date for the movie. You're somehow even more in disbelief than you were before. Not only is it true, but the official date actually passed by a few weeks ago, and you never even knew about it.
That, dear readers, is exactly what happened to me as I was writing my previous article. I encountered this tweet on my adventures through Twitter, and I was floored to learn that one of my favorite movies, Disney's Hercules is officially 20 years old.
Disney's Hercules is, of course, a telling of the tale of the Greek hero, Hercules (voiced by Tate Donovan). The story follows his adventures as he seeks to become a "true hero" so that he can rejoin his parents, Zeus and Hera, on Mount Olympus and finally become a part of the family that he was stolen away from as a baby by Hades (voiced by James Woods). These adventures include being trained by the satyr and professional hero-trainer, Philoctetes (Phil for short, voiced by Danny DeVito), who had previously trained many other famous heroes of Greek Mythology like Odysseus, Perseus, and Achilles. As Hercules works to prove himself to be a true hero, he encounters the sarcastic and fiery Megara (voiced by Susan Egan), who he is immediately smitten with. The film continues following his (mis)adventures and heroic deeds, but of course there is so much more to the film than I will try to summarize here.
To put it simply, Hercules was one of the first movies that I can remember watching. Among other movies that I would watch repeatedly when I was young, including The Little Mermaid and Mulan (which turns 20 next year, but that's a story for another day), Hercules was always one of my favorites. I'm fairly certain that this movie had a hand in sparking my love for all things involving Greek Mythology and eventually, history. As I got older and started learning more about the original Greek myths, I learned that Disney's Hercules is definitely not accurate in its portrayal of the events of Hercules' life. However, just because the film isn't accurate doesn't mean it's not enjoyable for people of all ages. There are lessons and materials accessible to all age groups, the songs that are featured are amazing, and if nothing else, the fact that Danny DeVito not only voices one of the main characters, but even sings one of the songs in the film should be enough to draw you in if you have not seen it, or make you go back and watch it again if you have. Despite its age, Disney's Hercules is one of the defining movies of many peoples' childhood days, and is considered to be a classic by most of those who have watched it, myself included. And that's the gospel truth.
