Hercules (1997)

/ / US / 1997 / Disney, Walt / / animation

Hercules / Herkules. PC: Walt Disney Enterprises. P+D+SC: John Musker, Ron Clements. M: Alan Menken. PD: Gerald Scarfe. 92’. 1,85. MPAA 35360. Rating: G. Finnish language version supervised by Pekka Lehtosaari. Voice of Megara: Laura Voutilainen. DIST: Finnkino. Viewed at VET, Helsinki, Thursday, 9 October 1997. *** First-rate animation provides a feast for the eyes, and the design of Gerald Scarfe introduces a visual signature with an unusual edge. Alan Menken’s score is thoroughly integrated in the story, making this a true animated musical. After a century of animated cinema the problem of human characters is still to be solved. The traditional Disneyesque full-figured wonder horse Pegasus is more effective than the experimental and angular human characters. While the subject is packed with wit and invention, there are problems of feeling and rhythm. Hercules attacks on the senses so relentlessly that the viewer is put on the defense. The frenetic and monotonic pace betrays a lack of trust in the talent involved. Not having seen the original language version I appreciate in the Finnish version its technical perfection and the verve and punch of the musical numbers. Some of the voices strike me as phony, but Laura Voutilainen as Megara is excellent. I agree with those who declare that the most interesting female characters in 1990s Hollywood cinema have appeared in Walt Disney’s animated features: Belle, Pocahontas, Esmeralda - and now Megara. She is a truly ambivalent figure, a good-bad girl half-way to Hades.