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The following are fictional characters from Disney's 1997 film Hercules and from the 1998 TV series.
[edit] Hercules
Hercules (also known as Herc) is the main protagonist of the film and the TV series. He is based on the mythical character Hercules, although some aspects of his life differ greatly from the original legend. Hercules was born on Mount Olympus with all the powers of a god, and his parents were Zeus and Hera, who has been reimagined as a loving mother instead of a spiteful stepmother. On the celebration of his birth, during which the Olympian gods present the infant god with a multitude of gifts, although one god is not happy about the new arrival: Hercules's evil uncle Hades, lord of the Underworld. Hades wants to take control of Mount Olympus and the world, and he sees that if Hercules chooses to fight when he is older, his plans will be ruined. Knowing that as a god, Hercules is immortal and invulnerable, Hades sends his two lackeys, Pain and Panic, to kidnap Hercules and turn him mortal by means of a magic potion, but the final drop falls wasted on the ground. Pain and Panic discover that because he did not drink the last drop he has retained his godly strength and they are beaten back. Amphytryon and Alcmene adopt the child, considering his arrival a gift from the gods since they are themselves childless. Too late, Zeus and the other gods discover the kidnapping. Because Herc is now mortal, however, they are unable to take him back to Olympus. Hercules grows into a strong but clumsy teenage boy who cannot control his godly strength, causing havoc and alienating those around him. His foster parents decide to finally come clean to him about the circumstances of his adoption, showing him a medallion they find that bears the symbol of the gods (Zeus's lightning bolt). Hercules sets off to find his place in the world, and goes to the Temple of Zeus for guidance. While in the temple, Zeus embodies his own statue, and reveals Hercules's origin. He explains that the only way Hercules can rejoin his parents on Mount Olympus is to prove himself a "true hero". He goes to see Philoctetes, a trainer of heroes who originally says he will not train Hercules, but changes his mind after Zeus zaps him with a bolt of lightning. When Hercules has reached adulthood and has passed his training, he sets off with Philoctetes to become a Hero in Thebes. On his way he saves Megara from Nessus, a centaur acting as river guardian. Unbeknownst to Herc, Meg is working for Hades, and relates the events to the Lord of the Underworld, by which he learns that Hercules is still alive and so sends a variety of monsters to kill Hercules. But Hercules dispatches every monster Hades sends against him. By this time, Hercules has become the toast of Greece, and he believes himself a true hero,; thus, he is greatly upset when Zeus tells him he has not quite gotten there yet. Meg (on assignment from Hades) convinces him to play hookie, going on a date. At first she was trying to learn any weakness he might have, but she eventually fell as hard for him as he had for her. The date is ended by Phil, irate at Hercules for skipping training. Phil is knocked off Pegasus, and wakes up in time to learn of Meg's involvement with Hades. He leaves to tell Hercules, not hearing Meg's refusal to help destroy Hercules. Hercules, ecstatic from the date, refuses to believe Phil's warning about Meg, even hitting him in a flash of blind anger, prompting Phil to quit. Hades, knowing of Herc's feelings for Meg, confronts Hercules, offering Meg's safety if the hero will give up his strength for 24 hours (long enough for Hades to conquer Olympus.) Hercules is reluctant to see anyone hurt, but Hades vows that no harm will come to Meg. Hercules agrees, and Hades takes the opportunity to humiliate him before revealing Meg's role in his scheme. Enacting his plan, Hades sends a Cyclops to destroy Hercules. Without his superhuman strength, Hercules is brutally beaten about by the monster but, with a peptalk from the returning Phil, and using his wits, he is able to defeat the Cyclops and send him hurtling off a cliff. The monster's fall causes a pillar to topple towards Hercules and Meg pushes him out of the way, taking the impact of the pillar. This in turn causes Hercules to regain his strength because Hades' end of the bargain is now broken. Hercules leaves Meg in the care of his friends while he rushes off to thwart Hades' invasion of Olympus. He returns to Meg's side only to learn that her injuries were fatal. However, he then travels to Hades to rescue Meg's spirit from River Styx, which swiftly ages mortals upon contact, thus killing them within a short time. Hercules nevertheless enters the pool to rescue Meg's soul. He is able to reach Meg before he dies and his selfless act fulfills the requirement for being a true hero thus, Hercules regains his godhood. He then punches Hades into the River Styx, and returns Meg's soul to her body. He is invited by Zeus to live in Olympus, which was indeed originally his wish, but he decides rather to live his life on Eartn as a mortal with Meg. Animator Randy Haycock based the infant version of Hercules on his newborn daughter. He also videotaped a friend's six-month old and rented movies with babies in them.[1] Haycock admits that baby Hercules' curly hair comes from his infant daughter's appearance. He adds, "[Hercules'] mannerisms come right off things I've picked up from her," even though Hercules is more caricatured than a real baby.[1] The inspiration for teenage Hercules came from Haycock's experiences as an adolescent. "I was too tall and skinny for my age, and I was a lousy athlete. At home I broke just about everything..."[1] Teenage Hercules has big hands and feet that the animator remembers having himself, as well as the lack of coordination.[1] Andreas Deja was supervising animator for the adult version of Hercules. He studied photographs of Olympic athletes, not the weightlifters with short necks and bulging muscles, but the swimmers, with long necks and natural musculature.[1] Essentially, he wanted to return to the Greek tradition of character drawing. As Deja explains, this means "straight nose, pursed lips -- almost cherubic, large eyes, a lidded look...The classic style you find on Greek vases or drawings."[1] The animated series Hercules is set in the intervening period between his teen years and his first journey to Thebes as an adult, while he is still in training on Phil's island. The series also reveals that, on Zeus's instruction, Hercules attends a high school called the Prometheus Academy. Hercules has also appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. In the former, Sora must help Hercules defeat the evil Hades who, having joined Maleficent's main group of Disney Villains, is still trying to take over Olympus. In the first game, he is voiced by Sean Astin, but Donovan reprises his role in the second game. His Japanese voice is done by Yasunori Matsumoto. Hercules also appeared in the television series Disney's House of Mouse, in the Walt Disney World version of Fantasmic!, at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts daily for greetings, and even has his own stage show on the Disney Cruise Line. [edit] Megara
Megara (also known as Meg) is a Greek woman working for Hades, and the love interest of Hercules. Sometime during the events of Hercules, Megara went to Hades to revive a lover of hers who had died. Hades agreed on the condition that she serve him forever, which she accepted. However, shortly after her lover was revived, he fell in love with someone else and left Meg still locked in servitude to Hades. When Meg first appears onscreen, Hercules encounters her in the middle of trying to recruit Nessus. Meg, not believing that Hercules can help, simply tells him she can handle it, and after Nessus and he fight, watches with some amusement. She at first believes Hercules is faking his shy and innocent personality due to bad experiences with other men. She then reports back to Hades, who learns that Hercules is still alive. Later, in Thebes, Meg rushes up to Hercules, telling him two kids (Pain and Panic in disguise) are trapped in a gorge. He falls for it, and Meg silently pleads with him from a distance to leave before Hades' plan goes into effect, but is forced to watch as Hercules fights and defeats the Hydra. After several more victories, Meg is openly smug and confident that Hercules will survive. Hades offers Meg her freedom in exchange for discovering Hercules' weakness. Meg goes to Hercules and convinces him to take the day off with her, to which he quickly agrees. During the date, Hercules reveals his feeling for Meg and promises that he will never hurt her. They nearly kiss, but are stopped by Phil. Finding herself falling in love, she tries to deny it. Hades then intervenes, and Meg tells him that she will not help him hurt Hercules, and that he has no weaknesses. A furious Hades reminds her that he owns her, and upon seeing her newfound emotions for Hercules, uses her as leverage to convince Hercules to give up his strength for one day in return for her safety; if the deal is broken, his strength will return. Hades then reveals Meg worked for Hades the whole time, and Hercules leaves, disheartened at learning of Meg's betrayal. Meg then goes to find Phil, as he is the only one who can talk sense into Hercules. They return to see Hercules has been badly beaten by the Cyclops, and convince him to fight back. After seeing a column collapse where he is standing, due to the Cyclops Hercules was fighting, Meg pushes him out of the way, and it collapses on her instead. When he asks why, she explains that "people always do crazy things- when they're in love." Meg dies from her injuries, so Hercules goes to the Underworld to get her soul back. He makes a deal with Hades where he will exchange himself in return for Meg's life, but in the process of saving her, becomes a god again. After her soul is returned, he explains that he did it for the same reason she gave her life for him- he is in love with her. They are risen to Olympus, and Meg watches as Hercules is finally accepted as a god. However, he declines his place to stay with her on Earth; Meg and Hercules finally kiss, apparently continuing her life with him and his foster parents. In Hercules: The Animated Series, Megara appeared twice, once as a teenager and once as an adult from the movie timeline. One interesting note is that the lover to whom Megara sold her soul to Hades to save in the original film, was actually Adonis. In the episode "Hercules and the Aetolian Amphora", Meg is a teen who is sent by Hades to retrieve an amphora full of water from the Pool of Forgetfulness. She meets Hercules, offering a chance to prove himself as a hero. They do retrieve it from Ares' sons, but Meg leaves Hercules to escape. She is immediately taken to the Underworld by Pain and Panic; Hercules, despite her betrayal, goes after her. During a fight for the amphora, Meg tells Hercules that she liked him from the start. They almost kiss, but the amphora's water is dropped on them, causing them to forget how they met, and reinforcing the fact that Hercules and Meg never established any relationship until the film. Another episode, "Hercules and the Yearbook", takes place after the events of the film and features Hercules and Meg moving his stuff from Phil's island. Hermes delivers a special package, which Hercules immediately hides from Meg. Phil reveals all of Hercules' incidents during his school time, and Hercules tells Meg he did not want to show her the yearbook because he wants her to see him as a hero. Meg tells him that she accepts that part of his life as an awkward phase, and loves him just the same. However, this does not stop Hercules from having Hermes retrieve Meg's own yearbook. Megara also appeared in Kingdom Hearts II and meets Sora and co. in the Underworld entrance. She later assists Sora in the fight against the Hydra by providing useful items. She also appears in Disney's House of Mouse as a guest. [edit] Hades
Hades is the main antagonist of the film. Unlike the mythological Hades, who is for the most part a relatively passive deity doing a sometimes nasty job, this version is a fast-talking, evil deity, reminiscent of Satan, as well as sleazy Hollywood Agent types. In all of his appearances, Hades has been voiced by James Woods. The character's mannerisms and other tendencies were partly due to James Woods's using "car-dealer"-style speech while providing the voice of Hades. Hades is described as "mean" and "ruthless" by the Muses. His status as god makes him immortal, but not invincible. In Hercules, Hades seeks to overthrow his brother Zeus and rule Mount Olympus for himself. Upon visiting the Fates, he learns that he could succeed, but if Zeus's son, Hercules, is to fight Hades, Hercules will win. Hades sends his two klutzy minions, Pain and Panic, to kidnap baby Hercules and give him a potion that would render him mortal. Hercules needs to drink every last drop for it to work, but the last drop is lost. Thus Hercules, while mortal, retains his god-like strength and spends his life on Earth. Later, a young woman named Megara sells her soul to Hades so that he will return her lover's soul. He does, but soon Meg's lover ungratefully dumps her for another girl shortly afterwards. Meg remains trapped as a slave to Hades, and he uses her beauty, charm and intelligence as an advantage to persuade monsters to join his army. After discovering that Hercules is still alive, Hades sends numerous monsters to do away with Hercules, but none work. When he finds out that Hercules has fallen in love with Meg, he uses this to his advantage and makes a deal with Hercules: Hercules must give up his powers for twenty-four hours (secretly the same twenty-four hours he will use to take over Olympus) in exchange for Meg's freedom. Hercules agrees, as long as Meg will be safe from harm. Hades then reveals that Meg was working for him the whole time, crushing Hercules' will to fight. Hades then releases the Titans and sends the Cyclops to kill the weakened and demoralised Hercules to keep him from getting in the way, but Hercules defeats the monster using his wits. However, Meg is greviously injured saving Hercules from a falling pillar. This negates Hades's deal that Meg would not be hurt. Hercules is thus given his powers back and returns to Mount Olympus where he easily takes down the Titans and frees the gods. Hades loses his temper, but he taunts Hercules that he at least has a parting gift; Meg is dying from her injuries. Hercules rushes to get back to her but she dies before he gets there (although it's unlikely that his presence could have changed this event). Hercules travels to the Underworld to rescue her. He swims into the River Styx to retrieve her soul. It almost kills him, when his full Godhood is restored by his being willing to risk his life to save Meg. Hercules emerges from the pit alive and immortal with Meg's soul in his arms. Hades begs the hero to try and ease things with him and the other gods, but Hercules loses his temper and slugs his uncle into the River Styx, where he is swarmed upon by the Spirits of the Dead and dragged down under the surface. Later, with the return of Hercules on the form of an animated series, Hades also re-appeared, and had many appearances trying to take over Olympus. One episode even had a crossover where Jafar makes a deal with Hades, in order to make Hercules and Aladdin fight each other. While Hades and Jafar had numerous things in common, Jafar's insane laugh consistently got on the more smooth-talking Hades' nerves - at least until he tried it for himself. This entire series ignores a certain fact about the film however: in the movie Hades still thought Hercules was dead throughout his high school days, but in the series, they have many interactions during that time. Hades appears in the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. He was originally in league with Maleficent, using the Heartless to try to take over the worlds. Hades wanted to dispose of Hercules and tricked Cloud Strife into challenging Hercules in the Preliminaries at the Olympus Colliseum. In return, Hades "promised" Cloud he will lead him to Sephiroth. However, when Sora arrived, Hades changed plans and had Cloud attack Sora first. When Cloud refused to kill Sora, Hades sends out Cerberus to take care of Cloud. Hercules arrived to get Cloud to safety while Sora & company dealt with Cerberus. After Maleficent's defeat, Hades himself battles Sora and lost as all his schemes against Sora and the others end in failure. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, a facsimile Hades appeared as token of Sora's memory and the darkness in Riku's heart. In Kingdom Hearts II, Hades's desire to kill Hercules is still undeterred. After joining forces with Pete, and probably Maleficent through him, Hades decides to use Auron, who has already died, to fight against Hercules and kill him; however, Auron rebels against Hades and fights him, only to be interrupted by Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy. They fight Hades, but, due to the Underworld curse, he is invincible to their attacks. Hades then sends Cerberus and later the Hydra against Sora and his friends. Upon discovering that Sora's Keyblade could unlock any lock, Hades initially plans to use it to unlock the Underdrome, the Underworld's own coliseum. However, when Pete informs him that the Keyblade will only work for Sora, Hades kidnaps Meg and traps her in the locked Underdrome, forcing Sora to unlock it to rescue her. After defeating Pete and the Hydra again, eventually fighting Sora personally, but was still defeated by Sora and friends. However, Hades survives and acts as a challenger in the last tournaments, which are unlocked near the end of the game. James Woods reprises his role for the English versions of the games, while his Japanese voice in all three games is done by Kyusaku Shimada. Hades is one of the Disney Villains summoned by the Evil Queen to fight Mickey Mouse in Fantasmic!. Hades also appears in several episodes of Disney's House of Mouse providing comic relief. He is also one of the main group of villains in the full-length spin-off Mickey's House of Villains; James Woods only provides the voice for one line ("Ha - love that"), and Rob Paulsen provides the singing voice when Hades sings the lines "Where everyone's a friend of mine!" and "What a place for breakin' bread!" in the song "It's Our House Now!". He also appears briefly in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. [edit] Pain and Panic
Pain and Panic are a pair of pint-sized, devil shaped demons (also called imps) in the Disney animated feature Hercules. Pain is a fat, red-shaded demon, and Panic is skinny and blue-green. They are the minions of the film's villain, Hades, and serve primarily as comic relief. Pain is voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and Panic by Matt Frewer. Panic is paranoid, twitchy, and panicky, as his name suggests. He appears to be more honest than Pain. For example, he says "What will Hades do when he finds out about this?" Pain replies "You mean if he finds out." And Panic replies, "'If'. 'If' is good." Pain, on the other hand, is bossy, hot-tempered, and sly, but also clumsy and liable to get into painful situations, and seems to be less intelligent than Panic. Both possess the ability to shapeshift into almost any form, although larger forms require that they work as a team. They frequently manage to irritate Hades even more than usual, and he is always ready to punish them severely for any mistakes. He also threatens them with torture. Ironically, since they are demons, even Hades cannot kill them - but it is made clear repeatedly that they can still feel pain, and since both Hades and they are immortal, they endeavour not to anger him. It is unclear why they even serve Hades, but it is possible they are under a similar contract as Meg was. In the movie, Hades sends them to kidnap baby Hercules, make him mortal, and kill him. The imps obey and somehow capture him in the middle of the night, but fail to kill him, and only half-succeed in making him mortal: he keeps his godlike strength, allowing him to dispose of the pair before they have a chance to kill him as snakes (a mythical reference). Not wanting Hades to know about their failure, they tell him that Hercules is dead. Many years later Hades discovers that Hercules is actually alive. To try and grovel sufficiently they become insects, reminding Hades they could still kill Hercules in the time left. Throughout the rest of the movie, they're seen either cheering Hades's monsters on, grovelling to Hades, or using their shapeshifting powers to contact Hades's spy, Meg. In rare moments of competence, they manage to trap Pegasus by pretending to be his mare, and even capture Hermes in the assault on Olympus, hoarding the gods off the mountain in chains. At the end of the movie, Hades is punched into the river Styx, and they are left behind, hoping that he won't return. Pain and Panic also appear in the Hercules TV series, and still serve as Hades's lackeys. They made many brief appearances in the House of Mouse television series, usually along with Hades (though there was one episode in which they broke up Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket without Hades's aid) and had a very small role in Kingdom Hearts II, where they are working for Hades and work at the Underdrome, but have no other purpose. [edit] Phil
Philoctetes (usually referred to simply as "Phil"), based on the mythological Philoctetes, is a satyr and a trainer of aspiring heroes who has often been disappointed by his trainees' shortcomings. This however, seems to be a confusion with the myth of Chiron, as Phil states that he trained Achilles and Jason of the Argonauts, both disciples of Chiron. He also says that he trained Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, "A lot of "yusses". After some initial reluctance, Phil agrees to train the callow young Hercules, and is ultimately gratified when the people of Thebes refer to the mighty and triumphant Hercules as "Phil's boy." He has also appeared in the Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II and the TV series Disney's Hercules and House of Mouse. In the film, Philoctetes' voice is provided by Danny DeVito, while Robert Costanzo fills the role in the character's video game and television appearances. Ichirō Nagai supplies Phil's Japanese voice, while Lakis Lazopoulos was cast for Phil's voice in the greek language version. [edit] Other characters
[edit] The Fates
[edit] The MusesThe Muses sung 6 songs to go along with the film which were also featured on the soundtrack album.The songs where "The Gospel Truth","The Gospel Truth II","The Gospel Truth III","Zero to Hero"," "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)", and "A Star Is Born". All of the songs were realeased on the movie soundtrack May 27, 1997 on Walt Disney Records. Allmusic gave the album 3/5 stars. The film begins in a very United States of America-like ancient Greece with a mock-epic spoken narration (by Charlton Heston), but dissolves into the musical narration by the five Muses. The Muses tell the tale ("The Gospel Truth") of how Zeus came to power and prevented the monstrous Titans from ruling the world. The songs from the movie sung by The Muses (as well as the other songs in the movie) were composed by Alan Menken and the lyrics were written by David Zippel. After the film, the Muses made appearances on the Hercules TV series, making musical appearances in episodes of the series. The Muses made also a guest appearance on Disney's House of Mouse, January 26, 2002 on season 2 and on the episode called "Where's Minnie?". They sung a song called "Minnie Mouse Is in The House" which had the beat of Salt-n-Pepa's song "Whatta Man".
[edit] The TitansThe Titans were the giant rulers of the world when it was first new who caused torment and destruction wherever they went.
Hercules: The animated series
[edit] Introduced in the TV series[edit] Prometheus AcademyThe Prometheus Academy is the fictional high school from the Disney animated television series Hercules. Though set in Ancient Greece (specifically Athens), the Academy shares many traits with modern educational institutions. It is coeducational, with both male and female students, and teaches such diverse subjects as history and "Home Grecanomics". Prometheus Academy is the school that the teenaged Hercules attends while training with Philoctetes to become a hero in the Disney movie Hercules. Many of the other students at the Academy are based on characters from mythology. The Academy was named after the Titan Prometheus, who brought fire from Mount Olympus (the metaphorical "light of reason") to the mankind, and was punished by Zeus being chained to a rock and having his liver pecked out by an eagle every day forever. A bronze statue of Prometheus being administered his punishment is the central point of the Academy's courtyard. [edit] Prometheus Academy students
[edit] Prometheus Academy staff
[edit] Jr. Prometheus Academy studentsThe junior school attached to Prometheus Academy. The students that attend are also figures from mythology or ancient history, though pre-teen versions of those characters, before they became famous. One of their teachers is Mr. Aesop, who tells stories (his eponymous fables) in order to teach the students by means of his morals.
[edit] Greek PantheonIn addition to Zeus, Hades, Hera, Apollo, and the Muses, other characters from the Pantheon include:
[edit] Heroes
[edit] Guest characters
[edit] Monsters
[edit] References
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