50 Fun Facts About Hercules (1997 Film)

The lion pelt Hercules wears in Disney's 1997 film is drawn to look like which earlier Disney villain?

Scar turns up as the hero's lion skin, and the animator who supervised him on The Lion King also supervised the adult Hercules.

Which star agreed to voice Hades in Disney's Hercules, then walked away after asking for half the merchandise money?

Jack Nicholson toured the studio with his daughter dressed as Snow White, then asked for $10–15 million plus half the proceeds from Hades merchandise. Disney had offered $500,000.

The final look of Phil the satyr in Disney's Hercules was partly inspired by which of Snow White's seven dwarfs?

Grumpy lent Phil his curmudgeonly face, along with Bacchus from Fantasia. The animators went through 27 designs for the satyr before settling on the look.

Which 1990s girl group was approached to play the Muses in Disney's Hercules but declined over scheduling conflicts?

Spice Girls were invited to sing one of the songs and play the Muses, but the parts went to stage singers including Tony winners Lillias White and LaChanze.

Susan Egan, the voice of Meg in Disney's Hercules, was starring on Broadway at the time as which Disney heroine?

Belle was so sweet and innocent that composer Alan Menken at first blocked Egan from trying out for the cynical Meg. For a while she played one by day and the other in the evening.

Which actor, signed up over a pasta lunch during the filming of Matilda, voices the trainer Phil in Disney's Hercules?

Danny DeVito had the part written for him but declined to audition, so others read for it. One veteran comic who did left predicting the directors would give it to DeVito anyway.

Gerald Scarfe, whose cartoons shaped the look of Disney's Hercules, had earlier illustrated The Wall for which band?

Pink Floyd used Scarfe's drawings on the 1979 album and its tour. For Disney he produced more than 700 designs, sending early sketches from his London home by fax or courier.

Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a ballad from which other 1997 film?

Titanic won with Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, which also beat the Hercules anthem to the Golden Globe for best song.

Which style of music, suggested by one of the film's directors, do the Muses use to narrate Disney's Hercules?

Gospel struck him as storytelling music that lifts a crowd to its feet, though composer Alan Menken had wanted something more classically Greek.

Which monster in Disney's Hercules was animated by computer so that new heads could sprout each time one was cut off?

The Hydra ends up with thirty heads: the team built one master head and let the computer multiply it. The four-minute fight took nearly a year and a half to make.

In Disney's Hercules, which Greek city does the newly trained hero travel to in order to prove himself?

Thebes is a fitting choice: the Megara of Greek myth, the model for Meg, was a Theban princess and the first wife of Heracles.

In Disney's Hercules, Meg sold her soul to Hades in order to save whom, only to be abandoned afterwards?

Her boyfriend was saved by the bargain and then left Meg for another woman, which is why she begins the film finding it hard to trust men.

In Disney's Hercules, what does the hero surrender to Hades for a day in exchange for Meg's freedom?

His strength comes back early because the deal promised that Meg would not be harmed, and she is badly hurt while saving him.

Into which river of the Underworld does the hero leap to recover Meg's soul in Disney's Hercules?

The Styx should have killed him, but risking his life for Meg is the selfless act that restores his godhood, so he climbs out alive.

At the end of Disney's Hercules, what does Zeus form in the night sky to honor his son?

A constellation in the hero's shape appears after he chooses life on Earth with Meg over a place among the gods, much to the delight of his trainer Phil.

In Disney's Hercules, Zeus creates the winged horse Pegasus for his infant son out of what?

Clouds also make up the film's Mount Olympus, where paintings blended with effects animation let the baby's cradle and his father's chair shift shape.

Which trio in Disney's Hercules share a single eye, a detail borrowed from the Graeae of Greek myth?

The Fates see the future and tell Hades how his plot against Zeus could fail. In myth the shared eye belongs to three grey-haired sisters, and Perseus steals it from them.

What are the names of the two shape-shifting imps who serve Hades in Disney's Hercules?

Pain and Panic bungle the kidnapping of the baby hero, fleeing before he swallows the last drop of a potion, and then hide the failure from their boss for years.

What color does the flaming blue hair of Hades turn when he loses his temper in Disney's Hercules?

Red flames, like the blue ones, were handled by effects animators. Nik Ranieri drew the body by hand and said one second of the fast-talking god could take two weeks.

In Disney's Hercules, what mortally injures Meg as she pushes the hero out of harm's way in the film's climax?

A falling pillar strikes Meg during the fight with the Cyclops, and because Hades had promised she would stay safe, her injury cancels his bargain with the hero.

Whose rapid-fire ad-libs turned Hades in Disney's Hercules from a slow, menacing villain into a fast talker?

James Woods drew particular praise from reviewers: one critic called his Hades the most vibrant Disney creation since Robin Williams' Genie.

Which singer, rejected for Disney's Hercules because his voice was too deep, later sang for Shang in Mulan?

Donny Osmond auditioned for the speaking voice of the hero. The part went to Tate Donovan, who tried out seven times over about three months.

Which star of Hollywood biblical epics has a cameo as the opening narrator of Disney's Hercules?

Charlton Heston's distinctive voice landed him other narrating jobs too: he speaks over the opening scenes of the 1998 disaster film Armageddon.

Which late-night TV bandleader voices the messenger god Hermes in Disney's Hercules?

Paul Shaffer came back to play Hermes in the animated television series that followed the film.

Which actor, also seen in 1997 as Zed in Men in Black, voices Zeus in Disney's Hercules?

Rip Torn's other film of that summer was one of the family rivals a Disney executive blamed for the soft box office of Hercules.

Which Police Academy comedian voices the plump crimson imp who serves Hades in Disney's Hercules?

Bobcat Goldthwait had the role written with him in mind, yet he admitted he still had to audition to play what was more or less himself.

Which 3rd Rock from the Sun star was cast as Hades in Disney's Hercules, then released after nine months?

John Lithgow was cast in the autumn of 1994 and let go the following August. A string of other actors then read for the part before it was finally filled.

Which Broadway actor sang for the teenage hero in Disney's Hercules and later played Hades in the 2019 stage musical?

Roger Bart re-recorded the songs after Josh Keaton, the teenager's speaking voice, had first sung the part himself.

Which prolific voice actor, the original Fred in Scooby-Doo, supplies the sounds of Pegasus in Disney's Hercules?

Frank Welker is also credited with the vocal effects for Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the Underworld.

Meg in Disney's Hercules was modeled on which star of the 1941 screwball comedy The Lady Eve?

Barbara Stanwyck's tough-minded, fast-talking heroines were the template, and Susan Egan studied her films before recording the part.

Which directing duo, who also made The Little Mermaid and Moana, directed Disney's Hercules?

Ron Clements and John Musker saw the film as their chance to make a superhero movie, both of them being comic book fans.

The directors of Disney's Hercules made it under a deal that the studio would then approve which passion project?

Treasure Planet had been shelved in 1993 because studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted another commercially viable film first. It finally reached cinemas in 2002.

Which ancient epic did Disney put into development as an animated film in 1992, only to cancel it later?

The Odyssey proved too long, lacked central characters and would not turn into animated comedy. Hercules grew from another Greek-myth idea, pitched in just two minutes.

The original pitch for Disney's Hercules and its cancelled sequel were both set during which legendary conflict?

The Trojan War pitch by animator Joe Haidar had both armies wanting the hero as a secret weapon. The shelved sequel would have sent him to war after his friend Helen was captured.

Which supervising animator of the adult Hercules had made his name drawing Disney villains such as Gaston and Jafar?

Andreas Deja was first offered Hades but asked for the hero instead, wanting a harder challenge, and ended up leading the largest team he had ever worked with.

Meg's hair and figure in Disney's Hercules were designed by Ken Duncan to echo which ancient Greek art form?

Pottery shaped the whole character: the directors described her head as a sort of vase shape, with a Greek curl at the back.

About ten minutes of Disney's Hercules was animated outside California, at a Disney studio in which European city?

Paris was home to Walt Disney Feature Animation France, which shared the drawing with the main studio in Burbank.

A Time magazine cover caricature of which band first drew the directors of Disney's Hercules to Gerald Scarfe?

The Beatles cover dated from 1967. Scarfe was designing an opera production of The Magic Flute when he was invited to tour the Disney studio.

The makers of Disney's Hercules pictured their hero as which young star of Frank Capra's 1930s films?

Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was the model: the directors wanted the feel of the screwball comedies of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges.

Disney's Hercules made Hades the villain in place of which goddess, who torments the hero in Greek myth?

Hera hates him in the myths as the child of her husband's affair, a subject the directors felt was too difficult for a Disney film, so she became his loving mother.

Which singer, picked by composer Alan Menken, recorded the pop single of Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules?

Michael Bolton took the single to number one on the US adult contemporary chart for three weeks, his ninth song to top it.

Which Puerto Rican star sang the Spanish-language version of Go the Distance for Disney's Hercules?

Ricky Martin's version, No Importa la Distancia, is heard both in the Spanish dub and over its credits, and it reached the top ten of the US Latin pop chart.

Which Irish boy band recorded Shooting Star, a song cut from Disney's Hercules?

Boyzone took it to number two in the UK on a double A-side single. Shooting Star was the first song written for the hero, until Go the Distance replaced it.

Which Go-Go's singer recorded a pop version of Meg's love song from Disney's Hercules to promote the film?

Belinda Carlisle's version came out as a single only in France and Germany, though several foreign dubs of the film play it over the end credits.

Meg's big song in Disney's Hercules was modeled on numbers Alan Menken wrote for which 1982 stage musical?

Little Shop of Horrors also supplied Susan Egan's audition piece: she sang its ballad Somewhere That's Green when she tried out for the part of Meg.

A crossover episode of the Hercules animated TV series pits the hero against the star of which other Disney film?

Aladdin and the Greek hero are tricked into fighting each other after the lord of the dead teams up with the spirit of Jafar.

The world of Disney's Hercules, known as Olympus Coliseum, appears in nearly every entry of which video game series?

Kingdom Hearts II added the Underworld to the world because Hades proved so popular, and Kingdom Hearts III opens on an expanded version called Olympus.

In the House of Mouse episode Halloween with Hades, the Hercules villain tries to win a date with which villainess?

Maleficent is unmoved by the dating advice he gets from Mickey Mouse, and is won over only when he loses his temper in a fiery rage.

A version of Hades played by Greg Germann appears in the fifth season of which fantasy TV drama?

Once Upon a Time also gave its own versions of the hero and Megara an episode in that season, titled Labor of Love.

Which 1997 thriller starring Nicolas Cage beat Disney's Hercules to first place on its wide-release weekend?

Face/Off took $23.3 million to the Disney film's $21.5 million. After two weeks Hercules had made $58 million, well behind the pace of Pocahontas and The Lion King.