Hercules (1997 Film)
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50 free Hercules (1997 Film) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Disney's 1997 Hercules is packed with Easter eggs: animator in-jokes, looks borrowed from old Hollywood, celebrity cameos you hear but never see, and sly nods to the Greek myths it cheerfully rewrites. Few animated films reward a second look as well. This quiz starts with those hidden details and then works through the whole film: the story of a demigod raised among mortals, the voices behind the hero, Meg, Phil and Hades, the songs, the artists who gave it its angular look, and the series, stage show and games that followed. It suits Disney fans who have watched the film over and over and casual viewers who mostly remember the tunes. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a few stories worth repeating.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The lion pelt Hercules wears in Disney's 1997 film is drawn to look like which earlier Disney villain?
Scar
Scar turns up as the hero's lion skin, and the animator who supervised him on The Lion King also supervised the adult Hercules.
Q 02Which star agreed to voice Hades in Disney's Hercules, then walked away after asking for half the merchandise money?
Jack Nicholson
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.
Q 03The final look of Phil the satyr in Disney's Hercules was partly inspired by which of Snow White's seven dwarfs?
Grumpy
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.
Q 04Which 1990s girl group was approached to play the Muses in Disney's Hercules but declined over scheduling conflicts?
Spice Girls
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.
Q 05Susan Egan, the voice of Meg in Disney's Hercules, was starring on Broadway at the time as which Disney heroine?
Belle
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.
Q 06Which actor, signed up over a pasta lunch during the filming of Matilda, voices the trainer Phil in Disney's Hercules?
Danny DeVito
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.
Q 07Gerald Scarfe, whose cartoons shaped the look of Disney's Hercules, had earlier illustrated The Wall for which band?
Pink Floyd
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.
Q 08Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a ballad from which other 1997 film?
Titanic
Titanic won with Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, which also beat the Hercules anthem to the Golden Globe for best song.
Q 09Which style of music, suggested by one of the film's directors, do the Muses use to narrate Disney's Hercules?
Gospel
Gospel struck him as storytelling music that lifts a crowd to its feet, though composer Alan Menken had wanted something more classically Greek.
Q 10Which monster in Disney's Hercules was animated by computer so that new heads could sprout each time one was cut off?
The Hydra
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.
Q 11In Disney's Hercules, which Greek city does the newly trained hero travel to in order to prove himself?
Thebes
Thebes is a fitting choice: the Megara of Greek myth, the model for Meg, was a Theban princess and the first wife of Heracles.
Q 12In Disney's Hercules, Meg sold her soul to Hades in order to save whom, only to be abandoned afterwards?
Her boyfriend
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.
Q 13In Disney's Hercules, what does the hero surrender to Hades for a day in exchange for Meg's freedom?
His strength
His strength comes back early because the deal promised that Meg would not be harmed, and she is badly hurt while saving him.
Q 21Whose rapid-fire ad-libs turned Hades in Disney's Hercules from a slow, menacing villain into a fast talker?
James Woods
James Woods drew particular praise from reviewers: one critic called his Hades the most vibrant Disney creation since Robin Williams' Genie.
Q 22Which singer, rejected for Disney's Hercules because his voice was too deep, later sang for Shang in Mulan?
Donny Osmond
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.
Q 23Which star of Hollywood biblical epics has a cameo as the opening narrator of Disney's Hercules?
Charlton Heston
Q 14Into which river of the Underworld does the hero leap to recover Meg's soul in Disney's Hercules?
The Styx
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.
Q 15At the end of Disney's Hercules, what does Zeus form in the night sky to honor his son?
A constellation
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.
Q 16In Disney's Hercules, Zeus creates the winged horse Pegasus for his infant son out of what?
Clouds
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.
Q 17Which trio in Disney's Hercules share a single eye, a detail borrowed from the Graeae of Greek myth?
The Fates
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.
Q 18What are the names of the two shape-shifting imps who serve Hades in Disney's Hercules?
Pain and Panic
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.
Q 19What color does the flaming blue hair of Hades turn when he loses his temper in Disney's Hercules?
Red
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.
Q 20In 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
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.
Charlton Heston's distinctive voice landed him other narrating jobs too: he speaks over the opening scenes of the 1998 disaster film Armageddon.
Q 24Which late-night TV bandleader voices the messenger god Hermes in Disney's Hercules?
Paul Shaffer
Paul Shaffer came back to play Hermes in the animated television series that followed the film.
Q 25Which actor, also seen in 1997 as Zed in Men in Black, voices Zeus in Disney's Hercules?
Rip Torn
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.
Q 26Which Police Academy comedian voices the plump crimson imp who serves Hades in Disney's Hercules?
Bobcat Goldthwait
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.
Q 27Which 3rd Rock from the Sun star was cast as Hades in Disney's Hercules, then released after nine months?
John Lithgow
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.
Q 28Which Broadway actor sang for the teenage hero in Disney's Hercules and later played Hades in the 2019 stage musical?
Roger Bart
Roger Bart re-recorded the songs after Josh Keaton, the teenager's speaking voice, had first sung the part himself.
Q 29Which prolific voice actor, the original Fred in Scooby-Doo, supplies the sounds of Pegasus in Disney's Hercules?
Frank Welker
Frank Welker is also credited with the vocal effects for Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the Underworld.
Q 30Meg in Disney's Hercules was modeled on which star of the 1941 screwball comedy The Lady Eve?
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck's tough-minded, fast-talking heroines were the template, and Susan Egan studied her films before recording the part.