Hercules is the thirty-fifth film in the Disney animated feature canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on June 14, 1997. This is a list of animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Productions/The Walt Disney Company: Official canon The following is a list of the forty-four feature films officially part of the Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA) canon. ... Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA) is the animation studio that makes up a key element of The Walt Disney Company. ... Walt Disney Pictures is a United States-based movie studio, and is a division of The Walt Disney Company. ... Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The movie depicts the adventures of Heracles (known in the movie by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology. The film was followed by an animated television series based on the movie characters, and Hercules: Zero to Hero, a direct-to-video movie. Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Statue of Heracles In Greek mythology, Heracles, or Heraklês (glory of Hera, Ἡρακλῆς) was the demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene, the grand-daughter of Perseus and the wife of Amphitryon. ... Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... Hercules and Cacus, by Baccio Bandinelli, 1525 - 1534. ... Statue of Zeus The Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 bc. ... Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... An animated television series or cartoon television series is a television series produced by means of animation. ...

The movie received one Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Go the Distance". The lyrics were written by David Zippel and the music was written by Alan Menken. It did not win. Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Academy Award for Best Song // 1930s 1934 - The Continental from The Gay Divorcee 1935 Lullaby of Broadway from Gold Diggers of 1935 1936 The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time 1937 Sweet Leilani from Waikiki Wedding 1938 - Thanks for the Memory from The Big Broadcast of 1938 1939 Over... Alan Menken Alanis Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American Broadway and film music composer. ...

In the movie, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera (the myths had him as the son of Zeus and a mortal, earth-born woman). In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ...

Character design was by noted British caricaturist Gerald Scarfe, and as a result the film has a quirky visual style unusual in recent Disney films. Gerald Scarfe (born 1936) is a British cartoonist and illustrator whose work is characterised by an apparent obsession with the grotesque and diseased, perhaps a result of an asthmatic, bed-ridden childhood. ...

Disney took considerable liberties with the myth of Hercules, since some of the original material and characters were inappropriate for younger viewers, such as Hercules being conceived through a god posing as a mortal woman's husband, and of his stepmother Hera's attempts to kill him. Disney also made use of stereotypes when designing the look of the Greek gods, such as making Poseidon into a fish. In modern usage, a stereotype is a simplified mental picture of an individual or group of people who share a certain characteristic (or stereotypical) qualities. ... Andrea Doria as Neptune by Agnolo Bronzino: a potent allegory of Genoas hegemony in the Tyrrhenian Sea In Greek Mythology, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, known to the Romans as Neptune, and to the Etruscans as Nethuns. ...

The Disney version of Hercules has almost nothing to do with the myth of Heracles, and should not be regarded as a true legend about the mythological hero. Rather it is an entertaining spin on the character and the culture of ancient Greece. (Note however that the film does contain a brief reference to The Twelve Labours and other myths pertaining to the character.) Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. ... The Twelve Labours of Herakles (Hercules) are a series of stories connected by a continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by Herakles. ...

Disney's Hercules and some of the other major characters have also been used in Disneys House of Mouse series, as well as all three games of the Kingdom Hearts video game series. The House of Mouse is a Disney cartoon show where Mickey Mouse and his friends run a nighclub called The House of Mouse, which shows Disney cartons as part of its floor show. ... Kingdom Hearts (Japanese: キングダムハーツ Kingudamu Hātsu) is an action RPG that was released in Autumn of 2002, which is notable for being the result of a collaboration between the video game developer and publisher Square and Disney. ...

The storyline also draws much of its inspiration from the "Superman" movie, as well as "Rocky."

External links

• The IMDb entry on Hercules
• The Big Cartoon DataBase entry for Hercules