Hercules: The Animated Series

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Hercules: The Animated Series
Cassandra, Hercules and Icarus
Genre	Animated series
Creator(s)	Walt Disney Television
Starring	Tate Donovan Robert Costanzo French Stewart Sandra Bernhard James Woods Bobcat Goldthwait Matt Frewer Corey Burton Frank Welker Paul Shaffer Diedrich Bader Jodi Benson Robert Stack Linda Hamilton
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	65
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	August 31, 1998 – January 16, 1999
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Hercules: The Animated Series is an animated series based on the Disney's 1997 feature film and the legendary myth, the series follows teenage Hercules training as a hero as well as trying to adjust to life. With his free-spirited friend Icarus, his future-seeing friend Cassandra and his teacher Philoctetes ("Phil"), he battles his evil uncle Hades. Like all teenagers though, Hercules has to worry about peer pressure when the snobbish prince Adonis ridicules him.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Continuity 3 Characters 3.1 Greek pantheon 3.2 Heroes 3.3 Jr. Prometheus Academy 3.4 Guest characters 4 Episodes 5 Zero To Hero 6 Diferences from the original mythology 7 Similarities to Marvel Comics Hercules 8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Disney's Hercules, like the animated series Disney's The Little Mermaid, is based on his teen-aged adventures, though, unlike the series, it is not a prequel to the film of the same name (Disney's The Little Mermaid featured tales of a 15-year-old Ariel which occurred before the start of the theatrical film). Nor is it truly a sequel like Disney's Aladdin (whose tales takes place after the original film). Rather Hercules features events which occur midway through the actual film, during his years in training on the Isle of Idra under the tutelage of Philoctetes (Phil) the Satyr. Many of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses only glimpsed during the film pay visit to the young hero-to-be, but are they around to help or hinder him. Hades is a constant nuisance. Winged stallion Pegasus also reappears, as does Philoctetes (“Phil”).

Disney’s revamping of Greek legend moved to the small screen in the fall of 1998. Disney’s Hercules had the Greek god still in "geek god" mode, before his “Zero to Hero” transformation. In the series, "Herc" was enrolled at Prometheus Academy, a school for both gods and mortals. Since events occur before young Herc meets and falls for the lovely Megara (Meg), he is joined by two new friends Cassandra (comedian Sandra Bernhard) and Icarus (French Stewart).

Disney’s Hercules debuted as part of Disney’s One Saturday Morning block, joining Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Doug. The show proved to be as big a hit on television as it had been in theaters, still going strong in the early 00's.

Disney's Hercules reruns on Toon Disney weekends at 12:30/11:30c.

[edit] Continuity

The series supposedly takes place during the time frame in the movie when Hercules is being trained by Phil. However, this brings up an error in continuity. In the movie, Hades is unaware that Pain and Panic failed to kill Hercules as a child, and only learns of Hercules's existence after Hercules defeats Nessus, 18 years after the failed attempt. In the series, however, Hades is fully aware that Hercules is still alive, and even acknoweledges him as Zeus's son.

[edit] Characters

• Hercules (Tate Donovan) - the god turned mortal hero-in-training thus he is now half-mortal, half-god. He is a son of Zeus and Hera which is in contrast to the myth.
• Philoctetes (Robert Costanzo)- the satyr hero trainer. One of the few characters from the movie whose voice actor (Danny DeVito) didn't return.
• Icarus (French Stewart) - the boy who escaped from the Labyrinth appears as a complete nut (he was "brain-fried" by flying too close to the Sun). Despite his accident, Icarus still flies every chance he gets resulting in a few more encounters with the sun. Icarus is very adaptive and hence could adjust to about every situation. He could become an ultra serious soldier at boot camp or a nearly identical version of Hades himself. Thankfully, at the end of each episode, he reverts to his own odd self. His father, Daedalus (David Hyde Pierce), is a teacher in the academy.
• Cassandra (Sandra Bernhard) - the Trojan War prophet appears as an anti-social girl, that has visions of the future (usually bad) once in a while. Icarus is completely obsessed with marrying her; she has no reciprocation, but merely tolerates him.
• Adonis (Diedrich Bader) - a narcissistic, self-obsessed prince who bullies Hercules and Icarus every chance he has. He even annoys the gods which resulted in one of them even putting a curse on him once. Adonis believes that anything can be solved with power and money.
• Tempest (Jennifer Jason Leigh) - an Amazon, daughter of Hippolyta (Jane Curtin). She sports a mohawk hairstyle and is very tough. In the Amazon culture, the women fight and work while the men stay at home baking cookies and cleaning the house.
• Bob the Narrator (Robert Stack), helped by the Muses
• Helen of Troy (Jodi Benson) Helen was the sweetest and feminine character of the series. She was the most popular girl in the academy and Adonis' girlfriend. Helen tries her best to keep Adonis from being a jerk but mostly fails. She likes Hercules but as a friend. She is a princess as in the myth but is not a half-sister of Hercules in the series.

[edit] Greek pantheon

• Zeus (Corey Burton) - the king of all gods. Contacts his son through his temple. He is seen to be a silly god in contrast to the mythology. He showed lavish closeness for Hercules despite the distance between them and helps him out whenever he could. Sometimes, his attempts go wrong, causing Herc even more trouble than before.
• Hades - (James Woods) - the lord of the underworld, but makes a lot of plans to get Olympus which was presumably adopted from Marvel Comics'/DC version of Hades and he is Zeus' younger brother which deviates from the myth since the myth has him older than Zeus. His crazy assistants, Pain (Bob Goldthwait) and Panic (Matt Frewer), have also returned from the movie. He is disappointed about being named Pluto in the episode "Hercules and the Romans", a pun that Pluto is Mickey Mouse's dog.
• Hera (Samantha Eggar) - Hera in the Disney's Hercules movie plays as the mother of Hercules due to the reasons that the Disney characters wanted to avoid spousal jealousy, though many cartoon versions of Hera do present spousal jealousy though Hercules' complete origin is not entirely revealed but people know him as a son of Zeus through the film. Hera was just as loving to Hercules as Zeus but she is in more control and helps keep Zeus under control.
• Poseidon (Jason Alexander) - God of the sea. He, Hades and Zeus are brothers, as Hercules referred to him as "Uncle Popo" in "Hercules and the Son of Poseidon", but which of them is older is unknown. Has a son, Triton, a cousin of Hercules.
• Hephaestus (Kevin Michael Richardson) - the one-legged god of fire. Whether or not he is a son of Zeus and Hera is still to be revealed. Engaged to Aphrodite.
• Morpheus (Jonathan Katz) - God of sleep, is and has a little brother called Phobetor who wanted to become god of sleep but Zeus said that Thanatos can't be God of sleep because of his "seniority."
• Phantasos (Tom Kenny) - He became the god of dreams and nightmares after a failed attempt to make Morpheus look bad. Hercules and Morpheus convinced Zeus to give the job of dreams to Phantasos since he was much better at dreams and nightmares than his brother.
• Ares - (Jay Thomas) - the war god, who just wants to destroy things and prove the superiority of Sparta, much like in the myth but to a lesser extent. He hates using 'egghead' words and is very much a brash sort of god. Some fans assume he and Hercules are full brothers, since in the myth, he is a son of Hera and Zeus. Why Disney didn't make him and Hades allies is still to be seen. Served by his sons Fear and Terror.
• Boreas (Alan Rosenberg)- the god of the north wind, seems to have a grudge against Ares for beating him up when Sparta was being created. Aeolus or any of the other winds do not appear so in the show he may be the god of all of the winds.
• Apollo (Keith David) - god of the sun. He rides a chariot around and has very dark skin.
• Aphrodite - (Lisa Kudrow) goddess of the love, with a theme song that even she thinks is annoying. Shown to be engaged to Hephaestus but only in one episode. She has pink skin and blonde hair. Hades did try to flirt with her which doesn't happen in the myth.
• Demeter- (Florence Henderson) Goddess of agriculture. Summoned Nemesis to smite the satyr Pan for his inadequate offerings at her harvest festival.
• Persephone- Contrary to seemingly popular opinion, she never actually appeared in the show. According to an inside source from the show, several different stories were considered for her, including one where she was the daughter of Hades and Demeter who were embroiled in a custody battle, and another where she would have been a teacher at Prometheus Academy, but nothing ever felt really appropriate and her storyline was dropped.
• Cupid - (Tom Arnold) the god of passion also appears. He is shown as a pink, short, overweight, middle-aged man wearing a diaper; not explicitly stated to be a son of Aphrodite.
• Hermes - (Paul Shaffer) messenger of the gods and god of thieves. Frequently a companion to "Herc", whom he furnishes with comic relief, possibly another son of Zeus and Hera.
• Bacchus - (Dom DeLuise), god of the vine, nearly sinks Phil's island with his revelry.
• Nemesis - (Linda Hamilton), demigoddess of vengeance.
• Trivia - (Ben Stein), god of when three roads meet. Considered unimportant and not invited to Hades' pool party (actually a mind control plot.) speaks in a monotone. Depicted as a god of Trivial Information, sought out Hercules to help maintain order in the world while the other gods were victims of Hades' mind control plot. In actual mythology this name belongs to Hecate.
• Artemis (Reba McEntire) - Goddess of the moon and more shown as the goddess of the hunt, Artemis has a few appearances mainly relating to episodes involving hunting, sporting McEntire's accent. In particular, she is seen protecting the Calydonian Boar and transforms a few of the characters into animals, a reference of her turning a hunter who saw her bathing into a stag in mythology. She is also seen scolding Orion also making references to the Belt of Orion in terms of the star patterns. A few times, she is comically seen fighting off her adoring animal fans like a snake that starts to constrict her.
• Hestia (Betty White) - Only making a few appearances, the goddess of family and the hearth is seen as a cheery housewife type. She is often seen cooking or marveling at her own confections... most of which end up being ruined in a comical fashion.
• Hecate (Peri Gilpin) - An Underworld goddess, Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft and longs to take over the Underworld from Hades in much the same way he longs to take Olympus from Zeus. Despite his seeming dislike of the place most of the time, he's very possessive of his kingdom whenever she tries to overthrow him.

[edit] Heroes

• Hercules (see main characters).
• Hylas (Rocky Carroll) is "the bad boy of rowing" although in Greek mythology he is the son of Hercules or was at least raised by him.
• Orpheus (Rob Paulsen) is a singer and teen idol.
• Meleager usually is with Nestor. He can see very far.
• Nestor - (James Belushi) is usually with Meleager. He has extraordinary hearing abilities.
• Agamemnon (Patrick Warburton) is a drill sergeant for the SparO.T.C.
• Achilles - (Dom Irrera) is an old hero who everyone except for Hercules has forgotten. He was once trained by Phil but he failed.
• Odysseus - (Steven Weber) cunning king of Ithaca.
• Telemachus - prince of Ithaca.
• Jason - (William Shatner), the leader of the Argonauts.
• Lynceus - (Larry Miller), the helmsman of the Argo.
• Mentor - (Ed Asner), the tough chief police man.
• Chipacles - (Mike Connors) a city-state trooper who takes his job very seriously.
• Melampus - (Ethan Embry) is a nerd that goes to Prometheus Academy. He is dating Cassandra which makes him Icarus' rival. Icarus once tried to hurt Melampus but was stopped by Hercules.
• Alectryon-(Steve Hytner) is a retired hero and a Rooster. When ever he crows anyone who is asleep wakes up.
  • In the movie, teenage Hercules is voiced by Josh Keaton and Tate Donovan is the voice for adult Hercules, but in the show Tate Donovan is the voice actor for Hercules, even though he is still a teenager during the series.

[edit] Jr. Prometheus Academy

• Alexander the Great (Courtland Mead) is a geek who can't tie his shoes. Hercules is his mentor.
• Brutus (Pamela Segall) is a bully and a centaur.

[edit] Guest characters

• The Fates from the movie reappear in some episodes, including one where they accidentally sink Atlantis.
• One episode featured Theseus (Eric Stoltz) and the Minotaur (Michael Dorn). In this, Theseus has a doubled identity, his second self being the superhero "Grim Avenger", whose costume resembles that of DC Comics' character Doctor Fate. As the Grim Avenger, Theseus is constantly narrating his every move aloud. He works with Hercules to capture the Minotaur.
• Another episode featured the Titan Prometheus (Carl Reiner) himself.
• One episode featured a cross-over with Aladdin, in which Hades and Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) team up to destroy both their respective enemies (ignoring the fact these two series seem to take place a thousand years apart from each other).
• One episode deals with Egyptian gods and the dual role of the Greek gods in Rome. At the end of the episode, Icarus gives all the gods Roman names, where Zeus became "Jupiter", Hera became "Juno" etc. Hades is infuriated at receiving the name "Pluto". As he storms out of the room in a rage, Hades shouts: "Pluto?! I wouldn't name my dog Pluto!"
• The Norse Gods also appeared where Loki (Vince Vaughn) tricks Hercules into depowering Thor to cause the Twilight of the Gods. This is slightly referential to the episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in "Somewhere Across the Rainbow Bridge" where Ragnarok would begin but to a lesser extent. Also The Fates are accused of "moonlighting" as the Norns, a reference to how the Norns bear striking resemblance to the Fates. Vaughn's portrayal of Loki is obviously comparable to Woods's portrayal of Hades as a slick showbiz agent-type, and is very reminiscent of his role in Swingers. Even Odin (Garrison Keillor) is portrayed somewhat similarly to Zeus's persona in the show.
• The Nemean Lion (Jeremy Piven) made an appearance in an episode involving Icarus moonlighting as a costumed superhero.
• Medusa (Jennifer Love Hewitt) made an appearance in an episode.
• Galatea (Jennifer Aniston) also made an appearance, but not as the wife of Pygmalion the art teacher, but as the statue Hercules beseached Aphrodite to bring to life for him as a date to the Aphrodasia Dance. Hercules learned a decidedly different lesson than the one from the original myth.
• Circe (Idina Menzel) also made an appearance, but not with Odysseus, who appeared in other episodes. She was simply looking for suitable boyfriends and turned most of the male cast into various animals.
• Megara (Susan Egan) appeared twice, once as a teenager and once as an adult from the movie timeline.

[edit] Episodes

Original Air Date	Title
08/31/98	Hercules and the Apollo Mission
09/01/98	Hercules and the King of Thessaly
09/02/98	Hercules and the Secret Weapon
09/03/98	Hercules and the Assassin
09/04/98	Hercules and the Big Kiss
09/07/98	Hercules and the River Styx
09/08/98	Hercules and the Techno Greeks
09/09/98	Hercules and the World's First Doctor
09/10/98	Hercules and the Pool Party
09/11/98	Hercules and the Prince of Thrace
09/12/98	Hercules and the First Day of School
09/14/98	Hercules and the Tapestry of Fate
09/15/98	Hercules and the Living Legend
09/16/98	Hercules and the Return of Typhon
09/17/98	Hercules and the Owl of Athena
09/18/98	Hercules and the Visit From Zeus
09/18/98	Hercules and the Girdle of Hippolyte
09/21/98	Hercules and the Bacchanal
09/23/98	Hercules and the Underworld Takeover
09/26/98	Hercules and the Driving Test
09/29/98	Hercules and the Comedy of Arrows
10/02/98	Hercules and the Hostage Crisis
10/03/98	Hercules and the Parent's Weekend
10/05/98	Hercules and the Disappearing Heroes
10/08/98	Hercules and the Argonauts
10/10/98	Hercules and the Prometheus Affair
10/14/98	Hercules and the Drama Festival
10/16/98	Hercules and the Phil Factor
10/17/98	Hercules and the Hero of Athens
10/21/98	Hercules and the All Nighter
10/29/98	Hercules and the Song of Circe
10/30/98	Hercules and the Trojan War
10/31/98	Hercules and the Caledonian Boar
11/02/98	Hercules and the Dream Date
11/04/98	Hercules and the Big Games
11/06/98	Hercules and the Jilt Trip
11/07/98	Hercules and the Epic Adventure
11/10/98	Hercules and the Falling Stars
11/12/98	Hercules and the Golden Touch
11/13/98	Hercules and the Minotaur
11/14/98	Hercules and the Poseidon's Cup Adventure
11/16/98	Hercules and the Son of Poseidon
11/18/98	Hercules and the Twilight of the Gods
11/20/98	Hercules and the Griffin
11/21/98	Hercules and the Muse of Dance
11/24/98	Hercules and King For a Day
11/25/98	Hercules and the Pegasus Incident
11/28/98	Hercules and the Kids
12/11/98	Hercules and the Big Sink
12/16/98	Hercules and the Big Lie
12/21/98	Hercules and the Prom
01/04/99	Hercules and the Spartan Experience
01/09/99	Hercules and the Gorgon
01/13/99	Hercules and the Complex Electra
01/16/99	Hercules and the Green-Eyed Monster
02/08/99	Hercules and the Long Nightmare
02/10/99	Hercules and the Arabian Night
02/12/99	Hercules and the Aetolian Amphora
02/15/99	Hercules and the Romans
02/17/99	Hercules and the Yearbook
02/19/99	Hercules and the Odyssey Experience
02/22/99	Hercules and the Grim Avenger
02/24/99	Hercules and the Spring of Canathus
02/26/99	Hercules and the Big Show
03/01/99	Hercules and the Tiff on Olympus

[edit] Zero To Hero

4 episodes of Hercules: The Animated Series were put onto home video in movie format, Zero To Hero. The episode Hercules and the Yearbook is the main plot of the video. Unlike the televised version, the random clips are replaced with 3 other episodes (In the following order):

• Hercules and the First Day of School
• Hercules and the Grim Avenger
• Hercules and the Visit From Zeus

Some of the dialogue between Hercules and Meg are altered to fit the episodes. An example of this is Hercules and the Visit From Zeus replacing the clip of Hercules graduating from Promethous Academy.

[edit] Diferences from the original mythology

• Hercules is shown in the film and in this series to be a son of Zeus and Hera but in the mythology, he is an illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman (named Alcmene in Greek mythology). Indeed, the legends depict Hera as despising Hercules; with the Goddess frequently trying to kill him or otherwise hinder his quests.

[edit] Similarities to Marvel Comics Hercules

• Hercules's short attention span is somewhat referential to Hercules in Marvel Comics seeing that Hades can easily manipulate him in both Marvel and Disney.
• Hades's desire to overthrow Zeus is taken from the Marvel version of Hades although in here, his methods are a lot less severe.

[edit] External links

• Hercules at the Internet Movie Database
• Hercules at TV.com
• Hercules at the Disney website
• Disney's Hercules at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)