The more they re-promote the back catalogue, the easier it becomes to draw a line between Old Disney and New Disney. Stick on The Aristocats (1970); then watch The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996) - they're both set in Paris, it's fair - each is beautifully drawn and contains virtually the same horse, yet one is charming, simplistic and compulsive, the other noisy, intellectual and relentless. Hercules, Disney's 35th full-length animated feature, falls in with the latter.
A Greek myth from the Aladdin/ Little Mermaid crew, it charts the to-hell-and-back odyssey of the heroic son of Zeus, kidnapped by minions of Underworld boss Hades (a show-stealing Woods), and - after a bungled attempt to rub him out - stranded on earth as a mere mortal. In order to climb the stairway back to heaven, he must become a true hero, assisted by cloven-hoofed Philoctetes or "Phil" (DeVito), cleverly styled on a down-at-heel Hollywood boxing trainer. Throw in Pegasus, mythical beasts aplenty, and a poisoned-chalice heroine Megara ("Meg"), and you have steroid-pumped good and intense, Satanic evil. With a soul-singing Greek chorus to boot.
Disney have always delighted in jazzy adaptation, and now, they've "done" Greek mythology. But while the sources of the other films were - to the kiddy viewer - immaterial, a full enjoyment of Hercules requires a basic understanding of classical studies for its gags about Narcissus, Achilles, Nymphs, etc. Technically, the drawings are springy and delightful (the hand of British nib-punisher Gerald Scarfe looming loose and large), and the songs are fulsome and camp, if again hard to follow if you're under ten - which hints at the film's basic flaw: it works too hard for the grown-ups.
