Do you want to see ‘Hercules’?

Hercules (1997)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 8

Fast-paced and packed with dozens of pop culture references, Hercules might not measure up with the true classics of the Disney pantheon, but it's still plenty of fun.

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 3

Fast-paced and packed with dozens of pop culture references, Hercules might not measure up with the true classics of the Disney pantheon, but it's still plenty of fun.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 359,064

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Disney's animation team dipped into the rich well of ancient mythology for this musical comedy. The son of Greek gods Zeus (voice of Rip Torn) and Hera (Samantha Eggar), Hercules (voice of Josh Keaton) is stolen as a boy by the minions of Hades (voice of James Woods), lord of the underworld. Forced to live among humans, Hercules is turned into a half-god and half-mortal after drinking a forbidden potion brewed by Hades' right hand men, Pain (voice of Bob Goldthwait) and Panic (voice of Matt

G, 1 hr. 32 min.

Animation, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: John Musker , Ron Clements

Written By: Ron Clements, Don McEnery, Irene Mecchi, John Musker, Bob Shaw

In Theaters: Jun 15, 1997 Wide

On DVD: Nov 9, 1999

Buena Vista Internationa

Cast

Tate Donovan
Hercules
Josh Keaton
Young Hercules
Roger Bart
Young Hercules (singing...
Danny DeVito
Phil
James Woods
Hades
Susan Egan
Meg
Bobcat Goldthwait
Pain
Matt Frewer
Panic
Rip Torn
Zeus
Samantha Eggar
Hera
Barbara Barrie
Alcmene
Hal Holbrook
Amphitryon
Paul Shaffer
Hermes
Amanda Plummer
(The) Fates
Carole Shelley
(The) Fates
Paddi Edwards
(The) Fates
Charlton Heston
Narrator

Critic Reviews for Hercules

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (8) | DVD (16)

[An] insipid, lifeless, animated feature.

November 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comments (5)

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

Chock-full of celeb cameos, puns and contemporary camp, the movie is annoyingly hip.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Rita Kempley

Washington Post

Top Critic

This is a bright movie, in both senses of the word.

September 1, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine

| Comment

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

It's a winning tall tale, cleverly told and wonderfully voiced...

September 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Leonard Klady

Variety

Top Critic

What fun!

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment (1)

Peter Stack

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Light on its feet and continually amusing, this free-spirited show-biz version of Greek mythology ranks with the best of modern Disney animation.

February 14, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Lighthearted, but scary stuff is too much for littlest kids.

July 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

The most flat-out childish film of the Disney Renaissance: this is both its great triumph and ultimately the reason that it's so hard to care about it all that much.

December 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy

| Comment

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Amusing, yes. Fluffy, definitely. But with no more staying power than those Hercules action figures that were already resigned to Odd-Lot by last Christmas.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher

| Comments (3)

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

Prepare to spend the summer stepping on plastic satyrs and winged horses.

September 1, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Maitland McDonagh

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Scarfe's pointed faces are smoothed out to a drab degree, yet not so they become characters as warm as Disney is capable of.

September 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

Another benchmark achievement for the Aladdin team of Musker and Clements.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Derek Adams

Time Out

One of the best of the modern Disney animation efforts to date.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews

| Comment

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Remind one of My Little Pony...mental pictures of all the plastic "Hercules" toys that soon will be littering floors and crippling barefoot adults.

June 25, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

| Comment

Judith Egerton

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

while all the customary ingredients are at hand -- the dreamy hero, the curvaceous heroine, the comic sidekick, the smarmy villain -- the magic is missing this time out. ...a minor addition to the Disney pantheon.

July 15, 2003 Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

| Comment

James Sanford

Kalamazoo Gazette

Disney's 35th animated feature may be based on a timeless tale, but it's no classic.

May 20, 2003 Comment

Susan Tavernetti

Palo Alto Weekly

It entertained me much more than I thought it would.

November 7, 2002 Full Review Source: Netflix

| Comment

James Rocchi

Netflix

The animation is kinetic and witty; computer effects are integrated to good effect without overwhelming the hand-drawn figures.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

| Comment

Margaret A. McGurk

Cincinnati Enquirer

Hercules fires off mythology in-jokes and pop culture references at a speed that would dizzy the Animaniacs.

July 3, 2002 Full Review | Comment

Jeffrey Westhoff

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Woods as the ever-exasperated Hades is the comic highlight, bringing an acrid wit to the proceedings, thereby balancing out some of the over-the-top feel-good elements indigenous to the genre.

June 25, 2002 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine

| Comment

Christine James

Boxoffice Magazine

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Hercules

View All

Hercules isn't the best animated Disney film, but its still one of my favorites and is a good way to teach kids about Greek Gods, I learned a lot as kid from this movie at least.

August 15, 2011

Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

Although there are a huge amount of inaccuracies in this adaptation of the classical mythological tale of Hercules, this movie is a lot of fun. It's hilarious and has a bunch of catchy tunes. Both kids and adults will love it.

September 6, 2010

AJ Verser

Super Reviewer

Hercules Quotes

View All

1. Meg: For a true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.
– Submitted by Nusfish K (1 day ago)
1. Hades: Game. Set. Match.
– Submitted by Mitzy M (2 months ago)
1. Hades: So is this an audience or a mosaic?
– Submitted by Diego T (4 months ago)
1. Hades: Uh, guys? Olympus would be that way.
– Submitted by Lucas M (5 months ago)
1. Zeus: So, Hades, you finally made it. How are things in the underworld?
2. Hades: Well, they're just fine. You know, a little dark, a little gloomy. And, as always, hey, full of dead people.
– Submitted by Lucas M (5 months ago)