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Daniel Parada

Mrs. Harrison

Language Arts

13 October 2020

The Hercules Movie vs the Hercules Story Comparison

The Disney movie department thoroughly takes pleasure in rewriting historical stories

and plots, most of the time, to create a PG rated film for children; The Greek story of Hercules

and the movie Hercules is a prime example. The story of Hercules is a violent and sinful piece of

literature in which Hercules was born out of wed lock, killed his family, and had to complete 12

labors to atone for the sin of killing his family. On the other hand, the movie of Hercules was

filled with a musical fight between love, evil, hope, and pleasures, where Hercules is fighting

forces that are trying to destroy him, meanwhile having a human love interest, has hope to return

to Mt. Olympus, but battles with the desire of remaining on earth with his love interest. The

adaptation of the movie Hercules by Disney is an unacceptable adaptation of Hercules because

there are no specified 12 labors, the inaccurate hope of becoming a god at Mt. Olympus, and the

false adversary, Hades.

There are plenty of similarities between the movie Hercules and the story of Hercules

from Greek mythology. For instance, in both pieces of literature, Zeus was the father of

Hercules, and Hercules was the main character and hero of the story. Most noticeable though, a

major continuity between the literatures was the fact that the treasures of their heart were located

here on earth, and no where else. In the movie and in the mythological story, the treasures were

in a love interest here on earth, both wanting to live with and protect Megara.
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Similarly, there was a plethora of differences in the movie and in the story of Hercules.

For example, Hades was not the villain of Hercules in the Greek mythology story, but instead

Hera. For Disney to make a film that is acceptable for children, they had to remove or cretic parts

of the Greek mythology story like, Hercules was born out of adultery, Hera made Hercules kill

his wife and kids, Hercules started out as a god, and Disney illustrated the gods with a glowing

appearance to help children understand the seniority and differences of the characters. In the

movie, Megara dies and Hercules has to travel into the underworld to grab her soul. But most

significantly, the movie Hercules is a musical mixed with comedic relief to make the production

more appealing to all, including adults.

Overall, Disney’s Hercules is not an acceptable version because of the following. The movie

does not specify that Hercules had to complete 12 labors to achieve his goal, not to mention that

the labors were mostly different. The movies false depiction of Hercules returning to Mt.

Olympus is deceptive, creating the theory that people can be born mortal and become immortal

over the course of their life. Lastly, Disney made the adversary of Hercules his father’s brother,

Hades. Also, Disney portrayed Hades’ appearance as demonic and character as evil, in order to

create a more obvious image of the antagonist in the plot. These changes are to drastic and create

a distorted image of Greek mythology for young children, although it is justified that Disney

change the plot line of Hercules for the sole purpose of producing a film that is kid friendly.

The movie adaptation of Hercules is an unacceptable adaptation for the reason the 12

labors are not mentioned by name, the chance of becoming a god at Mt. Olympus that is

mistaken. In conclusion, the foe Hades was also a major miss representation of the story. The

only reason it is acceptable that Disney created a deceitful film was to make it profitable and
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appealing to all people, no matter what their age is. Disney historical and comical movies has

and will be a treasure for all individuals for years to come.