I make it no secret that Disney's Hercules is one of my favorite movies. No doubt it's my favorite animated movie and while it's not perfect, I enjoy it for what it is. But being me, simply enjoying the movie is not enough. I impulsively need to get a hold of anything I can get my hands on that was tied to it. That's why I even bought that crummy Zero to Hero tape. It's not great, but I like it because it's Hercules. However, I already talked about the movies, so if you want to read about them, click here. This time, I want to talk about some of the other things tied into the movie, the art book, The Art of Hercules: The Chaos of Creation, and the Playstation game based on the movie.
The Art of Hercules: The Chaos of Creation
I first heard about The Art of Hercules from my animation professor at my old community college. I was showing him some of the work I had been doing at the time and mentioned I had recently seen this movie and it left an impression on my work. To my surprise, he said it was one of his favorite 2D Disney movies and mentioned studying and copying the art styles in the book. This was the first time and heard of this. I knew they made books full of concept art for movies and video games. I even gave my cousin a book of concept art for Star Wars: The Force Unleashes for Christmas. But a book full of concept art for Hercules?!? I had to get it.
Due to the fact the movie is close to twenty years old and was not one of the most profitable Disney franchises, I had to get my hands on a secondhand copy. Nonetheless, my copy was basically good as new and didn't stop me from enjoying it at all.
The book itself is broken up into various chapters detailing the steps of the movie's creation, including the initial planning stages, the story development and the character and environmental design, all with amazing concept art. We can see how directors Ron Clements and John Musker plotted out the main storyline, where each made lists of potential ideas and then compared and contrasted the two. We also see early design sketches of several of the characters, including some by the directors themselves, because they were once Disney animators, themselves. This is one of the most fascinating things for me. The characters of Hercules have a distinct design that was intentionally done to set them apart from previous Disney heroes and heroines, but the earliest sketches can give the viewer an idea of what Hercules, Megara, and Phil could have looked like if they followed an art style closer to The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.
Strewn throughout the book are rough animation frames of characters (i.e., the actual pencil sketches done by animators prior to cleaned up or being painted) that serve as guides throughout the book. The author sometimes gives them quotes to comment on whatever is being discussed, but it usually comes off as kind of cheesy. Nonetheless, when you see these frames, it makes you step back and realize how much work really goes into creating a single frame. And for somebody who is into hand drawn animation like me, that is incredible.
It's been a little while since I actually sat down and looked all the way through, but regardless, if you can find a copy for cheap and you're interested in animation, this is a neat book to check out.
Hercules (PlayStation)
Before I even got into the Disney's Hercules stuff, I had known about the game for the original Playstation after seeing JonTron talk about it. However, it was only recently I was particularly interested in getting my hands on a copy of it, when I found a copy for about $11 on Amazon when you count shipping. With that, I just couldn't resist.
A lot of times, licensed games based on movies or TV shows are total crap. Some of the only exceptions I can think of are SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, The Simpsons: Hit and Run, and a handful of Star Wars games. However, in this case, I'd say this was a pretty good game. I had fun, andI probably would have even if it wasn't based on a movie I liked.
Almost all of the levels are based on scenes from the movie, beginning with Hercules, training on Phil's island. We then go through levels such as the Centaur's forest, Thebes, a boss battle with the hydra, storming Mount Olympus, and traveling to the underworld and facing off against Hades.
The game itself is largely a side-scrolling platformer, with a handful of segments where you traverse the z-axis. Graphically, it almost reminds me of Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64, as it uses two-dimensional sprites with a three-dimensional background. The sprites themselves are pretty low resolution, but this is not the end of the world for me. There are a number of different moves and power-ups you can use, the types of levels arranged are varied, and the boss battles are varied as well, so you won't get bored doing the same thing over and over again. The controls are pretty responsive and overall, it is pretty fun.
However, there are drawbacks. For one thing, the game makes you jump through hoops just to get the ability to save. Basically, there are four vases hidden in each level and you must get each of them, which allows you to save your progress after completing the level. However, the vases can be hard to find or in some levels, extremely hard to even get to, and there is no indicator as to how many you have gotten. This normally wouldn't be a problem if there weren't things objects in the foreground obscuring your view several times per level. Then again, you may not need to use the save at all, because the game is incredibly short. Once you get the hang of the controls and what to do in each level, you can easily complete the game in the same amount of time it would take just to watch the movie.
In the long run, though, I liked the game. Would had it been worth $50 when it was new? No, but for about $10, it's a good deal to me. But if you have the money, I would definitely recommend the art book, first and foremost. If you like Disney or animation in general, the book gives some insight on the creative process that can go into creating an animated film, and can show how many incarnations everything goes through before the project is finished.
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