Sam is trying to track down the perfect gift for her father Walter's fortieth birthday. At the same time, Wishbone is trying to recover a bone that was stolen from him by a Dobermann named Bruno. All the while, Wishbone imagines himself as Hercules questing for the golden apples.
This is one of four episodes that adapt a story from Classical Mythology. The others are "Homer Sweet Homer" (The Odyssey), "The Entrepawneur" (the King Midas story from The Metamorphoses), and "The Roamin' Nose" (The Aeneid). "Hercules Unleashed" is the only one of these to cite the myth without reference to any ancient literary source.
This episode predates Disney's Hercules by less than two years.
Tropes
- Adapted Out:
- No mention is made of Hera, leaving King Eurystheus to fill the villain role by himself.
- The episode doesn't include Antaeus, whom Hercules defeated during the golden apples labor.
- Atlas Pose: This episode features the Trope Namer, and yes, this is how he's portrayed holding up the world.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Or at least Hercules and Atlas can. Trying to reconcile Greek mythology with modern astronomy can yield some weird results.
- Birthday Episode: The real-life story centers on Walter's fortieth birthday.Sam: Why do people make such a big deal about turning forty?
Walter: 'Cause when you turn forty, you're over the hill. You're old.
Sam: Well, you're not... old.
Walter: That's 'cause I'm not forty yet. That happens tomorrow. - Bowdlerize:
- It's only explained that the twelve labors are "a punishment for angering the gods," leaving out the non-kid-friendly thing Hercules did to anger them.
- Prometheus is just chained up, leaving out the more graphic part of his punishment, i.e. the eagle that continuously eats his liver. It probably would have been beyond Wishbone's effects budget anyway.
- Call-Back: Wishbone runs into Mrs. Hernandez from "The Slobbery Hound," and her home is once again a site of doggie destruction. In an aversion of Aesop Amnesia, she notes that she knows better than to blame Wishbone this time.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Wishbone's narration refers to the story as "Hercules and the Golden Apples."
- Compressed Adaptation: Variation. While the episode covers most of what happens during the quest for the golden apples, that story is itself just one of the twelve labors of Hercules. The episode acknowledges this, with the previous labor (the one with Geryon's cattle) being mentioned in passing by King Eurystheus.
- "Eureka!" Moment: King Eurystheus is trying to think of a task that will get rid of Hercules permanently. Copreus suggests sending Hercules after the golden apples.King Eurystheus: The golden apples? No one knows where they are! [realizes] The golden apples... no one knows where they are!
- Impossible Task: King Eurystheus has been trying and failing to come up with tasks that Hercules can't achieve.
- Jerkass Gods: It's mentioned that Zeus chained up Prometheus for giving fire to mortals. Despite the fact that Zeus is his father, Hercules frees Prometheus in a case of Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
- Meaningful Gift: This is the sort of gift Sam thinks she ought to get for her father on such a momentous milestone as his fortieth birthday. She eventually manages to track down a lost photo from a fishing trip that he went on years ago with Joe's dad.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a reference to the film Hercules Unchained.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Hercules is meant to hold Nereus as he transforms, but that's pretty hard to portray when your Hercules is a Jack Russell Terrier. Instead, Wishbone as Hercules proves himself by refusing to be driven away when Nereus transforms.
- The Quest: The theme that runs through the three storylines in this episode. Sam quests for the perfect gift, Wishbone as himself quests for his stolen bone, and Wishbone as Hercules quests for the golden apples.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Not counting what's already mentioned under Adapted Out and Bowdlerize:
- He's called "Hercules" instead of "Heracles," even though everyone else is going by their Greek name. But frankly, this one is so ubiquitous that it would be weird if they didn't include it.
- In the original myth, Hercules is initially assigned ten labors, and it's only after completing the tenth labor that he finds out that he needs to do two make-up labors. At the start of the episode, Wishbone as Hercules is already expecting to be given another labor, even though the quest for the golden apples is the first of the make-up labors.
- In the episode, King Eurystheus intends to give the golden apples to his daughter as a wedding gift, which ties into the real-world plot of Sam seeking a present for her father. The episode gives every implication that this will happen, but in the original myth, the gods didn't actually allow Eurystheus to keep the golden apples, and Athena returned them to the garden soon afterwards.
- The dialogue between Hercules and Prometheus implies that they already know each other and that Prometheus getting chained up is something that has happened since the last time they met. In the actual mythology, this happened to Prometheus during the creation of the world, long before Hercules was even born. Presumably, the dialogue was written this way so that the situation could be explained without anyone lapsing into As You Know.
- As usual, Atlas is portrayed as holding up the world instead of the sky.
- After retrieving the golden apples, Hercules triumphantly bids farewell to Eurystheus, implying that this was the last of the twelve labors. In fact, this is the eleventh labor, so Hercules still has one more to go.
- This Cannot Be!: The reaction of King Eurystheus when he hears that Hercules has returned with the golden apples.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: As in the original myths, King Eurystheus sends Hercules on supposedly impossible assignments in the hopes of getting rid of him.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: It's never mentioned that Hercules and Eurystheus are cousins. The episode also features both Prometheus and Atlas without ever mentioning that they're brothers.
