Trivia / Hercules

• Actor-Inspired Element: The film's interpretation of Hades as a fast-talking schmoozer was entirely of James Woods' creation. According to him, he was the only actor who didn't audition with some variation on a deep, threatening voice and his decision to just do something fun was what won the directors over.
  James Woods: I guess everybody came in going "Hellooooo, I'm Hadeeees", and I came in going "Hey, Hades, how ya doin'? Nice to see ya, nice face," y'know? (laughs) For some reason, I was just feeling kinda silly that day.
• The Cast Show Off:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Hercules was voiced by Ricky Martin, and Megara by 90's Televisa superstar Tatiana Chapas. Both of them dubbed their characters' singing and speaking parts.
  • In the European Spanish dub, Jordi Vila provided both the singing and dialogue voices of Phil with Vila being an accomplished singer, e.g. the first opening of Dragon Ball.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the Japanese dub, Hercules is voiced by Tokio drummer Masahiro Matsuoka and Meg is voiced by actress/singer Shizuka Kudoh.
  • The Brazilian dub had Meg voiced by Renata Lima, a former model who had quite a few acting roles in the 90s.
  • Popular Greek singer Evridiki Theokleous (usually credited just as Eurydice) dubbed Megara's singing lines in the Greek dub, and Phil and Panic are voiced by famous stand-up comedian Lakis Lazopoulos.
• Creator's Favorite: James Woods has cited Hades as his absolute favorite role ever, so much so that he leaps at the opportunity to reprise the role in any future Disney projects which include the character. This includes the Hercules animated series, House of Mouse movies, the Kingdom Hearts video games, and even some theme park bumpers in Disneyland. It's doubtless the reason that Hades and the world of Hercules appears quite frequently in crossovers, despite the film only having average success.
• Cut Song: Hercules had a ballad called "Shooting Star" (which was featured in the UK version of the soundtrack performed by Irish boy band Boyzone), and there was an alternate, slower song for Meg called "I Can't Believe My Heart" (performed live here by Susan Egan).
• The Danza: In the Greek dub, Kalliopi Evangelidou voices Calliope the muse.^note The transliteration "Kalliopi" is a more modern version that reflects pronunciation changes, but it's still fundamentally the same name and it's spelled the same way in Greek.
• Irony as She Is Cast: In the brief Off Broadway production, Hades was played by Roger Bart, the man who sang for Young Hercules in the original film.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's had different Happy Meal tie-ins depending on the region;
  • In 1997, a set of ten figures were sold in the US, each one paired with a Titan. These consisted of Hercules and the Hydra, Meg and Pegasus, Phil and Nessus, Baby Pegasus and the Lava Titan, Hades and Cerberus, Pain and the Cyclops, Panic and the Fates, Zeus and the Rock Titan, Hermes and the Wind Titan, and Calliope and the Ice Titan.
  • Europe had a set of six figures in 1997; Hercules, Meg, Phil, Pegasus, Hades with Pain and Panic, and the Hydra.
  • Asia had four of the toys from the US set; Hercules and the Hydra, Meg and Pegasus, Phil and Nessus, and Zeus and the Rock Titan.
  • In 1998, a set of eight sports toys and a set of six collectible plates were released in the US as a tie-in with the film's VHS release. The plates featured Hercules, Meg, Phil, Pegasus, Zeus, and the Muses.
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • Roger Bart sings for Young Hercules. Josh Keaton explained that due to his voice changing, and the fact that he has more experience singing pop than Broadway, he couldn't hold the last note of "Go the Distance (reprise)" for as long as the writers hoped.
  • As in the Spanish dub, young Hercules and Megara were not voiced by their respective actors in the songs, with Ferran González as Herc and Celia Vergara as Meg dubbing their songs. Also, Mercedes Montalá who voices Muse leader Calliope was replaced by Susan Martin in the songs. Phil and the rest of the Muses avert this by having their actors doing both dialogued and singing voices, though the Muses in the TV Series did have their own dialogue voices and singing voices.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: John Musker and Ron Clements only agreed to do this film because then-studio head Jeffery Katzenberg promised that they'd be allowed to make Treasure Planet if they did (Katzenberg was gone from the studio by the time this movie was released, but Disney still held up their end of the bargain).
• The Other Darrin: Not so much in the film than in the video game. Zeus' lines were all rerecorded by Corey Burton, including his original lines for the Continue screen. Hades even has one of Keith David's lines as Apollo used as part of one of his voice clips.
• The Other Marty: John Lithgow recorded lines for Hades but was dismissed when Disney realized he didn't fit the role.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Non-acting example: The art director was political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, typically known for his grotesque, nightmarish caricatures and for directing much of Pink Floyd's Surreal Horror concert animations (including the animated segments in the film adaptation of The Wall).
  • And another one: Disney veteran Andreas Deja was asked to animate Hades, but he feared that animating another villain (he'd already done a considerable streak of famed villains, animating Gaston, Jafar and Scar one after the other) would be too easy and obvious. So, to challenge himself, he asked to animate a hero instead and was given the job of animating Hercules himself.
  • In the Latin-American dub, Tatiana, a Excited Kids' Show Host and Friend to All Children, playing the role of sarcastic and cynical Megara..
• Short Run in Peru: Unlike the theatrical release, Hercules was released on VHS in Japan on January 23, 1998, which was 11 days before the North American VHS release.
• So My Kids Can Watch: The reason both Danny DeVito and James Woods joined the cast. Woods enjoyed playing Hades so much he agreed to play the voice for any future Disney animation or video game projects; it doesn't matter what the pay is, he just can't get enough of playing Hades.
• Throw It In!: Meg's line "Thanks for everything, Herc, it's been a real slice" was the last line of Susan Egan's audition reading. After two days of trying, they still couldn't get a take of that line that they liked better than her audition read, so they wrote special software to take the New York City street sounds out of her actual audition tape and put it in the movie. That audition reading is what you hear in the final film.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Write Who You Hate: While the inspiration for the design of Hades was never made clear an interview with co-directors John Musker and Ron Clements and character animator Eric Goldberg do mention that his chant "Guys, guys, listen to me" is inspired by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who left the company following a tenuous stay under Michael Eisner.^note Amongst Katzenberg's acts, he had nearly cut "Part of Your World" out of The Little Mermaid, forced everyone to work overtime on Beauty and the Beast (though in his defense, he forced it due to the news that Howard Ashman, the film's composer, was on his deathbed and wanted it done before he passed), disregarded Robin Williams wishes on Aladdin regarding him voicing the Genie, put greater faith in Pocahontas while dismissing The Lion King (1994) as a one-off, and, most infamously, ordered Toy Story be "edgy and cynical" to the point that PIXAR followed their directions to a tee and brought a disastrous test screening that nearly destroyed the film. The final straw, however, was Katzenberg demanding the position of the late VP Frank Wells, who died in a helicopter crash in 1994, when Wells was a close friend of Eisner and often had to mediate the spats between the two men.

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