Mr. Kyle Evans at Canned Geek has an interestingly dark take on Disney’s Hercules (a film which was kind of a mess, but kooky and enjoyable). He finds the film to be quite the parental tragedy:
…Yet for all that Hercules goes through – both physical and mental – I argue that the characters who suffer the most hardship in the entire film are Hercules parents, Zeus and Hera…
…The idea that these parents are separated from their child, yet can look upon him from Mount Olympus as though through a one-way mirror is just heartbreaking. For eighteen years Zeus and Hera can see their son, but they can’t interact with him. Young Hercules doesn’t even know who his real parents are…
…There is no happy ending for Zeus and Hera. They lose their son, watch him grow up for eighteen years, are teased with the prospect of being re-united and finally are rejected by their son. That would have to hurt.
Still, it could have been worse. There’s definitely some weird, unaddressed melancholia in Hercules, e.g. the surprisingly accurate depiction of the Ancient Greek concept of the afterlife.
Click below to read Mr. Evan’s full article, which also includes ruminations on parental figures in other films directed by Musker and Clements.
The Tragedy of Hercules > Catena Ex Situ
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it was very sad that the son they had waited all those years for decided to join his lover. i feel like that will happen to me with my kid (who will be born on May 15th 2010) my ex married another man but the kid is mine and i don’t want to feel like Hercules’s parent’s as they had to watch the child grow up with another family (we live in the same town close 2 each other). I agree that they could have put that dark part in the movie to show kids that not all is good, even in good situations. the bad guy was dead and everyone was celebrating, except the parents who would never be able to hug their own child.
Whoa this particular help is definitely fantastic it truly aided me and also my children, cheers!
Wow, this is really old, but…
You have to take into account that they are GODS. Gods who will live for eternity – 18 years is nothing but a blink of an eye to them.
Wouldn’t it, in fact, be more hard on hercules, as, after the movie, he becomes a god, and therefore immortal, and watches as his family (back on earth) grows old and dies, from heaven?