Hercules: Disney’s Westernization of Culture
A young woman, beautiful and perhaps perfect in appearance, finds herself in a troubling situation. During her stroll through the forest, she was captured by a centaur. This centaur Nessus, keeps a strong grasp on the woman. A traveling hero encounters the struggle, defeating the beast. This hero is Hercules, perfect in every way, and sways the woman’s heart without her realization. As time goes on, the woman realizes Hercules is too perfect, regretting her choice. A human without realistic flaws is not human at all. The differences between Disney’s film Hercules and the original myth, Heracles, exhibit the effects of westernization in themes of family, idolization, and character. Family is in
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Hercules is trying to overcome the monsters brought to him by Hades, which establishes his place as a Greek hero. Hades in never included in the myth, Heracles is assigned his tasks by the Eurystheus King of Mycenai. These tasks, called the Twelve Labors of Heracles, took place over a decade of Heracles’s life. These tasks, and those handful afterwards, earned his immortality and fame. Hercules, taken in by an elderly farm couple, earns the mindset he has to become a father after interacting with his father. His only goal is to become a hero, doing anything he must to achieve this. There is a term for characters similar to Hercules, “Mary Sue” for females, and “Gary Stu”. This term describes a character with minuscule flaws or no flaws at all. Hercule’s flaw was that he was reckless, Heracles had to face the consequences of murder. Although Heracles had been under Hera’s influence to do this act, he possessed the rage to do it on his own will. Heracles presented a very human character, who was capable of doing good and bad. Disney gave us a character who could only do good, forcing the audience to like him without a reason not to. The perfection of a character leads to less people questioning the actions of that character. It is common and seen throughout various pieces of