Hercule et Xena: Le film d'animation - La bataille du mont Olympe

Sam Raimi's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) of the same year has left fond memories for many small screen audiences. Kevin Sorbo had a way of being a very macho convincing Hercules, while Lucy Lawless gave something for nerds to drool at. Both series combined action, wit, likable characters and story lines that reeled in fans. Interestingly enough, some people aren't familiar that Universal Studios released an animated cartoon feature of these two famous characters. And compared to many other animated features that have been released, it does have its flaws but it still is fun.

The title, (although a mouthful) explains itself. Xena and Hercules will battle for Mount Olympus. Simple as that. Just like Disney's Hercules (1997), the four elemental titans attack the Immortal Gods and its up to Earth's mightiest heroes to fend them off. However, what differs is that John Loy (the writer) was smart and stuck to Sam Raimi's story line where Hera (Hercules' immortal mother) is the one who unleashes the titans. Why - because Hera hates Hercules - not Hades. Hades minds his own business in this film.

Thankfully, along with the writing, the actors who play the characters in the live-action series came back to voice their cartoon counterparts as well. That's a very good thing. Imagine if the studio hired new actors to voice the characters. That wouldn't be wise. And because the actors are playing their respective characters, the dialog comes naturally making the listening experience easy as well. This also helps make the comical scenes funny too. Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Michael Hurst (Iolaus) and Kevin Smith (Ares) carry much of those parts. Even Lucy Lawless (Xena) has some rather unconventionally funny scenes.

The last couple of parts that help make the watching experience enjoyable were the action and music. The title doesn't lie, there is plenty of battle moments in this movie. And for a PG film, it has some tense moments. Either way that's effective. And since this is a Raimi production, composer Joseph LoDuca should be expected to be on board - which he was and his score is effective for each scene. But here's where some people may be turned off. First, this animated feature also contains musical numbers sung in the intro, by Xena, and even the titans. Since this isn't a Disney production it may seem avant garde, considering the TV series didn't have musical numbers.

Also some viewers may not appreciate the animation. At points it can look choppy even though the action scenes are exceptionally good. The main characters are drawn appropriately but it also seems like that's the only other place all the effort that was put into. Everything else from the background pieces to the minor characters weren't given much attention. Some characters from head to toe are one full color. That can come off as cheap and lazy. The dimensions of this world are very flat and too squared off in some areas. Along with that are some very strange flaws in continuity. It's not always obvious, but when noticed, it is baffling. It really depends on the opinion of the viewer and what you're interested in seeing.

For the most part, fans of the Hercules and Xena TV series should enjoy this animated feature. It's animation certainly isn't as polished like Disney's but the voice cast makes it work along with some fun action and music.

I'm not saying it's devoid of good points - the original cast members furnish their characters' voices; it's only 76 minutes long; and lots of Joseph LoDuca's unoriginal but rousing music from the two shows is tracked in as underscore.

But that's it.

John Loy's script completely misses the spirit of the live-action shows (tellingly, he never wrote for either "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" or "Xena: Warrior Princess"); the inclusion of three (bad) songs is pointless and irritating, especially the one sung by the Titans; and the animation is, quite simply, appalling - from the giant sea creature that keeps changing colour during the opening battle with Hercules to draughtsmanship that achieves the remarkable feat of making Gabrielle look ugly (when she hasn't been turned into an eagle... poor Renee O'Connor. Then again, she gets the least dialogue in the bad script), this is cheap animation without any of the charm that other cheapskate cartoons can have.

Not that the Disney version of "Hercules" didn't have any flaws of its own, but it's streets ahead of this one in all respects; if the parent shows were as bad as this one (and some people say they are), they would have been about as successful as "The Adventures of Sinbad."

Animation offers the opportunity for film makers to throw off the constraints of live action and produce creative, intelligent and original work. See the Simpsons and The Iron Giant for examples.

That opportunity has been badly squandered here. The bursts of genuine genius and joi de vive that typify the live action originals are gone. Instead we are left with a mediocre slog that would have been tiresome without the breathtakingly appalling animation that makes "He-Man" look cutting edge.

Who did the animation for this movie? A Kindergarden class? The background was done in like two colours the entire movie! And the two colours were poorly used as well. I was very disappointed with this film.

Fantasy, musical, comedy, action adventure. It had to happen for sure, because the audience probably asked for it, namely to make another joint adventure of Hercules and Xena from both series, and the creators took such a step, releasing this full-length cartoon between seasons, which I could not miss, since I watched the series "Xena - the Queen of Warriors" only recently, and I also fell in love with him (despite a whole bunch of problems). I didn't watch The Amazing Wanderings of Hercules, but I still got a little bit of pleasure from watching the cartoon, though not much. And here's my brief opinion for you - A boring adventure of your favorite characters. In this cartoon there were both pros and cons, which must be said. And this should be the end of this introduction, and get to the point.

So, the pros: 1. Classical animation - how tired I am of three-dimensional cartoons (even to the point of nausea) that when I see a classic two-dimensional animation, my heart rejoices, because I do not get tired of repeating "Even the cheapest two-dimensional animation will look stylish than the most expensive three-dimensional, because the latter requires a lot of money just in fact." The main characters are drawn and animated just fine (especially Xena and Hercules), and the Titans are good (especially their underlined forms, if you know what I mean). And the combat episodes are definitely pleasing to the eye. I don't know for the experience of animators, but in general I even want to praise them a little. Although of all the characters, Xena is more memorable (maybe the series is to blame for this, who knows).

2. Humor - the local humor matches the serial, quite pleasant, witty, with a couple of memorable moments. Although there are not enough stars from the sky. You can laugh.

So, the cons: 1. Backdrops - and here the animators can be scolded, because no one really bothered about this moment, or maybe it was a matter of budget scarcity (and so it most likely was). The backdrops here are just canvases of different colors (except for the house of Hercules' mother). Olympus is not a stronghold that should inspire awe and fear to anyone who wants to look at it. Trees, bushes, rocks - everything is just marked.

2. The script - it resembles just another series of two desired series with a simple plot, a good middle, a good final battle and a logical conclusion with a hint of continuation (but in the form of the desired series). The characters are familiar, although the animation of some Olympians makes the audience twist their fingers at the temple. Especially unlike his serial prototype Ares, I'm not talking about Zeus or Hera. Only Xena, Gabriel, Hercules, and Iolaus look like themselves. Well, Artemis and Aphrodite also resemble their images. Plus, many moments in conversations will be appreciated only by fans of both series, and for the rest they will be incomprehensible.

3. Russian voice-over translation - and both. And in general, the translation is not bad, only the names and accents are not placed at all where it is required. For example, Gabriel in the first translation of Xena calls for some reason "Gabriella". So also the translation was made clearly on enthusiasm. Therefore, I highly recommend watching this cartoon in English, given that the serial actors voiced their characters here.

4. Boredom - despite the rather small timing (one hour and sixteen minutes), the cartoon is boring to watch. The viewer wakes up only at the moments of fights with Xena or Hercules, and humorous moments. Yes, there were also boring episodes in the series "Xena - the Warrior Queen", but to make a full-length cartoon boring? Seriously? What did the creators expect? Were you hoping to leave on the success of both series and that popularity? And here we missed, we made a mistake. Critics and viewers have blasted this cartoon.

5. Boring songs - I singled them out separately, because this cartoon is also a musical, and in it the characters sing and sing boring. It seems that the composer wrote lullaby compositions, and not music for a fantasy comedy adventure thriller. Joseph Loduka will be unlucky for you.

It can be rightfully stated that the animation experiment of the creators of the cult series "The Amazing Wanderings of Hercules" and "Xena - the Warrior Queen" failed miserably. We did it for the fans, and we got it from them, and the rest of the audience were, to put it mildly, dissatisfied.

My rating is 5 out of 10. About the recommendation - see for yourself!