Film
From the drama of Notre Dame de Paris to the lighter and funnier Hercules, it still manages to maintain a certain solemnity in its themes. After all, there is talk of gods, of monstrous scourges that threaten humanity, of a woman who has made a pact with the king of the underworld, of a man who aspires to become immortal. In short, there was all the material for a Greek tragedy that the Muses manage to lighten up with their Gospel songs and choruses, aided by the strong comic vein that permeates the whole film thanks to the characters of Hades and Phil. The character design adapts to this humorous dimension, preferring to the naturalistic cut of the previous films a more cartoony, angular and caricatured one that pays homage to the vascular paintings of ancient Greece. The Hydra scene deserves a separate mention, made exclusively in CGI, which despite being one of the first integrations between the two techniques stands the test of time very well.
Art
They all represent the ideals of beauty and heroism that Hercules pursues in the film as he tries to gain the longed-for access to Mount Olympus, home of all gods. To become a god again, however, he must prove himself a hero, but he is rather clumsy and awkward. He demonstrates this several times, such as when he destroys the market square (which coincidentally has the same shape as the colonnade of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome), where he goes with his adoptive father Amphitryon. Or when he accidentally detaches the arms from the very famous Venus de Milo, a very famous statue that was already in this condition when it was found on the island of Milos (Greece) in 1820. We still don't know exactly how she lost her arms, but given the uncertainty, we might continue to think that it really was the work of Hercules after all.
The famous temple of Zeus, where Hercules first goes to discover his origins and then to habitually communicate with his father, also really existed: it is the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, built in the Doric style between 472 and 456 B.C. and containing a 13-metre-high chryselephantine statue of the god. Unfortunately, the Statue of Zeus no longer exists, but thanks to the description left by the 2nd century A.D. geographer Pausanias, we know that it was indeed enormous, just as we see it in the film.
Moreover, it is curious to note that both Hercules' childhood home, that of Amphitryon and Alcmenta, and the "Versailles" where he lives after becoming a star, have wall decorations from Akrotiri: in the former we recognise the fresco of the Spring, in the latter that of the Boxer and the Antelopes. A sort of continuity in his life, almost as if to underline an evolution in social status (from outcast to star - from zero to hero) but without betraying his own identity: that of a demigod who is not afraid of his enemies, but who fights against the Hydra of Lerna with the same naivety as a child against snakes.
Besides the Venus de Milo, many statues appear in this animated film, although not all of them date from the period of reference. Firstly, the sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Galleria Borghese in Rome: Apollo and Daphne (1622) and the Rape of Proserpine (1621/22), which serve to emphasise the tormented love of Megara, from which she desperately tries to escape in the song I Won't Say I'm in Love. Hers is a struggle between heart and mind, afraid to surrender to a love that would be sweet if only she had the courage to face and accept it. As sweet as Antonio Canova's 1793 sculpture of the myth of Cupid and Psyche that he encounters on his journey.
But the anachronistic works are not over, because in Philoctetes' house one can also glimpse a copy of Perseus with the head of Medusa made by Benvenuto Cellini between 1545 and 1554, now in Piazza della Signoria in Florence. The wise satyr's collection also includes many artefacts of the heroes he trained and prepared, including an Attic red-figure chalice depicting Theseus against the Minotaur: dating back to 480 B.C., this artefact actually exists and is preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Bologna.
Balancing the historical context are the Muses turning into caryatids, quoting the columns of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. In this way, they remind us that the film is set in Greece, aided in their intent by the Farnese Atlas (now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples) from the 2nd century A.D. and the Sphinx of Naxos from 585 B.C. preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.
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