Originally posted at the DL December 2015
I've always had some love for this one, and I don't know why. Let's see if we can figure it out by the time we're back from the songs!
The Gospel Truth (I, II, III)- We'll just talk about this like it's a continuous song. Which really means the whole movie has a hella-long intro. And in some ways the next two songs are kinda introductory as well, but at that point it's just "oh hey Act I is longer than you remember it is". SO back to the song. Gospel Truth works wonderfully for the ancient backstory part, it's quite fitting and suits the arthwork presentation thing very well. That they keep using it contributes a lot to the sense that the movie takes forever to start though. I mean, I like the singers, but... might've been better to cut the continuations, or maybe even move them to some other part of the movie to keep the motif? Mmm.
Go the Distance- Y'know, I could swear there was more to this song than using the same basic short version and chorus three times in gradually more upbeat keys. Okay the third iteration (which is marked as "Reprised" on the track listings even) is different but... yeah. The movie is kinda shooting itself in teh foot breaking up the songs like it does, because they keeping coming across as "well we need to sing because otherwise we'd just be doing dialog and nobody would know it was a Disney movie then!"
One Last Hope- Hercules is a lot higher on the cartoon factor than most of its contemporaries, like... just in how its animated and presented. Closer to Looney Tunes than Disney, y'know? And I think letting Danny DeVito sing fits right along with that.
Alternate Comment: Go home Danny you're drunk.
Zero to Hero- Who put the glad in gladiator~
Okay so before this is the major set piece of the film. The animators went full tilt on the hydra fight, which... I mean, it's pretty obvious even without like every interview in existence from the movie's promotion mentioning it. But I think this is really what sells the conceit of the film, the modernity of the ancient setting. Herc isn't just a slayer of monsters, he's a damn superhero, with all the fame and recognition that such a thing would get. The different Labors being referenced of course doubles down on the whole thing, and sorta ties back into why they told the story this way; Herakles WAS basically a mythological rock star. He did what he damn well pleased, everyone knew who he was, every story tried to cram him into it every way they could. He invented the fangirl!*
*Okay probably not but hey.
So this is roughly the point Hades really kicks it up to full throttle in terms of sheer ham. Because we want the entire film to shift from "wow there is so much going wrong here" to "yesssssss" on every front at once.
I Won't Say (I'm in Love)- Damn Meg is fun. Her sheer cynicism works really well with the whole modern ancient thing in the movie, and she's about the only one here really getting good lines and delivery on average. Also apparently the best singer in the cast! Probably not hard I know. So yeah, great, would recommend.
As so often happens, the musical pauses here for plot and stuff.
Predictable as the whole "true hero" thing is, I gotta admit I love the staging of the scene, with the Fates and all.
... yeah that's about all I want to highlight from this bit.
A Star is Born- Man, I wish more of the Disney canon had outros like this. Strongly ties to the introductory song, but is very much "WASN'T THAT AWESOME". I'm always down for saying things I watched were awesome!
But yeah, I think the concept here is quite solid but... there's a pretty huge portion of the movie where it doesn't really UTILIZE it. And I don't think there's... a huge amount to say otherwise.
Rating- 6/10.
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