Hercules

John Musker and Ron Clements treat Greek myth as raw material, not as a source. Zeus fathers a legitimate child here with Hera as his mother, a change Clements explained by calling the illegitimacy in the original difficult subject matter for a Disney picture. Villainy moved off Hera and onto Hades. The look went to the English cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, who produced over seven hundred character designs and took his reference from Greek vase painting. His sharp angles did not fit the studio house style, so Sue Nichols built charts that made his line repeatable for animators. The odd proportions are a decision, not a slip. The instability is in the pacing. Hades was written as a slow figure who menaces quietly, until James Woods ad libbed much of the dialogue and turned him into a fast talking agent, parking the whole comic load on one performance. Whenever he leaves the frame the storytelling visibly settles, and the fame sequence at the centre of the ninety three minutes sells sandals and toys rather than heroism. Worth it if you accept Woods as the engine and can ride out the flatter stretches without him. Skip it if the run after the training, where the film becomes a merchandising joke instead of a mythic test, would feel wasted.