He is unsure of his own strength, but through the help of his mentor Philoctetes, or Phil for short, he becomes confident and grows into the hero we know and love today. Hercules begins in the Disney film as a shy young teenager. Through Disney’s established pattern of making brutal stories family-friendly, two different legends of Hercules emerge when comparing Disney’s movie adaptation and the original mythology. One of the most prominent examples of this is Disney’s Hercules, in which a bloody Greek myth is turned into a musical and colorful fairytale. This leads many people to consider Disney adaptations as true since it is the only version they see. However, as a result of their changes, Disney presents completely different versions of legends, myths, and even history to its viewers. Credit: Walt Disney Pictures, Hercules, 1997ĭisney changes these stories to make them palatable for their target audience: families.
