The fact that Hercules is a wide-eyed, ginger-haired boy who does four rather than 12 tasks doesn't seem to bother them at all.

Nor did they expect the Herculean legend not to be reinterpreted. The Greeks never expected Disney not to be inventive. 'My teacher said Theseus did.' His teacher is right. 'Heracles never did that, he never killed the minotaur,' screamed one 6-year-old, who spent much of his time hissing in disgust during one afternoon performance. Instead of laughing, Mickey's 'Hercules' has got Greeks as young as four throwing popcorn at the screen in fits of rage. To a man, it would seem, the epic, feature-length cartoon has touched a raw nerve. Not since the furor over Martin Scorsese's 'Last Temptation Of Christ,' when protesters burned theaters, has a film ignited such indignation. What it had always was history and legends and they have just been hideously ridiculed by Hollywood,' snapped the prominent commentator Vangelis Migdalis. 'Modern Greece never had much, it never had wealth or colonies. The refrain echoed by cultural pundits, academics, doting parents and government officials is the same: Hollywood has abused and distorted a great Greek myth, pillaging European culture in the name of profit. The Greeks are anything but amused at what it has done to their favorite ancient hero.

But in the country that gave birth to the gods, Disney still has a very long way to go. And on the eve of the Athenian screening explanatory booklets outlining the real myth were distributed by the thousand, declaring 'This film is not a lesson in mythology.'Īfter French fury over 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame,' Hollywood had clearly taken some pains to show it had learned its lesson. Walt Disney was quick to say that in Greece, at least, it wouldn't be taking any chances with 'Hercules.'įirstly the Mouse's latest offering was given a new name: 'Beyond the Myth of Heracles,' which not only Hellenized the hero's name back from its later Roman equivalent but, more important, put the story behind the story into context.In the Greek voice-over, translators of the English script, headed by Lakis Lazopoulos, were also given a free hand.

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