Hercules analysis

Here, I'm analysing one of my favourite Disney films - Hercules. Not only am I moved by the incredible music, but I love the narrative and the character arcs of not only Hercules but other characters like Meg.

Something I found very interesting in my studies of 3D character animation is how much we look at other styles for inspiration. Be it stop motion, real life acting or 2D animation.

I chose this scene to analyse because there is an incredibly amount of emotion and interesting shapes that illustrate the feeling of the moment. Hercules is a great film for artistic shapes as I think it tries to imitate that of ancient Greek's beautiful art.

The first shot we see Hercules and Pegasus franticly flying towards a dying Meg. There is a slight over shoot as Pegasus propels himself forward, which helps that feeling of rushing. Even though they are in a hurry there is still a lovely trails that they follow and nice curved shape as Pegasus lands. His feet are also offset.

As he's in a hurry, Pegasus overshoots upwards to demonstrate the feeling of weight that's suddenly coming to a halt. Hercules doesn't wait 'til Pegasus is fully on the ground and leaps off him, propelling forward. All these factors demonstrates how frantic and distressing this is for Hercules.

As he approaches Meg, his arms are wide open, displaying his feelings of forlorn and shock. I like this because usually we associate sadness with being quite closed but as Hercules is going through a range of emotions, we first see him totally distressed and shocked at what has happened. Before of course, we have a overshoot as he dips into a tight and heart breaking grasp for Meg. He pulls her close into a classic sad compressed shape.

In a close up shot he can barely hold up straight, he sighs deeply before compressing even more into Meg, again showing how the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

My favourite scene is this next one where the characters are tucked in the corner of the shot, and darkness of the scene surrounds them. I thought this was a very artistic way of showing how alone and dark it feels for Hercules too have lost the love of his life. All the space around him as he holds Meg feels suffocating and thick. Focusing on the the background in particular. We see bits of broken buildings and the edge of the cliff. All symbols of how - his world has crumbled and that his patience has well and truly run out.

Even Pegasus displays a miserable low hanging pose where he isn't even looking in the direction of Hercules and Meg as he sulks - possibly feeling like a failure for not being quick enough or that he feels Hercules' sadness and mourns Meg as well.

Hercules goes into an ultra compressed pose where his arms are folded and his head tucked away. He is physically and metaphorically going in on himself. He hold this position while Philoctetes shows some great animation where he's reacting to Meg's dead body.

He takes a tall pose to show he's holding his breathe - also showing how he too is trying to be strong, but the moment is just so sad. He releases his breathe, condensing into his sad pose. His shoulders are forward, his head is sunk. He slowly talks his piece while holding his face, giving himself some form of comfort. There's a fast overshoot into his final pose which give's this animation some variety and interest - regardless of how sad it is.

Finally, in a tight close up of Hercules' face. He has had an intense emotional shift. He is past his cocktail of dreary feelings. This extreme close up tells us that things have just gotten personal. He is ready to take control of the situation.