DVDizzy Forum

1. Gold Collection DVD
2. Japanese VHS ~ I like the Mt. Olympus cloud backgrounds over what’s used for the background on the Blu-ray.
3. Heroes Cover
4. Blu-ray ~ I like how they re-drew/re-created Panic and Pain's pose from the movie when they reveal themselves to Megara after she escapes Nessus. Disney must be determined to have Pain & Panic on the covers for some reason (merchandise?), because they're almost always included, even when Hades himself isn't there. I wouldn't have thought they were that popular...
5. Limited Issue DVD / American VHS ~ I always hated this cover growing up. It looks so cheap / McDonald’s.
6. UK VHS ~ I like most of the individual images, but the overall thing leaves something to be desired. I'm not sure what's going on with Hades' left hand. That clip art doesn't have his arm directed that way, so they must've cut the other arm and turned it around or something. The thumb is missing or in the wrong place, I can't tell which?
7. Villains Cover

DisneyBluLife wrote:Swedish VHS (More countries, for example the Netherlands got this cover too)
http://osc.boavideo.com/product_info.ph ... s_id=16002

https://www.catawiki.com/catalog/dvd-vi ... 9-hercules

I think the arrangement here is better than the UK VHS cover for bringing all the characters forward, although I prefer the UK's images for Megara and Hercules, tbh. But seeing the back cover to this reminds me what a shame it is the Muses and Titans aren't involved in any of the front covers. The Muses, especially, could be congregated around the logo.

Hercules
1. Blu-ray - The best composition.
2. Limited Issue DVD - I also love this composition and the action of Hercules.
3. UK VHS - Just the next best one.
4. Gold Collection - Just like JeanGreyForever, I hate how Hercules is huge and everyone else is small.
5. Heroes
6. Japanese VHS - I hate that thye gave it a huge border.
7. Villains

-Japanese VHS is the best one...but not by far from...
-Limited Issue DVD I´d find the best but the Japanese VHS just looks better put together.
-Steelbook. There´s just something about Hercules´ face that´s off. I get he´s struggling with the lighting and it´s not that bad. But still something there doesn´t click for me. Or it would have been better.
-Gold Collection isn´t bad if it was: just Hercules or with the rest of the characters except him reprise (doesn´t make any sense).
-Blu Ray...if it didn´t have Pain and Panic. Why? They´re the villain´s sidekicks. Why would they be there?
-Villains Cover and would have been better if they had chosen a nicer artwork for Hades. It´s not bad but could have been better.
-Heroes Cover. A step below from the Aladdin´s Hero Cover. Overall it´s pretty good. But what´s with that line under his eye? Looks AWFUL.
-The Sweedish DVD was the same as the Spanish VHS/DVD. Pretty bad. Both Hercules and Hades look very off model. And there are many characters and the composition is bad..

It took years for me to fall in love with this film. Only a few years ago did I start to appreciate the bold art style which at first I found unappealing. And though I still wish some of the characters were a tad less cartoony looking (Thebes folks for example) I've come to really fall in love with its unique angular design, and the backdrops are gorgeous! It speaks volumes of the background artists talent that they can shift from the familiar Disney style that preceded Hercules in the previous 6 or 7 films to an almost completely new style and with such great success.

So...my rankings:

US VHS/Limited Issue - cool layout, love the pointy clouds.
UK VHS - almost as good as US one. Nice!
Blu ray - not much to say. It's nice.
Villains cover - ok, better than the other villains cover.
Heroes cover - ditto.

Gold collection is horrendous...

blackcauldron85 wrote:I like that the UK video has both Einstein and Winston, so that's my favorite, but they all are pretty good!

So, I just posted in the O&Co thread, answering a question, and had a flashback to this post-- Francis, not Winston!!! I think my subconscious has always thought Winston is a better name for a dog, Francis for a Butler!! Ooosypoopsy!!

And for some reason I'm not crazy about any of the Hercules covers, but the Blu is my favorite. I don't know what I would want in a cover...something, somehow, more epic, even though it's a comedy mostly...it has its epic moments...

blackcauldron85 wrote: And for some reason I'm not crazy about any of the Hercules covers, but the Blu is my favorite. I don't know what I would want in a cover...something, somehow, more epic, even though it's a comedy mostly...it has its epic moments...

I agree. It may be more comedic than most Disney films, but it's not all comedy like The Emperor's New Groove or The Sword in the Stone. It's more in Aladdin's vein, where it's half-and-half, more of a dramedy. I mean, the main love interest dies in this movie after being crushed by a pillar...

I'd like a flying shot of Hercules on Pegasus holding his sword out and blue sky/white clouds behind, maybe Megara hanging onto his waist, perhaps with some small view of the ground where various monsters are looking up at them from below (the Hydra here, the Titans there, the Cyclops, etc.). Hades could be flying in his own carriage in the distance somewhere above and behind them, and Mt. Olympus could be in the far distance. Then a black oval logo box--essentially the same colors as the opening scene with the Muses in their oval on Hercules' vase (the little zig zag lines on the vase below would be a good border)--at the top with the Muses lined atop the box (similar to the way villains are often put up there on many covers).

blackcauldron85 wrote:So, I just posted in the O&Co thread, answering a question, and had a flashback to this post-- Francis, not Winston!!! I think my subconscious has always thought Winston is a better name for a dog, Francis for a Butler!! Ooosypoopsy!!

So when you pointed out Winston as a favorite character of yours from O & Co., did you mean Franics? That's who I thought you meant, too, because the butler was just ok in my opinion. Also, did you get oopsy poopsy from Family Guy?

First, and before I forget... UniversALLove.... you posted the link for Eric Heintz's website... let's hope he doesn't look at this thread. We have NOT been kind to his artwork (and SOME of it looks really good... but we haven't hit those movies yet).

So on to Hercules... I like this movie. It's a shame they don't really know what to do for the covers. They are all mediocre or worse. Heck, Pocahontas and Hunchback had a better selection! The one general plus, it that the characters are a little more on model on these covers.

So here we go!

1) Limited dvd/US VHS: I must admit this one is kind of a tie with the UK VHS. I'm giving it extra points for the dynamic poses, and the characters are pretty on-model. But there are two main elements that really work for me here: 1) the color of the sky. That tone of blue just SCREAMS Greece to me. Greece is famous in real life for their specific color of the sky. 2) The overall design. Hercules (the movie) has a lot of swirl motifs in it's look... and all the elements here create a swirl...Herc's cape to pegasus, to the clouds, to Phil, to Herc's arms, to the sword. The minuses: like others have mentioned before, meg's dress is way too dark/saturated, and those random curls on her side make no sense... and Hades looks like an afterthought. But I guess they couldn't just leave the space empty.

2) UK VHS: I had never seen this one before! The layout is a little bland, but the characters look very well drawn here. The rendering could be a tad better... and Meg's linework doesn't show enough. But pretty good overall. And I like the bolt-oval for the title. The BIG MINUS: the villains above the title. In this case, it makes it look cheap.... like they were drawn for the cover for the tv series.

3) Blu ray: So the characters are recycled from the Japanese vhs. Fairly well drawn, SUPER BLAND POSES, the rendering is a little lazy... the perspective with the background is very strange. So we are looking at the market from above... but at the characters at-level.... so.... what are the characters standing on? A hill in front of the market?? And what is that white house in the background? Is that supposed to be Herc's villa?? I'm ranking this one above the Japanese VHS cause there is an attempt at a background...

4) Japanese VHS: I can't tell if the characters are well drawn... but the composition is extremely bland. The characters are just... standing there. The blue frame is just a waste of space here (IMO)... this isn't a solemn movie... a frame is a little too high brow for this one.

5) Heroes cover: Passable. This is traced from a frame in the movie, but they modified the hands. Does Herc ever do any sort of bodybuilding pose during the film?? This kinda looks like he is showing off. Fairly well rendered, but they messed up the wrinkle under his eye. It's supposed to be the cheek pushing up, not bags under his eye.

6) Villains cover: Pretty good drawing... I find the concept of a lone villain on a cover to be misguided, but it is what it is. Sad that they forgot to give him one more upper tooth. His gums just goes up into his lip... there should be another visible tooth there, even if it's from the side.

7) Gold Collection: ugh. that huge Hercules head looks awful. The anatomy of his arm is way off. If they wanted to make a bold statement and have a large Herc head.... fine. But commit! Don't slap a bunch of other crap on/around him. The characters on Pegasus is a weird idea... specially the inclusion of Pain and Panic (can you imagine a cover for Mermaid where the eels are depicted as part of her gang???). The market in the background is completely random.

Swedish VHS: yes! One worse than the Gold Collection! Meg and Phil look pretty good... the rendering is a little sloppy. BUT HERCULES LOOKS HORRENDOUS. I don't know WHO okayed this cover....

Some have commented/asked about Pain and Panic being over exposed... and they are/were. I guess Disney had this idea that sidekicks sell well... so they shoehorned a lot of small characters into every movie, where they weren't needed and were often irritating... Pain and Panic, Mushu, Cricket, Meeko, Pecy, Flit...THREE gargoyles (I think Hunchback would have been a better film with ONE gargoyle that wasn't just comic relief). And most of them weren't popular... maybe Mushu at best (though I have serious issues w him as a character). Hercules was coming at a time where the Disney formula.... was starting to FEEL formulaic. I still like the film, but certain choices in it aren't really organic to the story. Oh well.

Yes, the White house in background of Blu-ray cover is Hercules' Earth parents house during the Zero to Hero song.

I want this image in the article to be a cover art for the movie:
https://www.playbill.com/article/stage- ... -delacorte

Marce82 wrote:...(can you imagine a cover for Mermaid where the eels are depicted as part of her gang???).

OH MY GOD!

Disney's Divinity wrote:I'd like a flying shot of Hercules on Pegasus holding his sword out and blue sky/white clouds behind, maybe Megara hanging onto his waist, perhaps with some small view of the ground where various monsters are looking up at them from below (the Hydra here, the Titans there, the Cyclops, etc.). Hades could be flying in his own carriage in the distance somewhere above and behind them, and Mt. Olympus could be in the far distance. Then a black oval logo box--essentially the same colors as the opening scene with the Muses in their oval on Hercules' vase (the little zig zag lines on the vase below would be a good border)--at the top with the Muses lined atop the box (similar to the way villains are often put up there on many covers).

That sounds absolutely perfect!!

DisneyBluLife wrote: I want this image in the article to be a cover art for the movie:
https://www.playbill.com/article/stage- ... -delacorte

That also would make a great cover! Both of you could work for Disney making covers...!

Disney Duster wrote:

blackcauldron85 wrote:So, I just posted in the O&Co thread, answering a question, and had a flashback to this post-- Francis, not Winston!!! I think my subconscious has always thought Winston is a better name for a dog, Francis for a Butler!! Ooosypoopsy!!

So when you pointed out Winston as a favorite character of yours from O & Co., did you mean Franics? That's who I thought you meant, too, because the butler was just ok in my opinion. Also, did you get oopsy poopsy from Family Guy?

Yes, absolutely! I think when I was a kid I'd call them the wrong names, and it just stuck in my brain. (Same with until recently never remembering Amelia & Abigail from The Aristocats- I only finally somehow remembered their names a few months ago! ) And yep, from Family Guy!

blackcauldron85 wrote: This is one of my absolute favorite TBC posters that I think would make a nice cover:
https://imgur.com/a/VIPgCd7

Sorry to bring up TBC when we're so far past it, but I just came across a poster that I've never seen before!!!

https://prydainonfilm.blogspot.com/2019/02/posters.html

OMG! That poster is freaking out this world awesome!!! It looks so scary, foreboding, and cool! The rendering is incredible! the composition is incredible! It's all so incredible!

blackcauldron85 wrote: Sorry to bring up TBC when we're so far past it, but I just came across a poster that I've never seen before!!!

https://prydainonfilm.blogspot.com/2019/02/posters.html

That is nice. I believe the fortress at the top is re-used from one of the other posters. I had saved the picture and I'm looking at it now. On the side, it has a bunch of text. "Stolen by a king... Discovered by a boy..." etc.

DisneyBluLife wrote:Yes, the White house in background of Blu-ray cover is Hercules' Earth parents house during the Zero to Hero song.

I want this image in the article to be a cover art for the movie:
https://www.playbill.com/article/stage- ... -delacorte

Yes, that would be fantastic. To me, it would be wrong not to include the Muses somewhere on the cover. Aside from the rooster in Robin Hood--and I suppose Jiminy Cricket?--the Muses are the only time there's an ever-present narrator in the story, right? And I think they're a bigger part of the film than that character is in RH.

I have a children's picture book re-telling of Disney's Hercules from when I was a child that had a really pretty cover that was of Hercules flying in the clouds in a blue sky. I'm not sure where it is, probably under a bed somewhere, but the artwork looked a great deal like John Alvin. That would make a fantastic cover, too. I'll hunt on Google a little bit to see if I can find what I'm thinking of.

EDIT:Here's the image I was thinking of. I would love if it or this other poster here were to become covers exclusive to BestBuy or Target one day. I do have a fondness for those posters where the whole cast in a film is represented; I think the only ones not on that one for Hercules that I wish were are the Titans. I was happy the TLM Classics VHS cover imitated that film's poster so I could grow up with that image. TP&TF also has that cover with Tiana sitting on the swamp bank in the dark with everyone else around her that I would love to be a cover one day, too~! Does B&tB have one of those posters? All I can think of is the one where Beast is a cloud in the sky similar to Hexxus from FernGully?

The Hunchback of Notre Dame:
1. Laserdisc
2. Blu-ray
3. VHS
4. DVD

Hercules:
1. Limited Issue DVD
2. Gold Collection
3. (but only barely) UK/European VHS

Blu-ray cover looks rather cheap to me.

DisneyBluLife wrote:I want this image in the article to be a cover art for the movie:
https://www.playbill.com/article/stage- ... -delacorte

I've been meaning to ask this before as some of them popped up throughout the thread -- in the '90s Disney used to put out these promotional images; not basic clip-art, but something that looked like an actual movie still. Is there a specific term for images like these and what other movies had them?

Aladdin:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flx- ... in-Top.jpg
https://img.morgenpost.de/img/kultur/cr ... da852e.jpg

Beauty and the Beast:
https://s.ecrater.com/stores/28151/52ec ... 28151b.jpg

The Lion King:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/bc/10 ... 3a7a01.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... L._AC_.jpg

Hercules:
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BPJAJN/hades- ... BPJAJN.jpg
https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Hercules- ... -large.jpg

You said it yourself. Those are usually referred to as promotional art (or promo art for short). They are obviously distinguished from the posters and VHS/DVD covers because the characters are rendered the same way they appear in the finished film, despite the images not being stills.

I would readily wager a couple of limbs that these pieces were executed in-house at WDAS rather than entrusted to freelance artists (as usually happens with cinema posters and home video covers.)

Thanks Julian I really thought they'd be known as something else. But yes, they look way too good to be done outside the studio.

Disney's Divinity wrote:

blackcauldron85 wrote: Sorry to bring up TBC when we're so far past it, but I just came across a poster that I've never seen before!!!

https://prydainonfilm.blogspot.com/2019/02/posters.html

That is nice. I believe the fortress at the top is re-used from one of the other posters. I had saved the picture and I'm looking at it now. On the side, it has a bunch of text. "Stolen by a king... Discovered by a boy..." etc.

Yeah, it's very similar to: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Yw0AAOSw ... s-l300.jpg

blackcauldron85 wrote:

blackcauldron85 wrote: This is one of my absolute favorite TBC posters that I think would make a nice cover:
https://imgur.com/a/VIPgCd7

Sorry to bring up TBC when we're so far past it, but I just came across a poster that I've never seen before!!!

https://prydainonfilm.blogspot.com/2019/02/posters.html

OMG that's stunning! I can't believe I've never seen that before. Honestly they'd have no issue selling this film if they sold it with that as the cover lol.

JeanGreyForever wrote:

blackcauldron85 wrote: Sorry to bring up TBC when we're so far past it, but I just came across a poster that I've never seen before!!!

https://prydainonfilm.blogspot.com/2019/02/posters.html

OMG that's stunning! I can't believe I've never seen that before. Honestly they'd have no issue selling this film if they sold it with that as the cover lol.

And the you see the characters in the border. Taran, Dallben, Henwin, Eilonwy, Flewdur, Horned King, and Gurgi's faces are in the border. Nice details.