Hercules / Tropes A to C

Hercules Trope Examples
A - C | D - F | G - R | S - Z

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• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • The Hydra still looks pretty CG despite advanced cell shading simulation techniques being applied.
  • Also, Hercules' 'crib' and the colonnade in Olympus.

A

• Abusive Precursors: The Titans, the portrayal of which was in some ways very close to ancient Greek Theology (ancient beings defeated by Zeus and imprisoned in the Underworld, their powers were very broad as well) and in some ways very different (the original Titans were deities not that different than the Olympians and the parents of several of them, rather than near mindless elemental monsters).
• Accidental Pun: At the beginning of the movie when Hades leaves the party on Mount Olympus shortly after arriving, under the excuse that unlike everyone else he has a full-time gig in the Underworld which Zeus gave him, Zeus tells the Lord of the dead "You oughta slow down, you'll work yourself to death". It takes a moment for him to hear himself before he breaks out into laughter over his accidental joke, with every other god laughing as well.
• Achilles in His Tent: After he finds out that Meg was working for Hades (although he leaves without hearing the entire conversation, thus missing out that Meg didn't want to follow his orders again), Phil goes to warn Hercules, and when he ignores him and doesn't believe him, he gets into a fight with him and starts insulting Meg to his face. Hercules then snaps and slaps him out of anger, and Phil immediately quits on him after that, returning back to his island. He only returns and makes amends with him after Meg convinced him, as he was getting himself killed when fighting against a Cyclops due to him getting weakened by a deal with Hades and lacking motivation.
• Act of True Love: Hercules offers to stay in the Underworld to bring Meg back after she dies saving him.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Who knows if this was on purpose, but as Phil is an Expy (or at the very least an Affectionate Parody) of Mickey from the Rocky films, this isn't the first time Danny DeVito has played a character made popular by Burgess Meredith...
  • In the victory party scene, Hermes plays keyboards, just like his voice actor, musician Paul Shaffer.
  • An animator case - Hercules is seen dressed in Scar's pelt, and both were done by Andreas Deja.
• Acrofatic: Thalia the Muse, despite being physically obese is as skilled, energetic and fast dancer as her much slimmer sisters, including some moves that would put professional cheerleaders to shame.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The Disney adaptation completely changes the ending as well along with every other part of the story. In the original myths, Herakles dies, but after Philoctetes lit his funeral pyre, he ascended to godhood in Mount Olympus and stayed there. The Disney movie changes it to where Hercules earns his godhood by saving Meg from Hades and is allowed to come home to Olympus—but Hercules, who realizes Meg can't join him there, willingly gives up his godhood so that he can stay with Meg.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: The film amalgamates two different wars of the gods of Olympus: the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy. The backstory establishes a massive battle between the Titans and the gods that's more than likely the former, while the present-day conflict draws elements from the latter, featuring not only a war between gods and giants, but a prophecy that the giants could only be defeated with the help of a mortal, and unlike the former, Heracles was involved. As a result, the "Titans" shown in the film are a mishmash of several big threats, including a Cyclops.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Apollo was already pretty attractive in the myths, but there, he was a slender, youthful Pretty Boy, sometimes closely resembling a woman. Here, he's a big, muscular Hunk.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Hera goes through this as well as Adaptational Maternity. In the original myth, Hera was Hercules's step-mother and main antagonist.
  • Ares is described as extremely brutal in the original myths, and is considered the closest the Greek pantheon had to a "God of Evil". For this, he was greatly loathed by the fellow Olympians. There is no sign of this in the movie, where he attends Hercules' party, is shown socializing with the remaining gods, and doesn't hesitate to fight the Titans when they attack. His more antagonistic characteristics do shine through in the animated series, however.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • By modern standards, the Hercules of Greek Myth wasn't exactly a paragon of heroic virtue. He killed more than one innocent person simply for being too close when his temper got the better of him (although he was always remorseful when this happened), and he would go stage a HUGE war for a mere verbal insult one day, although he did go to great lengths to help his friends and his deeds did the world a lot of good. The Hercules in this movie is a wide eyed boy scout who doesn't have many, if any, vices. The worst thing he does is lash out at Phil for trying to warn him about Meg being in league with Hades, but he immediately comes to regret that.
  • Anyone who knows their Greek mythology knows that Zeus is a self-righteous, womanizing jerk and rapist. Here, he's pretty much a cross between Grandpa God and Bumbling Dad who certainly loves Hercules and stays loyal to Hera, making his status as a Top God of Mt. Olympus and Big Good of the series a lot more plausible.
• Adaptational Ugliness:
  • This happens with the Fates, who were traditionally either beautiful women or intimidating but normal-looking old ladies, due in part with confusing them with the Grae Sisters, three eyeless (and toothless) witches who were also somehow sisters to the Gorgons. Some myths suggest that they were also part bird.
  • Several of the male gods; Bacchus/Dionysus who was traditionally depicted as a handsome, Bishōnen youth, is instead a fat, middle-aged man. Ares who was usually depicted as handsome and muscular is short, bald and appears to have a beer belly. And finally Hades, who was traditionally depicted as looking just like the other gods is reimagined as an ugly, grey skinned man with fire for hair, needle-like teeth, and a Nightmare Face
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the myths, the Cyclopes were Zeus' allies in the fight against the Titans, and they gave the thunderbolt to Zeus, the trident to Poseidon, and the helmet of invisibility to Hades. The movie has one lone Cyclops who is in league with the Titans, and is sent by Hades to destroy Thebes and kill Hercules.
  • And, of course, Hades, as is tradition.
  • Also the Fates; in Greek mythology the Fates/Moirae are stern and unyielding, but also the stoic upholders of universal order, they also aid the Olympian gods in the war against the Giants, killing several giants using bronze clubs. Here they take sadistic glee in causing the death of mortals and aid Hades in his plan to release the Titans and overthrow Zeus.
  • Arguably also the Titans. Aside from Kronos swallowing his children, the Titans were just another set of gods in the Greek myths, with several of them fathering various Olympian gods and others joining Zeus in overthrowing Kronos. There were even some Hellenistic traditions where the reign of the Titans was seen as a 'golden age' for humanity with the gods living among them and strive and suffering being unknown. In this movie they are ferocious killing machines who ravaged the land before Zeus bound them and causally destroy whole landscapes, including villages and living things when Hades releases them.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In the Greek Myths, Deimos (who Pain is based on) was the Greek God of Terror and Phobos (who Panic is based on) was the very personification of fear brought on by war. In the movie, they're watered down into bungling comic relief lackeys for Hades.
  • Also, Hermes was able to borrow (or steal) Hades' helm of darkness pretty much anytime he wanted in the myths. In the movie, he's easily captured and subdued by Pain and Panic to be dragged off into the Underworld once the Titans storm Mount Olympus. This is probably because the film chose to depict him solely as a messenger god rather than the more broad-scope trickster that he was in the myths.
  • Amphitryon (Hercules' foster father) was a general that ravaged the islands of the Taphians, and took part in other war campaigns, even dying on the battlefield fighting against the Minyans. The movie changes him into a harmless peasant.
  • Several of the traditional Greek heroes who, in the myth battled monsters and saved cities are here portrayed as past clients of Phil who turned out to be absolute failures (though that's arguable a Genius Bonus with some of them; like Jason, who managed to launch a successful expedition for the Golden Fleece, but later undid all his success through his betrayal of Medea)
• Adapted Out: Hercules' wives after Meg and his children are completely removed from the film.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: One of the lyrics for "Zero to Hero" is "and this perfect package packed a pair of pretty pecs!"
• Again with Feeling: When Hercules prays at the temple, the statue of Zeus reveals to him that he's his father. Hercules realizes that since Zeus is his father, it would make him a God:
  Hercules: Wait, if you're my father, wouldn't that make me a—
  Zeus: A God!.
  Hercules: A God? [shocked] A God?!!
• Alien Blood: The Hydra's blood is green slime.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Pegasus acts more like a dog with wings than a horse, especially when he's younger.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Hercules is a Cute Clumsy Guy with Super-Strength, which results in the whole town bullying him when he accidentally destroys it.
• All There in the Manual: The Titan's names are Stratos, Lythos, Pyros, and, rather unfittingly for his powers, Hydros. Likewise, unless you know your Greek mythology, the five Muses are Thalia (muse of Comedy and the plump one), Melpomene (muse of Tragedy and the one with the long, curly hair), Calliope (muse of Epic Poetry and the leader), Clio (muse of History and with the pony tail), and Terpsichore (muse of dance and choral poetry, the one in the two-piece toga).
• Almost Kiss:
  • Meg is sent to seduce Hercules, but ends up falling in love with him. As the two approach for a kiss, Phil shows up on Pegasus and carries him away.
  • At the end of the film, they end up with a more benign one when the gods send a cloud to carry them off to Olympus. While they're both happy and grateful for the audience, it's very telling that the first thing Hercules does after deciding to stay on Earth is make sure they don't get interrupted again.
• Always Save the Girl: Hades offers a deal for Hercules to give up his strength for 24 hours in exchange for Megara's freedom and to promise that she will be safe from harm. He's aware that Hades plans to do something nasty but Hades pressures him into it.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Gods are different colors and all of them glow.
• An Aesop: If you're trying to help people just to get something out of it, you're missing the point. You should help people cause it's the right thing to do.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • The film has elements that definitely weren't around in the time of Greek Mythology, including Gospel style music, sundial watches, traffic signals (albeit crude signpost-like ones), emergency phone numbers like 911 (styled in Roman numerals as IX-I-I), cigars, credit cards, shopping malls and merchandise like action figures and soda cups with bendy straws, and Phil and Hades using Yiddish phrases, but they're often played for laughs.
  • When Herc arrives in Phil's house, the Argo's mast is there... while in the myth, Hercules was one of the Argonauts.^note  The animated series would retroactively Hand Wave this: Jason didn't find the Golden Fleece the first time around, so Hercules joins him in another attempt.
  • In the myth, Herc was either 40 or a whole 70 years (it's not entirely clear) older than Achilles who wasn't trained by Phil but by the centaur Chiron. In the movie Achilles was already dead before Herc ever met Phil, which also means the Trojan War happened much earlier here than it did in myth. ^note In the animated series Helen of Troy is one of Herc's classmates and the Trojan "War" was actually a contest between schools (which Homer embellished in his epoch), which retroactively implies that Achilles died in some completely unrelated incident.
• Ancient Grome:
  • Gladiators and Roman numerals are mentioned in a few places.
  • The name of the hero is "Hercules" (the Latinization), not "Herakles", yet the gods are given their Greek names (mostly). Ironically the Greek "Herakles" makes more sense in this version, as it means "Glory of Hera", and considering that in this adaptation Hera is both his actual mother and a loving and supporting figure, the name would make far more sense than in the original myth, where she hated his guts and tried to have him killed repeatedly (the name was an attempt to pacify her wrath).
• Animate Inanimate Matter: The Titans are colossal entities made out of inanimate matter and just barely humanoid — while the ice and rock titans are recognizable human-like, if respectively extremely skeletal and hulking and ape-like, another titan is a mass of magma with no legs and small, stumpy arms and head, and the fourth is simply an enormous living tornado with baleful red eyes.
• Arc Words: The words "Go the Distance" are used many times even outside the song.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Meg gives Phil one that snaps him out of his anger towards Hercules for lashing out at him earlier, when she and Pegasus track him down to get him to talk sense into a de-powered Hercules.
  Meg: Look, I know what I did was wrong, but this isn't about me, it's about him. If you don't help him now, Phil, he'll die!
  (Phil freezes in horror)
• Artistic License – Physics: Hades primarily has flaming blue hair, which turns red when he gets mad. In the real world, blue fire is much, much hotter than red or orange fire.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Herc asks this to Meg (who is currently being held up by a centaur);
  Hercules: Aren't you... a Damsel in Distress?
  Meg: I'm a damsel... I'm in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.
• Autopilot Artistry: During "One Last Hope", Hercules is going through a Training Montage and, at one point, is throwing swords at a target. All of his previous attempts were wildly off target. When he throws the last sword, he's sad and looking away, and that's what lands the bullseye. As Phil says:
  Like painting a masterpiece
  It's a work of heart
• Award-Bait Song:
  • "Go the Distance" by Michael Bolton .
  • The UK soundtrack has "Shooting Star" by the boy band BoyZone.

B

• Badass Cape: After completing his hero training, Hercules wears a blue cape that reaches down to his waist. According to one fan theory, it appears to be made from or is the shawl his mother gifted him at the start of his journey. The cape is ripped throughout the battle with the Hydra and torn to tatters by the end.
• Badass Normal: Hades decides to temporarily deprive Hercules of his powers so that he cannot stop him from conquering Mt. Olympus. However, he forgets that Hercules is still a decent warrior even without his superpowers as Hercules is able to defeat the cyclops by scorching his eye.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • After being dismissed as an amateur by the Thebans, Hercules says "How am I supposed to prove myself a hero if nobody will give me a chance?" While Hercules was given an easy rescue of "two little boys" (Pain and Panic in disguise), the Hydra emerges as a bigger challenge for the young hero.
• Been There, Shaped History: During his date with Megara, Hercules skips a stone that accidentally breaks a statue, revealed to be the Aphrodite of Milo (more famously known as the Venus de Milo), him being responsible for the loss of its arms. Meg remarks that it looks better that way.
• Berserk Button:
  • Expect Hades to blow his top whenever Hercules is foiling his plan. And don’t show any form of support towards Hercules around him either. Pain and Panic made that mistake when they were caught with Hercules' merchandise
    Hades: What... are... those?
    Pain: Um, I don't know. I thought they looked kinda...dashing.
    Hades: [getting flamier with each phrase] I've got 24 hours to get rid of this bozo, or the entire scheme that I've been setting up for 18 years goes up in smoke... and YOU... ARE WEARING... HIS... MERCHANDISE?!?
    [Hades almost flames Pain before both hear a slurping noise. Hades turns to see Panic drinking some Hercu-lade]
    Panic: [nervously] Oh! Ha ha. Uh... thirsty?
    Hades: DYEAAGGHH! (Cut to the mountain exploding in the distance as the city shakes. Hercules, Pegasus and the citizens of Thebes are shown in the foreground, hearing the distant explosion, then shrugging).
  • Achilles' Heel is still a very sore subject for Phil. One heckling Theban learned that the hard way.
    Burned Theban: Hey, isn't that the goat man who trained Achilles?
    Phil: [with barely restrained anger] Watch it, pal...
    Big Theban: Hey yeah, you're right! Eh, nice job on those heels! Ya missed a spot! Ha ha ha!
    Phil: I got your heel! RIGHT HERE! [angrily attacks and beats on the big Theban]
• Beyond the Impossible: Reconstruction. It's impossible to kill a god; no ifs, ands, or buts. However, it is possible to remove their divinity and then kill them once they are no longer a god.
  Hades: Pain, Panic, got a little riddle for ya. How do you kill a god?
  Pain: I do not... know.
  Panic: Ya can't. They're immortal?
  Hades: Bingo, they're immortal! So first you gotta make the little sunspot... mortal.
• Big Applesauce: Thebes. Try to list all the similarities between it and New York (it's even called The Big Olive, as an obvious riff on The Big Apple, for example).
• Big Book of War: Phil's oft-quoted rules of conduct and engagement for heroes-in-training.
• Big Friendly Dog: Pegasus, who was a gift to Hercules from his father at birth. Described by Zeus as having the heart of a horse and "the brain of a bird", he acts pretty dog-like throughout the movie. Besides the flying, Hercules and Phil get their faces licked by him several times throughout the movie.
• Big Good: Zeus is the benevolent Top God and Hercules' father, and Hades' plan is to take him out so he can rule.
• Big "NO!": Done by Zeus after baby Herc is kidnapped from Olympus; by Hercules when Meg is crushed; and by Hades when Herc saves Meg's soul from the River Styx. The last is really something to see.
• Big "OMG!": Pain and Panic, during the scene in the woods, when Hades finally catches on to their botched infanticide of Hercules years ago, though it is more like "Oh my gods!" in the polytheistic society of Greece.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Done by Hercules when he gets angry and slaps Phil for insulting Meg.
• Big "WHAT?!": Hades lets out one when the Fates reveal that Hercules could ruin his plans to conquer Olympus. He quickly calms down as he has time to deal with the situation.
• The Big Rotten Apple: Thebes is depicted as a stand-in for New York, and crime, poverty, and monster attacks have made its people cynical and distrustful.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • "Someone call IX-I-I!" Which is Roman Numeral for 9-1-1.
  • "Two words: I am retired!" While the joke is that Phil gets the word count wrong, the expression "I am retired" does indeed consist of two words in Greek ("Eímai syntaxioúchos").
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: "Zero to Hero" takes a few shots at Disney itself with the "Hercules Store" and the sheer amount of merchandising made off his name.
• Black-and-White Morality: Hercules, Zeus and Hera become purely good. Hades becomes purely evil. In the original myths they were a lot more morally ambiguous. The only grey character in the movie is Meg. This is one side effect of being Hijacked by Jesus.
• Blessed with Suck: Herc's super-strength, when combined with an adolescent's typical clumsiness.
• Bloodier and Gorier: While there's no visible blood spilled, Hercules decapitates the Hydra on-screen while still inside its neck, although the Hydra grew a few more heads but still. Kinda brutal for a Disney movie.^note For those of you curious though, the rating system is unusually lax on dismemberments and decapitations when on characters who can regrow the lost part in question, or in this case multiples of the parts in question. Throw in a little Alien Blood and you're good to go. Notice that when the Hydra is actually killed it's in a completely bloodless way.
• Bloodless Carnage: Megara is crushed by a massive pillar pushing Hercules out of the way. Not a drop of blood, not a bruise, on her body.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: After cutting his way out of the Hydra, Hercules is covered with the monster's green blood.
• Blue Means Cold: Zigzagged for Hades's fire that he has instead of hair. It's usually blue and cold, but when he's mad, it turns into normal fire.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: Zeus strikes Phil with some harmless lightning when he refuses to train Hercules. Phil changes his mind.
• Bookshelf Dominoes: While attempting to catch a discus, Hercules crashes into a column, which tips over and falls into its neighbor, causing a chain reaction to go all the way around the agora.
• Bound and Gagged: Meg during Hades' deal with Hercules to symbolize her enslavement. As well as to keep Meg from telling Hercules the truth.
• Bowdlerise:
  • A major example of bowdlerizing from Greek mythology; for example, besides a total change of Hades' personality, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera.
  • In European and several other cuts, the Hydra's blood is replaced with purple smoke.
  • When Phil beats up that one civilian for making fun of his training of Achilles, he says "I'm gonna wipe that freaking grin off your face!" For television broadcasts, "freaking" is changed to "stupid". Subtitles for the movie also replace "freaking" with "stupid", even though Phil very clearly says "freaking".
• Book Ends: During the beginning of the movie after Pain and Panic kidnap Hercules, turn him mortal, and then try and fail to kill him. Panic runs around worrying that "[Hades]'s not gonna be happy when he finds out about this." Pain says "You mean if he finds out" Panic: "If? If is good!" They have a similar conversation after Hercules punches Hades into The River Styx.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: While still on a high after his date with Meg, Herc jokes with Phil some, even mimicking his voice.
  Hercules: Hey I got two words for ya: Duck!
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Hercules already had Super-Strength so Phil's training focuses on teaching him everything else he'd need to know: weapons, balance, aim, obstacle courses and other things. Turns out to be a good thing because when Herc is Brought Down to Normal he's able to use the other skills he learned to kill the cyclops even without Super-Strength.
• Break the Cutie: Meg. She pledged service to Hades to save an old boyfriend's life - only to have said boyfriend run after another girl shortly afterwards. Plus, she's implied to have had some run-ins with boys who don't understand the word "no". OUCH.
• Breather Episode: Between the heavier themes of The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and darker films in Mulan and Tarzan, this film is a Lighter and Softer comedy with a tone similar to Aladdin. This is emphasized in the opening, when the serious narration is cut off by the muses, who proceed to give the movie a more lighthearted musical opening. That said, as a quasi-superhero story it arguably plays for higher stakes than any other Disney story, and the Titans arguably have the highest body-count of any Disney villain.
• Brick Joke:
  • "'If'? 'If' is good."
  • A far more meta example is Scar's cameo as a "very handsome throw rug."
• Bridal Carry: After rescuing Meg's soul, Hercules carries her to freedom in full Tranquil Fury mode. He doesn't even look at Hades at first, simply clocking him without looking...until Hades touches Meg's soul, at which point Hercules punches him into the Styx.
• Brought Down to Badass: The main plot of the film. As an infant, Hercules is stolen from his home on Mt. Olympus and fed a potion that turns him mortal. However, as the Muses explain, since he doesn't drink the last drop, his godly strength remains intact.
• Bullying a Dragon: During Herc's teen years, the other kids mock him and call him "Jerkules", and the townspeople in general call him a freak and disaster because of his Super-Strength. Luckily for them, they are in a G-rated Disney movie and Hercules is a kind-hearted and sweet-natured guy, as opposed to the Hercules of the actual myths, who was known for A) being extremely hot-tempered and B) using his strength against those who angered him, often with lethal results for the mortals involved.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Pain and Panic are a duo of goofy imps working for Hades. They regularly botch their jobs, suffering the wrath of their short-tempered boss.
• Burp of Finality: Subverted. The Hydra eats Hercules and burps when done, but Hercules escapes by sticking his sword in its throat and cutting its head off.
• Butt-Monkey: A few examples:
  • Thalia from the muses. Though she's the one who shows the most emotion, she often gets the short end of the stick on dignity.
  • Pain and Panic regularly suffer the wrath of their short-tempered boss when Hades takes his anger out on them.
  • Phil straight up.

C

• Call-Back: During the beginning of the movie after Pain and Panic abduct Hercules, turn him mortal, and then try and fail to kill him. Panic runs around saying "Hades is gonna kill us when he finds out about this!", to which Pain responds "You mean IF he finds out." Panic is calmed by this, saying "IF? If is good!" They have the same conversation after Hercules punches Hades into The River Styx.
• Canon Immigrant: The Muses, Pegasus and Deimos (Pain) were not involved in the original Heracles myth, and were brought in from other parts of Greek Mythology for the Disney movie. Phobos (Panic) does not appear in the myth per se, but Heracles did worship him and have him depicted on a shield of his.
• Cassandra Truth: Phil, after he overhears part of a conversation between Meg and Hades, catches on that Meg isn't to be trusted and tries to warn Hercules. The lovesick Herc will have none of it, to the point of hitting him in a blind rage, and Phil leaves Herc in his Darkest Hour. Hades ends up revealing Meg's involvement to Herc after taking his strength away. And boy does it have a more crushing effect on Herc than having his strength gone!
• Central Theme: The main theme of the film is that a person's strength and worth is not defined by their might, fame, or stature, but by their character and integrity. One should also be themselves to achieve their goals instead of something they're not for personal gain. Hercules' Humble Hero contrast with Hades' Ambition Is Evil approach emphasizes this theme.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Hercules has overt superpowers... but even when he explicitly signs them away to Hades as part of a Deal with the Devil and is said to become an ordinary mortal, he seemingly retains superhuman durability, managing to tank multiple blows from a hundred-foot cyclops that throw him dozens of yards through the air and crack stone on impact.
  • This is actually plausible for three reasons on top of the fact that he underwent Training from Hell designed to push demigods to their limits: Even when his supernatural powers are signed away his entire body was still literally sculpted by supernatural forces and Greek god "genetics", his clothes might provide magical protection since they hold up through all of his superhuman feats and, last but certainly not least, he was destined to thwart Hades' plan which means he was literally destined to not die.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Herc rushes off to help people as soon as he hears about it. A double subversion in that he's doing heroic deeds to regain his godhood, but later realizes that he should be doing good for good's sake.
• Classical Cyclops: Hercules has to fight against a huge, brutish cyclops released by Hades alongside the titans after losing his phenomenal strength in a deal with the god of the underworld. Despite this handicap, Hercules still has his combat experience and plucky sidekick Pegasus and manages to defeat the giant by tying his legs with a rope and sending him plunging off a cliff.
• Close-Call Haircut: During the training montage, Pegasus ducks to narrowly dodge a badly-aimed sword, which gives him something like a flattop.
• Clothing Damage: During his battle with the Hydra, Hercules' cape had a piece ripped off after it was snagged when Hercules was leaping away as the Hydra lunged at him. By the end of the battle, his tunic and cape are torn to tatters, with one of the tunic's straps even being ripped off. A similar state happens during the Cyclops battle.
• Company Cross References:
  • The way Hercules slides down into a spiral of one of the Hydra's necks is reminiscent of The Jungle Book where Mowgli slides down into a spiral of Kaa's coils.
  • Hercules' posing with a Nemean Skinning of Scar.
• Composite Character:
  • The Fates in this film are three old women who are forced to share a single eye, much like the the Graeae from Greek Mythology. However, their role as weavers of life and death, as well as their ability to foresee the future are characteristics associated with the Moirai.
  • The Titans as in the original mythology are the set of godly beings that Zeus overthrows and seals underground to usher in the reign of the Olympians, but they also resemble their predecessors known as the Greek primordial deities given they have less human characteristics as well as the fact that they represent the fundamental forces and physical foundations of the world. Their time of dominion as explained in the movie's opening also reflects the primal Chaos which even preceded them. Essentially collapsing the three eras prior to the most famous generation of Greek gods into one.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Hydra's first head has Hercules on the ropes during their clash, dodging several attacks, disarming Hercules, and eating him. If he hadn't recovered his sword in time, the first head would have won. None of heads that take the first head's place are nearly as competent, they even start to bang into and bite each other when the monster gets even more. It takes them using the body's claws to pin Hercules down to get control of the fight back, which ends up being a fatal mistake for all of them, after Hercules triggered a rockslide and they couldn't get away. ^note Possibly justified if the primary head's memories and experience didn't transfer over to the other heads when it was removed.
• Contrived Coincidence: Amphitryon and Alcmene happen to be out in the middle of the night and with a storm on the way, just in time to save Hercules from being killed by Pain and Panic and then be saved by him in turn, since their arrival also prevented Hercules from losing his strength as well as his godhood.
• Cosmic Chess Game: The montage of Hercules fighting monsters during "Zero-to-Hero" is depicted this way from Hades' point of view.
• Costume Evolution: As an infant, Hercules only wears a white Roman-type diaper and wears a red necklace with a golden Zeus pendant. As an adolescent teenager, Hercules wore a white single sleeveless Roman garb and brown warrior sandals. When being trained heavily by Phil, he wore a brown sweatband with his tunic. When he becomes a grown adult and a fully-trained hero, Hercules wears a brown Roman warrior armor gear with a long blue cape, a dark brown belt, brown wristbands, and matching warrior sandals.
• Covered in Gunge: Having cut his way out from inside the Hydra, Hercules is covered with green slime. Swaying on his feet, Hercules tries to sheath his sword, only to drop it, before he himself collapses in the puddle of gore. Looking at Phil, who asks how many horns he see, a dizzy Herc sees triple and his answer is "Six?" The slime washes off after it started raining.
• Creator Cameo: Caricatures of directors John Musker and Ron Clements appear at the top of an arch as Young Herc speeds his foster father's wagon into the marketplace.
• Credits Gag: Hades gets one more funny moment as the Disney castle comes up.
• Crushing Handshake:
  • Happens when Hercules shakes Phil's hand. Herc is so excited to meet his mentor that he forgets to be careful with his Super-Strength.
  • Later, Hercules gets this from Hades after being blackmailed into giving up his strength for twenty-four hours.
• Cue the Shooting Star: During "I Can Go the Distance", Hercules is admiring the night sky and a shooting star goes past as he's singing about his desire to be accepted. And later on, during a romantic scene between Hercules and Meg, a shooting star goes by to make the scene more romantic.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During the "Zero to Hero" song segment, Hercules dealt these out to every monster Hades sends after him.
• Curse Escape Clause:
  • Zeus claims that if his son Hercules proves himself worthy of becoming a "True Hero", he can rejoin the gods. Herc becomes a famous hero throughout the movie, but he doesn't achieve the True status until almost dying from his Heroic Sacrifice to save Meg.
  • Thanks to Exact Words, Hercules can get out of his deal of giving up his strength to Hades in exchange for Meg's release: Hades simply promised that "no harm" would come to Meg, so when she pushes him out of the way of the falling pillar, thus bringing her to harm (and sacrificing her life), the deal is broken and Herc gets his strength back.
• Curtain Camouflage: "What could be behind curtain number one?" His little sandaled toes are even poking out under it.

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