1st watched 3/28/2009 – 4 out of 10 (Dir-John Musker & Ron Clements): OK Disney animated feature about the son of the great Zeus and his silly adventures. This a kind of wannabe A-list Disney movie with it's attempts at songs, sidekicks and silly romances but it just doesn't quite hit the mark despite James Woods doing a good job with the Hades role. The movie is about the birth of the young boy to Zeus and his wife, his loss of his godly position at the hands of Hades, and his attempt to become a mortal hero to win back his spot with the other Gods at Olympus. His road to hero-dom isn't easy as he's a pretty clumsy goof at first, but he's given a hero trainer voiced by Danny Devito who's kind of a short devil-like character(why he trained hero's I don't know??). He becomes a hero but supposedly still misses the heart necessary to get back to Olympia. This is gained, of course, because he goes googly-eyed over a women who is one of Hades's helpers and does stuff to get her out of his clutches(yeah I know, this doesn't make sense but it's Disney not Shakespeare). The movie is narrated by a 60's like Gospel group, who end every song with "the gospel truth." I'm sure this didn't make the religious right very happy about this movie(but they never really made movies for them anyway—but don't tell 'em). All in all, the movie is watchable but not the kind of Disney fare that we've come to expect from them. The same formula just not executed as well as some of their other movies.
