Product Review

This 70-minute feature is made up of three TV segments from Disney's popular Hercules series. The video, like the show, follows the daffy adventures of Hercules as a teenager, when his strength is amazing but his control is not. For kids who have not seen the cable TV series, this will be a worthwhile video. Like most of Disney's spinoffs, the animation is solid, the music is hip, and many key members of the original vocal pool (including Tate Donavan as the hero) return. Unfortunately, as with most episodic TV, the stories can be pretty uninspired. The best segment here is the finale, which has James Woods returning as Hades with another plan to topple Zeus (Rip Torn). The wraparound story of Meg finding out her rippling love's past is new but hardly constitutes the bulk of the video. The three segments are "Hercules and the First Day of School," "Hercules and the Grim Avenger," and "Hercules and the Visit from Zeus." --Doug Thomas