Hercules: Zero to Hero (1998)

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 Amazon.com

Truly WONDERFUL!

If you are expecting this to be a sequal to Disney's Hercules...you will be let down tremendously, not because it's bad...but because it's not a sequal. It is not a "Full Length Movie" either. What it is is a few episodes of Disney's Hercules TV Series put onto tape. And I may say...it is FANTASTIC for what it is.
All of the episodes on this tape (The First Day of School, The YearBook, The Grim Avenger, and and the Visit from Zeus) are truly some of the best in the series. If you are a fan of the movie, or the series...this is definatley worth watching. All of the Herc-Humor is their. Plus...all of the voice actors, with the exception of Danny Davito, have all returned to voice their characters, which makes the experiance more enjoyable. This tape will satify all the Die-hard Herc fans over until Disney decides to release the show on DVD.
Sure...the actual animation is so-so...but it's still better than Dragon Ball Z...and A WHOLE LOT more entertaining to watch! September 4, 2006

Hercules is back!

Yes, Hercules is back and the movie opens, after Hercules (Tate Donovan) and Meg (Susan Egan) got married and are moving into a home together. But when stuff from Hercules' high schools days, gets delievered to him, he has it sent back to Philoctetes "Phil" (Robert Costanzo). But Meg badly wants to see Hercules's hish school stuff. But Hercules is embrassed by it, because high school was not one of Hercules' favorite of his life. (And I don't blame him). So Meg sneaks off to find Phil, and he tells of Hercules first days in high school. November 14, 2002

With Direct to Video movies, always KNOW what you're buying!

This video is not REALLY a sequel, it's not REALLY a new feature length movie. What this video REALLY is, is a compilation of 3 episodes of the very funny and entertaining Disney's Hercules animated TV series.
The video takes three episodes of the TV show and links them together with some rather badly done animation of Hercules and Megara moving into their new home together after their Honeymoon. Megara comes across Herc's High School Yearbook, er, scroll, and suddenly wants to know more about Herc's High School days. She rides on Pegasus to visit Phil, Herc's trainer/manager, and he gives her the whole story. This is where the episodes of the TV show take over. First we have Herc's First Day At (High) School. In the second story, a new student comes to Herc's school, who is actually a Batman type superhero, and the pair teams up to fight a menacing monster. In the third story, Herc's dad Zeus poses as a teenager to see what life is like for Herc. Meanwhile, his brother Hades plans a hostile takeover.
The video ends with Meg singing a pretty horrid song to the man of her dreams, but the heart of the video, the episodes of the wonderful TV show, earn it a five star rating from me, and I wish Disney would give us more episodes of their wonderful shows on video, preferably DVD. But I wish they knew that the wraparound stories are really unnecessary. Hercules: Zero To Hero, is a great buy for anyone who enjoyed the TV show, but remember that this IS a TV show. Don't expect spectacular animation. At least most of the original voice actors reprised their roles for this TV series, and James Woods always rocks as Hades! June 13, 2002

A perfect way to start Greek mythology.

If you're learning Greek mythology, this video is for you (no matter what grade you're in) even though the cartoon graphics may be appealing to younger kids. Even better than the original movie. Contains conversations about how Hercules aged and how he was trained. Even tells you what Greek names there are and what greek urns look like. There are some frightening Halloween-like scenes of the bull/man that may not suit young kids. The Muses explain Hercules' life as a teenager throughout the movie.

Will kids want to see it?

Probably. The blue and pink color of Panic and Pain that reminded me of the boo-hoo/shh-shh verses of Clap Hands look mighty appealing to them. October 31, 1999

I enjoyed this video

I thought this video was very entertaining. Although it wasn't as enjoyable as watching the series on tv, it was a cute little project. I hope they release more of the series (now that is apprarently has been canceled), but in individual episodes.

The cover art was awful. Not even gonna go there. October 26, 1999

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