CINEMA: A HIT FROM A MYTH

IN THE ZANY HERCULES, DISNEY CARTOONS RETURN TO FORM AND FORMULA

The Disney full-animated feature is the most profitable franchise in movies, maybe in the entire entertainment industry. The pressure to keep producing the tiniest variations on a winning formula must be severe. So it was brave for the Disney artists to try tiptoeing away from what worked. Pocahontas had soaring melodies to match its do-gooding intentions; The Hunchback of Notre Dame came within two deaths and three cute gargoyles of being the first grownup singing-cartoon romantic tragedy. But these two movies also had an almost toxic serioso content. At times they got so solemn they could have been Broadway musicals in...

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