The comparisons to Superman go beyond similar characters. In addition to modeling their main characters after Superman, Disney borrowed 75% of the classic Superman origin for their movie. The story of Disney’s Superman is this: The child of Zeus and Hera, Hercules is sent to Earth by Hades where he is stripped of his godhood and is discovered by a pair of farmers who adopt him. Hercules grows up unaware of his true heritage. When he becomes a teenager, Hercules starts feeling alienated from his peers due to his superhuman abilities. Seeing how miserable Hercules is, his adopted parents tell him of his true heritage and give him the gold medallion he came to Earth with. Hercules leaves his small town sets out to find a way to communicate with Zeus. Reaching the Temple of Zeus, he manages to communicate with the statue of Zeus. Zeus’s statue tells him of his true heritage and inspires him to become a hero in order to find his place in the world. Alongside Pegasus, Hercules goes to train under Philoctetes (Phil), a perverted satyr who trained the great heroes of the past. After partaking in a Rocky/Karate Kid inspired training montage, Hercules, Pegasus and Phil, come across a woman named Meg who is being attacked by a centaur named Nessus. Hercules defeats Nessus and makes his way to the bustling city of Thebes and quickly becomes the hero of the town due to defeating every monster Hades sends to kill him. Hades, worried that Hercules will ruin his plans to conquer Olympus, blackmails Meg in order to make Hercules surrender. His plan succeeds due to Hercules's love for Meg. With Hercules incapacitated, Hades frees the monstrous Titans and attacks Mount Olympus. Hercules eventually regains his powers after Meg sacrifices herself to protect Hercules. Hercules then defeats the Titans and rescues Meg from the Underworld.
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If this story sounds familiar, it is because it is basically 75% of the Superman movie, 20% Rocky and Karate Kid and 5% Midnight Cowboy. Replace Hercules with Superman, Olympus with Krypton, Thebes with Metropolis, Meg with Lois and Hades with Lex Luthor and you have the Superman movie except in Greece. While Phil disrupts the Superman story Disney was going for, his entire existence as a character is meant as a reference to the Rocky series and the original Karate Kid movie. Phil also allows Disney to make several sex jokes involving Phil chasing women. These jokes are also meant as a wink to fans of Greek mythology who know satyrs were very promiscuous, even to the point of rape. Megara even references how satyrs love to rape women by telling Hercules to ask Phil about how some men do not know what ‘no’ means.
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If Phil was taken out of the movie, nothing would be affected. Meg working for Hades also doesn't ruin the Superman story that much as Hercules still sees her as the Lois Lane character. Like with Hades, Disney slyly references the comparison to Superman with the film taking place in Thebes. Disney’s version of Thebes is basically New York, complete with Broadway style plays and New York style chariot traffic. Disney even references the famous New York film Midnight Cowboy by having Phil say Dustin Hoffman's famous ad libbed line: “Hey I’m walking here” after Phil is almost run over by a chariot. In Midnight Cowboy, Dustin Hoffman was almost run over by a rogue taxi and ad libbed the line. Disney’s use of Thebes as New York is another Superman reference as Metropolis, the city Superman defends is also meant to be a stand in for New York.
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