Hercules: B+

There's a shockingly good moment in Ron Clements and Jon Musker's Hercules that ranks right up there with when Dory first appeared in Finding Nemo in terms of crackling comic effect. The moment centers around Hades (James Woods) attempts to woo the future from the three Fates and the hilarious genius of the scene is tied directly into how much knowing, lovable sarcasm Woods laces his words with. As his flaming villain stalks around the room, reciting his "Grand Plan" for the three blind oracles (rendered with some visual gags that'll make you giggle) his wails of fury and desparation become strangely endearing; his mood swings stop being evil and start being "evil" and the uber-sly joke is that Hades is in on it with the audience. His desert-dry delivery carries a twinkle of malevolent glee missing from even most live-action baddies.

But if I found James Woods the most delicious scenery chewing villain on screen in some time, its not like I found the rest of Hercules trashy-camp (although, at moments, I was tempted to say so) - quite the opposite. If Hades is the perfect 21st century antagonist - funny, vicious, likeable and constantly the zippy entertainer (even if his act involves taking over the world) - then the movie surrounding him comes pretty close to immitating his style.

Hercules surounds the famed Greek myth-hero with air quotes, at once mocking and sentimentalizing his clumsy hunkiness, and watching "Herc" (Tate Donovan) trip his way through adolescence I found it quite difficult to resist the movie's point-of-view. Soon enough I was chuckling at the massive destruction he could cause with one small slip of his enormous strength while also going googly-eyed at the bombast inspiration of his singing (yes, yes - it's one of those Disney films). What Hercules is saying in essence is "we know he's a big STRONG man, but can't he also be a goofball with heart?". After watching the bite-sized 92 minutes of this playful fable I can answer easily, "yes, he can".

Another major point of applause comes from the staging of the story and in the way that co-writers/directors Clements & Musker keep curving the story. Though it focuses on Hercules' quest to reclaim his place on Olympus (he was slighted out his seat by a mortal-transformation potion delivered by Pain & Panic, two of Hades' minions) the real action unfolds on a few different layers, leaving the audience to which it is being seen thrilled on many different levels. There's the beautiful zap! of his many different deeds (the infamous Hydra fight is a hallmark of 3-D animation); there's the romance with the venomous, sexy Meg (Susan Egan); there's the underlying pull of identity and one's search for it (scored to a few FM-lite tracks that get your toes-tapping, if not your body-shaking). And the packaging of these elements, interwoven with ease by the veteran filmmakers behind Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, comes at you from the saucy gospel-group that narrates the whole thing. That's right, a gospel group - complete with fiery, delicious "Amen!" anthems.

The giddy ironies of Hercules spring straight from our media-saturated sensibilities and many of the jokes are written, and delivered, with pitch-perfect flair. What could have been a soggy story became a sprightly one. Still, the lasting contribution of this film is and will always be James Woods' terrificly entertaining performance. His cantankerous Anti-Christ is one evil dude, true, but as the best part of a pretty good movie he's also the film's soul: megalomania as done by a winking, sardonic ironist. Brilliant.