Review of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (4 disc set)

Introduction

Before Sam Raimi brought Spiderman to the big screen, he and producing partner Robert Tapert had been famous for freaking out movie censors with their horror comic "Evil Dead" movies. But in 1994, the duo were more interested in bringing their peculiar brand of entertainment to the small screen.

Universal Pictures were looking for material to put into their "Action Pack" tv movie/series, and Raimi and Tapert had the ideal property. Long-time fans of the Ray Harryhausen school of ancient greek literature, they pitched the idea of the Legendary Journeys of Hercules. Hercules was the original superhero. Half-god, half-mortal he battled for justice around the classical world. He would face up to Centaurs, Amazons, Cyclopes, Minotaurs, three-headed dogs - and all with his tongue firmly in his post-modern cheek.

Of course, the excesses of the Evil Dead series would have to be toned down for the goggle box, but the Hercules series would have the same subversive sense of humour about it.

Oh, and it was to be shot in New Zealand to keep costs down.

In many ways, Hercules (and his spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess) are siblings if not parents of Peter Jackson`s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. All three projects utilise the stunning scenery of New Zealand as a backdrop to the action, and of course they share many of the technical crew not least Costume Designer Ngila Dickson and the award-winning Weta Effects group. Hercules was one of the first tv shows to regularly use CGI to render its monsters, and while these occasionally looked pretty ropey, they were the training ground for Weta`s effects team responsible for the gob-smacking attack on Helm`s Deep.

This pack, described as "Season One" in fact consists of the five Hercules features (Amazon Women, Lost Kingdom, Circle of Fire, Underworld and Maze of the Minotaur), and the first three episodes of the first season. That leaves another ten tv episodes for a later Season One release.

The movies are simply longer episodes of the tv series and benefit from subsequently larger budgets which pay for bigger effects and the odd guest star like Anthony Quinn (doing his usual Zorba the Greek as Zeus). Starring genial hunk Kevin Sorbo, the five movies set the scene for the series. Hercules meets and marries Deianeira (Tawny Kitaen) and generally helps the local villagers when unruly giants and cyclopes turn up. The first episode of the tv series proper takes out Deianeira and Hercules` family at the hands of Hera (Zeus`s wife and Queen of the Gods), setting Hercules on a collision course with pretty much everybody on Mount Olympus.

In the first movie and the first tv episode, we are introduced to Hercules` sidekick Iolaus, played by Kiwi actor Michael Hurst (one of the show`s great finds). Although Iolaus isn`t used much at the beginning of the series, by later episodes and later seasons he is level-pegging with Kevin Sorbo. In the first movie, Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless makes her first appearance (and made sufficient impact on the production team that she returned for a couple of guest spots before nailing the role of Xena: Warrior Princess - and later marrying Robert Tapert). Later series would see Evil Dead alumni Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell joining the Hercules/Xena family, and a good deal of fourth-wall/envelope pushing by the production team which made both Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess bona-fide gems in mid-nineties tv schedules.

I have to say I was disappointed not to have later episodes from Season One in this set, because I personally think the show really found its feet from episode seven (Pride Comes Before A Brawl) on.

Video

Anchor Bay have licenced this material from Universal Pictures, and I wonder if they`ve been presented with the best source material. The movies and tv episodes are presented in their original standard 4:3. Quality is variable, with a couple of the movies exhibiting telecine artefacts. There`s a slight muddiness to colours that may be due to NTSC/PAL conversion (like Star Trek Next Generation), and the end titles to the tv series are quite appalling, suffering from a juddering and smearing effect. I`ve not seen the Season Two episodes that Universal released a couple of years ago for comparison, but I wonder if Universal has provided Anchor Bay with decent source material - and indeed if Anchor Bay has mastered the series for Region Two, or simply done a standards conversion on the Region One disc set masters.

Audio

Originally made in Dolby Stereo, the soundtracks have been beefed up to Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, and the original stereo mixes can also be played. Occasionally, however, the sound goes a little off, possibly indicating further damage to the source material. Special note should be made of Joseph Lo Duca`s magnificent scores for the movies and the series, not least his soaring fully orchestral theme for Hercules.

Features

These are peppered lightly across the disc set. There is a small stills gallery on disc one. Disc Three includes a pleasing talking-heads interview section with Kevin Sorbo reminiscing about the series. Michael Hurst contributes, as does director Bill Norton. There are text biographies of some of the major players and an audio commentary on the tv episode "Eye of the Beholder".

There are no subtitles.

Conclusion

Anchor Bay is one of the great things about the DVD industry. In the US they produce a great number of odd titles and little gems that the big distributors would never think of releasing, or if they did they`d pack them in multipaks with a bunch of movies you don`t really want. Are you listening Warners?

Hercules is a very satisfying box set, but there are a few technical glitches and disappointments that just take the edge of what could have been a magnificent release of a wonderful series. I sincerely hope they`ll release further episodes of the series, and that eventually their UK catalogue will be as lively as their US one.