While the film takes place in the mid-1920s, the time when Prohibition was still enforced until 1933, alcohol is seen being served in Tiana’s restaurant, on the riverboat, and at the La Bouffs’ masquerade ball. Prohibition was widely ignored in the US generally, and particularly in New Orleans, so this isn’t very surprising.
Tracks
While Quasimodo is singing ‘Out There’, the camera pans over Paris and zooms in on a street. In this scene, Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991) is seen walking and reading her book (walks out the bottom of the screen, to the right of the well), Pumba from The Lion King (1994) is being carried on a pole by two men (carried out of the bottom of the screen, but left of the well), and another man (in a gray blue tunic) is shaking out the Carpet from Aladdin (1992).
The “Air Herc” sandals brand is a reference to the Nike Air footwear line. Moreover, the Hercules mosaic showing Hercules running resembles an actual Nike print ad. Nike was the Greek goddess who personified triumph.
Jack Nicholson, Willem Dafoe, David Bowie and John Lithgow were all considered for the voice of Hades.
The role of Hades is one of James Woods’ all-time favorite characters. So much so, any time Disney needs him to reprise the character for any cartoon show (including “Hercules: The Series”) and video game (The “Kingdom Hearts” series), he has agreed to do so.
In Greek mythology, there were nine Muses. The five shown here are: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), and Thalia (comedy).
On his way to Thebes, Hercules meets Megara after he saves her from the River Guardian, Nessos. While this is not the story of how Hercules came to know Megara in Greek legend, it IS (almost exactly) how he came to know his second wife - Deianira.
Hermes delivers a bouquet of flowers to Hera. Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) is a registered trademark of FTD Florists.
WILHELM SCREAM: During the raid on the castle, when a villager is thrown through the front doors
Daw, so nervous!!
Glen Keane, the supervising animator on the Beast, created his own hybrid beast by combining the mane of a lion, the beard and head structure of a buffalo, the tusks and nose bridge of a wild boar, the heavily muscled brow of a gorilla, the legs and tail of a wolf, and the big and bulky body of a bear.
Linda Woolverton drew her inspiration for the screenplay, not from Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), but from Little Women (1933), admitting that there’s a lot of Katharine Hepburn in the characterization of Belle.
Originally the Beast was supposed to be stabbed by Gaston twice: once in the leg and again in the side, followed by Gaston pushing himself off the tower and laughing maniacally while falling. The filmmakers changed it to just his side to avoid the already dramatic scene becoming too disturbing for children, but Gaston’s edited suicide is a probable explanation for his choosing such a dangerous position to kill the Beast despite knowing that he would never win Belle’s heart.
When Gaston is falling at the very end, there is close-up of his eyes. For a few frames a tiny skull flashes in each of his eyes. In the theatrical release, as Gaston plunged to his implied death and his face filled the screen, two frames showed skulls in his eyes. For the VHS and laserdisc release, these frames were altered to remove the skulls from his eyes. However, no such alteration was made for the DVD release. The Disney Company claims that the skulls determined Gaston’s fate as fans were unsure whether he died or not at the end.
The first stained glass window seen in the prologue has the Latin phrase ‘vincit qui se vincit’, which means, in a subtle prefiguring of the arc of the whole story, ‘He conquers, who conquers himself’.
In the Mob Song, when Gaston says “Screw your courage to the sticking place”, this is a reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
