January 21: A Hades-Fan's
Story
A Semi-Serious Look At Why I Love The Lord Of The Underworld
"Ish, this isn't a party, this is a wake.
I mean, and normally that would be a good thing, but ..."
~~ Hades in "Hercules and the Pool Party"
I freely admit it is an odd
obsession to begin with anyway, timing included -- but the fact that it started
when my guy was wearing a chef's hat and apron is even odder. Perhaps that's
part of the charm.
The whole
story? The obsession itself did indeed begin for me
on January 21, 2002 (yes, I have an exact date). But my first encounter with dear Hades was back in the Summer of 1997, when "Hercules" was
released to theaters.
I don't remember when we
went to see it, exactly, but it must have been sometime in late June or early
July. The whole family went: me, my mother, my six-year-old brother, and my father. I would have been fourteen at the time -- and, in case you haven't guessed, I've never given up on my obsession for all things animated, so even at this time I certainly didn't mind going to see Disney's latest. I didn't know, then, that this was going to be the last animated film the whole family would see, but that's how it would turn out to be.
And, to be frank, I wasn't
extremely impressed with it. A lot of the humor seemed so obviously aimed at
the adults, and I just wasn't getting into the film.
Which brings me to two
moments I will never forget: at the scene in the gorge, when the "children" are
trapped, one of them cries, "Somebody call I-X-I-I!" I was mystified, until I heard my father, two seats away, mutter something to my mother. Mom turned
to me then and whispered, "It's the Roman numerals for 9-1-1."
.
I giggled at the joke, then suddenly looked up in surprise at my father. My _dad_, paying marked attention to a cartoon? A _Disney_ cartoon?? Amazing! But the best hadn't come yet. The best was the scene that, to this day,
remains my favorite in "Hercules": when Hades is trying to close a deal with
Hercules to keep him out of the way for twenty-four hours. We were listening to
that famous fast-talking ...
I was kind of agape at this
odd Disney villain, but a sound to my right caused me to turn. And be even more
shocked. My mother was laughing quite hard, but that wasn't what was so odd.
But my _father_ ... he was _laughing_!� At a DISNEY MOVIE. This was, this was unprecedented.
This Hercules villain, Hades � had made him laugh. My father didn�t
laugh out loud like that very often. He had a definite sense of humor, but it
was different from my mother�s, and in our family he was more likely to grin in
private amusement than laugh out loud. I was shocked � pleasantly so. Well, we left the theater,
and that was that. Interestingly enough, Hades had made enough of an impression
on me that hearing the voice of James Woods when I got around to seeing
�Contact� was enough to make me sit bolt upright in sudden attention. And I
retained enough interest in this strange Disney character, though I never quite
understood why, to look around a bit at the career of Woods in general. When
the �Hercules� �verse became subject for a TV series, I was absolutely shocked
when I found out James Woods would be continuing as the voice of the Lord of
the Underworld. I can remember reporting the news to my mother and father in
the car one day, awed that a well-known, respected actor would spend his time
on a kids� spin-off series. �Well, maybe he didn�t want
the part of Hades to go to anybody else,� they pointed out, and I was inclined
to agree. Knowing even then that voice actors get little respect, my impression
of James Woods increased in admiration. I watched the show several times when
it came to ABC (I think it was ABC), but was never particularly impressed by
anything other than Woods� participation in the project. Time passed. My father
passed away in February of 1999, and all memories of him were taken out to look
at and tuck back away to treasure forever. Remembering our last Disney flick,
with my father actually chuckling at Hades, still brought a smile to my face.
It had been such an unexpected laugh � and now was a wonderful memory amidst
many others. Hades was not particularly
on my mind on the morning of So, I was moping to be
going back to school after such a nice break, and generally in a mild state of
depression at the moment, trying to get school stuff done and not think about
anything like how much I�d missed having my father at Christmastime . . . and
around five-thirty P.M. or so my Mum decided to take me and my brother on a
walk with the dogs, just around the streets of suburbia. Fine, I could use a break
from gloomy thoughts of school. I went downstairs to see my brother busy
looking at the Toon Disney channel on TV. There was a �Hero�s I sat down on the chair
next to the couch my brother was sitting on, and watched Hades flip hamburgers
on his Underworld grill and mutter to himself. �Why does Hades want all the
gods in the pool?� I finally asked my bro, as Pain and Panic began singing a
little ditty to encourage the gods to jump in. �It�s a Pool of
Forgetfulness,� he explained. �If all the other gods and goddesses forget their
memories, Hades can take over.� �Ahh,� I said, watching in
amusement. It wasn�t as funny as, say, the �Put out the Darkwing!� episode of
�Darkwing Duck�, but Pain and Panic were rather witty, and Hades looked kinda
cute in the �Kill The Cook� apron and chef�s hat he
had on. And then, The Lines. I don�t even know why we found it so funny. But
we did. �Zeus!� Wha, where you going,
leaving so soon?� �I was, um, ah, just looking
for the little god�s room.� �. . . Go in the pool.� �Is that sanitary?� �I meant, swim. SWIM in the
pool.� My brother and I paused for
one brief nanosecond, then erupted into laughter. And
I mean, laughter. We looked at each other in
absolute amazement, and then were gone again, not only by the expressions on
each other�s faces but by what we had just _heard_. It was _hilarious_. Hades�
words, his tone of absolute irony in an impatient situation . . . On a day when
I really needed to laugh, this little dialogue was amazing. Me
and my brother couldn�t stop laughing, either. We kept going well into the
commercial break, with me occasionally gasping, �I � I � I can�t believe
D-Disney HAD . . . b-bathroom humor like th-th-thaaaat!�� And then I�d be gone again. Mother finally came down, asking what on earth
was so funny. My brother and I repeated the dialogue, with plot explanations,
and she smiled, but I think she was more amused by _our_ amusement than the
line. I didn�t care. This was
_hilarious_. I knew, as we began walking the snowy, dark streets of our quiet
little town that evening and I was plotting how to tape the complete Herc
series and buy the film . . . I knew I had encountered a new obsession. And boy,
was I right about that! I knew, quickly enough, why
I had fallen in love so suddenly with the God of the Dead, with this most
unlikely of characters. It didn�t hurt that I had long had an interest in Greek
mythology, given to me by my father (the Persephone myth was my favorite of
stories long before I saw �Hercules�). . . but that
wasn�t the core reason. The main reason was because, in that one moment, I saw
one of Hades� defining characteristics � his sense of humor. In spite of all
the pressures, stresses, and obstacles in his world (plenty of which are
self-inflicted), here is a guy who keeps his sense of humor. He knows as well as anybody the importance of wit
and amusement in the day-to-day difficulties. I did more than admire that
quality when I saw it in this character � I knew that was something missing in
my own life. With Hades, fictional
character or no, I saw a role model in one respect: to remember to keep my
sense of humor. Humor is all we have, sometimes � but I wasn�t using mine as
much as I could have. I�m not saying I should try to laugh up everything and
never take time to worry about something bothering me. I�m saying that, in
day-to-day difficulties, and even in the larger ones, perspective and humor are
going to help you find your balance again. Hades was a great example of that,
and I jumped at this example of grace under fire. (Literally,
if you think about that hair!) Since suffering a loss of a
parent, I have learned that the world around us is not set in stone. There is
no guarantee of stability, no promise that nothing will ever change. And on one
level I suppose an interest in the Lord of the Underworld, Disney-ized version
or no, comes from my own attempts to understand Life and Death, and be able to
accept both of them. But most of all, more than
that, more than my former (and now current and future) interest in Grecian
mythology, more than my admiration for James Woods � my real love for this big
blue lug comes from his sense of humor. Even with pressure and personal
difficulties, the guy keeps goin�, and he does it by relying on an inner
amusement at life and everything around him. (I get the impression that, in
that respect, he and his voice actor are not that much different.)� Hades reminded me, at a time when I needed
it, that a little humor in your perspective of Life will go a long way. He
reminds me to this day. And for that, I�m thankful. �I�ll never forget that cold, dark January day,
when my brother and I were watching a simple cartoon � and I got such an
insight. And I�ll never forget that
fun Summer day, when my father saw the same thing . . . and laughed. �Hey, not to rush, but I
got things goin� on, I�ve got plans for August, I really need an answer like
NOW.� Back to The Main Page, Babe.
