Hercules and the All Nighter (10/21/98)
A pretty good episode
SPOILERS!!!!
This episode introduced us to that strange looking god I've seen in previous episodes and in the film, but didn't know who he was: Morpheus the God of Sleep. This is a slight inaccuracy since really Morpheus' father, Hypnos (Somnus) was the God of Sleep in mythology, and Morpheus was rather the god of "Dreams," but this is Disney's version of the god (and they made Narcissus a god, so go figure). The last time we were introduced to Disney's Morpheus was in the film FANTASIA, where he is presented as an androgynous figure who soops across the sky bringing on the night after Apollo's chariot returns to his stables. In this case Morpheus is wearing an extra-large robe. The next time we see Morpheus is a brief cameo in the film HERCULES where he is seen actually driving a chariot from which trails the night. And finally, in the series itself we see him pop up ocassionally in large groupings of the gods. Another curious aspect of Morpheus here is how he has changed. While the gods appearances have changed in many cases, primarily inspired by famed artist Gerald Scarfe, it is fairly easy to see that Disney used the original designs from Fantasia as a foundation for their newer, Scarfe models, except in this case the once soft androgynous Morpheus (complete with Snow White hairstyle) seems to have let his figure and looks go completely... Now looking more like a *tired* old drag queen (though this may have been an unintentional outcome). :-) Curiously, I find the androgynous, or amorphous nature of Morpheus' original design quite appropriate, for as his name suggests, as the god of dreams, it was his responsiblitly to *form* the images mortals see in their dreams. Another change to Morpheus' mythical role is that he has also taken on the role of Nyx (Nox) the Night or Selene (Luna), the Moon, or even Artemis (Diana) the goddess of the Moon, who were traditionally seen as the bringers of the Night.
As an aside, with the addition of Morpheus to the seires, that leaves only one god from Fantasia still not seen in this series, namely, Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. I'm not sure if she will appear, even in the background, since, in some ways, her role duplicates that of Hermes, as Messenger of the gods (particularly of Hera) and may have been seen as redundant or unnecessary for any scripts written for the series.
On with the review:
I thought it was funny and cute the way "Bob" fell asleep during his narration and seeing Phil in his jammies.
Icarus, Cassie and Herc all scheme to figure a way to cram for Mr.Herodotus' (Jess Harnell) exam and come upon the idea of talking Morpheus (Jonathan Katz) to laying off the sleep thing for a week. So Icky & Herc pay a visit to Morpheus. Mropheus refuses their request, but then they accidentally put him to sleep with his own sleep blanket. They decide to "let sleeping *gods* lie."
All over Greece and parts of Persia the sleeplessness was taking its toll, and resulting in a great number of mortal deaths. Of course Hades is more than delighted. Even Cassie and Icky react bizarrily to sleep deprivation. Hades posts P&P to prevent Morpheus from awakening, and even Herc can't pull the blanket off. It seems only one thing can waken Morpheus, Alectryon (Steve Hynter), the rooster with the power to awaken anything.
The myth of Alectryon according to Disney was a former student of Phil's who was being trained to beocme a 'glorified watchdog', only he became a failure when he fell asleep during sentry duty and was transformed into a talking rooster (no explanation of how or by whom). In the actual myth, the one Disney couldn't present, Alectryon was a youth that Ares had posted by the door during his dalliances with Aphrodite, to warn him of the Sun's approach each day, in fear that should Apollo see Ares & Aphrodite together, he would tell Hephaestus. Alectryon fell asleep and failed to warn Ares, and Ares was given a major thrashing by Aphrodite's husband! In retribution, Ares transformed the sleepy youth into a rooster, condemned to crow whenever the sun rises for all eternity, but I digress.
Anyhow the rest of the story presents Herc and Icarus' attempt to locate the fabled rooster, who is endowed to the power to wake anyone, even a god. But, even once they do locate the bird, they are confronted by Hades and his minions when they attempt to revival.
This story has some nice moments, and gives more insight into the goals of Hades. In most episodes we are under the impression that Hades deplores his role as Lord of the Dead, hence the desire to dethrone Zeus and usurp his role. This is also borne out by Hecate who sees Hades as unfit for his current positon, due to his obsession with Olympus. However, in this episode, as in "The River Styx" we see that Hades does indeed have a passion for his own domain.
Some very humorous moments include Pain & Panic's individuality which shows them opposing their master by predicting bad tidings resulting from the current state of sleeplessness, and later when they go about collecting all the roosters they can find in hopes of nabbing Alectryon before Herc. They bring all the fowl to Hades. In Herc's own search he fights an ugly looking boar who also talks. Apparently a myth not completely played out. Herc's plan works, despite Hades' offer to turn Alectryon back to human. In the end Herc and Icarus do Morpheus' job to pay for their bad deed. It was real nice to see Icarus use his wings and act as Herc's sidekick in this task.
Rich (xephyr) PANIC: The truth is up there.