| “WILL YOU FORGET THE HEAD SLICING THING!” |
| —Phil during Hercules's fight with the Hydra. |
The Hydra is the minor antagonists large, female multi-headed serpent like monster appearing in Disney's 1997 feature film, Hercules. In the film, Hades summons the Hydra to destroy Hercules, though Hercules manages to defeat her, earning him fame and adoration from the people of Thebes.
The Hydra starts out with only one head, but any time one of its heads is removed, three more replace her.
Background[]
Physical appearance[]
The Hydra is a massive, female reptilian dragon-like creature with dark purple skin and snake heads. her body is rather bulky and its crawls using two four-fingered hands with white claws. She has a long, thin tail and each time one of her heads gets cut off, three more grow to replace her. Her number of heads can apparently grow exponentially up to thirty in Hercules, though in Kingdom Hearts II its maximum is seven. All of the Hydra’s heads are identical to each other, each sporting the same long, serpentine neck, large mouth filled with white fangs, orange eyes with slit pupils, and spikes lining the top of their heads down the length of their necks.
Appearances[]
| “Ph-Ph-Phil what you call that thing. TWO WORDS AM-SCRAY” |
| — |
Hercules[]
The Hydra is the first obstacle sent by Hades to kill Hercules. She is trapped under a boulder until Hercules unknowingly releases her in rescuing two boys from under the same boulder who turn out to be none other than Pain and Panic (Hades' henchmen) in disguise. The two thank Hercules before running off to Hades and leaving the hero to feel a false sense of accomplishment, oblivious to what consequences would come of his actions.
The Hydra surprises Hercules by approaching him from the back, forcing the hero into combat until the monster lunges at him and knocks his sword back. Hercules defenestrates the beast by hurling a boulder into her mouth, but it only crushes her into stones and laughs. When the monster next strikes, he holds her mouth open and slams her head into the ground, giving him time to grab his sword. However, the Hydra wraps her tongue around his ankle, hurls him into the air, and swallows him. While in the monster's throat, Hercules decapitates her with his sword from the inside-out. The hero is again lured into a false sense of security before, as Hades expects to happen, the Hydra sprouts three more heads such as a lion and a goat and end the tail sprouts as a red serpent. they chases down Hercules and causes the spectators in the stands to scatter. Pegasus then lifts the hero off the ground and Hercules fights back, to little avail. With each head he chops off, three more grow.
Hercules is knocked off Pegasus and falls into the the monster's forest of heads, he barely makes it through before he is send flying the air. The Hydra then grabs him and as it is about to finishes the young hero off, Hercules notices a rocky cliff that he quickly punches which courses an avalanche of rocks to fall. The Hydra froze as both of there heads look up in fear, when she and Hercules are soon buried and crushed, finally killing the Hydra for good.
All that is seen of the Hydra after the rockslide was it's right arm, Phil, Pegasus and Hades then thought that Hercules was now dead, however all the sudden the Hydra's arm started moving, the people are afraid at first thinking that the Hydra is still alive, until it was revealed to be none other then Hercules who survived, everyone soon started cheering for Hercules as the light shine on a new hero.
During the song, Zero the Hero, everyone is watching a play of how Hercules bravely fought the Hydra in battle.
Hercules (TV series)[]
The Hydra only made five minor appearance in the series. In the episode "Hercules and the Parents Weekend" The Hydra appears as a baby during Echidna song "What's a Mother To Do?" with the rest of her monstrous children.
In Hercules and the Long Nightmare, Morpheus the god of sleep younger brother Phantasos really wanted his brother's job and centuries later is still jealous. In an effort to make Morpheus look bad, he spreads his own blanket of nightmares over the world, causing Hercules and Phil and the rest of Greece to have bad dreams.,Hercules bad dream was facing The Hydra Hercules confronts her rather than running away, and she turns into Phantasos who was force to come to reality.
In Hercules and the Arabian Night, Hades thinks about where he can put the Hydra when he meets Jafar for the first time. We can see also a little figure of the Hydra in this sequence.
In Hercules and the First Days, A head of The Hydra was seen in the museum.
In Hercules and The Gorgon, The Hydra was seen in The Underworld along with other monsters like Medusa, Cyclops, a Harpy and The Minotaur, where they were invited by Pain and Panic in The Orientation.
House of Mouse[]
The Hydra appears briefly in the Philoctetes' Hero-Training Program advertisement at the end of the episode "Salute To Sports" when it grabs Donald Duck with it's feet.
Video Game Appearances[]
Hercules[]
Kingdom Hearts II[]
The Hydra appears in Kingdom Hearts II as a boss at Olympus Coliseum. Sora must battle with the help of Megara, Phil and Pegasus to defeat her. Hades sent the Hydra to destroy the Olympus Coliseum and kill Hercules. Hercules had to fight her in the Coliseum and believed he had knock her out. However, she was in fact playing dead and started to destroy the Coliseum. Sora then fought her with his friends and beheaded her until she could no longer grow heads. However, the aftermath of the battle was rather unfavorable—the Coliseum was destroyed and Hercules lost his hero's glow, making him later fall prey to the plans of Hades.
Trivia[]
- The Hydra is based on the Lernaean Hydra, a serpent-like water monster of Greek mythology. It originally had nine heads that would replace each other in the same manner as the Hydra in Hercules, and was killed by Hercules as the second part of his Twelve Labors after his first labor The Nemean Lion.
- As stated in the myth, Hercules slew the Hydra by slicing off its heads, then using a torch to cauterize the stumps left.
- The Hydra is rendered in CGI, unlike the rest of the movie which is in hand-drawn animation. This was done as it would have been incredibly difficult to draw each head individually.
- In Once Upon a Time, the Hydra does not appear. However, when Hercules tells his twelve labors to a teenage Snow-White, one of his medals represent the creature.
- According to the Disney Read-Along story of Hercules, the Hydra grew a total of 30 heads.
- However, the math shows if Hercules removed 1 head and 3 more were added up to 14 times, the result would be 29.
- The Hydra was also given the name for a snake the largest of 88 constellation.
- Some of its sounds were recycled from the T-Rex from the universal film, Jurassic Park.
Gallery[]
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