Disney's Animated Storybook: Hercules

Disney's Animated Storybook: Hercules is the seventh entry in the Disney's Animated Storybook point-and-click adventure interactive storybook PC game series, based on theatrical and home video releases. The game is part of Disney's Hercules franchise, and is specifically based on the 1997 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Hercules, based on the mythical Greek hero Heracles and his defeat of the god of the underworld Hades. Disney's Animated Storybook: Hercules was developed by Media Station and published by Disney Interactive, who released the game on July 27, 1997. The game received mixed reviews from critics.

Conception
The vision of Marc Teren, VP of entertainment for Disney Interactive, was to create games with a "true and fair representation of the original property", and aim to capitalise as "ancillary products to successful theatrical and home video releases". To achieve this, Teren helped ensure the games were animated by Disney animators. From December 1994 to February 1995, the company had hired 50 new employees. Children's Business suggests the series came into fruition because in the contemporary entertainment market, it was "customary now for entertainment companies to release CD-ROMs to support a film or TV show".

Development
Disney and Media Station collaborated to create more than 12,000 frames of digital animation for each game, as well as 300 music and vocal clips. Digital music and sound effects were composed, orchestrated, arranged, edited, mixed and synchronized at Media Station. The games had hundreds of clickable hotspots that produced animated gags, as well as many mind-challenging interactive games. The voice cast sometimes consisted of actors from the films reprising their roles; meanwhile, at other times voice soundalikes were used.

Promotion
A playable demo of Hercules was featured in the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Gameplay
The game sees players follow along with an abridged version of Disney's 1997 film Hercules. Each page contains on-screen text, and interactive images that allow players to engage by clicking on various hotspots such as activities and karaoke singalongs. The game contains six games and activities in total.

Critical reception
The game received mixed reviews from critics. A writer from Entertainment Weekly gave Disney's Animated Storybook: Hercules a rating of B, commenting that the video game adds a Grecian flavour to Disney's "slick" series of digital pop-up books. Lisa Karen Savignano of AllGame gave Hercules a rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five. Rocky Mountain News reviewer Karen Algeo-Krizman gave the game an A score, noting that despite being part of Disney's "monstrous marketing machine", the game would win over parents due to its educational value. A reviewer of The Washington Post thought Hercules was an "ignorable, formulaic concoction" in one article published on July 11, 1997, while six days later The Washington Post writer Joe Szadkowski said in another article that the game was "completely new and original". Buffalo News said the game "frankly, ah, stinks". A reviewer from SuperKids wrote that the game was "disappointing in comparison" to previous Disney's Animated Storybook titles, noting that the game, like the movie, contained falsehoods about the Hercules story. FamilyPC's 19 playtesters gave the game a positive assessment.