Mythicals with a good interpretation in cartoons

J

Jellybean Chic

New member
This comes mostly from me re-watching Billy & Mandy, and while I don't really like the show itself, I LOVE how the portrayed the Grim Reaper. The idea of giving him a Jamaican accent was so odd and worked so well, that I love it. (Unfortunately, this just makes the show more painful to watch because I hate the kids, but that's a different topic).

To give another example, I loved how Fairly Oddparents portrayed the idea of fairies, their rules, what they did, their society, etc. Then to introduce pixies and genies to show a contrast between how the three groups work was cool to see as well.

And to top it off with my favorite, Hades from Disney's Hercules. One of my favorite villains of all time. Watching a villain like that work just makes it seem like evil is more fun and full of laughs than full of despair and cruelty.

So how about you, were there any Greek gods, mythical beings, fantasy creatures or whoever that you believed to be interpreted really well in a series/movie/etc? Were there any you thought were done well, but placed in a bad show, or could have been interpreted better?
 
Well, since you mentioned "Fairly OddParents" how about mention another Butch Hartman creation, "Danny Phantom". It has a huge fanbase because Nickelodoen cancelled it, but it intrepreted ghosts in a great way.


Casper's Ghostly trio and all of the "extras" in the 3 forerunners of the "Casper" series were generic stereotypical ghosts.
 
Actually, I'd rather say I do not enjoy myths being portrayed into "Christian God expies" as people use the Zeus = God thing XD
 
I absolutely adore The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and I agree making Grim Jamaican was a fantastic idea. I heard it was because the actor who played him is an Islander and his accent slipped up during the audition by accident, but the directors liked it so much that they gave him the part. :lol: I also like how that show interpreted Eris and the Boogey Man.

I'm intrigued by the world of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and how they created a universe in which imaginary friends are real.
 
Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of how just because someone's a God of Death or the God of the Underworld automatically makes them evil. It just reeks of poor understanding of mythology.
 
I like how the greek gods were done in Class of the Titans, most of them have well-developped personalities. They are shown to have flaws and weaknesses, but also good qualities. They're not all-powerful jerks living on Mt. Olympus who like to mess with humans for kicks. Zeus for example is not just the guy who tosses lightning bolts, he's a powerful warrior and strategist. Hera is not a jealous shrew like in other fiction, but a mentor and rightly deserving of her title of Queen of the Gods. Ares and Hades, so many times used as the default villains, are good guys for once!
 
You know, I think Percy Jackson would be pretty cool as a toon- books, not the movie. The only thing I didn't dig was Ganymede as an errand boy. Which brings me to the inherent problem with Greek myths as family entertainment:

Disney's Hercules and the Thanksgiving from Hades. The guest list- Megara's father Creon, aunt Jocasta, uncle/cousin Oedipus, and revolution-seeking cousin Antigone. Herc's earth parents. Zeus and Hera. Then in comes Ganymede, Herc's old roommate from Troy. Zeus takes up with him, Hera goes nuts and curses Herc with madness for inviting Ganymede and then sets out to destroy Troy. She can't go after her brother/hubby's new lover as he serves everybody drinks and such on Olympus under Zeus' protection but she can go after his hometown. In his madness, Herc kills Meg and the kids. Oedipus discovers why his city is cursed, etc. Happy!
 
And to be honest, knowing that Hades is the single most sympathetic of the Olympians, seeing him vilified while all the others are made into unambiguous good guys is kind of jarring.
 
I wouldn't go that far, but they were definately the biggest highlights.



I wouldn't say he's the most sympathetic of the Olympians (I always found that to be Hermes; I mean, he's Zeus' son and yet he's just the messenger, that's pretty weak) but Hades definately didn't engage in as much superdickery as the other gods, he was neutral in every sense of the word.

The Disney Hercules TV show did things better here (it did several things better than the film, actually) and made several other gods not unambigiously good (Ares, Athena, Poseidon, Artemis...all had flaws and could be as big of jerks as Hades; they just didn't want to rule the cosmos is all.)
 
Lets not forget Scooby Doo, I mean I know that they are fake but other times not so much.

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Yet this does kinda stick Billy and Mandy out once again. How many other situations have the "angel of death" as a pretty dang likeable guy you'd probably enjoy buying a drink for and trading work stories with? All things considered, Grim was anything BUT evil. (No pun intended.)
 
Eris was brilliantly realized in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas .. I loved her 'smoky' shape-shifting, and Michelle Pfeiffer's voice performance was yummeh. :D
 
There's always been a fine line with stories of legend and putting a new spin on them for me.

Here's how I feel: When you portray a legend that has long following of stories and intend for your work to be high impact and hit a wide audience, you have a duty to ensure your version of that legend "does justice" by that legend, lore or mythos at hand.

In other words, I don't tend to like it when a series takes a legendary creature and really changes the mythos behind it.

Generally, I think its ok to dumb it down or make it more kid friendly to a point, but if its supposed to be a creature that is traditionally scary in lore and legend, it should generally stay that way with some exceptions.

To do otherwise, IMHO, is largely being lazy about researching it.

I don't have any good examples out of animation that spring to mind, but when I think about mediums that haven't done right by legends, I always tend to think of World of Warcraft. Trolls and Gnomes in particular just wain so far away from what a traditional Troll or Gnome. Its almost as if they've totally made up a new creature. The problem with this is that WoW is so wide spread, so well known, so easily referenced that it has essentially rewritten traditional lore of what a Gnome or a Troll is. Characteristics that usually go with those legendary races don't match anymore. People walk away from that game now not knowing any hints of traditional lore behind them.

To be, thats concerning because we have in essence erased those stories from culture.
 
Discworld, The Sandman, Bill & Ted, Meet Joe Black, The Book Thief, Dogma, I could go on as to how many times we've seen sympathetic and relatively neutral portrayals of Death. It's actually pretty rare to see the stereotypical evil grim reaper nowadays.
 
Not to start a religious debate or anything but there was a time where Zeus was believed to be an actual god and it was Greek Religion not Greek Mythology.

Not only that but that's how the whole story plays anyway so it's not like Disney made them into false god personas.
 
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