Go The Distance

As a kid, I disliked Hercules for a lot of reasons.

1. It took a lot of liberties with the original story.
   
2. I had a big crush on a specific girl when I went to go see this film and projected her likeness onto Megara. I quit liking her before the film came out on home video, but the association with Megara remains to this day, and really ruins that character for me.
   
3. I hated the new animation direction Walt Disney Studios was heading in. I loved the classics of the so-called Disney Renaissance (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King) and saw The Lion King, specifically, as the crowning achievement in Disney's excellent artistry. Pocahontas betrayed that march of progress, and Hercules sealed the fate (in my view) for the studio.
   
4. I couldn't stand the overabundant comic relief targeted towards very small children. Pain, Panic, Pegasus, and Philoctetes were all very annoying characters.
   
5. I didn't like how Disney allowed the voice actors' personalities to consume the Grecian gods'. Mercury and Zeus stand out quite prominently, but none was quite so bad as Hades. The whole "used car salesman" angle for his character disappointed me. Either go the full mile with a Satanic interpretation of Hades, or else stay loyal to the original mythos and have Hades be an actually sort-of-good guy whose only crimes ever have to do with Underworld themes (like kidnapping Persephone for his Underworld bride).
   
6. The plot itself didn't seem to hold up too well to similar "zero-to-hero" romance stories of Disney's, most memorably Aladdin.

Because of all these reasons, I have watched Hercules very few times since its release to home video. And because of this, I have minimal (re-)exposure to its soundtrack.

So imagine my surprise when I tripped upon this yesterday. Insta-addition to my iPod. o_o :D