Hercules: not a movie review

Hercules, the most awaited cartoon from Walt Disney is finally out. I took this chance to take my little sister to see it. As usual I spoiled the little brat, buying everything she desired, and of course what's a night out with her big brother without poisoning our livers with good old McDonald? But the kid is happy, and that's what counts.

The movie, for those that are going to see it, it's pretty cute. Take Alladin, replace the characters with Hercules and Maggie, change the architecture, put a goat instead of a genie, a horse instead of a monkey, and voila`. Instant cartoon. Just add water--colours. You need a kid beside you to see it, since they laugh where you grin, and they look at you funny when you laugh. As usual some parts of the cartoon are meant for adults, like the Karate Kid scene. If you look carefully you will even see Scar (from The Lion King) used as some sort of prop while Hercules is being posing for a portrait. I'm pretty sure I missed something else. I was just wondering how ironic it was that Hercules was some big, muscled, blonde dude in the middle of Greece.

Fortunately Disney added some colour (forgive the pun) by adding five African (Afro-Greek? I could say "black" but then I would be accused of being racist, which I'm not. Maybe someone could help me out here) Church choir-like singers to introduce the story and to sing in the various songs during the cartoon. Even if you have no siblings, drag your significant one to see it. They'll either hate you or love you.

We come out of the Plaza Cinema, and start walking down on Yonge, one of the busiest (and coolest streets) of Toronto. There is everything here, from sex to hex. It's also the largest concentration of "strange looking people". Perhaps it's a little wrong to define people that are different as strange, but for my 7 year old sister, downtown Toronto can be quite a circus. People with tatooes all over their bodies, strange type of clothing, Goths (why do they wear raincoats in July?).

What shocked her the most was people with their nipples pierced. That made her giggle for a bit. About every 50 feet or so, a teenage kid with expensive Doc Martens would beg for money.

Finally at McDonald, before we get served, we had to witness the two managers in some socio-political fight about who is supposed to make the fries.

"Look, I've got more seniority over you," said the man "I have more important things to do than to serve fries right now"

"I don't think that stepping down sometimes" interrupted the girl "would be too hard right now!"

Apparentely they were short-staffed. Such a big deal over fries. You're running McDonald, not some critical NorAD base.

My sister ordered her favorite, Chicken Nuggets meal, while I had Chicken Club. For some reason McDonald's burgers have no appeal (or flavour) and look very disappointing. I guess that the fact that my girlfriend is Sikh, it is slowly pushing me away from pork and beef.

While I was waiting patiently for my sister to finish her six (6) Nuggets (it took her 47 minutes as she took miniscule bites and praised every single one of them by dipping them in the various sauces provided), I took a look around. Hercules was now slowly taking over the Batman gadgetry. Hercules cups, plates, toys. I got suckered into buying Pegasus for my sister. Working during the weekends at a grocery store, it's interesting to see all the products that get plastered with Batman or Hercules logos. Even Uncle Ben's Perv^H^H^H^HConverted Rice showed off a bright Batman logo. "Mom! Mom! Quick, can you make rice tonight?" just to get a little sticker. What was ironic is that Hercules itself (the cartoon) was making fun of this. The fame of Hercules had vases, pop drinks and Air-Herk shoes all sculptured around his image.

I guess for the first time I saw Toronto through the eyes of my 7 years old sister. I felt for a minute a sense of non-belonging, and I held her little hand tight just to assure myself that she was still there. When I walk around town by myself or with my friends, I don't really see anything. In "one eye, out the other" if you'll forgive the poetic licence. I believe there is too much noise in this world, and it takes a little kid's eyes to make us see the obvious.