The History of the Hades Costume in the Disney Parks
Hello hello, friends! Welcome to our newest costume video. We’ve done a few of these in the past. So, if you haven’t seen them before, be sure to go check them out here. But TODAY we are digging into the Hades costume! The character from the Hades film is known for having a sarcastic sense of humor and somewhat explosive personality. For the costume: there are some super fun and wacky ones here and I can’t wait to share them with you, because we are definitely going to have a laugh together. Get comfy and enjoy!
As we usually do for these videos, we are starting by looking at the original costume within the film. One of the key things to note is the flames for hair and the smoke billowing around the bottom of his robes. Smokes and flames. First of all, very hard to make into a believable costume that a actual human can wear. Next, notice that all the fabric is black or gray. He’s got this lighter gray tunic with a robe draped over and held together with this silver, skeleton pin. Quite possibly the most difficult part to get right though is his face. I’ll just say that and we will get started.
Hercules Victory Parade
The Hercules film was released way back in 1997. With the release of that film, Disney opened a parade in Hollywood Studios in Florida and another in Disneyland in California. This first costume is still one of the most popular and frequently used costumes today. To achieve the flames for hair, they used a frizzy type of hair that would stand straight up and be two-toned blue as mock fire. To me though, it tends to just look floppy and messy when it isn’t tamed. You’ve got the two colors of gray for the tunic and the robe. And lastly, the cast member wearing the costume is completely covered in it from head to toe.
Hercules on Ice
Next we move over to a pretty rare Disney on Ice show. There isn’t much high quality video of this that I could find, but I found it interesting that they wanted to incorporate some of the fiery aspects into the costume. So, if you look closely, you’ll see some red and orange fabric along the sides. You’ll also notice that he isn’t wearing a tunic, but pants instead for this role. You can tell too that the skater has prosthetics to elongate his face, rather than wearing a full mask.
Hercules Museical
Now, back in 2003, the Disney Cruise Line produced a musical…called the Hercules Museical…you know with an “e” in it to be clever. Okay. You get the point. Anyway, this show really played on the humor of the film and keep a pretty upbeat pace throughout its entirety. Hades himself had a really caricatured and humorous take throughout his moments in the show—and that definitely extended to his costume. Specifically, the face. For the most part, actually, the costume is great! I love the colors, the sparkling in the robe, the accuracy of the color tones, but that big afro of hair and the intense prosthetics. I mean the whole top half of his face is so intense and then just drops off at the bottom. Where did his chin go??? It’s just so not right. Yes, the character was funny in this, but the costume was the wrong kind of funny.
Villians Unleashed
Then we jump to the Villains Unleashed show in Walt Disney World in 2014 with quite possibly the most terrifying costume of them all. Really. There’s something not quite right about the mouth. But the EYES. They look so empty and unseeing which really freaks me out. The one thing that I do find interesting is that this is the more colorful of the costumes. You can see that the robe glistens a bit and underneath has a really nice purple. They’ve added some color to the detailing in the collar and shoulders that adds a nice touch. But that’s only if you get passed the shock of that face. It’s got to be really hard for the creators to get that right though. I understand.
It’s Good to Be Bad
Moving onto quickly look at the “It’s Good to Be Bad” preshow in the same year, it looks like they have pulled on their old reliable costume for this parade as well. Still the very frizzy, untamed hair too.
Villians Tonight
I keep wanting to say the one I’m going to show you now is the craziest, but I don’t know which one is the craziest anymore. So, let’s just take a look at this one and you decide. One things I do appreciate is definitely the addition of the staff, but also the floor-length costume. Some of the ones we have seen before this only went to the ankle and I think this represents the original character best. You can also see some of the details along the bottom that represent flames. Since it would be tough to create a costume that had the rolling smoke of the film’s version, this is a nice touch to this costume here. Okay. But now we get to the face again. The oh-so troublesome face. I’ll just let this sit with you for a second. Really, I understand how hard this is and it shows because everyone has a different way of dealing with the prosthetics and the hair. But these…I don’t even know what they are. The mock flames that almost look like foam worms just don’t say “fire” to me. They did get the hooked nose right, but that strap-on wig and the tiny chin. I just. Yeah. I’m glad this one hasn’t resurfaced over the years that I can tell.
Long Lost Friends
Alright, jumping forward a few years to 2018, where Walt Disney World did a rare characters meet and greet. Here, you see the Hercules characters available to photos and Hades is seen in what I’m considering his most popular costume. One other thing to notice about this robe that you can see well is the wavy design going vertically along the robe—a detail unique to this costume. The thing I love about this one though is they have finally done something about his hair. I can’t tell if they’ve replaced it or not, but it’s definitely not the floofy mess that it was for the opening day parade. At least now it looks more controlled and actually resembles flames a bit more.
This video makes me think that they simply brushed and trained the hair before the last event since it appears to be all over the place again. Like, can I just step in and fix it? It’s absolutely one of my favorite iterations of the character since they don’t have to deal with the problematic facial prosthetics.
And that brings us up to today! Slightly shorter than some of our other costume studies, but in my opinion, much more humorous. You get a good look at how creative these people have to be in forming a character’s costume. Moreover how they choose to bring out the character’s personality from the original film to a costume that can be seen and felt in person.
Thanks again for watching, friends! Be sure to hit subscribe to us on Youtube to see more of our videos just like this and we will see you on the flip flop!
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