Hydra (Disney)

"Will you forget the head slicing thing?!"

- Philoctetes yelling at Hercules to stop beheading the Hydra.

The Hydra is a giant female dragon-like monster that appeared as a minor antagonist in Disney's 35th full-length animated feature film, Hercules. She is based off the original Hydra, a monster that fought the original Hercules in the mythical Greek legend.

Her vocal effects were provided by Frank Welker, who also voiced other characters such as Scooby-Doo in the Scooby Doo franchise, Jabberjaw in Jabberjaw TV franchise, Doctor Claw in the Inspector Gadgets TV franchise, the Cave of Wonders in Disney's Aladdin, The Trolls in Willow film and the Spiders in Eight Legged Freaks.

Hercules
The Hydra was once a minion of Hades who was commanded her to kill Hercules. In the epic battle, when she swallows Hercules, Hercules cuts off the Hydra's head by slicing at her throat from within.

However The Hydra was not dead yet, and three more heads grew in her place. Hercules continued to cut off the heads in a vain attempt to kill the Hydra. Apparently, it was a jungle of heads, and Hercules seemed to be unable to kill her. Eventually, Hercules came up with a plan, and tricked the Hydra. He let her grab him with her claw and pin him to the side of a cliff, intent on delivering a killing blow. At just the right moment, Hercules used his immense strength to deal a powerful punch to the cliff. This fractured apart the cliff enough to cause an avalanche of rocks to pour down as a massive rockslide. This rockslide crushed the Hydra, killing her permanently.

Hercules: The Animated Series
In "Hercules and The Long Nightmare", Phantasos, Morpheus's brother, used the nightmare mat to make a bad dream and frame his brother. Hercules had a dream when he walks to The Mount Olympus to see Zeus and Hera, the Hydra appears she grabs Hercules's cape and swallows him and her three heads turn into faces of Phantasos. The Hydra appears Hercules bravely tricks the monster then grabs the Hydra's head, tangles them, then he grabs the tail, spins her around, and throws the monster into a hole before Phantasos turns into Typhon the father of all monsters.

In "Hercules and the Arabian Night", Hades thinks of where to place his monsters, including the Hydra and Nessus the centaur, during his first meeting with Jafar.

In "Hercules and the Parent Weekend", The Hydra appears as a baby during the song of Echinda and  she is one of Echinda's childrens.

In "Hercules and The Gorgon" The Hydra as a baby was seen along with her other monsters like Medusa, Cyclops, a harpy and The Minotaur at The Underworld where they were invited meeting to Pain and Panic to the orientation.

House of Mouse
In "Salute to Sports", the Hydra briefly appears in Philoctetes's Hero-Training Program advertisement with Donald Duck before the end.

Kingdom Hearts
The Hydra also makes her appearance as the boss in the videogame Kingdom Hearts II Hades sends The Hydra to kill Hercules however she's playing dead and successed by destroying The Olympus Colosseum and killed by Sora. The Hydra will likely returns in Kingdom Hearts III and also likely to have a The Hydra Cup.

Trivia

 * The Hydra is based on the Lernaean Hydra, a serpent-like water monster of Greek mythology. It originally had nine heads, one of which was believed to be immortal, that would replace each other in the same manner as the Hydra in Hercules, and was killed by Heracules as the second part of his twelve Labors after the Nemean Lion.
 * As stated in the myth, Hercules slew the Hydra by slicing off its heads, then using a torch to cauterize the stumps left. The immortal head was sliced off like the others, and was buried under a rock.
 * The Hydra is rendered in CGI, unlike the rest of the movie which is in hand-drawn animation. This was done as it would have been incredibly difficult to draw each head individually.
 * In Once Upon a Time, the Hydra does not appear. However, when Hercules tells his twelve labors to a teenage Snow White, one of his medals represent the creature.
 * The Hydra is similar to Sammael from the 2004 live action film, Hellboy, as they have the ability to regenerate, though they can still be killed with the proper methods.
 * According to the Disney Read-Along story of Hercules, the Hydra grew a total of 30 heads.
 * However, the math shows if Hercules removed one head and three more were added up to 14 times, the result would be 29.
 * According to Greek mythology, the Hydra is the offsprings and daughter of Echinda and Typhon.
 * In Hercules The Animated Series instead of adult The Hydra was a baby and one of Echinda's children just like her brother, Cerberus.

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Hydra (Disney)