Elizabeth Balzer

Blech. What a horrible adaption. It lacks any and all of the "grace" of the movie, butchered a few of the running-jokes in the movie, quotes stupid lines from the movie, yet ignores interesting or poetic lines in favor of the author's own contrived garbage. Not only that, but as a picture book, the language wasn't very appropriate for the intended audience. Yes, you should include some difficult vocabulary in a book to try and push readers, but throwing too many new words into a book (especially one intended for younger readers) will potentially turn off a reader. Some of the vocabulary I'm talking about:
catastrophic
lavish
swagger
sullen
writhe
crone
taut
intone
vial
careen
colonnade
desolate
bandy-legged
All this before he even becomes the bulked-up Hercules he spends most of the book as. A few of these words would be fine, but all of them together in so short a space is just going to overwhelm most young readers.… (meer)