With JK Rowling’s wizarding world falling from favour for all sorts of reasons, it’s the perfect moment for Disney to make a play for the YA fantasy market with its new adaptation of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians novels (Disney + from Wednesday). It’s essentially Harry Potter meets Hercules: a tale that casts a young boy with extraordinary powers against an army of foes drawn from Greek mythology.
There is little original here. Not even in the concept of a retelling of the books, which have sold 180 million copies worldwide. This is, after all, Hollywood’s second tilt at Percy, with a 2010 movie by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus and featuring Pierce Brosnan came unstuck in a morass of iffy CGI.
The special effects are also rather creaky throughout the Disney+ series, which comes with the blessing of Riordan. That’s despite a reported $10 million per episode budget, making it one of the most expensive kids’ TV properties of all time.
Much else is set right, however, in a show that recreates the derring-do of the books. Newcomer Walker Scobell is Percy, a 12-year-old misfit bullied at school in Manhattan and growing up feeling he doesn’t fit in. If that sounds like Spider-Man without the web-slinging, that’s where Percy Jackson is headed – though, rather than become a comicbook hero, Percy is eventually packed off to a training camp for “Half-Bloods” overseen by the deadpan Dionysus (Jason Mantzoukas).
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Half-bloods are the super-powered offspring of children and gods. In her misspent youth, it turns out that Percy’s mother (Virginia Kull) had a fling with top-trident toter Poseidon. Nine months later, she gave birth to a child who could manipulate water. That ability comes in handy when bullies try to shove Percy’s head down the loo, and he causes the toilet to explode. It also makes him a target for the zealous and jealous Zeus, played by the late Lance Reddick in one of his final roles.
Percy Jackson was one of the first kids’ publishing franchises to break big post-Potter, and its central premise of a misunderstood child revealed to have a special calling carries with it a certain amount of cliche. Still, as a crash course in classical myth, the series is a hoot, and the first episode alone has our plucky hero tangling with a minotaur and harpy – not to mention his mother’s sad-sack new husband (Timm Sharp).
Riordan has a keen interest in Irish mythology and holds a masters in the subject from UCC. He also spent time in the Waterford Gaeltacht and is believed to be working on a book cycle based on Irish myth.
Until then, though, Percy Jackson and its many spinoffs must suffice. The novels are agreeably zippy, and Percy is an engaging character. On the screen, the wonky FX detracts from the charm. But those over Harry Potter and still looking for a magic-wielding underdog in whom to invest will find lots here to enjoy.
