The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1996
D: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
**********
Pros: Animation, Music, Story, Villain
Cons: Some Questionable Decisions from Characters
Today is the 25th anniversary of one of Disney’s best movies. Along with The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, it stands with the strongest entries of the Disney Renaissance. Oddly enough, I never really caught this movie as a kid, so my love of it is relatively free of nostalgia.
The movie of course takes liberties with Victor Hugo’s original book. It makes sense for Disney to take a straighter approach in contrast to the novel’s more deconstructive, satirical nature. One reflection of Disney’s popular and safe approach, as well as its 20th Century timing, its unequivocally positive treatment of the Catholic Church. While Frollo was originally an anti-villainous priest, the film version (a wonderful Tony Jay) is a secular authority who is pure evil. A heroic archdeacon (David Ogden Stiers) stops him from murdering an infant Quasimodo (in the book Fr. Frollo adopted him out of genuine kindness, although Judge Frollo tells something like this to Quasi), and moronically tasks him with caring for the child as penance. There’s something unwittingly prescient about the Church’s wagging a finger at a predator and then promptly putting him back into a position where he can continue to hurt children, but that’s hardly unique to Catholicism and a rant for another day. The archdeacon invokes the “Eyes of Notre Dame,” which some could interpret as the cathedral’s statues’ literally watching Frollo’s sins, but it’s more likely symbolic. Oddly enough, no true confession takes place outside Frollo’s rather questionable penance.
And Judge Claude Frollo is truly great villain. Vicious and beady-eyed with a grim baritone, he’s as evil as a Disney antagonist can get. He psychologically torments Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), keeping him cooped up in the Cathedral’s bell tower while conditioning him to fear the outside world. In the book, he does this out of apparently sincere overprotective impulse. One of the hardest moments to watch is when Quasi is being ritualistically humiliated by the mob during the Festival of Fools, and Frollo ignores his pleas for help, glaring at him with a mixture of sadism and contempt.
Frollo’s struggle with his sexual urges are only a mockery of complexity, as he only fears punishment in Hell. Despite this, he ignores his affected piety and vows to possess or murder Esmeralda (Demi Moore). It’s not everyday you see a Disney villain with sexual tension, and it’s bold of The Mouse to make such a move. People are likely to misread Frollo as product of religious fantacism, but if anything his nominal Catholicism is a force working against his malice. A sociopathic monster like Frollo would be far more at home in a secular utilitarian society that would give him no reason to resist his vices. There are also aspects of Reformed Theology that might appeal to a man who "saw corruption everywhere except within."
On the other hand, our heroes are more likable and idealized. Quasimodo may be ugly, but the art style makes him look sympathetic anyway. In the novel he is socially awkward and deaf. The movie version may be a bit shy, but he’s perfectly sociable and arguably charming in his demeanor. It also helps that he has a very disarming voice. He does show vulnerability in that he’s afraid to defy Frollo and rescue the heroine for a moment. Esmeralda is very heroic and always goes out of her way to help others, even when it goes against the crowd. Phoebus (Kevin Kline) is an intelligent and stalwart hero, whereas in the book he’s an oblivious buffoon.
Even Clopin (Paul Kandel) is reimagined as an amusing clown. The iconic “Sanctuary” line is faithful to the book. Other cast members include Mary Kay Bergman, Frank Welker, Jim Cummings, Corey Burton, Bill Fagerbakke, Gary Trousdale, Bob Bergen, Patrick Pinney, and Philip Procter.
Less enjoyable are those damn gargoyles. In the book we see Quasimodo’s speaking to the statues as imaginary friends, so it makes sense for Disney to reinterpret them as actual comic relief characters. This interpretation would hold more water if Victor (Charles Kimbrough), Hugo (Jason Alexander), and…Laverne (Mary Wickes, then Jane Withers after the former’s death) never do anything tangible, but they do in the final battle. If only they weren’t so annoying. Not one joke they make lands, if I recall correctly. Then again, the post-credits sequence did inspire a catchphrase from George in Seinfeld. Interestingly, the movie doesn’t do this with the church bells, which were also named by our hero.
The animation is of course beautiful, an example of Disney during the height of its 90’s grandeur. There are throwback elements with multi-layered painted backgrounds and foregrounds to boot. The movie also boasts some of the most consistently enjoyable music in any Disney flick. Most of the time, you just have to wait for the villain song, but there are at least four worthwhile pieces here. “Hellfire” is particularly memorable for incorporating sexual tension and the threat of eternal damnation. I rarely judge music by the lyrics, but this is a rare case in which the rhyming is so well-executed it actually enhances the musical aspect.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is among the best. Like Trousdale and Wise’s Beauty and the Beast, it possesses good moral and religious themes, and is overall very enjoyable. Like V for Vendetta, it’s an adaptation actually succeeds in being its own distinct work due to the combination of its quality and differences from the source material. It’s unfortunate that Disney will soon make an atrocious live-action remake of it, but as soon as that’s over with I think we’ll be through the worst of it.
Or not.
