34. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

While the childish and simplistic Pocahontas almost completely derailed the new, more serious style Disney created with The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame did a lot to get this new attitude back on track, becoming one of the darkest and most serious of all of Disney’s films. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a bold and different movie and while it does have some of those typical Renaissance elements we’ve come to expect, it does do a lot of things in a way no-one was really expecting from Disney. While it does have some problems, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a fascinating and touching movie that did manage to undo a lot of the problems with its predecessor.

For starters, the movie just looks incredible – the animation is right back to being lively and energetic and is on par with any other Renaissance film, with character designs that are all so different and yet all given so much time that every character feels truly alive. The backgrounds are breathtaking, the amount of detail put into the complex architecture of Notre Dame and the way it reflects mood and emotion is genuinely astounding; the backgrounds are so wide and vast, the movie has such a large scope which helps give the story and setting a strong sense of scale and importance, it just works perfectly. The colours are also fantastic, sometimes bright and vibrant, sometimes dark and muted, again to match the mood of the scene. This effect is compounded by the lighting, which is even better than in The Lion King and very possibly the best Disney has ever done; the long shadows, the beauty of the sunset over Paris, it just looks incredible. The scenes are so well framed, with so many amazing angles and this works perfectly with the lightning and colouring to really give the film a strong visual style; scenes such as Quasimodo moving between the columns of Notre Dame as the rising sun beams over him are just wonderful and stand on par with some of the greatest visual directors of all time. This movie is a real artistic triumph.

omg u guys look at all the hidden mickeys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The exquisite and detailed visual style is coupled with a mature and surprisingly dark story; the themes and ideas that are tackled here really are quite shocking to see in a Disney movie – lust and sexual power, racial persecution, the relationship between church and state, religious extremism, Stockholm Syndrome and the difficult fact that sometimes, even seemingly “good” people can be very cruel. Though the film is certainly optimistic and has its light hearted moments – it’s still a Disney movie – it doesn’t really pull its punches when it comes to some of the very adult issues it’s trying to deal with and never dumbs things down, unlike Pocahontas. While the film’s anti-prejudice moral has been done a bit too many times at this point, especially in Beauty and the Beast, it doesn’t stop it from being a valid one and it is handled far better here than in say, Pocahontas. Where The Hunchback of Notre Dame manages to avoid simply copying its predecessors is in the fact that it is less interested in tackling serious, wide spread discrimination and the problems of keeping an entire culture down (though it does address this with the gypsies) and more in the casual, everyday discrimination between ordinary people and how it is easy for us to forget it: we can all see that Ratcliffe or Frollo are wrong in their racism and they are so evil that we could never be like them; however, in the ordinary townsfolk who just think they’re having an innocent laugh at Quasimodo’s expense, we see ourselves. The film shows us how easy it is to mock or isolate those we view as different and that what we might view as a bit of harmless fun could have very serious consequences; it reminds us that casual, every day discrimination is just as hurtful as large scale racial prejudice, but much easier to turn a blind eye to.

Unfortunately, the “beauty is on the inside” message is perhaps a little complicated by the fact that the beautiful Esmeralda ends up not with the deformed Quasimodo, but with the traditionally handsome knight in shining armour, Phoebus. To some, this can make the message seem a little disingenuous, as if Disney is saying “well beauty is on the inside, but obviously don’t go out with someone REALLY ugly” or, if we consider Beauty and the Beast, “love them for what’s on the inside and they’ll transform into an attractive man, so then you can go out with them! If they’re still ugly, obviously don’t bother.” Still, unlike Beast, Quasimodo’s journey is not so much to find someone who can love him despite his looks, but simply to be accepted by the world. In this respect, it’s actually quite a welcome twist for a Disney movie that the hero doesn’t get the girl; Phoebus isn’t a bad guy and Esmeralda doesn’t make a wrong or shallow decision, things just don’t work out like Quasimodo had hoped and hey, sometimes that happens, whether you’re a hunchback or not. Again, the movie doesn’t pull its punches with the hard truths – sometimes, heartbreak happens, but there are always going to be people who care about you to pick you back up; Quasimodo accepts this and comes to learn the more important lesson that love and kindness can come in many forms and that you shouldn’t let one rejection keep you from living your life. With this in mind one realises that the fact that Quasimodo doesn’t get the girl is not only not counter-intuitive to the message of the film, but also slyly appropriate: Quasimodo spends twenty years of his life hiding away in the bell tower because he is so terrified of rejection; yes Frollo keeps him in there, but clearly Quasimodo could leave any time if he wanted to, the reason he doesn’t is because Frollo has convinced him that the one person who should have loved him unconditionally – his mother – abandoned him. If even his own mother rejected him, how could Quasimodo ever hope to be loved by anyone? Better to stay hidden away, where he can’t be hurt by others. The Quasimodo from the beginning of the movie would retreat back to the bell tower and give up on life if Esmeralda rejected him, however, the Quasimodo from the end of the movie has learned to accept that rejection is not the end of the world and that there are people out there who will accept him; what at first appears to be an awkward misstep in the film’s moral is actually a very intelligent piece of character development that helps strengthen the film’s true moral – “never give up on life, because for all the cruelty and rejection, there are truly kind people who will accept and love you for who you are.”

Frollo creepin’

The cast is relatively small for a Disney film, particularly one from the Renaissance era, resulting in a much more tight-knit, character based story. Quasimodo is a familiar type of early Disney protagonist, but he is utilised in an unfamiliar way – like Dumbo, Pinocchio or Bambi, he is very kind, sweet, innocent, naive and unfamiliar to the world; he is also passive and doesn’t really drive the story, which is mostly furthered by the other characters. However, Quasimodo isn’t boring, nor does he feel like a false protagonist who is pushed aside in favour of other, more interesting characters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is just more of an ensemble film – Quasimodo, Esmerelda, Phoebus and even Frollo’s stories all share equal time and importance, they are all essentially main characters, even though the story is ostensibly about Quasimodo. This is different for a Disney movie, which tend to focus on one or two main characters (usually the hero and their love interest), with a large supporting cast to provide comic relief. This revitalising approach allows Quasimodo to be who he is without becoming a boring or unsuitable protagonist, while also providing insight into other characters, even the villain! On top of this, Quasimodo is not as perfect as some of his predecessors, as we see he can be jealous and spiteful towards Phoebus and has some quite serious emotional and social issues, but he never stops being sympathetic. Even when he’s angry, there is still this real sense of kindness and sensitivity to him, he reminds me of John Hurt as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, you just want to give the guy a big hug in every scene he’s in. Quasimodo isn’t one of Disney’s best protagonists, but he’s certainly a very likeable and relatable one.

Esmeralda is awesome, she’s brash and cocky, but intelligent and capable enough to back it up, she’s tough and stubborn, but still kind and thoughtful; she’s one of Disney’s best female characters and it’s nice how she’s not just relegated to the hero’s love interest, but gets to be her own character with her own story – her struggle to keep herself and her people safe is given just as much weight and importance as Quasimodo’s struggle for freedom and acceptance. She unfortunately does fall out of the action a little towards the end and needs to be rescued, but this doesn’t negate how cool she is in the first half, I really like Esmeralda. Phoebus is a strange character in that he is a rival to Quasimodo for Esmeralda’s affections, yet he is also a heroic character; he kind of plays the role of Gaston as a good guy, the strong, handsome hero who is also interested in the main character’s love interest. Phoebus of course, is a good guy after all and Quasimodo learns not to judge him unfairly just because he is jealous, just as others learn not to judge Quasimodo because he is different; the film does a good job of making both characters likeable and showing both their points of view, so that it doesn’t seem unreasonable or unfair that Esmeralda chooses Phoebus in the end. Phoebus is suave, noble and just all around a pretty likeable guy; as a protagonist he would perhaps be a little too stereotypically perfect, so he works better as one of the lesser heroes.

Hellooooooo nurse

The biggest issue with the movie is with the characters of the gargoyles; on the one hand, they aren’t especially annoying, or at least not nearly as much as similar character types from earlier Disney films, but at the same time, their role as comic relief doesn’t really fit in such a dark and serious movie. They seem to be there just to fill a role that had become prevalent in the Renaissance films – the goofy, magical creatures that acted as sidekicks to the hero and provided comic relief; great for say, the enchanted objects in Beauty and the Beast, but not so appropriate for the tone that The Hunchback of Notre Dame is trying to create. Their relationship with Quasimodo is sweet and does work well, giving him someone to talk to and allowing the audience to see what he is feeling, but it also kind of undermines the whole aspect of his isolation and inability to connect with others, because instead of growing up with only the cruel Frollo for company, he seems to have had them as his friends for his whole life. This problem can be rectified if we choose to believe that the gargoyles are simply figments of Quasimodo’s imagination, representing his innermost feelings and given life so that he wouldn’t be so lonely; the film does seem to be heading towards this at first, with several moments where a character enters the room as Quasimodo is talking to the gargoyles, only to find lifeless stone statues, suggesting that Quasimodo is merely talking to himself. However, there are moments such as Hugo coming to life to woo Djali and the entire climax, where the gargoyles clearly come to life to attack the soldiers that show pretty definitively that the gargoyles are real and exist independent from Quasimodo. If they are indeed real, then their presence distracts from the message and atmosphere the film is trying to create, simply for the purpose to sell toys and market the film better to kids. I don’t dislike the gargoyles as much as some people do, but I have to admit, they really don’t belong here.

Frollo is a fascinating villain and one that it’s very hard to believe is even in a Disney movie, he’s not evil for the sake of being evil, nor is he simply greedy or selfish, but he genuinely believes he is doing the right thing. Frollo simply thinks that he is ridding the world of sin and evil and is willing to go to whatever lengths he has to in order to do so. Eventually, he is driven mad by the fact that he finds himself giving into the very sin he fought so hard to eradicate, tormented by his lust for Esmeralda, who he finds abhorrent, yet also irresistible; that’s actually a really complex and believable motivation. Not only that but he is just so horribly cruel and vile, committing such heinous acts as murdering an innocent woman, attempting to drown her infant child, trying to burn a helpless family alive and ultimately burning down all of Paris just to get to one woman, who he offers to spare only if she sleeps with him! Frollo is so monstrous and yet also so human, he may very well be Disney’s best villain and is certainly one of their most evil and frightening.

Phoebus and Butt-Head

The more serious attitude of the story and the sheer scope of its visuals are mirrored in the film’s musical style, which is full of big, sweeping Broadway numbers; it’s a very emotionally charged soundtrack, one more reminiscent of traditional stage musicals than most other Disney movies, making The Hunchback of Notre Dame relatively unique, at least compared to its peers. “The Bells of Notre Dame” shows this perhaps better than any other song, with its back and forth between Frollo and the Archdeacon, the occasional piece of dialogue, the way it blends in motifs of later songs, the chanting choir, it’s a very strong introduction to the film. “Topsy Turvy Day” and “The Court of Miracles” are just kind of average, they’re not bad, I just really have nothing to say about them; maybe I just don’t like Clopin, I don’t know. “God Help the Outcasts” is kind of the closest the film gets to a “Whole New World Number”; it’s a boring, sappy and preachy song. It’s not as bad as some songs of this type, but it’s just not up to snuff with the other songs here. “Heaven’s Light” is a much better song of similar style, being a slow and tender love song with simplistic, but heartfelt lyrics and it doesn’t run on any longer than it has to; it’s short but sweet. “A Guy Like You” is a charmingly fun and silly song and the most enjoyable thing the gargoyles do in the movie, though its role as a comic song doesn’t really fit in with where it takes place, at one of the darkest points of the film. Still, bonus points for rhyming ‘Adonis’ with ‘croissant is’.

The two best songs are the most grandiose:  “Out There” is a highly powerful and inspirational song – the lyrics are emotional without being overly sappy and sentimental, the music is bold, strong and confident, the animation is great, it’s just a wonderful sequence. It has similarities with songs such as “Part of Your World” and “Just Around the Riverbend”, but it is not as shallow as those; Quasimodo has been watching the outside world his whole life, we know exactly what he wants and he isn’t selfish or greedy, promising that ‘I’ll be content with my share’ if he can have just one day outside. Then, when Quasimodo finally does reach the outside world, we discover that, unlike in The Little Mermaid, it wasn’t as perfect as he hoped; surprisingly, the villain was right, as people cannot accept Quasimodo and are cruel to him. Quasimodo learns to be careful what he wishes for and not to idealise things in his imagination, but that doesn’t mean he should give up, he just needs to be brave enough to go out there and see the world for what it really is – which is more complex and wonderful than he could ever really imagine – and not let anything get him down; all this is expertly foreshadowed within this great song. The complete opposite to the bright and hopeful “Out There” is the dark and chilling “Hellfire”, which combines good lyrics with incredible visuals, the imagery of Frollo being surrounded by cloaked figures and then sucked into the fireplace as if being drawn into hell, for example, is fantastic. This is Disney’s only villain song which takes a serious look into the villain’s tortured psyche and motivations, rather than an upbeat number such as “Poor Unfortunate Souls” or “Gaston”, which really encapsulates the dark and mature tone of the film, with some very shocking lyrics for a Disney movie; it’s a truly disturbing sequence fitting for such a memorable villain. 

This looks like the cover of a Megadeth album

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is not without its problems, the characters of the gargoyles and the comic relief they bring really don’t gel with the rest of the film and though he is very likeable, Quasimodo can at times be a bit of a flat protagonist, while Phoebus and Esmeralda’s relationship is a little boring and not very well developed. Still, the characters work better as an ensemble than they do individually and Frollo is definitely an unforgettable villain. The film looks spectacular and inspires genuine awe and emotion with every scene, the songs aren’t all perfect but are strong as a whole, with two or three real gems and the story, while not necessarily complex, is refreshingly dark and mature, with a careful, multi-layered moral at its centre. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of Disney’s biggest and boldest movies; it is, in every sense of the word, breathtaking.


Other Thoughts:

• If the gargoyles really are imaginary, then this shot after they’ve just finished their elaborate musical number and Esmeralda enters is the saddest thing ever

‘Oh hi, Esmeralda. Just uh, just playing with my buddies’

8.5/10

Next Week: Hercules!

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