Personal Overview: I only really had a nodding acquaintance with Victor Hugo’s classic, having never read the whole
thing or even seen some of the films based on it. I never got around to seeing
this on release as the subject matter didn’t really thrill me, so this was my
first watch.
I suspect Disney saw the potential for a
stage musical on this one, a little like Phantom of the Opera, and decided to
test the waters with this presentation.
The voice cast is absolutely top notch
including Tom Hulce as Quasimodo, Kevin Kline as Captain Phoebus and Demi Moore
as Esmeralda. Seinfeld star Jason Alexander also appeared as one of the talking
gargoyles.
A quick check of a précis of the original
work shows that Disney took plenty of liberties with it to fit it into their
format.
Even then it’s one of the darkest works I
can ever remember seeing them present. That very darkness is a little hard to
take in an animated work and it’s probably the darkest thing they did since The
Black Cauldron. They also had to tread carefully as the original mentions
religion a lot and the bulk of the action does take place in a cathedral.
I found the ending a little odd, too. All
film Quasimodo has a huge crush on the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda and yet
at the end he happily steps aside for Phoebus. Phoebus is a good guy too and
Esmeralda genuinely likes him, but if you’d already changed the original so
much (Esmeralda was executed and Quasimodo died of starvation because he
wouldn’t leave Esmeralda’s corpse) maybe you could make one more small
alteration and give Quasimodo the unlikely, but narratively sensible, happy
ending. He is still happy, or at least he’s drawn that way, but it still left
me a little unsatisfied.
Hero/es: the 3 principals all get their
turn at being heroes. Quasimodo of course, and just like in the book he’s the
one who cause Frollo’s death after the man murdered his mother and made his
life a misery. Phoebus being the captain of the guard and man of honour is the
text book hero. Esmeralda is both love interest and hero. There was a bit of a
push to make her an official Princess, arguing that she was a gypsy princess.
She’s certainly an important figure in that community, but I don’t think she’s
ever referred to as a princess.
Villain/s: that’s Frollo. Like with
Ratcliffe it was very obvious from the way he was drawn and of course we do see that
he kills Quasimodo’s mother at the start. In the book he’s the archdeacon, he
was portrayed as a puritianical, hypocritical, gypsy hating judge in this.
There was an interesting song in which it became clear part of his problem with
Esmeralda was caused by him lusting after her. British Shakespearean actor Tony
Jay did a great job with the voice here.
Cuteness Factor: not a lot to look at here.
It’s a dark film. The closest I could come would be Esmeralda’s goat Djali. The
three gargoyles that Quasimodo counts as friends are also comedy relief, but
it’s debatable as to whether or not they’re really alive. They only talk to
Quasimodo and the hunchback has probably been forced by loneliness to think
that they’re alive.
Animation: the humans in this were largely
unremarkable, except for Quasimodo, and even he’s been toned down a little. The
star animation wise is the cathedral. The artists must have studied this place
inside and out until they were seeing it in their sleep because they did a
great job on it. It’s so well done that it becomes an extra character.
Final Words: both uneven and dark. It did
good business at the box office, but at this stage Disney was a juggernaut and
could do no wrong with a big animated release. Audiences were prepared to cut
them a fair bit of slack. It did become a successful musical, although this was
a German production and as yet has not eventuated in English.
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