Claude Frollo

Claude Frollo, holding a baby Quasimodo. Art by Victor Hugo.

Claude Frollo is a fictional character from the Victor Hugo novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1831). Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He, at first, is shown in a positive light but later becomes the main antagonist of the novel.

Character

In Victor Hugo's novel, Dom Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is approximately thirty-six years old during the course of the story. He was an incredibly intelligent but morose young man who was orphaned along with his brother Jehan when their parents died. His studies lead him to become the Archdeacon of Josas of Notre-Dame and he also has a small fief which brings him a small amount of money, most of which goes to fund his brother's lifestyle of debauchery.

He has a deeply compassionate side. He rescues the deformed hunchback abandoned on the cathedral's foundlings bed and cares for him, raises him like a son, and teaches him a sort of sign language when Quasimodo becomes deaf. He adores his wastrel, scallywag younger brother Jehan, while at the same time chiding him for his insolence. He is a respected scholar and studies several languages, law, medicine, and theology. However, he becomes infatuated with alchemy, which brings people to claim he is a sorcerer. He also believes strongly in fate. His dour, prematurely aged appearance and extreme dislike and fear of women make him even more of an outcast and set him further apart from society.

He also has strong sexual passions, though he is a celibate due to his station within the church. These passions erupt in him through his contact with the beautiful gypsy girl Esméralda and eventually are his undoing. The young girl is repulsed by the priest, despite his numerous impassioned pleas for her to love him. He turns all his effort to either make her love him or driving her away forever in death, as to no longer "punish" him. Frollo is so infatuated with her that he loses his self-control, attempts to kill her consort Captain Phœbus de Châteaupers, and kisses her while she faints. He even stabs himself at the sight of her torture when she is turned over to the magistrate as a witch and a "murderer" of her erstwhile lover Phœbus. He becomes completely undone right before her execution and leaves Paris in a feverish madness, not realizing that his adopted son rescued her from the gallows. He also attempts to rape her when she seeks sanctuary in the cathedral. Quasimodo throws him off the heights of the cathedral to his death when the deaf hunchback sees him laughing at Esméralda's hanging.

Commentary

Unlike many of the film adaptations, he is presented in the novel as an extremely intelligent and complex man who is torn apart by deep unbridled passion. While Claude Frollo is generally considered the antagonist of the novel, Victor Hugo does not depict him as the villain in the strictest sense of the word. Although not as likable as some, he has attributes of the tragic anti-hero, including his morose and somewhat misanthropic personality, deep sexual passions, love of alchemy, and extreme possessiveness. And yet, he is a compassionate man who believes in fate and that he is doing the right thing. Frollo's eventual destruction due to his fatal flaws are a strong rebuke to the Roman Catholic Church's "vanity of chastity" and what can happen to a man when strong emotions are bottled up for too long.

Adaptations

The novel has been adapted to film on numerous occasions. The most interesting change perhaps comes from the 1923 silent film version, in which Frollo isn't the villain at all; instead, he is a good archdeacon, and the villain of the novel is actually his younger brother Jehan. This is also present in the 1939 adaptation, with the roles the same and Claude as the archdeacon and good brother. This is sometimes compared with the 1996 Disney adaptation, in which Frollo is a Judge, the Archdeacon is a separate character entirely, and the character of Jehan is omitted. Many conclude that such changes were made to avoid a negative reaction from religious organizations, although the results tend to be the opposite of the intentions. Typically, the adaptations omit Frollo's capacity for compassion, adding a selfish interpretation to his adoption of Quasimodo that is not present in Hugo's novel.

Actor	Version	Character
	Victor Hugo's novel	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Walter Law	1917 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Annesley Healy	1922 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Brandon Hurst	1923 Adaptation	Jehan Frollo
Cedric Hardwicke	1939 Adaptation	Jehan Frollo
Alain Cuny	1956 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Kenneth Haigh	1977 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Derek Jacobi	1982 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Ron Haddrick (voice)	1986 Adaptation	Frollo
Tony Jay (voice)	1996 Disney Adaptation	Claude Frollo (judge)
Richard Harris	The Hunchback (1997 film)	Dom Frollo
Daniel Lavoie	1997-2002, musical	Frollo
Richard Berry	1999 Parody	Serge Frollo
Alan Rickman	2007 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo
Tim Cross	2009 Adaptation	Archdeacon Claude Frollo

Disney adaptation

Template:DisneyChar Judge Claude Frollo is the central antagonist in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His voice was provided by the late Tony Jay, who had been chosen for the role based on his brief appearance as Monsieur D'Arque in Beauty and the Beast (which also re-teamed him with David Ogden Stiers, his co-star from the same film). Supervising animator Kathy Zielinski and her animation team were responsible for animating him.

Frollo is the minister of justice of Paris, France. He has a strong hatred towards the gypsy population, expressing a desire to terminate their entire race. In the film, Frollo murders Quasimodo's mother and reluctantly becomes his adoptive father, attempting to raise him to despise the gypsies and aid him in his quest to destroy them. Frollo's life becomes complicated when Quasimodo falls in love with Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer whom Frollo believes to be an evil witch. Frollo is known among Disney fans for being one of the most evil and realistic Disney villains. Whilst most other Disney villains who are portrayed as evil have magical powers at their disposal (e.g. Maleficent, Jafar, etc.) he almost committed genocide despite not having any magical aid whatsoever. Indeed throughout the film he openly commits acts of lechery, genocide and bigotry, all very mature themes for a Disney film.

In addition to being an adaptation of Hugo's character, Frollo is also heavily inspired by Cedric Hardwicke's character, Jehan Frollo (Claude in all but name), from the 1939 film version of the story, which The Hunchback of Notre Dame borrows several ideas from. Like this Frollo, Jehan has a deep hatred for the gypsies. He also rides a horse and wears a hat very similiar to Disney's Frollo. Also, he is not the Archdeacon, as in the novel, but rather a Court Judge under the King of France, like in Disney's version. Tony Jay even stated that he knew the part of Frollo especially from the 1939 film.

Appearances

Claude Frollo resides in Paris, France, where he is employed as a Court Judge. A deeply religious man, Frollo uses his position to inflict great suffering upon the gypsy population, believing them to "live outside the natural order" and engage in "heathen" behavior. One night, a group of gypsies attempt to enter Paris, only to be stopped by Frollo and his soldiers. When a gypsy woman attempts to flee, Frollo, believing her to be hiding stolen goods, chases her to the steps of Notre Dame and knocks her down the steps, where she suffers fatal head trauma. Frollo then discovers that she was the mother of a hideously deformed infant child. Frollo attempts to murder the infant by drowning him in a well but is stopped by the Archdeacon, who convinces him that, in order to save his soul from eternal damnation, Frollo must raise the child as his own son.

Naming the child Quasimodo (which means "half-formed"), Frollo raises him within the towers of Notre Dame, attempting to "protect" him from the human world. For all Frollo's strict discipline and religious guidance, Quasimodo remains an optimistic, free-spirited child over the next twenty years. During this time, Frollo has continued to gain power within the city, imprisoning, torturing and killing gypsies while convincing the public of their "evil" behavior. Prior to attending the annual Festival of Fools, Frollo encounters Captain Phoebus, a well-meaning soldier who is assigned the task of locating the infamous Court of Miracles, which the gypsies have taken as their official hiding place.

While attending the festival, Frollo discovers a gypsy dancer named Esmeralda, who simultaneously attracts and disgusts Frollo with her beauty; shortly afterwards, Quasimodo is revealed to have fled the tower and joined the festivities, only to be crowned the King of Fools and publicly humiliated. As the townspeople mock Quasimodo, Frollo refuses to help in order to teach him a lesson, and is disgusted when a defiant Esmeralda assists him instead. Esmeralda then ridicules and humiliates Frollo before escaping into Notre Dame, while a furious Frollo silently scolds Quasimodo.

Esmeralda claims sanctuary within the cathedral, although Frollo remains watchful of her behavior. That evening, Frollo is disturbed by his attraction for Esmeralda, believing a relationship with a gypsy will result in his eternal damnation (which he expresses in "Hellfire"). In this scene it becomes clear that Frollo is losing his mind as he struggles with his concepts of good and evil and his desire for Esmeralda. During the song he suffers from violent hallucinations, eventually passing out. Unbeknownst to Frollo, Quasimodo has allowed Esmeralda to escape the cathedral, and Frollo begins raiding villages in search of her.

Upon learning of Esmeralda's escape, Frollo is enraged and begins a ruthless campaign to "find the gypsy girl". He later attempts to murder an innocent family whom he suspects of collaborating with gypsies, but an appalled Phoebus intervenes and rescues them; Frollo declares Phoebus a traitor and attempts to execute him, but he is eventually rescued by Esmeralda.

Realizing Quasimodo assisted Esmeralda, Frollo convinces him that the Court of Miracles has been found and will eventually be attacked; a misled Quasimodo follows Phoebus to the Court where Frollo's army attacks and arrests the gypsies. Frollo then sentences her to execution while Quasimodo remains locked in the bell tower. She refuses to become Frollo's mistress and is prepared to burn to death, but Quasimodo escapes, rescues her after she passes out and brings her to the cathedral, shouting the famous line "Sanctuary"!. Frollo's men then attack Notre Dame, engaging in a violent battle against the townspeople and Quasimodo, who sends stones from the tower and eventually fills the street with molten lead.

After defying the Archdeacon and flinging him down a flight of stairs, Frollo attempts to murder Quasimodo (in a scene reminiscent of the shower scene from Psycho), ensuing in a violent struggle in which Quasimodo overpowers the deranged judge and informs him that for all the lies Frollo has told him, he knows that the only thing dark about the world is people like him. Esmeralda awakens, and Quasimodo rushes her to safety. Frollo chases him and Esmeralda onto a balcony overlooking the city, engaging in yet another fight with Quasimodo. In his hateful rage, Frollo admits to Quasimodo that his mother did not abandon him and that he never saved his life but rather killed his mother, and was originally planning to kill Quasimodo as well, and that he was now going to carry out his true intentions, by throwing his cloak over Quasimodo, causing him to fall over the edge of the balcony. Quasimodo manages to hold on and pulls Frollo along with him, and Frollo dangles momentarily for his life, but he is soon able to climb on a statue in perfect position to kill them. Frollo laughs maniacally and shouts "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!" but as he raises his sword, the gargoyle that he is standing on starts to break beneath his feet, causing him to lose his balance. Frollo grabs onto the gargoyle for dear life; however, the figurehead suddenly appears come to life- its eyes and mouth glow with fiery light, and it roars at him in demonic fury. Whether the gargoyle actually came to life or if Frollo, in his madness, was hallucinating again is not explained. As Frollo screams in terror, the gargoyle crumbles off the cathedral and sends a wailing Frollo plummeting to his fiery death below. Whether his body was found and buried is unknown.

Animation team

File:Kathy Zielenski Animating Frollo.jpg

Kathy Zielenski Animating Frollo.

Frollo was the first major solo character supervising animator assignment at Disney for Kathy Zielinski, who was responsible for bringing the villain to animated life (she had previously held the position at Kroyer Films on FernGully: The Last Rainforest, and had done supervising animation at Disney on minor characters with the assistance of others). This was significant not only to her career, but also to Disney history: she was the first female animator at the company to be given such a prominent task. As supervising animator, Zielinski did the majority of Frollo's animation, as well as helming a team of fellow animators assigned to the character. Because of the use of multiple branches of Walt Disney Feature Animation, the production team coordinated their efforts between the main studio in Burbank, California and the Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris studio in Paris, France. Frollo's animation process was, like all Disney characters, broken down into three main jobs: the supervising animator (who establishes the look and behavior of the character, as well as overseeing the other animators), the animators (who each handled the key motions of individual scenes), and the clean-up / breakdown / in-between animators (who refined the rough drawings of the animators so as to match for consistency, as well as filling in the missing motions between the key frame poses). Zielinski and the majority of the animators worked at the Burbank studio, while much of the clean-up animation was done in Paris. Via this process, the Frollo Team was able to complete the assignment.

Incidentally, according to statements made at an event in his honor at the Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks, California on June 21, 2007, animator Andreas Deja said that the Frollo assignment was originally offered to him, but that he chose instead to go to the Paris studio to work on the Academy Award nominated short Runaway Brain due to having recently animated a number of villains (including Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King). Despite his success with Runaway Brain, Deja still seemed to regret having not taken the assignment.

Other appearances

• Frollo appears in the Disney's Hollywood Studios nighttime show Fantasmic as one of the main villains called on by the Evil Queen to fight Mickey Mouse. He is destroyed along with the other villains in the show's conclusion.

• Frollo made appearances at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the daily Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade. In 2009, the parade will move to the Walt Disney Studios park at Disneyland Resort Paris and it is uncertain if Frollo will appear in this version, renamed Stars'n'Cars.

• Frollo also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.

• He makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the House of Mouse special House of Villains. At one time, he was sitting with the Mad Hatter, but he had no dialogue. He also appeared sitting near the two outraged guests, but still no dialogue.

• He is also a character in the Walt Disney World annual Halloween-themed fireworks show HalloWishes.

External links

• Many faces of Frollo
• Fansite
• Frollo in the Disney Archives-Villains.