The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
| The Hunchback of Notre Dame | |
|---|---|
| File:Hunchbackposter.jpg | |
| Directed by | Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise |
| Written by | Victor Hugo (novel) Irene Mecchi Tab Murphy David Stainton |
| Produced by | Roy Conli Don Hahn |
| Starring | Tom Hulce Demi Moore Tony Jay Kevin Kline Paul Kandel Jason Alexander Charles Kimbrough Mary Wickes |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
Release dates | June 21, 1996 |
Running time | 87 min |
| Language | English |
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (also known as The Bells of Notre Dame in some countries) is the thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was made and produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996, and loosely based on Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. While the basic structure remains, the film differs greatly from its source material. The plot is centered on the gypsy girl Esmeralda; Claude Frollo, powerful and ruthless judge, who lusts after her; Quasimodo, the protagonist and kind-hearted but deformed bellringer of Notre Dame, who adores her; and Phoebus, the chivalrous if irreverent military captain, who holds affections for her.
The film was produced by Don Hahn, and directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. The songs for the musical film were composed by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
Plot
Template:Spoiler The movie starts with Clopin telling us about Notre Dame, its bells, and its bellringer. He then narrates a scene with gypsies attempting to hide. Judge Frollo arrives and chases one of the gypsy women, who carries a baby he thinks is stolen goods. He knocks the woman onto the steps of Notre Dame cathedral, takes the baby, and discovers it is deformed. Frollo goes to drop it down a well, but the Archdeacon of the cathedral stops him, and says he must raise the child. He agrees, and decides the child should be raised in the cathedral, and live in the belltower, where no one can see it. He named it Quasimodo, meaning half-formed.
Twenty years later, Quasimodo realises he can't just stay inside. He plans to go out, but then changes his mind. Meanwhile, Phoebus, captain of the guard, comes back to Paris and meets the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda. He gives her some coins. Later, at the Festival of Fools, Quasimodo, who has sneaked out of Notre Dame, is chosen as the King of Topsy Turvy Day for having the ugliest face in Paris. He is tortured by the crowd, and Esmeralda saves him.
Soon after, Quasimodo goes back inside the cathedral. Esmeralda does too, and then Phoebus enters. She fights him, and instead of arresting her, he lets her live and be taken out the church by the Archdeacon. Frollo sneaks up behind her and grabs her arm, saying she outwitted him but he's a patient man. He then sniffs her hair; she asks what he's doing, and while caressing her neck he says, "I was just imagining a rope around that beautiful neck." He soon leaves and she is trapped. Quasimodo helps her out, and later, Phoebus finds her again and when Frollo makes his move, Phoebus and Quasimodo go to the Court of Miracles where they are captured. Later, Esmeralda is tied to a stick by Frollo's men and prepared to be burned. Frollo tells her she can be with him or burn, then sets the fire and Quasimodo breaks free of his chains and saves her.
Quasimodo then sets the gypsies free with Phoebus's help and has a small battle with Frollo which results in Frollo's death. Esmeralda is saved from Frollo's lust, and she ends the movie with Phoebus, and Quasimodo is made the hero. Template:Endspoiler
Voice cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Tom Hulce | Quasimodo |
| Demi Moore | Esmeralda |
| Tony Jay | Judge Claude Frollo |
| Kevin Kline | Captain Phoebus |
| Paul Kandel | Clopin |
| Jason Alexander | Hugo |
| Charles Kimbrough | Victor |
| Mary Wickes | Laverne |
| David Ogden Stiers | The Archdeacon |
| Mary Kay Bergman | Quasimodo's Mother |
Singing voices
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Heidi Mollenhauer | Esmeralda |
Supervising Animators
Overview
Hunchback is considerably more adult-oriented than the usual Disney fare and touches on themes of sin, religion, and hate. In addition, some disturbing images appear throughout the movie, such as one scene in which the sounds of a prisoner being whipped are heard in the background. As the company has a reputation as a makers of children's animation, this resulted in criticism. On the other hand, others praised the film for the very same reasons it was criticized, and the film was one of the last products of Disney's 1990s renaissance in the production of animated features, which spawned The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Pocahontas. The film was still successful, opening at #2 and taking just over $100 million in domestic income and $325 million worldwide.
Critiques
The film has been acclaimed for its visual and artistic merits, and its technical advances in the combination of hand-drawn and computerised animation. Notable details include the use of computer-generated imagery to create otherwise infeasibly large crowds, and the use of actual Christian latin texts and music in the background.
It has also been criticized, along with several other film adaptions of Hugo's novel, for oversimplifying, if not eliminating several of the thematic elements of the original book. The character of Gringoire is absent entirely, and Quasimodo's sidekick trio of gargoyles - Victor, Hugo and Laverne - would look rather out of place in the book, as would the eventual ending. As it is a production of Disney and geared primarily toward children and families, however, some of the alterations are far from irrational.
Both sides of the political spectrum had issues with the movie. Right wing conservatives wanted the song "Hellfire" removed, as Esmeralda looked "overtly seductive" and didn't like Frollo's faith as a character flaw, or hamartia for that matter. Liberals on the other hand objected to the term "Hunchback" and wished for a renaming of the title. Disney ignored both of these complaints.
One particularly notable criticism of the movie is that it handles the theme of religion very differently (and much less controversially) from the novel. The most striking illustration of this is that although the movie omits a number of characters from the novel (such as Gringoire and Paquette), it also adds a character in the person of the benevolent but ineffectual archdeacon of Notre Dame; Frollo was the archdeacon in the novel. Still, part of Frollo's hatred for the gypsies stems from his religious beliefs.
Trivia
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame received one Oscar nomination for Best Original Score by Alan Menken.
- This was Mary Wickes' last film. She died of cancer before she finished all her lines (Jane Withers provided the remaining dialogue).
- Mary Kay Bergman, who provided the voice for Quasimodo's mother, committed suicide in 1999.
- The names of two of the gargoyles are Victor and Hugo, after Victor Hugo, author of the original novel.
- Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Carpet from Aladdin, and Pumbaa from The Lion King can all be seen in one of the scenes.
- In Japan, the title of this movie is changed into The bells of Notre Dame(ノートルダムの鐘) because some people believe that the word "hunchback"(せむし男,Semushi-otoko) causes discriminations against the disabled and it is listed as "taboo words for broadcasting".
- For its VHS release in Australia, approximately two minutes of the film were edited out to maintain a G rating. The scenes removed were portions of Frollo's interaction with Esmeralda in the cathedral, and several verses of the song Hellfire. The DVD release of the film included these scenes.
Adaptations
This was adapted into a darker, more gothic musical production, re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by the Disney theatrical branch, in Berlin, Germany. Considered to be a great boost for tourists in Germany, the musical Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame) was very successful and played from 1999 to 2002, before closing. A cast recording was also recorded in German. More recently, Bellringer has been scheduled for a live action TV film on ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney, as well as a possible American theatrical production, like Disney's other successful musical adaptations of their films now playing on Broadway.
External links
