Saturday Evening Cartoons: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

     The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21, 1996. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise with music by Alan Menken (all of whom worked on Beauty and the Beast five years prior) it is an adaption of the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo (Les Misérables). It tells the story of Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), a hunchback who is raised by the vile Judge Claude Frolo (Tony Jay). When Quasimodo befriends a gypsy named Esmeralda (Demi Moore), who runs afoul of the law, he must choose between his loyalty to Frollo and his feelings for her.

     The Hunchback of Notre Dame has a lot on its mind, at least for a Disney animated movie. Frollo, in particular, is far more complex then your average Disney villain. He's a man consumed by pride, hate and lust and there's a part of him that realizes this and fears for "his immortal soul" as the opening musical number "The Bells of Notre Dame" suggests. On the one hand, in his quest to rid Paris of the "corruption" of the gypsies, he really believes (or has deluded himself enough to believe) that his tyrannical, even genocidal, treatment of them is justified. On the other hand he recognizes that his feelings of lust toward Esmeralda are perverse yet, at the same time, he feels powerless to overcome these feelings.

     Quasimodo is also fairly complex. At the beginning of the film he has an understandably naive worldview. Hidden away by Frollo in the Cathedral of Notre Dame since his infancy, Quasimodo's only real contact with the outside world has been the judge. As a result he, like Frollo, believes the outside world, and especially the Gypsies, to be evil and corrupt. He longs to go "out there" but fears that the world will hate and fear him. He sees himself as a monster because that's how Frollo has treated him. It's only through meeting Esmeralda and later Phoebus (Kevin Kline), the handsome soldier who falls in love with Esmeralda, that he begins find a sense of self-worth and a hope that, perhaps, the world can accept him as he is.

     His feelings toward Esmeralda grow and mature throughout the course of the film. At first he idolizes her, referring to her as an "angel". He also hopes that, perhaps, she loves him and this causes him to feel jealousy toward Phoebus, who Quasimodo thinks unworthy of her love. As the film progresses and he and Phoebus gain respect for each other, he begins to see Esmerelda as a person, a flesh and blood individual with her own thoughts and desires. This allows him to display a more selfless kind of love for her, as he risks his life multiple times to save her from Frollo. By the end of the film he is able to let go of her, and accept her love for Phoebus. He also realizes that Frollo is the real monster and that the world view he inherited from him is warped and twisted.

     The musical score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz is one of the best of the Disney Renaissance. All of the songs (excepting one) help to move the story forward and inform the characters. The opening number, besides establishing Frollo's villainy and his fear of damnation, also sets up the movies main thematic query "who is the monster and who is the man." "Out There" establishes Quasimodo's desire to leave the confines of the Cathedral and explore the world outside and his fears of what might happen if he does, fears cultivated by Frollo. "Topsy Tury" sets the stage for the confrontation between Frollo and the gypsies, while "God Help the Outcasts" establishes Esmeralda as a compassionate and socially conscious individual. In "Heaven's Light" Quasimodo expresses his love for and adulation toward Esmeralda and his new found hope for a better life. In "Hellfire" Frollo confesses his feelings of lust toward Esmeralda and, in his hypocrisy, asks to be delivered from them even while pleading, "And let her taste the fires of hell; Or else let her be mine and mine alone!" "The Court of Miracles" introduces the audience to the seedy, underground world of the gypsies. Finally the reprise of "The Bells of Notre Dame" rephrases the opening query, "What makes a monster and what makes a man?" The answer is, of course, a person's actions, the way you treat others is what makes you a monster or a man.

     But I'm making the film sound a lot more brilliant then it actually is. Unfortunately, at 91 minutes, the story is really condensed. Frollo's lust for Esmeralda, for example, is really only dealt with in "Hellfire". There's no real indication, outside of this scene, that he has any feelings toward her other then disgust. Quasimodo's arc is handled better but the resolution, his acceptance by the people of Paris, doesn't quite feel earned. The film hasn't done enough to convince me that Frollo was wrong about the world. He tells Quasimodo, "Out there they'll revile you as a monster" and everything that happens after seems to bear that out. Esmeralda and Phoebus treat him with dignity but no one else really seems to.

     It could be argued that this material is simply too mature and complex for a family friendly movie. I'm not sure that I completely agree with this assessment but I do think the film-makers (and the studio) failed to fully realize the dark nature of the story they were trying to tell. The film is plagued with tonal inconsistency. One moment we're watching Frollo try to commit infanticide and the next there are anthropomorphic gargoyle's singing a campy tune encouraging Quasimodo to pursue Esmeralda. The gargoyles are the film's main source of comic relief and it just doesn't work. For one thing it feels like a desperate attempt to recreate the magic that was Robin Williams genie from Aladdin. But the real problem is that the style of comedy (largely improvisational and slapstick) simply doesn't fit with the rest of the film. There was a seed of a good idea behind the gargoyles. They seem to represent Quasimodo's inner thoughts, and would suggest that he is maybe a little crazy, mentally conjuring companions from the stone statues of the cathedral, but this idea is lost when the Gargoyles continually interact with the world around them, suggesting that they are more then mere figments.

     The animation is truly stunning. This was Disney's first major use of digital animation to enhance the more large scale scenes and it holds up really well. The animators make some really remarkable use of light and shadow and Notre Dame itself is a sight to behold. The orchestral score, making liberal use of monastic chant, is also really great, and adds to the film's heavy, religious feel. The cast are quite strong all around, especially Tom Hulce as Quasimodo and Tony Jay as Frollo. Heidi Mollenhauer was called in to do the musical numbers for Demi Moore and the it works pretty well (I would certainly prefer this to having Moore try to sing herself). Moore and Kevin Kline have pretty decent chemistry as Esmeralda and Phoebus. There romance is really given time to blossom but I sort of believe it anyway.

     The Hunchback of Notre Dame is certainly a flawed film. It's overly ambitious in many ways, and this is a blessing and a curse. Still, with its awesome score, beautiful animation, and psychologically complex story, it remains one of the better films of the generally disappointing late-Disney Renaissance.

Score: 8/10