Directed by
Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
Written by
far too many people to list
Based on
the novel by Victor Hugo
There’s
that period of Disney animated history, going from Pocahontas to Meet the
Robinsons, where about every movie was hit-or-miss (with Robinsons finally
starting the hit streak again). There
were some great movies (Lilo & Stitch, Emperor’s New Groove), there were
some awful ones (Home on the Range), and there were some that were so uneven
that it’s hard to say. And that’s
squarely where Hunchback of Notre Dame falls.
Quasimodo
(Tom Hulce) is the titular hunchback, locked up in the bell tower of Notre Dame
by Judge Frollo (Tony Jay), who “protects” him by keeping him away from the
outside world. When he escapes the tower
for the Festival of Fools, he becomes attracted to Esmeralda (Demi Moore)…but
so does the captain of the guard Phoebus (Kevin Kline) and Frollo, who decides
that she’s either going to be his or die.
OK,
let’s talk about this for a moment: there is absolutely no way this movie
should have a G movie. It is almost oppressively
dark, starting from Quasimodo’s mother dying on-screen in the first 10
minutes. The movie is downright
nightmarish at times, featuring Quasimodo getting tied up by a mob and a lot of
execution imagery. And then we have
Hellfire, which may be the only Disney song about how much the villain wants to
have sex with the love interest (seriously).
At times, this comes off less like a Disney movie and more like an independent
adult-focused movie. Not that this
works against it. It’s generally enjoyable
to watch, and the focus on drama is a rather different tone for Disney.
To
the point where the comic-relief gargoyles can’t help but feel a little out of
place. There are some comic moments that
work, but the gargoyles role in the movie feels forced in. This is almost a hard realism movie, and
having that one element of magic (or hallucination—it’s never really explained,
and the movie doesn’t seem to care) is just weird. Almost as weird as them singing a song about
how much Esmerelda loves Quasimodo…while Paris burns and using imagery of
people hanging. The songs in general are…well,
they’re constant, and there are some good ones in here. There’s not that much that’s going to be stuck
in your head (besides the aforementioned Hellfire), but the darker they get,
the better they fit in with the movie.
Hunchback
of Notre Dame is definitely uneven, and rather out of place in Disney canon,
but under the right circumstances, it’s an interesting and enjoyable
movie. If you’re not a fan of the
sillier Disney movies, well, this is perfect for you.
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