Year: 1996
Director: Gary Trousdale
Country:US
Language: English
When Disney adapts source material originally meant for adults they often water-down the content for children and ruin some key elements of the story. With Pocahontas they distorted the lines between fantasy and historical reality, while not treating the indigenous peoples of North America with much respect. To adapt a Victor Hugo novel as complicated as Hunchback of Notre Dame is a rather weird choice that doesn't entirely pay off.
A deformed bell-ringer (Tom Hulce) must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer (Demi Moore).
"Hellfire. This fire in my skin. This burning desire. Is turning me to sin." Hunchback would get an Academy Award nomination, but only for the music, which it would lose to Emma. Indeed I must say that the music is incredible at parts (I can only remember Topsy Turvy and Hellfire) and the villain Frollo is quite memorable. It's quite interesting that the antagonist's hangup is the fear of eternal damnation due to his lust of a gypsy. The idea of a benevolent God has never been explored in Disney pictures before.
While Hunchback succeeds in some areas, it fails overall. The dominant theme of the film is "inner beauty matters" but Quasimodo doesn't win the girl in the end because of his looks. Rather, Esmeralda goes for the much better looking Captain Phoebus (Kevin Kline) Even when he gains the respect of the city he still has to remain in the bell tower without pay? Huh!? There's another side theme regarding feminism/choice etc. ok but why does Esmerelda have to choose either man? Why does the plot literally screech to a halt for all the men to have an argument about who should get her? Oy!
The cutesy side characters don't need to be in the film, because they are pretty annoying and only serve to be comedic fodder. The picture doesn't have to be completely serious, but it doesn't need to be peppered with fart jokes either. Hunchback has some great ideas, but is limited due to it equal weight of poor ideas.
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