The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 34th Disney animated feature film and the seventh produced during the Disney Renaissance, the film is based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The plot centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his struggle to gain acceptance into society. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, the film's voice cast features Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, David Ogden Stiers, and Mary Wickes in her final film role.
The film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films as its narrative explores such mature subject matter and themes as infanticide, lust, damnation, antiziganism, genocide, and sin, despite the changes made from the original source material in order to ensure a G-rating received by the MPAA. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had previously collaborated on Pocahontas (1995). The pair later also collaborated on 2007's Enchanted.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21, 1996, to generally positive reviews and a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing release of 1996. The film received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for its musical score. A darker, more gothic stage adaptation of the film was produced by Walt Disney Theatrical in 1999. A direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, was released in 2002 {Trust me though, it's not worth the time... it's terrible - it purely exists just give Quasimodo a girlfriend}.
Plot:
In 1482 Paris, Clopin, a Gypsy puppeteer, narrates the origin of the titular hunchback twenty years prior. In 1462, a group of Gypsies sneak illegally into Paris but are ambushed by Judge Claude Frollo, Paris' Minister of Justice, and his soldiers. A Gypsy woman in the group attempts to flee with her crying baby, as Frollo gives chase on his horse; she reaches the doors of Notre Dame, pleading for 'Sanctuary!' as Frollo closes in on her - he snatches the bundle of what he believes to be 'stolen goods', fatally kicking her backwards against the cathedral's stairs where she strikes her head and dies. Shocked that the bundle is in fact a baby, then repulsed at its deformed appearance, Frollo attempts to drown the child in a well, but the cathedral's archdeacon intervenes and accuses Frollo of murdering an innocent woman in front of the 'eyes of Notre Dame' - the statues of saints and the Virgin Mary that look down on the cathedral. To atone for his sin, Frollo reluctantly agrees to raise the deformed child as his own, naming him "Quasimodo", to mean 'half-formed', and hiding him away in the cathedral's bell tower.
Twenty years later, back in 1482, Quasimodo develops into a kind yet isolated young man, though still deformed and now with a pronounced hunchback who has lived inside the cathedral his entire life. A trio of living stone gargoyles—Victor, Hugo, and Laverne—serve as Quasimodo's only company and encourage him to attend the annually-held Festival of Fools. Despite Frollo's warnings that he would be shunned for his deformity, Quasimodo attends the festival and is celebrated for his awkward appearance, only to be humiliated by the crowd after two of Frollo's guards start a riot. Frollo refuses to help Quasimodo, but Esmeralda, a kind gypsy, intervenes by freeing the hunchback, and uses a magic trick to evade arrest. Frollo confronts Quasimodo and sends him back inside the cathedral.
Esmeralda follows Quasimodo inside, only to be followed by Captain Phoebus of Frollo's guard. Phoebus refuses to arrest her for alleged witchcraft inside Notre Dame and instead tells Frollo that she has claimed asylum inside the church; the archdeacon orders Frollo and his men out. Esmeralda finds and befriends Quasimodo, who helps her escape Notre Dame out of gratitude for defending him. She entrusts Quasimodo, a pendant containing a map to the gypsies' hideout, the Court of Miracles. Frollo soon develops lustful feelings for Esmeralda and, upon realizing them, begs the Virgin Mary to save him from her "spell" to avoid eternal damnation. When Frollo discovers that she escaped, he instigates a citywide search for her, which involves bribing and arresting gypsies and setting fire to countless houses in his way. Horrified when Frollo orders him to burn down a house with a family inside, Phoebus openly defies him, and Frollo orders him executed. While fleeing, Phoebus is struck by an arrow and falls into the River Seine, but Esmeralda rescues him and takes him to Notre Dame for refuge. The gargoyles encourage Quasimodo to confess his feelings for Esmeralda, but he is heartbroken to discover she and Phoebus have fallen in love.
Frollo returns to Notre Dame later that night and discovers that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape. He bluffs to Quasimodo, saying that he knows about the Court of Miracles and intends to attack at dawn with 1,000 men. Using the map Esmeralda gave him, Quasimodo and Phoebus find the court to warn the gypsies, only for Frollo to follow them and capture all the gypsies present.
Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake after rejecting his advances, but Quasimodo rescues her and brings her to the cathedral. Phoebus releases the gypsies and rallies the Paris citizens against Frollo and his men, who try to break into the cathedral. Quasimodo and the gargoyles pour molten lead onto the streets to ensure no one enters, but Frollo successfully manages to get inside. He pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda to the balcony where he and Quasimodo fight, and both fall over the edge. Frollo falls to his death in the molten lead, while Phoebus catches Quasimodo on a lower floor. Afterward, Quasimodo accepts that Phoebus and Esmeralda are in love, and he gives them his blessing. The two encourage him to leave the cathedral into the outside world, where the citizens hail him as a hero and accept him into society.
Production:
The idea to adapt The Hunchback of Notre Dame came from development executive David Stainton in 1993, who was inspired to turn Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame into an animated feature film after reading the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation. Stainton then proposed the idea to then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. Following Beauty and the Beast, Gary Trousdale had taken the opportunity to take a break from directing, instead spending several months developing storyboards for The Lion King. Following this, Trousdale and Kirk Wise subsequently attempted developing an animated feature based on the Greek myth of Orpheus titled A Song of the Sea, adapting it to make the central character a humpback whale and setting it in the open ocean. The concept obstinately refused to pull together, but while they were working on the project they were summoned to meet with Katzenberg. "During that time," explained Trousdale, "while we working on it, we got a call from Jeffrey. He said, 'Guys, drop everything – you're working on Hunchback now." According to Wise, they believed that it had "a great deal of potential... great memorable characters, a really terrific setting, the potential for fantastic visuals, and a lot of emotion."
Production on The Hunchback of Notre Dame went underway in the summer of 1993. In October 1993, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, art director David Goetz, Roy Conli, Ed Ghertner, Will Finn, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz took a trip to Paris, France, for ten days; three days were devoted to exploring Notre Dame including a private tour of rarely glimpsed sites as actual passageways, stairwells, towers, and a hidden room within which Hugo set his actions. Also included were visits to the Palace of Justice and an original location of the Court of Miracles.
Writing:
Writer Tab Murphy was brought on board to write the screenplay, and it was decided early on that Quasimodo would be the center of the story, as he was in preceding live-action film adaptations. In the early drafts, Quasimodo served as a Cyrano between Phoebus and Esmeralda, but it was discarded to focus more on Quasimodo. Meanwhile, a love story between Quasimodo and Esmeralda was also conceived, according to Murphy, but "we decided to make Phoebus more heroic and central to the story. Out of that decision grew the idea of some sort of a triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus." Some of the novel's key characters were jettisoned entirely. The gargoyles of Notre Dame were added to the story by Trousdale and Wise. Their portrayal as comedic friends and confidantes of Quasimodo was inspired by a portion of the novel, which reads "The other statues, the ones of monsters and demons, felt no hatred for Quasimodo…The saints were his friends and blessed him the monsters were his friends, and protected him. Thus he would pour out his heart at length to them."
One of the first changes made to accommodate Disney's request was to turn the villainous Claude Frollo into a judge rather than an archdeacon, thus avoiding religious sensibilities in the finished film. "As we were exploring the characters, especially Frollo, we certainly found a lot of historical parallels to the type of mania he had: the Confederate South, Nazi Germany, take your pick," explained Wise. "Those things influenced our thinking." Producer Don Hahn evaluated that one inspiration for Frollo was found in Ralph Fiennes's performance as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, who murders Jews yet desires his Jewish maid. For the opening sequence, Disney story veteran Burny Mattinson constructed an effective sequence that covered much exposition, although studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg felt something was missing. Following Stephen Schwartz's suggestion to musicalize the sequence, French animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi storyboarded the sequence to Menken and Schwartz's music resulting in "The Bells of Notre Dame." Lyricist Stephen Schwartz also worked closely with the writing team even suggesting that the audience should be left wondering what the outcome of what Phoebus would do before he extinguishes the torch in water in retaliation against Frollo. Another was, unsurprisingly, the film's conclusion. While Frollo's death was retained – and, indeed, made even more horrific – Quasimodo and Esmeralda were both spared their fates and given a happy ending. This revised ending was based in part on Victor Hugo's own libretto to a Hunchback opera, in which he had permitted Captain Phoebus to save Esmeralda from her execution.
Casting:
In late 1993, pop singer Cyndi Lauper was the first actor attached to the film during its initial stages. Thinking she was cast as Esmeralda, Lauper was startled to learn she was to voice a gargoyle named Quinn, and was hired one week after one reading with the directors, who felt her performance was "hilarious and sweet". The development team later came up with the names of Chaney, Laughton and Quinn – named after the actors who portrayed Quasimodo in preceding Hunchback film adaptations. However, Disney's legal department objected to the proposed names of the gargoyles, fearing that the estates of Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, or Anthony Quinn (who was still alive at the time) would file a lawsuit over using their names so the names were dropped. Trousdale and Wise then suggested naming the characters Lon, Charles, and Anthony – which would have resulted in the same legal concern – before naming the first two gargoyles after Victor Hugo, and the third gargoyle after Andrews Sisters singer Laverne Andrews.
Now cast as Laverne, Lauper was deemed too youthful for a friend to provide Quasimodo wise counsel while at the same time Sam McMurray—best known for his work on The Tracey Ullman Show—was hired for Hugo. Meanwhile, Charles Kimbrough was cast as Victor, who was initially unimpressed at an animated adaptation of Hunchback, but later became rather impressed at the level of research that went into the film and how the story ideas transitioned from the novel to the screen. After several recording sessions and test screenings, Lauper and McMurray were called by the directors who regretfully released them from their roles. At one point, Jeffrey Katzenberg had considered Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, and Jay Leno to voice the gargoyles. Ultimately, Jason Alexander, having voiced Abis Mal in The Return of Jafar, was cast as Hugo fulfilling a lifelong desire to be in a Disney film. After a suggestion by supervising animator Will Finn, Laverne was then re-envisioned into a wiser, mature character with Mary Wickes cast in the role. Following Wickes' death in October 1995, Jane Withers was hired to voice her six remaining lines.
Animation work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame was partially done at 1400 Air Way in Glendale, California, which was one of several headquarters for Walt Disney Feature Animation.
Katzenberg had also wanted Meat Loaf for the role of Quasimodo, but he passed on the role after Disney couldn't come to an agreement with his record company. Mandy Patinkin was also approached for the title role, but his style of portraying Quasimodo collided with the producers' demands, and Patinkin stated "'I was just there at the audition and I said, 'I can't do this." Tom Hulce was cast as Quasimodo following his first audition for the role, and according to the actor, he noticed during the audition that the Disney executives, producers, and directors "were staring at the floor. It looked like everyone was at a memorial service" until he noticed the floor was lined with storyboard sketches. According to Wise, the filmmakers "like to audition the voices with our eyes closed, so we see the character's face." Quasimodo was originally portrayed as more monstrous, older and with more of a speech impediment during the early rehearsals, but Hulce commented that "we experimented, endlessly. At one point I was ready to call in and say 'Things just aren't happening'." Ultimately, the directors desired to portray Quasimodo with a younger voice different from the previous portrayals since "[Victor] Hugo described Quasimodo as 20." Additionally, Hulce was permitted to do his own singing after performing a demo recording of "Out There."
Desiring a huskier voice different from the leading Disney heroines, Demi Moore was cast as Esmeralda, and met with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz on singing. After several singing demos, the actress said "You'd better get someone else,'" according to Schwartz. New York City cabaret singer Heidi Mollenhauer was selected to provide the singing voice. For the role of Phoebus, co-director Kirk Wise explained that "As we're designing the characters, we form a short list of names...to help us find the personality of the character." Subsequently, the filmmakers modeled his portrayal on the personalities of Errol Flynn and John Wayne, and "One of the names on the top of the list all the time was Kevin Kline." Moore and Kline were the only actors to have the role directly offered to them instead of auditioning. British actor Tony Jay, who declared his role as Frollo as his "bid for immortality," was cast after the directors had worked with him in Beauty and the Beast. Anthony Hopkins was originally considered for the role, but he turned down the offer. After watching his portrayal as Uncle Ernie in the musical The Who's Tommy, Broadway actor Paul Kandel was selected to voice Clopin.
Animation:
Alongside Pocahontas (1995), storyboard work on The Hunchback of the Notre Dame was among the first to be produced for an animated film on the new Disney Feature Animation building adjacent to the main Disney lot in Burbank, which was dedicated in 1995. However, most animators were occupied with The Lion King and Pocahontas at the time, and as a result, more animators were hired from Canada and United Kingdom to join the production team for Hunchback, and as the development phase furthered along, most of the entire animation team was moved out into a large warehouse facility on Airway in Glendale, California. As the Disney story artists, layout crew, and animators moved in their new quarters, they decided to name the building "Sanctuary."
Since Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), other animators hired by Disney Feature Animation were from Germany, France, Ireland, and additional ones from Canada were involved in providing animation duties at the recently opened satellite studio, Walt Disney Animation Paris,[19] of which about 20 percent of the film was done. Meanwhile, while Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida was prepping their first in-house production then titled The Legend of Mulan, at least seven animators penned about four minutes of screen time, mostly involving Frollo and Quasimodo. Layout, cleanup, and special-effects artists provided additional support.
During early development, Trousdale and Wise realized they needed crowds of people, but for this time, they wanted them to move as opposed to being traditionally drawn as painted backdrops. Recalling the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King, they landed on the idea of using computer animation to generate them. For that reason, the CGI department, headed by Kiran Joshi, created the software Crowd to achieve large-scale crowd scenes, particularly for the Feast of Fools sequence and the film's climax. The software was used to create six types of characters – males and females either average in weight, fat, or thin – which were programmed and assigned 72 specific movements ranging from jumping and clapping. Digital technology also provided a visual sweep that freed Quasimodo to scamper around the cathedral and soar around the plaza to rescue Esmeralda.
Music:
Having worked on Pocahontas for a year, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz were offered multiple film projects to work on when they more or less chose to work on Hunchback being attracted to underlying themes of social outcast and Quasimodo's struggle to break free of the psychological dominance of Frollo, according to Schwartz.
The film has many musical motifs that carry throughout the film, weaving their way in and out of various pieces of music, and having varying timbres depending on the action in the story at that point. The film's soundtrack includes a musical score written by Alan Menken and songs written by Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Songs include "The Bells of Notre Dame" for Clopin, Frollo and the Archdeacon, "Out There" for Quasimodo and Frollo, "Topsy Turvy" for Clopin, "God Help the Outcasts" for Esmeralda, "Heaven's Light" for Quasimodo, "Hellfire" for the Archdeacon and Frollo, "A Guy Like You" for the gargoyles and "The Court of Miracles" for Clopin and the gypsies.
Three songs written for the film were discarded for the storyboarding process. Trousdale and Wise were not certain what musical number could be placed for the third act, though Menken and Schwartz conceived two love songs, "In a Place of Miracles" and "As Long as There's a Moon," between Esmeralda and Phoebus in the film. However, Trousdale and Wise felt the song took too much focus off of Quasimodo, and ultimately decided to have Clopin sing about sentencing Phoebus and Quasimodo to death for finding their gypsy hideout. Menken and Schwartz had also written "Someday" originally for the film, but the directors suggested that a religious song be sung in the cathedral, and the song was instead featured in the end credits. R&B group All-4-One recorded the song for the end credits of the North American English release, and by the British R&B girl group Eternal in the British English version. Luis Miguel recorded the version for the Latin American Spanish version, which became a major hit.
My Review:
I'm sorry but this is, hands down, one of the best Disney films of all time {It's in my Top 5 Disney Movies for sure}. Everything about it is amazing: the animation, the casting, the characters, the soundtrack... the story... the story is AMAZING. Disney were very bold with choosing this story. The original Hunchback Of Notre Dame book is extremely dark. For what Disney did to make it 'family-friendly' it's still has it's dark elements to it - I mean it's one of those stories that you can't remove any of the dark plot points from otherwise it would be a completely different story.
I love this film so much. Unlike many other Disney films, it has some dark themes. But I love that Disney wanted to go a little bit darker with this one, which is one of the reasons I have so much respect for this film.. Hunchback has the best soundtrack out of all the Disney films in my opinion, because it is more deeper and sophisticated. Quasimodo is my all time favourite Disney character, because he has a similar personality like me, which is why I connected with him and understood his struggles and wishes. However I am not deformed, nor do I have a hunchback, but I think Quasimodo is one of Disney’s most beautiful characters, inside and out. He is sweet, kind, caring, brave, compassionate and overall a great likeable character. Judge Claude Frollo is my number one favourite Disney villain. I love how complex he is and that he reminds me of the real evil in this world, which makes him really terrifying and also a great villain. He scares the poop out of me, and don’t get me started on his song hellfire. Sends chills down my spine every time. I adore this movie so much.
Although I am really really hoping that the live action remake is a good remake - unlike most of the current remakes! This is a film you have to get right; acting/character wise, plot wise (dark elements), music wise, tone. If they throw things in (like actors who aren't as good as the original or take away the dark themes) just for the sake of audience/consumer wise, there's a very good chance it would ruin the film.
Anyway, I highly recommend you watch this film if you haven't already; I'm giving this movie a much deserved 20/10, even though it was toned down for "family audiences", what Disney did still works in the stories favour.
The best thing about this film though is "Hellfire" - hands down the best villain song ever/in any movie. He's legit singing about his perverted obsession with Esmerelda, even going to the point of burning the entire city down in order to have her! {He's legit saying "BE MINE OR DIE!"}. Tony Jay gave an amazing voice performance for Judge Claude Frollo. He really embodied the conniving, sadistic, perverted, obsessive personality perfectly.