The hunchback of Notre Dame

Year of release : 1996

Run time : 1h31m

Genre : Family / Musical

Voices : Demi Moore, Kevin Kline, Jason Alexander

The animation is based on the Victor Hugo 1831 novel of the same name.

The year is 1482, the city, Paris. A Romani character tells a story to children about the mysterious bell ringer of the Notre Dame cathedral.

Many years before, a group of Roma people were trying to enter Paris but were caught by judge Claude Frollo who saw corruption everywhere as he wanted to rid the world of sin . Seeing a woman running with a baby, he thinks she has stolen goods, and chases her until he catches her, unwillingly k1lling her, and takes the child from her. The archdeacon of the church stops him from throwing the baby in the well ,as he sees it as a demon.

The archdeacon tells him in order to pay for his sin of k1lling innocents he should take care of the baby he just wanted to k1ll. He reluctantly agrees but asks the archdeacon to raise the baby locked away in the church, as he’s ugly, and he’ll come visit. He named it Quasimodo which means “half formed”.

About 20 years later, Quasimodo is a grown man who talks to birds (meaning he’s a kind, pure soul), and has as friends the gargoyles who come to life just for him.

Quasimodo wishes he could leave the church and attend the Festival of Fools, as he spent his whole life locked inside the church, mostly in the tower. But his “master” Frollo, forbade him to.

Frollo comes to visit him every once in a while. When he does, he realizes Quasimodo wants to attend the festival, and gaslights him (he’s telling him he’s ugly and people hate ugly) and tells him how he is his only friend, his “heartless” mother abandoned him and anyone would have drowned him, but him, Frollo, took him in.

Captain Phoebus enters the city, and witnesses how the guards are trying to catch beautiful Roma woman, Esmeralda, as they think she stole the money people gave her for dancing in the streets.

After helping her, he meets judge Frollo who wants him to capture the Roma people he’s been obsessed with catching for 20 years.

Quasimodo disobeys Frollo’s orders and goes to the festival. He enters the ugliest mask competition, and when Esmeralda tries to get his mask off, people get scared of him, and throw vegetables at him after being crowned the King of Fools. People beat him and tie him up, while Frollo is watching, thinking Quasimodo needs a lesson since he disobeyed. Phoebus is asking him to put an end to it, while Esmeralda helps Quasimodo. Frollo forbids her to free Quasimodo, and asks captain Phoebus to arrest her for doing so. The captain tells Esmeralda to claim sanctuary when she reaches the church, but she thinks he’s trying to trick her, so he says to Frollo she claimed sanctuary, as on church grounds they can’t arrest or k1ll people.

Frollo becomes obsessed with catching Esmeralda, and assigns guards around the church. Quasimodo helps her get out by climbing down the cathedral through the rooftops around. Frollo understands the two are friends, so he decides to lay a trap for her people using him and Phoebus.

The animation bored me, as to be honest, this story never quite gripped me, and, it’s a musical.

The animation actually looked beautiful, made in the old Disney style using hand-drawn art and CGI.

I did like the fact that in this one the love interest is not just a small cameo character in the background, but a hero.

The actors had beautiful voices and did a good job, and so did the singers. Most actors sang too, like Tom Hulce, who played Quasimodo, Tony Jay, who played Judge Frollo, Jason Alexander who played the gargoyle Hugo, but actors like Demi Moore didn’t sing.

The movie received positive reviews and grossed 325.3 million dollars at the box office against a budget of 70 million dollars, being a success.

Cinema Score audiences graded the animation an A.

You can watch the full animation on the Dailymotion platform.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9torc8

Rating : Could have been a contender !