The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

. The thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is inspired by Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

's novel of the same name. The plot centers on Quasimodo
Quasimodo
Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by...

, the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...

 and his struggle to gain acceptance into society.

The film was directed by Kirk Wise
Kirk Wise
Kirk Wise is an American film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Disney. Wise has directed such Disney movies as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast...

 and Gary Trousdale
Gary Trousdale
Gary A. Trousdale is an American film director known for directing movies such as Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He frequently directs films with Kirk Wise....

 and produced by Don Hahn
Don Hahn
Don Hahn is an American film producer who has produced some of the most successful Walt Disney animated films of the past 20 years. He currently owns his own film production company called Stone Circle Pictures.-Early life:...

. The songs for the film were composed by Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...

 and written by Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...

, and the film featured the voices of Tom Hulce
Tom Hulce
Thomas Edward "Tom" Hulce is an American actor and theater producer. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Mozart in the movie Amadeus and his role as "Pinto" in National Lampoon's Animal House. Additional acting awards included a total of four Golden Globe...

, Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...

, Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...

, Paul Kandel
Paul Kandel
Paul Kandel is an American musical theatre actor and tenor singer best known for his work as the Gypsy leader Clopin in the 1996 Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also has appeared on Broadway a number of times, having appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar as King Herod, Titanic, The Who's...

, Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...

, Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...

, David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...

, Tony Jay
Tony Jay
Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...

, and Mary Wickes
Mary Wickes
Mary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...

 (in her final film role). It belongs to the era known as Disney Renaissance
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to an era beginning roughly in the late 1980s and ending in the late 1990s, during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films mostly based on stories that were known to many, restoring public and critical interest in Disney.The...

, which refers to the ten-year era between 1989 and 1999 when the Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films, recreating a public and critical interest in the Disney studios. This animated film received a G rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, and was rated U by the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...

 in the UK. Despite these ratings, the film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated motion pictures similar to films such as The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron (film)
The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and originally released to theatres on July 24, 1985...

.

Plot

The film is told primarily in flashback by gypsy puppeteer Clopin to a number of children.

One night, four gypsies are smuggled into Paris, just to be ambushed by a group of soldier-like thugs working for Judge Claude Frollo, the Minister of Justice. One gypsy, holding a bundle, resists arrest and is chased all the way to Notre Dame, where Frollo catches and kills her, taking the bundle and seeing a horribly deformed infant. Thinking that it is an unholy demon, Frollo prepares to drown the baby but is immediately stopped by the Archdeacon, who says that the only way to spare his soul from eternal damnation for murdering an innocent woman outside Notre Dame is to take the infant in as his own son, which Frollo reluctantly accepts.

Twenty years later, the boy, named Quasimodo, grows into a kind, and gentle young man, living in the bell tower and watched upon by Frollo, who constantly teaches him that he is a monster who would be ridiculed by the outside world. He has also led Quasimodo to believe that his mother had abandoned him at birth. Despite this, Quasimodo secretly rebels against Frollo's strict teachings and decides to attend the next Festival of Fools. At the Festival, Quasimodo and Frollo both cross paths with a young gypsy dancer, Esmeralda, and are taken with her. However, Quasimodo is discovered by the crowd and crowned as the King of Fools, much to Frollo's chagrin, whose thugs start a riot by pelting Quasimodo with fruit, and the crowd immediately follows, with Frollo refusing to call it off. Esmeralda intervenes and openly insults Frollo for his cruelty. Frollo then orders her arrested, but she manages to evade his thugs after a long chase through the festival.

Captain Phoebus, Frollo's benevolent Captain of the Guard, follows Esmeralda inside Notre Dame and strikes up a fast friendship with her, even protecting her from Frollo by claiming Sanctuary for her. Frollo and his thugs leave the cathedral, but Frollo threatens to arrest Esmeralda if she ever stepped outside. Esmeralda meets and bonds with Quasimodo. In return for her helping him at the Festival, Quasimodo helps Esmeralda escape without alerting the thugs. Before leaving, Esmeralda leaves Quasimodo a map to the gypsy hideout, the Court of Miracles, if he should ever decide to leave Notre Dame for good. Quasimodo, for his part, begins to fall in love with Esmeralda.

Frollo is plagued with nightmares about his own infatuation with Esmeralda, and vows to hunt her down and kill her in order to stop her supposed witchcraft. He starts a manhunt across Paris, burning down houses and killing innocent people in his way. Phoebus finally defies Frollo for the injustice and is ordered killed. He is injured, but rescued by Esmeralda, who takes him to Quasimodo for care. As she treats him, Esmeralda and Phoebus share an intimate moment, but Frollo arrives and Quasimodo has Esmeralda leave whilst he hides Phoebus. Frollo discovers that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, but promises to free Quasimodo from her "evil spell" by attacking the Court of Miracles at dawn. When Frollo is gone, Phoebus implores Quasimodo to help him find the Court of Miracles and alert the gypsies, and Quasimodo reluctantly complies, using the map Esmeralda gave him.

Once at the Court, Quasimodo and Phoebus are caught and almost hanged by the gypsies as Frollo's spies, but Esmeralda arrives and clears the misunderstanding up. However, as the gypsies begin packing to leave, Frollo and his army of thugs arrive and arrest them all: he had bluffed, and followed Quasimodo and Phoebus. Frollo orders the gypsies locked up and Quasimodo imprisoned in the bell tower.

Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake. He offers her a chance to live as his mistress, but she refuses and he lights the fire. This act of injustice and hypocrisy is what finally pushed Quasimodo too far, and he breaks out from the bell tower and rescues Esmeralda, taking her back to the bell tower and claiming sanctuary for her. Frollo orders his thugs to break down the door to the cathedral, but Phoebus frees himself along with everyone else and leads the gypsies and citizenry into battle with Frollo's thugs. Quasimodo pours a cauldron of molten copper onto the streets of Paris to drive the battle away, but Frollo still gets inside. Frollo tries to kill Quasimodo but Quasimodo fights him and rushes Esmeralda to safety on the balcony. During the struggle, Frollo admits that he killed Quasimodo's mother himself, before the fight sends Frollo falling off the balcony to his death. Quasimodo also falls but Phoebus reaches out in time and catches him on a lower floor, Esmeralda reunites with Quasimodo and Phoebus, and Quasimodo blesses Esmeralda's relationship with Phoebus.

The next morning, as the citizens celebrate their victory over Frollo's tyranny, Quasimodo finally emerges from the cathedral again, but this time, he is hailed as a hero and accepted into society by the grateful citizenry.

Production

According to producer Don Hahn, the original idea for the film came from development executive David Stain, who was inspired to turn Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame into an animated feature film after reading the Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...

 comic book adaptation. Stain then proposed the idea to Disney, who called on Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to work on the project. Wise and Trousdale were working on other projects at the time, but "none of them were quite gelling", so they "jumped at the chance" to do the film. 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."

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the second Disney film directed by Gary Trousdale
Gary Trousdale
Gary A. Trousdale is an American film director known for directing movies such as Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He frequently directs films with Kirk Wise....

 and Kirk Wise
Kirk Wise
Kirk Wise is an American film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Disney. Wise has directed such Disney movies as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast...

 after the hugely successful Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...

in 1991. The duo had read the novel and were eager to make an adaptation, but made several changes in order to make the storyline more suitable for children. This included making the film's heroes, Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus, kinder than in the novel, changing Frollo from Archdeacon to Judge (and creating an original Archdeacon character), adding sidekicks in the form of three anthropomorphized
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

 stone gargoyles, and keeping Quasimodo and Esmeralda alive at the end. This ending is perhaps more inspired by Hugo's opera libretto based on his own book, in which Esmeralda is saved by Phoebus at the end of the drama.

The film's animators visited the actual cathedral at Notre Dame
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 for a few weeks. They made and took hundreds of sketches and photos in order to stay fully faithful to the architecture and detail.

Several of the film's voice actors had been part of past projects Trousdale and Wise attended. For example, Tony Jay
Tony Jay
Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...

 and David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...

, the voices of Judge Claude Frollo
Judge Claude Frollo
Archdeacon Claude Frollo is a fictional character and the anti-hero from Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.-In the novel:In his youth, Claude Frollo was a highly knowledgeable but morose young man who was orphaned along with his infant brother Jehan when their parents died of the plague...

 and the Archdeacon, respectively, had previously worked on Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...

, providing the voices of Monsieur D'Arque and Cogsworth/the narrator respectively (although their characters did not share any scenes together). Also, Paul Kandel
Paul Kandel
Paul Kandel is an American musical theatre actor and tenor singer best known for his work as the Gypsy leader Clopin in the 1996 Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also has appeared on Broadway a number of times, having appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar as King Herod, Titanic, The Who's...

, the voice of Clopin
Clopin
Clopin Trouillefou is a fictional character first created in the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by French author Victor Hugo, and subsequently adapted.-In the novel:...

, was chosen after the directors saw him playing the role of Uncle Ernie in the opera production of Tommy
Tommy (rock opera)
Tommy is the fourth album by English rock band The Who, released by Track Records and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Decca Records/MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was...

. Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...

 was chosen for the role of Esmeralda based on her unusual voice, as the directors wanted a non-traditional voice for the film's leading lady.

Despite the changes from the original literary source material in order to ensure a G rating, the film does manage to address mature issues such as lust
Lust
Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...

, infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...

, sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

, profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

, religious hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....

, the concept of Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...

, and social injustice
Social injustice
Social injustice is a concept relating to the claimed unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens and other incidental inequalities...

, as well as acceptance
Acceptance
Acceptance is a person's agreement to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition without attempting to change it, protest, or exit....

 that Quasi yearns for. Songs also contain rather mature lyrical content such as the words "licentious" or "strumpet
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

" which introduce the concept of sexual indulgence, as well as frequent verbal mentions of Hell. Also notably, it is the first animated Disney film to use the word "damnation
Damnation
Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...

".

Cast and characters

  • Quasimodo
    Quasimodo
    Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by...

     (voiced by Tom Hulce
    Tom Hulce
    Thomas Edward "Tom" Hulce is an American actor and theater producer. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Mozart in the movie Amadeus and his role as "Pinto" in National Lampoon's Animal House. Additional acting awards included a total of four Golden Globe...

    ) – The protagonist
    Protagonist
    A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

     of the film. He is a courageous and enthusiastic character. He is the bellringer of the Notre Dame Cathedral. He is physically deformed with a hunched back and is constantly told by his guardian Judge Claude Frollo that he is an ugly monster who will never be accepted by the world outside. However, the opening song asks listeners to judge for themselves "who is the monster, and who is the man" of the two.
  • Esmeralda
    Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
    Esmeralda, or La Esmeralda , born Agnes, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame . She is a French Gypsy girl...

     (voiced by Demi Moore
    Demi Moore
    Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...

    , singing voice by Heidi Mollenhauer
    Heidi Mollenhauer
    Heidi Mollenhauer is an actress and singer. She is best known for her role as the singing voice of Esmeralda in Disney's 1996 animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame....

    ) – The deuteragonist
    Deuteragonist
    In literature, the deuteragonist is the second most important character, after the protagonist and before the tritagonist. The deuteragonist may switch from being with or against the protagonist depending on the deuteragonist's own conflict/plot.-History:Greek drama began with simply one actor,...

     of the film and a beautiful, streetwise, talented, and always-barefoot gypsy girl who befriends Quasimodo and shows him that his soul is truly beautiful, even if his exterior isn't. She is incredibly independent and greatly dislikes the horrible ways in which gypsies are treated. Throughout the movie, Esmeralda attempts to seek justice for her people. She falls in love with Captain Phoebus and helps Quasimodo understand that gypsies are good people. 'Esmeralda' is the Spanish and Portuguese word for 'Emerald', which may be why the animators chose to give her emerald green eyes.
  • Judge Claude Frollo
    Judge Claude Frollo
    Archdeacon Claude Frollo is a fictional character and the anti-hero from Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.-In the novel:In his youth, Claude Frollo was a highly knowledgeable but morose young man who was orphaned along with his infant brother Jehan when their parents died of the plague...

     (voiced by Tony Jay
    Tony Jay
    Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...

    ) – The antagonist
    Antagonist
    An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

     of the film. Frollo is a ruthless and self-righteous judge who is Quasimodo's reluctant guardian. He has an intense hatred of the gypsy population, seeing them as "impure" and has a desire to annihilate their entire race. He also lusts after Esmeralda. Frollo generally does not see any evil in his deeds as he does them in honor of God, even though the Archdeacon often disapproves of his actions. However, at one point during the song "Hellfire
    Hellfire (song)
    "Hellfire" is a song from Disney's 1996 animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The song is sung by the film's antagonist, Judge Claude Frollo, who is voiced by the late Tony Jay. It begins in Bb major, before turning to its relative minor G...

    ", the priests singing the Confiteor
    Confiteor
    The Confiteor is one of the prayers that can be said during the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. It is also said in the Lutheran Church at the beginning of their Divine Service...

     manifest as his conscience, chanting the Latin words "mea culpa
    Mea Culpa
    Mea culpa is a Latin phrase that translates into English as "my mistake" or "my fault". To emphasize the message, the adjective "maxima" may be inserted, resulting in "mea maxima culpa," which would translate as "my most [grievous] fault."...

    " ("my fault"), to reveal that Frollo ultimately knows the truth of his actions.
  • Captain Phoebus
    Captain Phoebus
    Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He is the Captain of the King's Archers. His name comes from Phoebus, the Greek god of the sun , with whom he shares handsome looks and skill at...

     (voiced by Kevin Kline
    Kevin Kline
    Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...

    ) – the tritagonist
    Tritagonist
    In literature, the tritagonist is the third most important character of a narrative, after the protagonist and deuteragonist. In Ancient Greek drama, the tritagonist was the third member of the acting troupe....

     of the film and a soldier who is Frollo's Captain of the Guard. He falls in love with (and later marries) Esmeralda. He is a heroic idealist with integrity and does not approve of what Frollo thinks or does. This distinguishes him severely from his character in the original story. He has a horse named Achilles, to whom he says twice "Achilles, sit." on one of Frollo's soldiers.
  • Clopin
    Clopin
    Clopin Trouillefou is a fictional character first created in the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by French author Victor Hugo, and subsequently adapted.-In the novel:...

     (voiced by Paul Kandel
    Paul Kandel
    Paul Kandel is an American musical theatre actor and tenor singer best known for his work as the Gypsy leader Clopin in the 1996 Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also has appeared on Broadway a number of times, having appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar as King Herod, Titanic, The Who's...

    ) – The mischievous leader of the gypsies who will defend his people at all costs. He introduces the audience to the story, explaining how Quasimodo, the bell ringer from Notre Dame, got to be there.
  • Victor, Hugo, and Laverne (voiced by Charles Kimbrough
    Charles Kimbrough
    Charles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...

    , Jason Alexander
    Jason Alexander
    Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...

    , and Mary Wickes
    Mary Wickes
    Mary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...

    *, respectively) – Three gargoyle statues who become Quasimodo's close friends and guardians. In the DVD audio commentary for Hunchback, Wise, Trousdale, and Hahn note that the gargoyles might exist only in Quasimodo's imagination (ala Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes
    Calvin and Hobbes
    Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...

    ) and thus may well be split-off pieces of his own identity. However, most of their characteristics, including Hugo's infatuation with the goat Djali, seem unique to their manifestations when present. This was Mary Wickes
    Mary Wickes
    Mary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...

    ' final film. After Wickes' death, Jane Withers
    Jane Withers
    Jane Withers is an American actress best known for being one of the most popular child film stars of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as for her portrayal of "Josephine the Plumber" in a series of TV commercials for Comet cleanser in the 1960s and early 1970s.-Biography:Withers began her career...

     provided the remaining dialogue for Laverne.
  • The Archdeacon (voiced by David Ogden Stiers
    David Ogden Stiers
    David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...

    ) – A kind man who helps many characters throughout the course of the movie, including Esmeralda. He is the opposite of Frollo: kind, accepting, gentle, and wise. He is the only figure in the film with authority over Frollo while he is inside Notre Dame. He appears in the beginning of the movie when he orders Frollo to adopt Quasimodo for killing his mother. He disapproves of most of Frollo's actions, and at the film's climax, Frollo, in his rage, openly defies him and knocks him down a flight of stairs.

Crew

  • Animation supervisors:
    • James Baxter
      James Baxter (animator)
      James Baxter is a British character animator. He was first known for his work on several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including various characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rafiki in The Lion King, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.After Notre...

       (Quasimodo)
    • Tony Fucile (Esmeralda)
    • Kathy Zielinski (Frollo)
    • Russ Edmonds
      Russ Edmonds
      Russ Edmonds is an American animator most noted for his character animation at the Walt Disney Company. He worked on several Disney feature films, including Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tarzan. He studied at the Program in Character Animation at the California Institute of...

       (Phoebus)
    • Michael Surrey (Clopin)
    • David Pruiksma
      David Pruiksma
      David Pruiksma is an American animator, best known for his work for The Walt Disney Company. His work includes Bernard and Miss Bianca , Mrs. Potts and Chip , The Sultan , Victor and Hugo , and Flit...

       (Victor and Hugo)
    • Will Finn
      Will Finn
      Will Finn is an American animator, voice actor, and director. His work in animation includes characters from Disney and Don Bluth films such as The Secret of NIMH, Oliver & Company, and Pocahontas. His characters include Laverne , Iago , and Cogsworth...

       (Laverne)
    • Ron Husband
      Ron Husband
      Ron Husband is an American character animator known for his work at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Two of his most famous assignments while at Disney were as supervising animator for Djali in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Elk in the Firebird segment of Fantasia 2000 and Dr. Sweet in Atlantis:...

       (Djali)
    • David Burgess (Archdeacon)
  • Art director
    Art director
    The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

    : David Goetz
  • Story supervisor: Will Finn
    Will Finn
    Will Finn is an American animator, voice actor, and director. His work in animation includes characters from Disney and Don Bluth films such as The Secret of NIMH, Oliver & Company, and Pocahontas. His characters include Laverne , Iago , and Cogsworth...

  • Layout supervisor: Ed Ghertner
  • Background supervisor: Lisa Keene
  • Clean-up animation supervisor: Vera Lanpher-Pacheco
  • Effects animation supervisor: Chris Jenkins
  • Computer graphics supervisor: Kiran Bhakta Joshi

  • Music

    The film's soundtrack includes a musical score written by Alan Menken
    Alan Menken
    Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...

     and songs written by Menken and Stephen Schwartz
    Stephen Schwartz (composer)
    Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...

    . Songs include "The Bells of Notre Dame
    The Bells of Notre Dame
    "The Bells of Notre Dame" is a song from the 1996 Disney film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, composed by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. It is sung at the beginning of the film by the clown-like gypsy, Clopin. It is set mainly in the key of D minor...

    " for Clopin, "Out There" for Quasimodo and Frollo, "Topsy Turvy" also for Clopin, "God Help the Outcasts" for Esmeralda, "Heaven's Light" and "Hellfire
    Hellfire (song)
    "Hellfire" is a song from Disney's 1996 animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The song is sung by the film's antagonist, Judge Claude Frollo, who is voiced by the late Tony Jay. It begins in Bb major, before turning to its relative minor G...

    " for Quasimodo, the Archdeacon, and Frollo, "A Guy Like You" for the gargoyles and "The Court of Miracles" for Clopin and the gypsies.

    Release

    The film premiered on June 19, 1996 at the New Orleans Superdome, where it was played on six enormous screens. The premiere was preceeded by a parade through the French Quarter
    French Quarter
    The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...

    , beginning at Jackson Square
    Jackson Square, New Orleans
    Jackson Square, also known as Place d'Armes, is a historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.-Design:...

     and utilizing floats and cast members from Walt Disney World. The film was widely released two days later.

    Reception

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame opened on June 21, 1996 to positive reviews. As of September 2011, Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

     gave the film a positive 73% based on 49 reviews with its consensus states "Disney's take on the Victor Hugo classic is dramatically uneven, but its strong visuals, dark themes, and message of tolerance make for a more-sophisticated-than-average children's film". Despite this approval rating, Rotten Tomatoes placed it on their list of Kids' Movies Inappropriate for Children. Chicago Sun-Times
    Chicago Sun-Times
    The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

    film critic Roger Ebert
    Roger Ebert
    Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

     rewarded the film 4 star calling it "the best Disney animated feature since Beauty and the Beast--a whirling, uplifting, thrilling story with a heart touching message that emerges from the comedy and song". Some criticism, however, was provided by fans of Victor Hugo
    Victor Hugo
    Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

    ’s novel
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...

    , who were very unhappy with the changes Disney made to the material. Critics such as Arnaud Later, a leading scholar on Hugo, accused Disney of simplifying, editing and censoring the novel in many aspects, including the personalities of the characters. In his review, Later wrote that the animators "don't have enough confidence in their own emotional feeling" and that the film "falls back on clichés."
    London's The Daily Mail called The Hunchback of Notre Dame "Disney's darkest picture, with a pervading atmosphere of racial tension, religious bigotry and mob hysteria" and "the best version yet of Hugo's novel, a cartoon masterpiece, and one of the great movie musicals". Janet Maslin wrote in her New York Times
    The New York Times
    The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

    review, "In a film that bears conspicuous, eager resemblances to other recent Disney hits, the film makers' Herculean work is overshadowed by a Sisyphean problem. There's just no way to delight children with a feel-good version of this story."

    In its opening weekend, the film opened in second place at the box office, grossing $21 million. The film saw small decline in later weeks and ultimately grossed just over $100 million domestically and over $325 million worldwide, making it the fifth highest grossing film of 1996.

    Awards

    • BMI
      Broadcast Music Incorporated
      Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

      • BMI Film Music Award (Won)
    • Satellite Awards
      Satellite Awards
      The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...

      • Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature
        Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature
        The Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature is an annual Satellite Award given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :-2000s:- 2010s :...

         (Won)
    • Oscar
      Academy Awards
      An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

       http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1216268386822
      • Best Original Musical or Comedy Score by Alan Menken
        Alan Menken
        Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...

         (Nominated, lost against Emma
        Emma (1996 film)
        Emma is a 1996 period film based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Directed by Douglas McGrath, it stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette, and Ewan McGregor.- Synopsis :...

        )
    • Golden Globes
      54th Golden Globe Awards
      The 54th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1996, were held on 19 January 1997.-Best Actor – Drama: Geoffrey Rush – Shine* Ralph Fiennes – The English Patient* Mel Gibson – Ransom...

       http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Golden_Globes_USA/1997
      • Best Original Score
        Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
        The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...

         (Nominated, lost against The English Patient
        The English Patient (film)
        The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...

        )
    • Young Artist Award
      Young Artist Award
      The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist...

       http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Young_Artist_Awards/1997
      • Best Family Feature Film - Animation (Nominated, lost against James and the Giant Peach
        James and the Giant Peach (film)
        James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation....

        )
    • Annie Award
      Annie Award
      The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...

       Tony Jay
      Tony Jay
      Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...

      • Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting - Tony Jay
        Tony Jay
        Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...

         (Nominated)
    • Golden Screen, Germany (Won)
    • Artios Award
      • Best Casting for Animated Voiceover (Won)


    The film currently stands with an 73% "fresh" rating at Rottentomatoes.com, with a 60% "fresh" rating by established critics (the "Cream of the Crop").

    American Film Institute
    American Film Institute
    The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

     Lists
    • AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
    • AFI's 10 Top 10
      AFI's 10 Top 10
      AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....

       - Nominated Animated Film

    Home video

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame was first issued on original VHS, standard CLV Laserdisc
    Laserdisc
    LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...

    , and special edition CAV Laserdisc on March 4, 1997 under the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
    Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
    The Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection was a line of VHS videos and Laserdiscs released by Walt Disney Home Video from 1994 to 1999. The Spanish counterparts began selling in 1995. Limited issue DVDs also have the same cover art....

     label. It was then re-issued on March 19, 2002 on DVD along with its direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame II is a 2002 direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 Disney animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Japan...

    .

    Adaptations

    Disney has converted its adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame into other media. For example, Disney Comic Hits #11, published by Marvel Comics
    Marvel Comics
    Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

    , features two stories based upon the film. From 1997 to 2002 Disney-MGM Studios
    Disney's Hollywood Studios
    Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...

     hosted a live-action stage show based on the film and Disneyland built a new theater-in-the-round and re-themed Big Thunder Ranch as Esmeralda's Cottage, Festival of Foods outdoor restaurant and Festival of Fools extravaganza, which is now multipurpose space accommodating private events and corporate picnics.

    The film was adapted into a darker, more Gothic musical
    Musical theatre
    Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

     production, re-written and directed by James Lapine
    James Lapine
    James Lapine is an American stage director and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.-Biography:Lapine was born in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated...

     and produced by the Disney theatrical branch, in Berlin, Germany. The musical Der Glöckner von Notre Dame
    Der Glöckner von Notre Dame
    Der Glöckner von Notre Dame is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by James Lapine...

    (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame) was very successful and played from 1999 to 2002, before closing. A cast recording
    Cast recording
    A cast recording is a recording of a musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast...

     was also recorded in German. There has been discussion of an American revival of the musical, which was confirmed by composer Alan Menken in November 2010.

    Sequels and spin-offs

    In 2002, a direct-to-video
    Direct-to-video
    Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

     sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame II is a 2002 direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 Disney animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Japan...

    , was released on VHS and DVD. The plot focuses once again on Quasimodo as he continues to ring the bells now with the help of Zephyr, Esmeralda and Phoebus's son. He also meets and falls in love with a new girl named Madellaine who has come to Paris with her evil circus master, Sarousch. Disney thought that it was appropriate to make the sequel more fun and child-friendly due to the dark and grim themes of the original film.

    Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Victor, Hugo, Laverne and Frollo all made guest appearances on the Disney Channel
    Disney Channel
    Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

     TV series House of Mouse
    Disney's House of Mouse
    Disney's House of Mouse is an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television, that originally aired from 2001 to 2003-Premise:...

    . Frollo also can seen amongst a crowd of Disney Villains in Mickey's House of Villains
    Mickey's House of Villains
    Mickey's House of Villains is a direct-to-video film produced by The Walt Disney Company. It is a film adaptation of the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Disney Villains that have appeared in...

    .

    Video games

    In 1996, to tie in with the original theatrical release, The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvy Games was released by Disney Interactive for the PC and the Nintendo Game Boy, which is a collection of mini games based around the Festival of Fools that includes a variation of Balloon Fight
    Balloon Fight
    is a 1984 video game developed by Nintendo. The arcade version was released in 1984 and the Nintendo Entertainment System version was released in 1986. The gameplay is similar to the arcade game Joust by Williams Electronics.-Gameplay:...

    .

    Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu
    Famitsu
    is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...

    have revealed at the first Square Enix Premier Party that a world based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, La Cité des Cloches (The City of the Bells), will make its debut appearance in the Kingdom Hearts
    Kingdom Hearts
    is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...

    series in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, making it the first new Disney world confirmed for the game. Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus, Frollo and the three gargoyles have been confirmed to appear so far.

    External links

    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Big Cartoon Database
      Big Cartoon DataBase
      The Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....

    The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
     
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