After bingeing the stage recording and watching the movie again to jog my memory, I’m 100% more understanding of why my six-year-old self was traumatized by the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame and now I’m lowkey obsessed with this ridiculousness.
Just in the introduction alone you get:
- Ominous Latin chanting
- Church corruption
- Racism
- Police profiling/violence
- A woman cracking her skull open and dying (while a choir sings the Dies Irae in the background)
- Ableism
- Attempted infanticide
- The eyes of the literal Virgin Mary turning to glare down at the villain as he defiles her church through aforesaid manslaughter/attempted murder
- A soprano who probably did not get paid enough for this holding a high D for what feels like five minutes, along with the narrator
- All of this is being relayed, in universe, to a group of small children by the narrator, who (if we’re assuming this takes place after the events of the movie) is also about to have to explain to these tiny children that he too once attempted to murder the protagonist
WHO GREENLIT THIS MOVIE FOR CHILDREN
Weelll… the book is even worse. In an effort to go easy on the kids they decided to split the main antagonist into two. The friendly rotund priest? Yeah, that’s Frollo, too. Least in the book. Quasimodo was taken in, raised and educated by the priest, who was wellrespected and friendly up until he fell for Esmeralda. Then he more or less turned into the spindly Judge Frollo type person. Eliminating anyone who stepped in his way (just a short reminder that HE WAS A PRIEST, there was no sex for him to be had unless you count his hand… though masturbating was also on the naughty list). The book goes the extra mile by having him kill his rival by STABBING HIM THROUGH THE BACK WHILE HE IS HAVING SEX with Esmeralda, then turning on her, accusing her of said murder and having her executed. Yepp, in the book, she dies… well most main characters die, because it is a Victor Hugo novel and that guy loved his tragedies.
In essence this is the “nice” guy gets rejected and turns into a murderous duchebag story. Today he would probably haunt Incel boards (though the story plays in 1482, he was a catholic priest, he took the vow to live in celibacy, so the definition does no quite fit here).
Yeah, this book should not have turned into a kids movie. The songs are ok, but the hackjob they did on the story to eke out a halfway happy ending are attrocious.
You ask who greenlit this
I ask WHAT WERE THEY SOMKING TO THINK ABOUT PITCHING THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE
