The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Day 129 - 5/9/09 - Movie #129

BEFORE: I could watch more movies with animated cats, but that last movie actually had more dogs than cats, and I don't have movies like "All Dogs Go to Heaven" on my list... Plus my oldest cat, Merlin, is spending the night at the vet's office for observation, after a strange "low blood sugar" episode yesterday...the less said about that, the better...

Instead I'll pick another Disney version of a classic novel - I might have been a little harsh with my criticism of "The Great Mouse Detective", and I did like Disney's take on "Oliver Twist"... But my original point about Disney's strip-mining of Western literature is still valid, I believe. As proof, look how they want the word "Disney" to be considered part of the official movie title. We don't say, "Warner Bros. Dark Knight" or "20th Century Fox's Star Wars", now do we? I don't know how Disney Corp. gets away with this - it should be called "Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame"...

THE PLOT: A deformed bellringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancing girl.

AFTER: I read this book so long ago, I don't remember all the details - so I'll have to check Wikipedia to see where this movie deviates from the original story. There were at least some minor story flaws - like if Quasimodo spent his whole life hidden in the bell tower, how did someone in the festival crowd recognize him? For that matter, were the animated gargoyles supposed to be real, or just figments of Quasimodo's imagination? And if not real, how did they hurl stones down on the soldiers from the cathedral?

The Disney-esque songs seemed a bit overly complex, and awkward as a result. As for the voices, I recognized Kevin Kline, Tom Hulce, Jason Alexander, and Charles Kimbrough (from Murphy Brown), but I had to look in the credits to identify Demi Moore and David Ogden Stiers (I must be slipping...) The French Gothic architecture is nice to look at, but the story hits some of the same notes (about appearances vs. inner beauty) as "Beauty and the Beast" did.

RATING: 6 out of 10 flying buttresses (mostly for appearances, not for structure...)

UPDATE: Wikipedia informed me that this film had the same directors as "Beauty and the Beast", so that explains the exploration of similar themes. Also I learned about the changes made from Victor Hugo's book, which include splitting Archdeacon Frollo into 2 characters - an archdeacon and the main villain, Minister Frollo. Quasimodo is also deaf in the book, from living so close to the cathedral's bells. Oh, yeah, and in the novel, apparently all the main characters die in the end. Not in a Disney film, though!