Hunchback of Notre Dame....pure genius

[BrandonH]

Kossage, I am in complete agreement with your review. You described many of the reasons why I count Hunchback as a five-star film.

[slave2moonlight]

While I think Disney's most perfect work is "Beauty and the Beast", Hunchback is certainly a masterpiece! It has certain aspects that are superior to any of the others. The music and animation are fantastic, and I even like the "A Guy Like You" number.

[The_Iceflash]

<center>The Hunchback of Notre Dame Appreciation Thread

Where can I begin to talk about the Hunchback of Notre Dame? It's epic score? It's deep and moving story? It's well-rounded cast of complex characters? To me its an underrated Disney Masterpiece that has all the elements to make it a moving, drama filled saga with elements such as fitting in, temptations, corruption and abuse of religious values for personal gain and abusing power and authority for personal gain, romance, and heroism. From a gut-wrenching scene of public humiliation to burnings at the stake culminating in an epic climax resulting in victory for out hero and demise of one of the most ruth-less Disney villains of all time. This film while not perfect, is a Disney Masterpiece and deserves to be ranked amongst Disney's best. </center>

[WilbyDaniels]

I think it's one of the greatest DAC. Walt would have been proud!

[CampbellzSoup]

I will disagree with all those who hate the statues I feel they add some charm to the movie HOWEVER I think the humor they provided shoulda been upgraded from the 3 year old audience they seem to be catering...

[Dr Frankenollie]

Whilst this film is by no means a masterpiece, it is a wonderfully well-crafted movie; Amadeus' Tom Hulce is good as the protagonist, the villain is uniquely realistic, the music is sublime ('God Help the Outcasts' and 'Hellfire' are particularly fantastic) and despite it's shortcomings it is certainly in my top twenty DACs. There is a dark, atmospheric feel that is carried through the movie from the disconcerting opening sequence and I whilst I was never scared of it, I found most of the movie to be utterly unnerving. Unequivocally, however, the Gargoyles partially spoil some of it's atmosphere.

[disneyhv996]

I think the film is great, one of the best DAC, it's just wonderful, the music, the acting, animation, etc.

[monorail91]

I adore "Hunchback", I think it's got a terrific score and it's incredibly moving. And I'm so sick of people complaining that it's a sugar-coating of the book, just take the movie for what it is and accept it.

[FigmentJedi]

Gargoyles are the weakest point of what is otherwise a great movie.

[KubrickFan]

Gargoyles are the weakest point of what is otherwise a great movie.

I never thought of them as terrible. That must have been because I've seen the movie many times as a kid, unlike Pocahontas, whose comic sidekicks are merely annoying, but if you think of them as delusions of Quasimodo, it gives the entire movie an even darker feeling, with Quasimodo being more or less insane.
But apart from that, the wonderful animation, voice acting, and of course Alan Menken's music (it's weird that for the one movie where he did deserve the Oscar, he didn't win) it's primarily the darkness that does it for me. It's sad that Disney didn't continue the path that was treaded here, and was continued with other darker movies like Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Sure, they had some flaws, but outright bad? I don't think so.

[disneyboy20022]

Gargoyles are the weakest point of what is otherwise a great movie.

I never thought of them as terrible. That must have been because I've seen the movie many times as a kid, unlike Pocahontas, whose comic sidekicks are merely annoying, but if you think of them as delusions of Quasimodo, it gives the entire movie an even darker feeling, with Quasimodo being more or less insane.
But apart from that, the wonderful animation, voice acting, and of course Alan Menken's music (it's weird that for the one movie where he did deserve the Oscar, he didn't win) it's primarily the darkness that does it for me. It's sad that Disney didn't continue the path that was treaded here, and was continued with other darker movies like Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Sure, they had some flaws, but outright bad? I don't think so.

Atlantis wasn't a bad film in my book. It was very good to me. Yeah I'm sure it's been brought up that the movie of Stargate: Atlantis has some very very carbon copy plot and story to Disney Atlantis: The Lost Empire. However, I have not seen Stargate Atlantis myself. I've seen comparisons on www.thatguywiththeglasses.com though I can't remember which reviewer did it. I think it was recent.


Also I loved the Movie Treasure Planet. I like how John Silver isn't quite thee ultimate bad guy in the movie as portrayed in other editions of Treasure Island. He redeems himself and is quite likable. I'd say the bad guy of the movie in Treasure Planet is Scroop.

Also one reason these 2 films aren't recognized by Disney as Much as they should. While they are very good movies, they underperformed and flopped....though the budget on the movies are insanely high.

[WarriorDreamer]

Yeah I really like it. It's one of those films you can appreciate even more as an adult than you did as a kid, along with Pocahontas.

I really like the powerful and religious tones of it, it was a brave move Disney doing a film like that. Then again, I suppose they were shown that a Disney film with a darker tone could still be successful as in Pocahontas, (which technacially wouldn't have affected it because it would have been waayy into production by the time Pocahontas was released.)

The songs always give me chills and such great voice work from all the cast. Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay and Kevin Kline.

[Disney's Divinity]

One of my main criticisms of this film was always that I thought it was over-the-top bleak and preachy. Who knew that the film would become much more relevant 20 years later than it was in 1996.

I’ve been listening to the film version of “God Help the Outcasts” and the musical version of “Someday” often lately.

[DisneyFan09]

Yeah I really like it. It's one of those films you can appreciate even more as an adult than you did as a kid, along with Pocahontas.

A logical thought, but I still loved both Pocahontas and Hunchback in my childhood, regardless of them being grave and serious in tone. Both were pivotal movies during my preteen years, but of course Hunchback's subliminal messages went over my head. As a teenager I could spot their flaws and there was a time where I even detested Hunchback for it huge unevenness (as I did with Pocahontas when I eventually realized how po-faced it was, though I actually liked it better as a teen than I did with Hunchback). Now I love them both in my adulthood, though, due to childhood nostalgia, but also for their strengths. Both of them are beautiful movies with great animation and music.

Who knew that the film would become much more relevant 20 years later than it was in 1996.

Yet Disney haven't truly acknowledged it afterwards, besides the stage play. Even Pocahontas was given some (slight) attention on it's 20th Anniversary. At least the Once Upon a Dream book (by Charles Solomon) does have a brief reference to how Phoebus was animated. During Hunchback's release, it was labeled for being the studio's most ambitious movie to date and the directors raved about it's risks. Since then Disney have somewhat swept it under a rug, haha.

[Sotiris]

In an early trailer, there's some footage of Esmeralda before it was changed to make her look like she's wearing clothes.

[JeanGreyForever]

Thanks for posting. I read that the animators were forced to add clothes to Esmeralda's body in the flames, so I always wanted to see the original. I never realized that the early footage was right there in the trailers

[Marce82]

Hmmm... sorry to disappoint: I checked the film, and those frames are the same in the actual movie as they are in the trailer. Esmeralda has a "line" showing where her clothing starts (off the shoulder) in the other shots, but not on this one.

It's not like they added nipples!

If you listen to the commentary, one of the directors went frame by frame to make sure the "fire spirit" was always appropriate for children.

[DisneyFan09]

The nude issue was something that they struggled with in the first place. They had to examine the sequence so that she didn't look nude.