DVDizzy Forum

“We got a call from Jeffrey Katzenburg like ‘You guys, you gotta drop what you’re doing. This project is gonna change your life.’ And that’s how we got Hunchback,” Gary Trousdale shared about how their next project began. “We were working on a project about humpback whales so we went from humpbacks to Hunchbacks,” Kirk Wise joked. “The biggest challenge for me was staying true to the tone and the spirit of the original novel. Honoring the versions that had come before it, and at the same time making it feel like a Disney animated feature. That was the challenge throughout the production. Fortunately, I think a lot of critics agreed. We managed to maintain true to the original source material. I think a lot of people were surprised.”

“We were kind of worried that, because this is such beloved literature in France… we’re trumping all over it with our big Disney boots,” Gary Trousdale shared about their concerns with going too far with the material. “We want to honor it, but it is a Disney cartoon, so it’s finding that balance. Ultimately, we heard that France really accepted it… they didn’t get upset with us for taking liberties.”

“I remember our research trip to Paris,” Kirk Wise reflected. “Me, Gary, and a whole team of artists basically crawled all over medieval Paris… and I remember part of that experience was sitting in Notre Dame cathedral and listening to an organ music recital… this organ, you could feel it in your chest, it gave me goosebumps.”

“It’s always fun to throw little details in that reward repeat viewings of the films and we knew going into the age of home video… that people would be watching these movies over and over,” Kirk Wise shared. “And it was never to put anything subversive in the films. It was always with a sense of fun. The chuckle someone might get seeing Belle walk through medieval Paris.” Gary added to that same shot from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. “That same scene also has the magic carpet and Pumba. Gary added one final Easter Egg that few people have spotted from Hunchback. “On the top of Notre Dame cathedral, in the last shot as the camera pulls away, the statues are Buzz and Woody. They’re very hard to see in the film.” Kirk Wise shared his limits on what he will and won't approve for Easter Eggs. “I think the limit for me is it needs to be a fun little touch, like a little bit of seasoning on a repeat viewing, but it can’t distract from the main movie.”

Kirk Wise wrote:We [had] to create the illusion of a throng of thousands of cheering people. To do it by hand would have been prohibitive, and look cheap.

Stephen Schwartz wrote:Hunchback is Alan’s best score. And that’s saying a lot, because he’s written a whole bunch of really good ones.

Gary Trousdale wrote:The [MPAA] said, “When Frollo says ‘This burning desire is turning me to sin,’ we don’t like the word ‘sin.’” We can’t change the lyrics now. It’s all recorded. Kinda tough. “What if we just dip the volume of the word ‘sin’ and increase the sound effects?” They said, “Good.”

Kathy Zielinski wrote: I knew I had gone too far when, one morning, we were sitting at the breakfast table and my daughter, who was two or three at the time, started singing the song and doing the mannerisms.

Kirk Wise wrote:We learned that the difference between a G and PG is the loudness of a sniff.

Brenda Chapman wrote:“Ewww, he’s rubbing his boogers in her hair!”

Peter Schneider wrote: I’m not sure we should have made the movie, in retrospect. I mean, it did well, Kirk and Gary did a beautiful job. The voices are beautiful. The songs are lovely, but I’m not sure we should have made the movie.

Gary Trousdale wrote:“I didn’t know you had a kid,” which is the worst line ever. But he pulls it off. He had good comic timing.

Kirk Wise wrote:“Just put on the old one. It’s still good!”

Maybe it was the marketing, which presented “Hunchback” as a complete departure from the dark Victor Hugo novel on which it was based, reframing it as a carnival with the tagline “Join the party!”

Hahn, Menken, Murphy, Trousdale and Wise all agreed there would be no chance of the film getting a G rating today — or even, Murphy suggested, being made at all.

Kirk Wise: [Songwriters] Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty had a pitch called Song of the Sea, a loose retelling of the Orpheus myth with humpback whales. I thought it was very strong.

Paul Kandel: Tony Jay knocked that out of the park. He [was] an incredible guy. Very sweet. He was terrified to record “Hellfire.” He was at a couple of my sessions. He went, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen when it’s my turn? I don’t sing. I’m not a singer. I never pretended to be a singer.” I said, “Look, I’m not a singer. I’m an actor who figured out that they could hold a tune.”

Kathy Zielinski: I listened to Tony sing “Hellfire” tons. I knew I had gone too far when, one morning, we were sitting at the breakfast table and my daughter, who was two or three at the time, started singing the song and doing the mannerisms. [laughs]

Kathy Zielinski: Brenda Chapman came up with that idea and the storyboard. I animated it. It’s interesting, because two females were responsible for that. That scene was problematic, so they had to cut it down. It used to be a lot longer.

Will Finn: Katzenberg saw Meat Loaf and Cher playing Quasimodo and Esmeralda – more of a rock opera. He also wanted Leno, Letterman, and Arsenio as the gargoyles at one point.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Hunchback is poetic, because of its dark romanticism. We have tons of animated movies, but I think they all look alike because of the computer technique.

Peter Schneider: What Disney did around this period [is] we stopped making musicals. I think that was probably a mistake on some level, but the animators were bored with it.