THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
One of the more difficult tasks of writing screenplays is that of converting a classic into a film. When you add to that that the film will be an animation, your work is really Herculean. Nevertheless, animation story/screenwriter Tab Murphy was equal to the task; as a result we have a film which is enjoyable and enlightening for both young and old.
To achieve this end, condensation of Victor Hugo's classic story of a hunchback who is ugly and partially deaf, license had to be taken in order to bring it to the screen. The world being what it is, and Disney under fire by Baptist Fundamentalists, the original bad guy, Frollo, (voice: Tony Jay) who in Hugo's story was a high-ranking member of the Church, is here made to be a secular judge. How could they make a movie with a Churchman having a sexual crush on the heroine, the sexy Gypsy girl, Esmerelda? (voice: Demi Moore).
I remember well my first viewing of the Hunchback, Quasimodo, way back in 1923 with Lon Chaney, Sr. One look at him and I went flying out the theater, scared out of my wits. In 1939 I was better able to handle Charles Laughton's great performance as the hunchback. In the current 1996 animated version, Quasimodo (voice: Tom Hulce) is made much less horrifying-looking and he is not deaf. Thus while the original classic story is retained, a few changes were made with the story to make it more palatable and much less frightening for youngsters; at the same time, adults will get the nuances and the message that people who look or are "different" than ourselves should not be ridiculed or harmed.
When I saw the real Notre Dame on a visit to Paris many years ago, the stone gargoyles near the bell tower did not talk; the movie brings them in for a bit of humor, advice and pathos. Other voices: Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel. Original score and songs by Alan Menken with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.
Congratulations to all who worked to make this Disney film a wonderfully entertaining movie.
Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise.
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Ben Hoffman
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