Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame 1996

[Hyzenthlay69]

While a lot of folks here in the US did not care for this movie and deemed it too  'dark' for children, I'm  not a child, and this movie is pretty much the last of the hand-drawn and earlier CGI movies Disney would make. I loved the villain in  here, Judge Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda the beautiful dancer. The movie got a lot of criticism for 'not being like the book' but I also remember in the Watership Down Film Picture book I have, the introduction chastized those who thought a book AND a movie should be the 'same' because they are two very different forms of media.

This 1996 Disney movie is my all-time favorite Disney movie.

[Hawkbit]

They sure got away with the "Hellfire" song and the imagery.  Would you see that out of Disney again?  Probably not, now that Frozen has made them a ton of money and bound to make them a ton more with sequels in the works.  You won't see something like Hunchback again, as long as they can keep milking princess sales.

[Hyzenthlay69]

Well that's the thing about being profit-oriented as all companies are. Hunchback was panned by critics and was not a top money maker for Disney so it's like they put the film on their backshelves.

[MeadowRabbit]

I like this film! It's certainly got an impressive, well-scored soundtrack. It has changes from the book, but actually in many cases I think the changes were for the better. And, if anything, they made things more eyebrow-raising in the Disney film. Frollo is older in the film, which makes his obsession for Esmeralda seem creepier. Esmeralda is also a whole lot less irritating! I like how Quasi's gargoyle friends could be interpreted as mere hallucinations from his living in the bell tower, alone, for so long. It's a shame at the end one of them seems to be responsible for spilling the firey water (or whatever it was) on some men; kind of ruins the hallucination idea a tad. There are some sillier moments in the film that do break away a bit much from the 'darker' side of it which stop me from utterly loving this film. I can see that they needed to put some scenes in to lighten it up for children, but...

Anyway, it is such a shame it didn't do too well on release. I think it has built up quite a few fans over the years who really appreciate it for being more mature; so Disney should not ignore it!