Happy Monday readers! Last week CT talked to you about a movie that shaped our preteen years. Today I want to discuss a movie that influenced us as smaller children. Our father is a huge Disney-phile and we saw every single animated Disney film that he could get his hands on. We've already discussed how the cartoon Robin Hood deeply influenced our love of adventure and swash-buckling but let's talk about Hunchback of Notre Dame and it's influence on us as outcasts.
Let's get this out of the way right off the bat. This is the most beautiful animation of any Disney Film. Ever. Don't @ me. The backgrounds are heavily influenced by Monet paintings and other French impressionists. They had these long sweeping shots through the city of Paris. They had a truly moving slash disturbing song where the evil Count Frolo is haunted by all this Catholic imagery. It's as dark as any of the DA films ever got, and not surprising considering how dark the source material was.
What I really remember about this movie though was Esmerelda's storyline. She's a gypsy (is the preferred term Romani? They say gypsy in the movie but it feels iffy to type) performer who becomes the focus of Count Frollo's obsession because like most guys he can't seem to handle being told no. She takes sanctuary in the church and then she has this really moving song where she asks God to help... everyone else. She is trapped away from her friends and family by a raging religious nutjob and she says "I ask for nothing... God help the outcasts" which was so powerful for me. The point of her character wasn't to assimilate her to the "normal" society. She was perfectly fine being different and separate. She just wanted peace and justice for her fellow weirdos. I can get behind that.
I also want to take this moment to say that while I appreciate that they can't really keep the original story. It's dark AF and everyone dies and I get that ending a story with all the protagonists having died doesn't fly very well with the tiny humans in the audience. Having said that, my one beef with this film is it's insistence on having not only a romance but a romance between the attractive guy and the pretty girl. It sort of undoes half the cool things about the movie. Apart from that the movie is flawless. The music is epic and the characters are charming and I even love the bad guy death. Which probably makes me a sociopath, but it was beautifully drawn.
Happy Watching
Little C
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