|
The
Hunchback of Notre Dame |
DIRECTORS
Gary Trousdale
Kirk Wise
SCREENWRITERS
Irene Mecchi
Tab Murphy
Jonathan Roberts
Bob Tzudiker
Noni White
based
on the novel by
Victor Hugo
PRODUCERS
Roy Conli
Don Hahn
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Ericson Core
MUSIC
Alan Menken
Stephen Schwartz
EDITOR
Ellen Keneshea
CAST (VOICES)
Tom Hulce (Quasimodo)
Demi Moore (Esmeralda)
Tony Jay (Judge Claude Frollo)
Kevin Kline (Captain Phoebus)
Paul Kandel (Clopin)
Jason Alexander (Hugo)
Charles Kimbrough (Victor)
Mary Wickes (Laverne)
David Ogden Stiers (The Archdeacon)
Mary Kay Bergman (Young Esmeralda)
MPAA rating: G
Running
time: 91m
U.S. release: June 21, 1996
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Other Disney
films
reviewed on this website:
- Pocahontas
|
Time
to eat some crow: Months in advance, without having seen it,
I had been most unkind to The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I wasn't alone in my cynicism. Disney doing Hugo? Anybody remember
The Tall Guy, where struggling actor Jeff Goldblum played
the lead in a ludicrous Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque musical based
on The Elephant Man? A Disney Hunchback promised
to be even worse.
So now I feel like a jerk, guilty of doing to Hunchback
what everyone does to Quasimodo in the movie -- ridiculing it
out of ignorance. Yes, Disney is still too loud and show-bizzy.
And yes, Hunchback can't go more than a reel without boisterous
comic relief (here it's a trio of gargoyles, voiced by Seinfeld's
Jason Alexander, Murphy Brown's Charles Kimbrough, and
the late Mary Wickes). And yes, the villain -- despite his seething
lust for the heroine -- is firmly in Disney's questionable diabolical-queer
tradition in terms of his features and velvety sneers.
But still! After a serious misstep with the PC lecture Pocahontas,
Disney has rediscovered the dark magic of the psyche. Hunchback,
like The Lion King, resonates deeply for adults as well
as for kids. There are moments of shocking darkness and obsession,
which means that parents should prepare for long talks with younger
children after the movie. Hunchback isn't "too scary
for kids," as has been claimed, but it is provocative.
The basic story -- the very basic story -- remains the
same. Quasimodo (voice by Tom Hulce), a deformed bell-ringer
raised by the evil Judge Frollo (Tony Jay), falls in love with
the fiery gypsy Esmeralda (Demi Moore). She befriends him but
falls in love with the kindly, heroic soldier Phoebus (Kevin
Kline). Frollo, in turn, becomes obsessed with Esmeralda; his
lust for her mutates into self-denying fury.
The gifted directors, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, also did
Beauty and the Beast, another fable of tolerance. They
do for Tom Hulce what they did for Robby Benson: give weight
to an actor known for callow roles. They get vivid performances
from Demi Moore, who is sexier here than she ever is in the flesh,
and from Kevin Kline, who delivers a pitch-perfect heroic parody.
If only they could have turned the sound down a notch. Like Beauty,
Hunchback is often too shrill and clamorous to be truly
lyrical. The songs (by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) are
forgettable except for Judge Frollo's twisted valentine "Hellfire,"
a number that made me wonder if the parents sitting around me
were regretting having brought their pre-schoolers. The show
tunes and the clownish gargoyles (though Alexander is hilarious)
keep disrupting the grim enchantment.
That's Disney for you, though: Subtlety just isn't in the Mouse's
blood. Yet Hunchback, for all its ready-for-Broadway razzle-dazzle,
is surprisingly radical. Quasimodo may not be Disney's first
physically flawed hero (Dumbo was there first), but he doesn't
win Esmeralda in a bogus happy ending, either. That is one hell
of an advance for Disney. For any studio, these days. |
