Here comes a late night blog (yeah, midnight is late night for me)!
I just had to do this one after thinking "oh what could I blog next?" and "I've got so many ideas but don't know where to start!". So I made up my mind for a short blog entry about my favorite Disney villain and generally movie: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Watch this incredible intro. And the music. THE MUSIC!!!
It doesn't happen too often that someone calls this movie a good Disney movie or a good movie in general. Many people critisise it because of the "restricted" themes and it's creepiness. It isn't creepy in a paranormal way like for example the Sleeping Beauty with the creepy villain Maleficent (the one with green skin and strange...horns...on her head...). The Hunchback will give you the most uncomfortable goosebumps a Disney movie could ever give you. I wouldn't necessarily recommend to show this movie to children under 8 years. Or even 10. Even though I watched it when I was much younger...
Frollo forcing Quasimodo to stay in the tower and not to go outside. You can see how he's using him...
The main story evolves around a very ugly and deformed guy called Quasimodo, who was raised by a crazy judge, Frollo (who actually killed the kid's gypsy mother just because of racism). Quasimodo is a latin word and means "half formed" or "half done". I'll make this one short because you probably know the story anyway. Quasi is locked inside the bell tower of Notre Dame and sneaks out one day. He gets bullied but finds a gypsy friend named Esmeralda (his first friend ever). Quasi falls in love but Esmeralda already has a guy she likes, Phoebus. Blonde and pretty of course. So Quasi helps the girl escape and hides her from Frollo, who wants to track down every single gypsy in Paris because of his insane racism. Problem is: Frollo has the hots for Esmeralda so he needs her and ONLY her to be found. So he burns down the whole city, finds the gypsy and the hideaway of her people and wants to burn Esmeralda on a stake. Quasi saves her and the boss battle starts, in which Frollo falls down the cathedral into the fire and dies. Esmeralda and Phoebus come together and the poor Quasimodo is left alone. Well at least he can leave Notre Dame now.
THIS is why I wouldn't recommend little people to watch this movie. Even if it's a Disney movie it doesn't necessarily mean that it's adressed to kids. Did you see him threaten Esmeralda?! This is so crazy!!
As I already mentioned I would write a bit about Frollo as well, being the best villain in the whole history of Disney (in my opinion). His character is the most complex one I've ever seen in a movie. Seriously, not just Disney movie, ANY movie. But maybe I just don't know enough really good movies with antagonists like this. He combines almost everything one shouldn't have in one own's soul. Let's see...Frollo is a veeery much conservative judge (and very religious too...), who is racist in a very extreme way. He even reminds me of a certain dictator when it comes to hunting down innocent people. Frollo almost commited a child murder when he took up Quasimodo. His first thought was to drown the kid in a well because firstly it was a gypsy's kid and secondly it was deformed. He kept the boy only because he thought he might be of use to him someday. He also lied to him, telling his mother just abandoned him when he was a baby when she actually died protecting him (oh yeah, did I mention he killed the baby's mother?..). And well if this isn't enough for anyone to hate this guy, he becomes literally obsessed with Esmeralda, letting her choose whether she wants to burn on a stake or be his alone for the rest of her life (as you can see in the video above). He even sings a song about his passion to her, blaming her of witchcraft and praying to god to save his poor soul. Frollo gave me goosebumps...
Frollo's villain song and one of the best in Disney's history (not just my opinion, it is proved). This one is really...SO GOOD!!! But so scary...
Now what I find is the most creepy part about this, Frollo isn't a magician, a king or a genie. He is a totally realistic person, which isn't usual for Disney movies. He doesn't cast spells on someone or doesn't want to gain power like most of the Disney villains do. He does this all for fun. He could be just any person out there in our real world, going around, being racist and wanting to rape some gypsys. This is the most scary part about this whole story. I don't even know how I could handle watching this movie when I was a kid, I guess I was tough.
I understand people saying this is the worst Disney movie and they never enjoyed watching it. Well, this movie wasn't made to ENJOY it. It was made after a book written by Victor Hugo (who wrote really dark books) and the movie is even soft compared to the novel. I didn't have the guts to read it yet.
So I would really suggest to watch this movie just because of the incredible detail, the beautiful drawings, one of the best soundtracks in the history of Disney, and the deep personalities in the characters which you don't encounter in Disney movies so often. Please. Give it a thought and a bit of your time. You won't regret it!!!
BYE BYE ~
PS: this entry didn't turn out as short as I expected it to be...sorry! :P
PPS: Oh I just noticed it could be a perfect halloween post. So this is gonna be my halloween post.
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