Full
disclosure: I adored this movie when I was a kid, full-on loved it. This, Aladdin,
and Mulan were my Disney
trifecta. Seeing it again, I still love
it. Is it Disney’s best? Naw.
Is it a faithful adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel? Of
course not. But so help me, I’m a
fan.
Our
eponymous hunchback is, of course, Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of Notre Dame
Cathedral. He’s spent his whole life in
the bell tower, taught by his disgustingly vile guardian Frollo that others
will call him a monster for his physical deformities. Despite having internalized these ideas about
himself, Quasi dreams of the world below and finally takes his chance during
the annual Feast of Fools. Naturally,
the outing is a disaster, but it kick-starts some major change in Quasi’s
life. At the festival, he meets (and
falls bashfully in love with) Esmeralda, a fiercely passionate, kind-hearted
gypsy who sees parallels between Quasi’s public shunning and the oppression of
her own people. The two begin to help
each other in different ways and, through Esmeralda, Quasi finds the strength
to 1) love himself, and 2) finally stand up to Frollo.
I’ll
start with Quasimodo and Esmeralda, our “in” to the story. Quasi is Frankenstein’s monster, Fanny Price,
WALL*E, and Kieren from In the Flesh
rolled into one Disneyfied package. He’s
a recluse who wants so badly to be social that he’s nurtured friendships with
the cathedral’s stone gargoyles. He’s
disabled in a time when people with disabilities are viewed as burdens at best
and monstrosities at worst. He’s been
taught to see himself through the eyes of the ableist rabble who will find him
hideous, and he’s an ardent lover of beauty in all forms; he’s named all of the
bells, he leaps about the cathedral buttresses to find the best views of the
city, and he spends his free time carving figurines for his model of
Paris. There’s so much crap piled on him, but he still finds untapped stores of
good in the world, even if he needs help to see it in himself.
And
Esmeralda – she’s not a Disney princess, but that’s because she’s too busy
being hardcore awesome to become royalty.
She takes a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work approach to poverty,
she’s not afraid to be the lone voice speaking out against injustice, and the
bystander effect doesn’t exist for her; she stands up in the middle of a huge crowd of mob-mentality a-holes to
come to Quasi’s aid. She’s tough and can
hold her own pretty well in a fight, but she’s also caring and empathetic. She knows that the way she expresses her
sexuality is her business and that,
unless she actually speaks the words,
she’s in no way asking for it. Plus, she
dances, does sleight-of-hand, and lays down good snark. Esmeralda FTW, all the way!
The
theme of outcasts banding together against those who fear them because they’re
different is a powerful one, and it really rings true – humanizing the
dehumanized. The animation is pretty
gorgeous (the cathedral looks stunning,) and the music is excellent, too. “God Help the Outcasts” usually gets most of
the attention, but “The Bells of Notre Dame” is a splendid opening number, and
“Out There” is such a heartfelt “I want” song.
Also, “Hellfire” is hands-down the creepiest Disney-villain song of all
time; it’s practically the Disney version of the judge’s “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd. Maleficent may be freakier, but Frollo is
just awful.
Warnings
No comments:
Post a Comment