- Released: 21 June 1996
- Directed by: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
- Running time: 1 h 31 min
- Rating 3.5/5
Synopsis
A hunchback raised in a bell tower wishes to live life in the real world and must stop his evil caretaker from enacting a race war on the Romani people of Paris.
My Thoughts
Okay, so: here's the thing. This used to be one of my favorite Disney movies, and I still really like it. However, there's a big elephant in the room I never really addressed before: the film's portrayal of Romani people. I've watched many a video essay on this movie (and other Disney movies, of course), but none of those were done by an actual Romani person. That was, until I came across this one.
It's the first time I actually saw a Romani people talk about the portrayal of their people from their point of view, and it was honestly enlightening. Being white as I am and knowing very little about Romani culture, I never really saw any issues with the portrayals in this film. But there are some inherent flaws (such as the stereotyping and sexualization) that this video essay highlighted, so I highly recommend watching it. Heck, even Pocahontas, for the mess that it was, had Native American people giving their input about the culture represented for the film, whereas no Romani people were consulted for Hunchback.
So, yes, this movie does have a problematic portrayal of the Romani people. The constant use of the G-slur is also not that great. Yeah, yeah, times change but damn. I hope they don't constantly use it in the upcoming live-action adaptation and actually fix their portrayal and, you know, consult actual Romani people for once.
I just wanted to get that out of the way before starting this actual review. Yes, it did make me lower my score of the movie a bit, since I cannot in good faith give it a high score knowing this. But let's look at the rest. Is it a complete mess even without these problems, like Pocahontas? Or is there at least something salvageable in here?
I'll be curt: the answer is yes. Pocahontas, counting the yikes stuff aside, had so much working against it. It didn't look that great visually, the main characters were boring and bland as all hell, the villain was a joke and there was only one song on the entire soundtrack that was worth remembering. So how does Hunchback do it?
Well, it pretty much improved on all fronts. Visually, it's stunning. It feels much more grand and epic than Pocahontas. Just the backgrounds depicting the enormity that is Notre Dame herself alone already look much better than the generic cliffsides of that movie. The character designs were also much more appealing. I personally didn't care for the angular no-nose-for-the-main-character style Pocahontas had going on. The more rounded style on display here looked a lot better if you ask me.
The main characters were actually really, really likable. Quasimodo is such a good guy and you really feel for him being in this abusive relationship with his father-figure. Esmeralda was a very fun character, with her constant back-and-forths with Phoebus. Phoebus is arguably the most generic out of the main cast, but I still liked him.
We also have an amazing villain. Frollo is just such a dark Disney villain, willing to literally let all of Paris burn and exterminate an entire race of people just because he has the hots for this one girl. Not only that, but his relationship with Quasimodo is just all kinds of fucked up, all the ways he makes him feel inferior and manipulates him. He also has one of the best villain songs ever, "Hellfire".
Speaking of which, the soundtrack was overall awesome. Yes, there were a few duds, I'll say that. I personally don't care for "Topsy Turvy" (it made me feel a bit overstimulated like with "Be Our Guest") and of course "A Guy Like You". Those were just not very pleasing to the ears and I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to them again. However, there's so many other good songs in this soundtrack to make up for it. Not only "Hellfire", but also "Heaven's Light", "Out There", "The Bells of Notre Dame" and "God Help the Outcasts". I do have these in my Spotify playlist (unlike a lot of other Disney songs which I just listen to on occasion) and gladly listen to them each time. So while not the entire soundtrack is strong, there is just too much good going on to not praise at least some of it.
Finally, the thing everyone and their great-grandmother has brought up: the godawful (pun intended) comic relief in this movie. Those bloody gargoyles. They're not funny, they hardly serve the plot except for the climax, and they just are such unpleasant characters, constantly picking on one another. I like that they're nice to Quasi, but they're still so unlikable when they're constantly interacting with themselves. They also were the ones who put the misguided idea into Quasi's head that Esmeralda was into him, which then of course led to his heart breaking when he realized she fancied Phoebus instead. His heartbreak mightn't even have been so bad if they'd kept it realistic. Yes, there's obviously a possibility she was into him, but the gargoyles literally having an entire song about how Esmeralda definitely likes him just was so forced and only made things worse in the end.
So, what would I rate this movie normally? For my personal enjoyment, yes, I'd give it a high score, probably around the 4-4.5 range. However, due to aforementioned problematic portrayal of the Romani people and of course those fucking gargoyles, I have to take it down a few pegs.
Do I think it's overall a good movie? Absolutely. Unlike Pocahontas, it has a lot of good things going for it as well. But it does still have the problematic aspects going for it that end up lowering its score. Again, I highly recommend you check out the video essay I linked above.
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