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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mar. 21st, 2021 07:56 pmWithout really meaning to, we went into something of a hiatus on the Disney rewatch, but the release of Raya and the Last Dragon has spurred us back into action: our goal now is to be all caught up by the time Raya is free on Disney+ in three months time.
This may be a somewhat ambitious goal, as we started this Disney rewatch in August of 2019 and we just today reached Fantasia 2000, but we will do our best.
I've also gotten behind in writing reviews, so although we watched Fantasia 2000 today, in reviews I'm still only at The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or as I like to call it, "Disney's MOST OT3 movie." Quasimodo/Esmeralda/Phoebus? Yes? Yes? Who is with me? Okay, possibly no one. I'M JUST SAYING. QUASIMODO COULD BE SO LOVED.
The movie is visually and musically splendid - maybe one of the most beautiful Disney movies in both of those respects. The rose windows, Quasimodo's home high in the bell towers, "God Help the Outcasts" and "Hellfire," the entire sequence where Quasimodo rescues Esmeralda and shouts "Sanctuary!"... I strongly suspect that this is the sequence in the book which made some bright-eyed Disney animator suggest an adaptation, because God knows the movie's not faithful to much else. Disney, as is its wont, very much built its own thing on Hugo's foundation.
There are times when this propensity of Disney's is exasperating: if they don't want to keep any of the things that make this property special, then why are they adapting it? But in this case I think it works, because although it's not really the same as Hugo, it also doesn't feel like extruded Disney product. Like Quasimodo in his tower, the animators have created their own beautiful little micro-world.
This may be a somewhat ambitious goal, as we started this Disney rewatch in August of 2019 and we just today reached Fantasia 2000, but we will do our best.
I've also gotten behind in writing reviews, so although we watched Fantasia 2000 today, in reviews I'm still only at The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or as I like to call it, "Disney's MOST OT3 movie." Quasimodo/Esmeralda/Phoebus? Yes? Yes? Who is with me? Okay, possibly no one. I'M JUST SAYING. QUASIMODO COULD BE SO LOVED.
The movie is visually and musically splendid - maybe one of the most beautiful Disney movies in both of those respects. The rose windows, Quasimodo's home high in the bell towers, "God Help the Outcasts" and "Hellfire," the entire sequence where Quasimodo rescues Esmeralda and shouts "Sanctuary!"... I strongly suspect that this is the sequence in the book which made some bright-eyed Disney animator suggest an adaptation, because God knows the movie's not faithful to much else. Disney, as is its wont, very much built its own thing on Hugo's foundation.
There are times when this propensity of Disney's is exasperating: if they don't want to keep any of the things that make this property special, then why are they adapting it? But in this case I think it works, because although it's not really the same as Hugo, it also doesn't feel like extruded Disney product. Like Quasimodo in his tower, the animators have created their own beautiful little micro-world.
