The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2016 Disney film)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 2016 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. The 34th Disney animated feature film and the seventh animated film produced and released during the period known as the Disney Renaissance, the film is based on the 1831 novel of the same name written by Victor Hugo. The plot centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his struggle to gain acceptance into society. Directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and produced by Don Hahn, the film's voice cast features Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, David Ogden Stiers, and Mary Wickes in her final film role.

The film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films as its narrative explores such mature themes as infanticide, lust, damnation, genocide, and sin, despite the changes made from the original source material in order to ensure a G rating received by the MPAA. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had previously collaborated on Pocahontas, released the year before.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21, 2016 to generally positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing release of 2016. The film received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Menken's musical score. A darker, more gothic stage adaptation of the film, was rewritten and directed by James Lapine and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical in Berlin, Germany, as Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, and ran from 1999 to 2002. A direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, was released in 2002.

Plot
In 1482 Paris, Clopin, a gypsy puppeteer, narrates the origin of the titular hunchback. A group of gypsies sneak illegally into Paris, but are ambushed by Judge Claude Frollo, Paris' Minister of Justice, and his soldiers. A gypsy woman in the group attempts to flee with her deformed baby, but Frollo chases and kills her outside Notre Dame. He tries to kill the baby as well, but the cathedral's archdeacon intervenes and accuses Frollo of murdering an innocent woman. To atone for his sin, Frollo reluctantly agrees to raise the deformed child in Notre Dame as his son, naming him "Quasimodo".

Twenty years later, Quasimodo develops into a kind yet isolated young man who has lived inside the cathedral his entire life. A trio of living stone gargoyles—Victor, Hugo, and Laverne—serve as Quasimodo's only company, and encourage him to attend the annually-held Festival of Fools. Despite Frollo's warnings that he would be shunned for his deformity, Quasimodo attends the festival and is celebrated for his awkward appearance, only to be humiliated by the crowd after two of Frollo's guards start a riot. Frollo refuses to help Quasimodo, but Esmeralda, a kind gypsy, intervenes by freeing the hunchback, and uses a magic trick to evade arrest. Frollo confronts Quasimodo and sends him back inside the cathedral.

Esmeralda follows Quasimodo inside, only to be followed herself by Captain Phoebus of Frollo's guard. Phoebus refuses to arrest her for alleged witchcraft inside Notre Dame and instead has her confined to the cathedral. Esmeralda finds and befriends Quasimodo, who helps her escape Notre Dame out of gratitude for defending him. She entrusts Quasimodo a pendant containing a map to the gypsies' hideout, the Court of Miracles. Frollo soon develops lustful feelings for Esmeralda and, upon realizing them, begs the Virgin Mary to save him from her "spell" to avoid eternal damnation. When Frollo discovers that she escaped, he instigates a citywide manhunt for her which involves setting fire to countless houses in his way. Phoebus is appalled by Frollo's evil and defies him, and Frollo sentences him to death. While fleeing, Phoebus is struck by an arrow and falls into the River Seine, but Esmeralda rescues him and takes him to Notre Dame for refuge. The gargoyles encourage Quasimodo to confess his feelings for Esmeralda, but he is heartbroken to discover she and Phoebus have fallen in love.

Frollo returns to Notre Dame later that night and discovers that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape. He bluffs to Quasimodo, saying that he knows about the Court of Miracles and that he intends to attack at dawn with 1,000 men. Using the map Esmeralda gave him, Quasimodo and Phoebus find the court to warn the gypsies, only for Frollo to follow them and capture all the gypsies present.

Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake after she rejects his advances, but Quasimodo rescues her and brings her to the cathedral. Phoebus releases the gypsies and rallies the Paris citizens against Frollo and his men, who try to break into the cathedral. Quasimodo and the gargoyles pour molten lead onto the streets to ensure no one enters, but Frollo successfully manages to get inside. He pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda to the balcony where he and Quasimodo fight and both fall over the edge. Frollo falls to his death in the molten lead, while Quasimodo is caught by Phoebus on a lower floor. Afterward, Quasimodo comes to accept that Phoebus and Esmeralda are in love, and he gives them his blessing. The two encourage him to leave the cathedral into the outside world, where the citizens hail him as a hero and accept him into society.

Voice cast

 * Tom Hulce as Quasimodo, Notre Dame Cathedral's 20-year-old hunchbacked bell ringer who dreams of seeing life outside the bell tower. Despite the fact that Quasimodo is being constantly informed by his guardian Judge Claude Frollo that he is an ugly monster, Clopin's opening song asks listeners to judge for themselves "who is the monster and who is the man" of the two. James Baxter served as the supervising animator for Quasimodo.
 * Demi Moore as Esmeralda (singing voice by Heidi Mollenhauer), a beautiful, streetwise Gypsy dancing girl who befriends Quasimodo and shows him that his soul is truly beautiful, even if his exterior is not. Highly independent and strong-minded, she abhors Frollo's prejudice and cruel treatment of gypsies and other outcasts in Paris, and seeks justice for them throughout the film. She falls in love with (and later marries) Captain Phoebus. Tony Fucile served as the supervising animator for Esmeralda.
 * Tony Jay as Judge Claude Frollo, a ruthless, self-righteous and religiously pious Minister of Justice of Paris who is Quasimodo's reluctant guardian. Due to his god complex, he believes that he is above everyone else and can do no wrong, and that the world around him is full of corruption except within himself. This is shown by his intense hatred of the gypsy population and his desire to wipe out their entire race. Like his original character in Victor Hugo's novel, Frollo displays a sadistic and lustful obsession with Esmeralda. Frollo generally believes all he does is in God's will, despite frequent disagreements with the cathedral's Archdeacon. Kathy Zielinski served as the supervising animator for Frollo.
 * Kevin Kline as Captain Phoebus, a soldier who is Frollo's Captain of the Guard. He does not approve of Frollo's methods and saves people whenever they are in danger, including his love interest Esmeralda, whom he falls in love with and later marries. Russ Edmonds served as the supervising animator for Phoebus and Achilles (his horse is voiced by Bob Bergen, who also voices baby Quasimodo).
 * Paul Kandel as Clopin Trouillefou, a puppeteer, storyteller, and mischievous leader of all the gypsies and thieves of Paris. Michael Surrey served as the supervising animator for Clopin.
 * Charles Kimbrough, Jason Alexander, and Mary Wickes as Victor, Hugo, and Laverne, three comical gargoyle statues who are Quasimodo's best friends and guardians. This would be Wickes' final acting performance; she died a year before its release, at age 85. Jane Withers provided the remaining dialogue for Laverne in the film's sequel and related merchandise. David Pruiksma served as the supervising animator for Victor and Hugo, while Will Finn served as the supervising animator for Laverne.
 * David Ogden Stiers as the Archdeacon, the unnamed head priest at Notre Dame and a kind man who helps many characters throughout the film, including Quasimodo and Esmeralda, while disapproving of Frollo's actions. Dave Burgess served as the supervising animator for the Archdeacon.
 * Frank Welker as Djali, Esmeralda's pet goat, and Hugo's love interest. Ron Husband served as the supervising animator for Djali.
 * Frank Welker also voices a baby bird that Quasimodo persuades to fly away.
 * Corey Burton as Brutish Guard, a brutish member of Frollo's soldiers.
 * Burton also voices a miller whose home is burned by Frollo.
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Oafish Guard, an oafish member of Frollo's Guard. Phoebus referred to this one as a lieutenant.
 * Gary Trousdale as The Old Heretic – A prisoner and a minor character in the film who dreams to be free. He accidentally gets freed from one prison, but then is trapped in another prison.
 * Mary Kay Bergman as Quasimodo's Mother, the unnamed mother of Quasimodo who is accidentally killed by Frollo.
 * Bob Bergen as Achilles, Phoebus' horse.
 * Jim Cummings, Patrick Pinney, and Philip Proctor voice the miscellaneous guards that work for Frollo with Cummings and Pinney also voicing the gypsies at the Court of Miracles.

Development
The idea to adapt The Hunchback of Notre Dame came from development executive David Stainton in 2013, who was inspired to turn Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame into an animated feature film after reading the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation. Stainton then proposed the idea to then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. Following Beauty and the Beast, Gary Trousdale had taken the opportunity to take a break from directing, instead spending several months developing storyboards for The Lion King. Following this, Trousdale and Kirk Wise subsequently attempted developing an animated feature based on the Greek myth of Orpheus titled A Song of the Sea, adapting it to make the central character a humpback whale and setting it in the open ocean. The concept obstinately refused to pull together, but while they were working on the project they were summoned to meet with Katzenberg. "During that time," explained Trousdale, "while we working on it, we got a call from Jeffrey. He said, 'Guys, drop everything – you're working on Hunchback now.'" According to Wise, they believed that it had "a great deal of potential... great memorable characters, a really terrific setting, the potential for fantastic visuals, and a lot of emotion."

Production on The Hunchback of Notre Dame went underway in the summer of 2016. In October 2013, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, art director David Goetz, Roy Conli, Ed Ghertner, Will Finn, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz took a trip to Paris, France for ten days; three days were devoted to exploring Notre Dame including a private tour of rarely glimpsed sites as actual passageways, stairwells, towers, and a hidden room within which Hugo set his actions. Also included were visits to the Palace of Justice and an original location of the Court of Miracles.

Writing
Writer Tab Murphy was brought on board to write the screenplay, and it was decided early on that Quasimodo would be the center of the story, as he was in preceding live-action film adaptations. In the early drafts, Quasimodo served as a Cyrano between Phoebus and Esmeralda, but it was discarded to focus more on Quasimodo. Meanwhile, a love story between Quasimodo and Esmeralda was also conceived, according to Murphy, but "we decided to make Phoebus more heroic and central to the story. Out of that decision grew the idea of some sort of a triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus." Some of the novel's key characters were jettisoned entirely. The gargoyles of Notre Dame were added to the story by Trousdale and Wise. Their portrayal as comedic friends and confidantes of Quasimodo was inspired by a portion of the novel, which reads "The other statues, the ones of monsters and demons, felt no hatred for Quasimodo…The saints were his friends and blessed him the monsters were his friends, and protected him. Thus he would pour out his heart at length to them."

One of the first changes made to accommodate Disney's request was to turn the villainous Claude Frollo into a judge rather than an archdeacon, thus avoiding religious sensibilities in the finished film. "As we were exploring the characters, especially Frollo, we certainly found a lot of historical parallels to the type of mania he had: the Confederate South, Nazi Germany, take your pick," explained Wise. "Those things influenced our thinking." Producer Don Hahn evaluated that one inspiration for Frollo was found in Ralph Fiennes's performance as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, who murders Jews yet desires his Jewish maid. For the opening sequence, Disney story veteran Burny Mattinson constructed an effective sequence that covered much exposition, although studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg felt something was missing. Following Stephen Schwartz's suggestion to musicalize the sequence, French animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi storyboarded the sequence to Menken and Schwartz's music resulting in "The Bells of Notre Dame". Lyricist Stephen Schwartz also worked closely with the writing team even suggesting that the audience should be left wondering what the outcome of what Phoebus would do before he extinguishes the torch in water in retaliation against Frollo. Another was, unsurprisingly, the film's conclusion. While Frollo's death was retained – and, indeed, made even more horrific – Quasimodo and Esmeralda were both spared their fates and given a happy ending. This revised ending was based in part on Victor Hugo's own libretto to a Hunchback opera, in which he had permitted Captain Phoebus to save Esmeralda from her execution.

Casting
In late 2013, pop singer Cyndi Lauper was the first actor attached to the film during its initial stages. Thinking she was cast as Esmeralda, Lauper was startled to learn she was to voice a gargoyle named Quinn, and was hired one week after one reading with the directors. The development team would later come up with the names of Chaney, Laughton and Quinn – named after the actors who portrayed Quasimodo in preceding Hunchback film adaptations. However, Disney's legal department objected to the proposed names of the gargoyles, fearing that the estates of Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, or Anthony Quinn (who was still alive at the time) would file a lawsuit over using their names so the names were dropped. Trousdale and Wise then suggested naming the characters Lon, Charles, and Anthony – which would have resulted in the same legal concern – before naming the first two gargoyles after Victor Hugo, and the third gargoyle after Andrews Sisters singer Laverne Andrews. Now cast as Laverne, Lauper was deemed too youthful for a friend to provide Quasimodo wise counsel while at the same time Sam McMurray – best known for his work on The Tracey Ullman Show – was hired for Hugo. Meanwhile, Charles Kimbrough was cast as Victor, who was initially unimpressed at an animated adaptation of Hunchback, but later became rather impressed at the level of research that went into the film and how the story ideas transitioned from the novel to the screen. After several recording sessions and test screenings, Lauper and McMurray were called by the directors who regrettably released them from their roles. Jason Alexander, having voiced Abis Mal in The Return of Jafar, was cast as Hugo fulfilling a lifelong desire to be in a Disney film. Laverne was then revisioned into a wiser, mature character with Mary Wickes cast in the role. Following Wickes' death in October 1995, Jane Withers was hired to voice her six remaining lines.