A story that may have been too dark for Disney, controversial songs,
and in-joke easter eggs are what you’re about to learn in the next 13 minutes.
This is the untold truth of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In 1993, Disney dream team Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise got a phone call from
then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg, who informed them
they would be directing an adaptation of Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
Wise and Trousdale had a short but colorful history with the company. They collaborated
directly for the first time on "The Rescuers Down Under" — from which they were both fired.
But they reunited for their directorial debut, "Beauty and the Beast," which proved to be an
enormous success. It became the first animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award
for Best Picture, and won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
Wise and Trousdale took a break from directing after the grueling "Beauty" process.
But once Katzenberg ordained "Hunchback" as their follow-up,
they became determined to push the boundaries of animation like never before.
Despite its reputation for delivering happily-ever-afters, Disney frequently
draws on grim source material. Even so, Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame,”
might be the least obvious choice for cartoon adaptation they could have possibly gone with.
Hugo's tome is a chronicle of human tragedy - and it's one that has had more faithful film
adaptations in the past. In the original story, Archdeacon Frollo and Quasimodo
both fall in love with Esmerelda, as they do in the Disney version. But in the original,
Frollo orders Quasimodo to kidnap her. This plan is thwarted, and Quasimodo is arrested.
In time, Esmeralda falls in love with Phoebus, who is considerably less charming than he is in
Disney's adaptation. Frollo makes an attempt on his life, for which Esmerelda is blamed.
After Esmeralda refuses his advances, Frollo hands her over to the authorities. Powerless,
Quasimodo can only watch as she is hanged. Filled with rage and grief, he hurls Frollo to his death,
then vanishes. Years later, his skeleton is found clutching hers in a mass pauper's grave.
Not exactly the most obvious choice for Disney - and the
changes they had to make to turn it into a Disney story would prove controversial.
Where better to learn how to bring Paris to life onscreen
than Paris itself? Early into production, the core "Hunchback" team set up a studio
in the City of Lights to gather inspiration from both the location, and from the author himself.
"Victor Hugo lived just a few miles from the studio - about 165 years ago.
Great name by the way: Victor Hugo! HAHA!"
They were even allowed unprecedented access to Notre Dame. Kirk Wise can
precisely recall the moment he discovered the feeling he wanted the movie to conjure:
"Listening to this pipe organ in this shadowy cathedral, with light filtering
through the stained-glass windows [...] I could feel it thudding in my chest."
A similar moment inspired lyricist Stephen Schwartz to write "Out There." With
composer Alan Menken's tune already in place,
he sat in the bell tower early in the morning, before the public was allowed in.
Schwartz looked out over Paris and felt himself fully inhabit Quasimodo's world, saying,
"By the time we left Paris, the song was written."
The filmmakers went through hellfire to cast the voice of Quasimodo.
One unexpected candidate was legendary rocker Meat Loaf, who auditioned for the directors
and composer Alan Menken. He was reportedly great, but didn't fit their idea of the role.
The most memorable audition, however, came courtesy of Mandy Patinkin,
best known for "The Princess Bride" and "Homeland." In what has since been dubbed
"The Patinkin Incident," the actor arrived at his audition with his own accompanist. Moreover,
this accompanist had rearranged the audition song.
These etiquette breaches didn't go down well with Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz,
and when Patinkin took too long to get through his audition, tempers flared into open argument.
Disney ended up choosing Tom Hulce, who was actually nervous about taking the role.
But when the directors heard his audio for the scene in which Quasimodo releases a
bird he's been nursing, they knew he was the guy they'd been looking for. The take
was so heartfelt that it not only got him the part, it's the one used in the movie.
In the mid '90s, Demi Moore was one of the most in-demand movie stars in
Hollywood. Having found fame as a member of the so-called "Brat Pack," Moore went
on to star in hits including "Ghost," "A Few Good Men," and "Indecent Proposal."
However, she wasn't Jeffrey Katzenberg's number-one choice for the role of Esmeralda.
As supervising animator and storyboarder Will Finn told Slash Film, the executive
wanted Cher for the role. Even Wise and Trousdale didn't think of approaching Moore — but only
because they didn't know they could. When they told Katzenberg they were thinking of,
quote, "a Demi Moore-type person" for the role, Katzenberg asked why they didn't just get Moore.
Trousdale admitted,
"We didn't know we were allowed to."
Reports about Moore being demanding turned out to be false. As detail-oriented Disney fans will
note, however, Esmeralda's singing voice was provided by Broadway star Heidi Mollenhauer.
Most Disney movies contain an element of comic relief,
often in the form of silly sidekicks. "Hunchback" leans on this trope too,
via Esmeralda's goat Djali, Phoebus's horse Achilles, and Quasimodo's gargoyle friends.
But introducing singing gargoyles into a story this intense didn't go down well with everyone.
The gargoyles' personalities changed dramatically throughout production. Initially, they were going
to be voiced by three of the era's most famous late show hosts, Jay Leno, David Letterman,
and Arsenio Hall. Cyndi Lauper and Sam McMurray were also nearly cast until Roy Disney himself
vetoed them. Ultimately, the gargoyles were played by Charles Kimbrough, Mary Wickes, and Jason
Alexander, with Jane Withers providing additional dialogue after Wickes tragically passed away.
Some viewers felt that goofy gargoyles don't fit the movie's intense subject matter.
As it turns out, some people who worked on the movie agreed.
In Slash Film's oral history of "Hunchback," then-president of Disney Feature Animation
Peter Schneider described their presence as, quote, "icky," while writer Brenda Chapman said,
"I wasn't sure if I liked how it ended up."
Though the entire movie pushes boundaries, there are two songs in "Hunchback" audiences find
especially shocking. The first is "Hellfire," in which Frollo struggles between bigoted piety
and overpowering lust for Esmeralda. The original storyboards even depicted
the vision of Esmeralda who dances in the flames as naked. That idea was shot down,
but to everyone's surprise, the studio changed nothing else. The demonic judges, the references
to "burning desire," the use of crucifixion imagery — Disney was willing to back it all.
The other eyebrow-raising song is controversial for very different reasons.
"A Guy Like You," performed by Quasimodo and the gargoyles, is a major tonal deviation
from the rest of the movie. Lyricist Stephen Schwartz was always unenthusiastic about it,
but director Kirk Wise described the song as a necessary interlude,
intended to keep the audience from, quote, "sitting in this trough of despair for so long."
If you're a connoisseur of the Disney Renaissance, then you've probably
loved a song by Alan Menken. He composed the scores for "The Little Mermaid,"
"Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "Pocahontas" before tackling "Hunchback."
He went on to write the scores for "Hercules" and "Tangled" as well.
Menken won various Oscars for the first four of those movies,
including Best Original Musical Score for "Pocahontas" and Best Original Song for
"Colors of the Wind." He shares both trophies with "Hunchback" lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
But out of all the music he's done, Menken is most proud of the work he did on "Hunchback."
Menken told Slash Film
"It's the most ambitious score I've ever written."
Schwartz agreed that it's not just Menken's best work, but his as well.
"I think the music is just unbelievably good. I think, as a lyricist, I was working at pretty
much the top of my form. I have so many people telling me it's their favorite Disney film."
When "Hunchback" came out in 1996, animation had come a long way since Walt Disney's day.
But creating the crowds depicted in the film's festival and mob
sequences was still a major undertaking.
Most of "Hunchback" was animated the old-fashioned way: With carefully hand-drawn pictures,
painstakingly sequenced to create the appearance of motion.
This is a lengthy enough process with just one character, let alone hundreds.
So for those crowd scenes, the CGI department used then-cutting edge computer software to
create several animated character templates. Each was then repurposed dozens of times with
different outfits, hairstyles, and accessories. All of these models were then added into the scene
and choreographed to respond to the main action. The effect is a crowd that looks like it's made
of individuals, created in a fraction of the time a hand-drawn version would have taken.
Many Disney villains are so over-the-top, they're more fascinating — or funny — than frightening.
But there's nothing funny about Frollo – his evil is deeply and recognizably human.
"Ease up. Wait between lashes. Otherwise the older lashes will dull him to the new."
The power he seeks isn't over an abstract group: He specifically wants to control Esmeralda and
destroy her community. He is so clearly evil that Disney specifically changed his position
from archdeacon, as it is in the novel, to judge, so as not to insult the church.
The scene in which Frollo threatens Esmeralda inside the cathedral has a distinctly disturbing
tone — at least, if you're an adult. As the "Hunchback" filmmakers recall, they thought
they were going to have a battle on their hands trying to keep that especially sinister moment in
the movie. Surprisingly, they only had to make one change. According to director Kirk Wise,
the ratings board was most troubled by Frollo audibly sniffing Esmeralda's hair.
When the filmmakers agreed to lower the volume of the sniff, they were
given their "G" rating — a very important thing for a Disney animated movie to have.
Although "Hunchback" is a more serious Disney movie, the animators working on
it still made room for in-jokes. There's a reason some of the most brilliant Easter eggs
of the last decade are in Disney movies, after all: They're good at hiding them.
"Hunchback" has multiple connections to the studio's 1991 mega-hit,
"Beauty and the Beast." Most obviously, it reunited directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale,
and composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. In honor of their previous project,
a special guest makes an appearance early on: Belle can be seen walking
through the market square during "Out There." Naturally, she's reading as she strolls. Other
Disney cameos can be glimpsed in that moment, including the Magic Carpet from "Aladdin" and
Pumbaa from "The Lion King." Maybe don't point that latter reference out to the kids, though:
those guys walking there? They’ve got Pumbaa on a spit… about to be roasted!
Another in-joke is hidden in plain sight, though only the most hardcore animation nerds will
notice it. Phoebus has the honor of being the first modern Disney hero to have facial hair,
a tongue-in-cheek poke at Jeffrey Katzenberg. As Kirk Wise recalled,
Katzenberg was famously against characters having facial hair. So,
when he left the studio during production on "Hunchback," the filmmakers jumped at
the opportunity to express their newfound freedom by giving their leading man a jaw-defining beard.
"Hunchback" remains one of Disney's most ambitious movies. Between the adventurous animation,
searing score, distinctly morbid source material, and attempted blend of comedy and drama,
the film pushes the limits of people's expectations for an animated movie.
Although the studio had been supportive of the film's dark tone during production,
the Disney marketing team presented "Hunchback" as a colorful carnival,
entreating moviegoers to "Join the party!" And merchandise tie-ins reinforced this upbeat theme.
This bit of misdirection backfired, as it set unrealistic expectations for confused
and unhappy viewers expecting an upbeat romp. And the film's box office chances also took a hit when
Jason Alexander said that though he loved the film, he wouldn't want his young son to see it.
Some critics appreciated the mature themes and style "Hunchback" invokes,
but ultimately few were satisfied. Those expecting or wanting a pure Disney experience
found it too dark, while those looking for a pure adaptation of Hugo's novel found it far too
Disneyfied, with a thematically jarring happy ending tacked on.
Still, though not a smash hit, "Hunchback" did okay at the box office.
And some fans swear by it. Wise told Slash Film,
"I've had so many people come up to me and say,
'This is my absolute favorite movie.' [...] That makes all the difference in the world."
The relatively lackluster box office performance of "Hunchback" didn't save it from the indignity
of a direct-to-video sequel. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2: The Secret of the Bell" was
released in 2002. Surprisingly, given critical backlash to their silliness,
this sequel focuses heavily on the gargoyles, who help Quasimodo save one of Notre Dame's most
illustrious bells. The bellringer also finally finds love with circus performer Madellaine.
And a successful 2014 stage musical has stoked rumors that Disney will be making a
live action "Hunchback" remake in the style of recent efforts like "Cinderella" and "Mulan."
Will moviegoers soon be watching Josh Gad swing from cathedral spires? Considering
the animated version of "Hunchback" was maybe Disney's most unlikely film ever,
there's no telling what might happen next!
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