#Also I finally saw the hunchback of notre dame by disney

[r-aindr0p]

Seeking salvation

[sweetmariihs2]

We need to talk about Judge Claude Frollo in the Disney Parks (DURING THE 90's) (he didn't wore a mascot head before then)—————— ⊹₊ ⋆. ♱ ₊˚ .⊹

The fandom needs to know about this. Why is no one talking about it???

Recently I got hyperfocused on HOND and, after watching the movie multiple times, musicals, and tons of video analysis, I finally found the Disney Park content - and oh boy I got so lucky for finding it

I would like to say that, at first, my wish was that the content of this post was posted on tiktok in form of videos and small edits, and while I have a tiktok account, I only post my art and my family follows me there help (imagine what they would think if they saw me posting edits (simping for) of a guy in the disney parks dressed as the most horrific character from disney in the 90s). I also told a friend about this, who has a tiktok accont, wishing they would post something about it, but it didn't happened- So I decided to make a Tumblr post.

I'm not a Disney parks specialist, I don't know a lot about this topic in general, but if any of you are, please correct me if I'm wrong or give me info I didn't included because this would help a lot.

Going to the main topic, you guys probably know how Frollo looks like in the parks today. He barely appears, sure, but he wears a mascot head, and since his mouth is always shut, he's not able to talk, having to speak to people only through signs and body expressions. But during the 90s HE DIDN'T WORE A MASK. He was played by a face actor.

BACK THEN IN THE 90s, the movie of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released (1996), and the parks started to include the characters in their attractions. As far as I know, we had three main attractions related to HOND back then:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Cavalcade (it's a parade that happened at Disneyland and also Disneyland Paris in the 5th anniversary celebration of the park - overall based on the Festival of Fools scene);

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival of Fools (Which I have NO IDEA of why it's described as similar to the musical adventure in that wiki, since the script, stage and everything is completely different from the musical adventure - The stage is WAY BIGGER and it's mainly focused on the Festival Of Fools, but the story cuts to the end a lot faster than in the movie)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure (a musical theatre, stage show, that happened at Disney's Hollywood Studios, that tells us the whole story of the movie);

The parade has two versions, as I said. Since our main focus is Frollo in this post, in one of the versios Frollo is riding his horse, and in the other one he's standing over one of the floats. Most of the videos I found about it show us Frollo as a face character (no mask on), but somehow there are some videos dated as 1997 about the same parade with him wearing his mascot head, which is just very confusing to me.

I can't exactly explain why he stopped being a face character, I believe that it's related to what Disney did to Fairy Godmother (she's an elderly character, just like Frollo, the same happened to her: previously face character, eventually mask character. I heard a theory saying that Disney probably doesn't want to hire elders because of their physical limitations in having to stay standing in a costume during the whole day).

What confuses me is the fact that in some attractions (the parade at Paris) Frollo is already wearing a mask, but in others (Festival of Fools) he is not yet. You see, the parade ended in 1997, but the Festival ended in 1998, and there is a recording made of the last performance of the Festival on YouTube, and Frollo is still not wearing his mask.

That can be easily explained by them just taking the decision of making him wear the mask during the parade only and keep him as a face character during the Festival. But why? We also have to consider that these take place in different parks and different countries (France and USA).

Let's take a look at the dates:

Parade AT DISNEYLAND: started in 1996 and ended in 1997 - no mask

Parade AT PARIS: started in 1997 and ended in 1998 (in some the videos I found from there, Frollo IS wearing his mask)

but I am confused since I found a video where he wasn't wearing his mask at this same parade, at Disneyland, in front of a "It's a Small World" ride. English is not my main language so I am not sure if they're only speaking in english, because if it was in France (France also has a Disneyland and a It's a Small World) they would be talking in both languages: English and French. And I don't know if I'm crazy but I didn't heard any French there. Which means this is probably at USA. BUT WHY IS FROLLO NOT WEARING HIS MASK AT USA??? I don't know I'm just confused

Festival of Fools: started in June 21, 1996 and ended in April 18, 1998 - no mask (I would like to say that Hellfire is included in this one, it was cut in all the other attractions. Also, near the end, right before his death, Frollo seems to try to grab Esmeralda when Quasi attacks his back, which wasn't in the movie indeed.)

A Musical Adventure (theatre): started in june 21, 1996 and ended in september 28, 2002 - no mask (his actor got changed around 3 times as far as I know, based on the videos that I watched)

Also, between the USA and the France version of the parade, Frollo shows up in three different ways: riding his horse, standing on top of the Notre Dame float, or sitting at his chair at the festival (which appears to be like a mini float, and he wears his mask). They're mixed and it's confusing to me, I am not sure which is where. When I think I understood, I find new footage of these attractions where he appears on top of something else and I don't know what's happening anymore

I don't know guys, I am just really confused and I'll just keep enjoying all the videos I can find of him without his mask, because it's a rare thing to see Frollo showing his face, and now much rarer hearing him talk and express himself properly at the parks. I hate this damn mask. It's clear as the light of the day that it's the same costume from the 90s with no update, no better painting, or anything new for that matter. I don't HATE him, I'm happy that we have Frollo in the parks. It's just that it was better before... if they at least updated that mask and those pale hands...

Despite trying, I couldn't find any pictures from that face character Frollo. You know, pictures people take with the characters? None. All we have are low quality 90s videos on YouTube and that's it. Which makes me really upset, because those videos don't properly capture his costume and makeup, even though I'm really grateful to everyone who recorded them, it's very hard to see his face clearly. That gif at the start of the post is one of those rare moments someone showed us his face up close, and it's from a video recording "The Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Cavalcade" at Disneyland where Frollo rode his horse instead of just standing on top of the Notre Dame float. (It happens at 04:00 and I giggle every single time help)

I would like to make a mini list of all the videos I could find about this on the internet. It will be updated constantly, of course, and separated by topics (the attractions) and their names will be the names of the videos themselves. I would also like to say that the qualities of those videos aren't always the best, but we're lucky for at least having them in our hands in the first place. Sometimes I will point out when he appears, sometimes I won't because I'm lazy.

Edit: Turns out that there are millions of videos about them on YouTube and a lot of them are low quality, so I won't spend time adding *all of them*, just some of the best. If you find a interesting one that's not in the post, send me the link plz!

If any kind soul wants to make funny edits with compilations of best moments please send me the link, I appreciate it

The video list : —————— ⊹₊ ⋆. ♱ ₊˚ .⊹

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Cavalcade:

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Cavalcade - Disneyland 1996" (close up view of his face (the death look) at the minute 04:00) (*happy giggles* that's the gif used in the title of the post!) (I would probably pass out if I were this person)

"Disneyland California - The Hunchback of Notre Dame Parade 1998" (he can be seen since 02:10 (during Esmeralda's dance, which he claims "look at this disgusting display!" (also that dance is kinda "uuuhhhhh disneyyy this parade is for children"), and apparently she goes down on the pole looking at him) but he really appears properly at the minute 04:50 and doesn't look at the camera - at the minute 05:30 he's seen pretty close to Esmeralda's float, apparently watching her dance - right after this moment the video is cut and he appears again, this time walking to the opposite way. At the end of the video he's seen again from afar!)

"The Hunchback Parade at Disneyland (at Small World" (he's the first thing we see when we open the video)

"The Hunchback Parade at Disneyland (From The Plaza)" (he's seen at 1:30 standing on top of the Notre Dame float)

"Disneyland-Parade-Hunchback of Notre Dame. Oct 31. 1997." (Frollo can be seen by the first time at the minute 04:40, but he can be seen really closely at the minute 07:05. That happened during a halloween night at Disneyland!)

There is a video that I JUST CAN'T FIND about this same parade, and I remember Frollo riding his horse at the end of the video. It was day and I remember being possible to see him dissapearing behind a curve, still riding his horse. I CAN'T FIND IT, not even in my history. I'll just update this post when I finally find it (IF I find it)

Second edit: Guys I think I'm stupid. I was rewatching the end of THE FIRST VIDEO OF THE LIST and it was that one. I feel dumb now

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival Of Fools:

"Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Festival of Fools, Disneyland in 1996 part 2" (a journalistic report about the attraction - the person who updated this didn't published the part 1! Ugh! We only have one half! It's a great video by the way, the quality and the shots are awesome) (Frollo only appears once at 1:30, but the whole video is great)

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival Of Fools - Disneyland 1996" (That's a part of the show. It has good camera angles but not a very good quality. Frollo appears at 02:10 and at 03:30-04:00 and at 08:05)

"【Old Disney】 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Musical Show!-1996 / ノートルダム の鐘ミュージカルショー" (Full show once again - There is a change in here! At the second 20:26, Clopin went up the stairs and Frollo casually gets the flag from his hand. The flag is a crucial part for the ending, it works like Frollo's sword for a long period of time, and he fights Esmeralda and Quasimodo using it. In other recordings you can see that Frollo gets his flag forcefully from one of the dancer's hands in the middle of the main stage, not from Clopin already up the stairs. At 19:55 we can see Frollo holding the flag, running with it, but when we see him again, the flag is in Clopin's hand instead of Frollo's, and Frollo takes it from him later. What a mess!)

"1996 Disneyland Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival of Fools" (terrible quality but it adds ✨️flavor✨️)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame Play Disneyland 1996" (The quality is also bad, but we can see the lights and overall hear the music and the spectacle itself here. I wish I was there!)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival of Fools - Disneyland 1996" (Footage of the whole show, the quality is... average)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame Festival Of Fools--Disneyland History--1990's--TMS-561" (footage of the festival but overall the quality is terrible in this one)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame Festival Of Fools | Disneyland | 1996" (low quality footage of the show. Frollo can barely be seen :c )

""Festival Of Fools" at Disneyland, Presented by Get Away Today (Part 1)" (a TV channel recorded the performance profissionally, even though it's old it's also a good video)

""Festival Of Fools" at Disneyland, Presented by Get Away Today (Part 2)" (part 2 of that same video)

— The last show footage needs to be properly separated here. This makes me bittersweet:

"Festival of Fools - Last Show - Warm Up - Disneyland" (part 0)

"Festival of Fools - Last Show - Part 1 - Disneyland" (part 1)

"Festival of Fools - Last Show - Part 2 - Disneyland" (part 2)

"Festival of Fools - Last Show - Part 3 - Disneyland" (part 3) (Frollo shows up really closely in this one, this person did a wonderful job when recording - and him singing Hellfire!! Ahhhhh!!! He appears again at the end of the video when the characters are thanking the audience)

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure:

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame : A Musical Adventure - Full Show, Disney-MGM Studios 1996 Disney World" (full show)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame Disney-MGM" (full show recorded, great image quality, the camera man gives us zoom and great shots - WE CAN SEE FROLLO'S FACE PROPERLY AT 03:10)

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure" - Full show from 1999 at MGM Studios in WDW" (HIS ACTOR IS AMAZING HERE - We can see his face closely at 02:55, and at 03:33 THE EVIL SMILE IS SO SIMILAR, he even LOOKS LIKE FROLLO HIMSELF! At 11:15 there's the Esmeralda's tease scene which is *chef's kiss* (we can see it really closely) AND IT WAS ALSO DONE PERFECTLY! aaahahshwhwhehsg that's my favorite performance of this show idc, we can see him closely again at 23:20 aaand also at 09:55 - 10:30) [this is where that Frollo and Esmeralda gif I added came from]

"Hunchback Of Notre Dame (2002)" (full show again but this person zooms the characters sometimes, awesome video too)

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure" - Full performance at MGM Studios in WDW - 2000" (We can see Frollo's face from up close at 14:00 - it seems to be a different actor :c )

"1996 Walt Disney World The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure" (The quality is not the best but I think it's cute the way the person recorded the surroundings. Really looks like a good memory to have. So sweet)

"Walt Disney World spectacle THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME 06 02 1997" (the full show recorded - average quality)

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure @ Disney-MGM Studios - August, 1997" (meh not really in a good quality but it's recorded so let's add it here)

""Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure" Photos and Video from 1996 at Disney-MGM Studios" (not a youtube video, this time it's a website filled with pics taken of the show)

Someone recorded 8 parts of the show, but I would like to add them since it's... you know, my fav Frollo actor until now:

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8

BONUS:

"Meeting Phoebus, from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure" at MGM Studios in WDW" (this is so cute!)

"Festival Of Fools Construction at Disneyland" (the title speaks for itself)

"Disneyland Inside Out - "Festival Of Fools" (report about the attraction)

"Disneyland Paris * May 1997" (showing how the park looked like at that time- a lot of HOND stuff)

"DISNEYLAND: 50 Years of ImaginEARing CD 10-12 FESTIVAL OF FOOLS A Guy Like You" (I believe this is a remastered version of one of the songs that played during the parade. I wish I was there at that time)

"Hunchback of Notre Dame Carnival Disneyland Paris" (this is a video of the parade when Frollo was already wearing a mask, but look at how cute this is! It's a family memory)

[alatabouleau]

You know, I was always theoretically aware that whitewashing was a problem, but it never occured to me to how many examples i'm completely oblivious.

So, I just learned through a YouTube video by a Romani person ( https://youtube.com/shorts/A-kF9BBVfu8?feature=share ) that Romani people were just as much part of the target for the "final solution" in World War II by the Nazi government. Which, first of all, came as a complete shock to me, because in school, we would learn all about antisemitism and how Nazi Germany executed Jews brutally and factory-like, but we rarely, if ever, talked about Roma meeting the same fate. Honestly, even most people around me growing up didn't talk all that positive about Romani people, usually reducing them to systemic beggars.

And this all plays into the fact that I never saw how Magda, you know Magneto's late wife, one of the few people in his life he actually loved, was not Jewish but actually Romani. So, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are actually half Jewish, half Romani (because I REFUSE to accept the 2014 retcon it makes no narrative sense, I hate it)! And even their original adoptive parents were Romani as well.

So, why is it, that in the X-Men-movies, as well as in the MCU, their Romani side is COMPLETELY eradicated and their maybe-Jewish-background never touched upon?! Why are their parents in the MCU, real or not, white?! And yes, I feel like I'm late to the party, but my goodness! It's probably just that I now realise that I have been due to my ignorance, participated in white-washing, because in my Cherik fanfictions, I always use the movie version of Magda who is, maybe a Jew? But rather, just a Polish woman and IS ALSO WHITE, WHY?!?!?

I mean, not to start an oppression olympics, really not, but you know Jews have at least ~some~ examples of positive representation in the media nowadays. The only one in mainstream media for Romani people is probably Esmeralda in Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (https://youtube.com/shorts/zXHctFGKM1M?feature=share ) and even she falls into the trope of "Disney overse*ualising Disney princesses of colour". The other one is in the Paramount+ prpduction 1883 (https://youtube.com/shorts/j1DiLR27LyI?feature=share)

Man. This is bad.

I really don't want to make this into a white saviour complex thing, it's just something I realised I was unaware of before I found the Youtube-channel of florida.florian which has been really informative and made me see how little I actually knew about Romani culture and how much this demographic still faces severe discrimination to this day. Also in my country, Germany, which is probably why this hits so hard to me, personally.

If you now excuse me, I need to rewrite Magda's character in this one Cherik-fanfic I've been working on

[marciabrady]

One of the things that I love about the Hunchback of Notre Dame that I feel sometimes is a bit overlooked is Quasimodo's arc. One thing I noticed rewatching the film as an adult is the care the animators put in Quasi's body language each time he's with Frollo: when he's alone or with the gargoles, Quasi seems more relaxed and confident, but when he's with Frollo he looks down, he gets anxious and you can see how much he fears this man and the control Frollo has on his life, the intro to "Out There" where Frollo calls him deformed and ugly and Quasi just repeats knowing he has been told that many times is realistic horrifying. Basically Quasi was raised without dignity, without believing he is worth something, and yet, he still harbored a hope he may walk among the people outside. And then it goes ALL HORRIBLY WRONG and he goes back to his shell, but as the movie progresses and he becomes friends with Esmeralda and finally with Phoebus, he starts facing his fears and break the chains that Frollo put on him in order to do the right thing. And the thing is, Quasi goes back and forth between optimistic and pessimistic, until he saves Esmeralda from execution and tells Frollo to STFU and STANDS over him! The visual language where we see Quasi holding the knife he took from Frollo - the knife Frollo tried to use to murder him -, standing tall and fierce is so POWERFUL because it culminates the final straw that severed his dependency from Frollo and that's so amazing? And then when he's finally accepted by the people of Paris because they saw the worth in his heart instead of his appearance? Heartwarming.

A lot of people focus on Quasi learning to let go of Esmeralda and accepting she loved Phoebus, and that's also an important part of his arc. However, the core of his story is that of an abused young man forging connections with other people and breaking free from his abusive foster parent, and also discovering his heritage. Quasi is one of Disney's most psychologically compelling Disney protagonists because of the kind of arc he goes through. Much like Cinderella, he endured and struggled inside an abusive household but at the end managed to overcome with support and found his happy ending.

I love this! Thank you for sending this in 💌

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker #3, episode 133

Greetings and salutations to the exercise I have set upon myself, which is to say deciding the relative mental stability of Wizard NPCs who have been subjected to the Mighty Nein. My intent is to do this at least until Trent Ikithon has fucked off this mortal coil and/or been thoroughly deposed and humiliated.

As a reminder Caleb Widogast is a member of the Mighty Nein and a PC and therefore excluded from these calculations. Wizards who haven’t been seen or heard from lately and about whom I don’t have anything funny to say about will not get a full blurb, but as they re-enter the main narrative so will they re-enter the list. Currently, this is the Essek Thelyss Show ft. Trent and the Volstruckers with guest appearances by Yussa and Allura.

Currently sidelined: Oremid Hass, Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk (I am going to reuse this stupid joke name for him until it doesn’t make me laugh at my own joke anymore, which will probably be never), Pumat Sol (who I hope is having a great day), Ludinus Da’leth (who I hope is not but in true laissez-faire rat bastard form, probably is).

Vess D wasn’t there/morning time in Eiselcross or at her job or anywhere/they snuck in and took her life/and we noticed that her spellbook’s gone and that she’s covered in red eyes.

Trent Ikithon: Okay with the caveat that it’s been a very long time since I saw the entire movie and our only update is Artagan taking a moment from his busy schedule of traveling the globe in the direction of the sun such that he is always technically day-drinking to tell Jester that Trent’s biding his time, I’m getting real Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame Frollo vibes. Except instead of Catholicism and lust, it’s nationalism and an unquenchable thirst for power and control, and also he does not feel guilty in the slightest. He’s not at Hellfire levels yet but he will get there and I am slightly disappointed that due to the constraints of a D&D game we do not get an even more fucked up version of the song Hellfire.

Conclusion: 6/10. Slowly stepping it up. Also here’s the great thing: while we know Caleb is going to come after him next, he doesn’t, and the Nein didn’t tell any world governments about the threat of the city unless you count the Tal’Dorei Council via Allura, which means for all intents and purposes they just disappeared into Eiselcross...except Trent also knows Caleb disappeared for five or six years once before and reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. If Caleb weren’t dedicated to the noble goal of ending the Volstrucker program ASAP, he could just chill for a year or so and then pull a really stellar Surprise Bitch move and maybe just get Trent’s heart to explode.

Essek Thelyss: He got a good night’s trance and weird physical affection from a giant ape Caleb and he was healed by Caduceus and he had a serious conversation with the first true peer and one of the first friends he’s ever known about how high-level wizardry may not necessarily corrupt absolutely. And, of course, soup. I mean they are about to head into a terrible battle but he’s at full health and spells and he’s a valued member of the team and his friends love him SO MUCH.

Conclusion: 5/10. There is a distinction between a breakdown and being in a very high pressure situation, and he got some nice moments of respite this week. With that said do I think that post-battle, should he survive (HE BETTER) a whole lot of anxiety will come crashing back? Yeah.

Astrid Beck: With Trent in a holding pattern he’s got to be turning up the mind games on her; I have to imagine he suspects and then she suspects that he suspects and it’s a whole mess, but I’ve said that already. But also just like, in general, I think her speech to Caleb back when he first contacted her was genuine in many ways and specifically I think she was likely to have been Trent’s New Golden Child and then suddenly that got yanked out from under her for still more mind games; I think her difference in demeanor between that meeting and the dinner was partially Trent being present, but partially her having realized in the interim that she will likely never have anything to show for two decades of pain and doing terrible things and nonstop bullshit.

Conclusion: still keeping her at 8/10 until further notice but like. Astrid’s having a bad time.

Um actually Eadwulf is the monster? The hero’s name is Grendel: Okay meanwhile here’s my totally unsupported Eadwulf headcanon of this week which is that he meanwhile always knew he was not the favorite and probably never would be and while I doubt he ever had particularly noble goals I would not be surprised if he had an exit strategy. Personally I hope he tries card-counting in that casino in Ank’harel and gets kicked out posthaste and then tries being a wizard/some kind of divine caster multiclass in Vasselheim and also gets kicked out but finally becomes like an old-school hermit figure somewhere in the woods of Issylra and Campaign 3′s party runs into him.

Conclusion: also keeping him at 4/10 until further notice.

Allura Vyesoren: It’s time to acknowledge that this episode covered a span of like...8 hours? And presuming the Nein are sort of trying to keep a normal sleep schedule, maybe, and using a comparison of Eiselcross being at a comparable time zone to say, Nicodranas, and it’s 5 hours into the night for them, and we know that around mid-day for Nicodranas was early morning for Emon...honestly she’s probably relaxing with a glass of wine. Unless Wensforth contacted her.

Conclusion: I’m going to let Allura have a good day. She’s at 2/10 because the threat of Aeor will be in the back of her mind but also she’s seen a bunch of idiots kill dragons and Vecna and they didn’t even have a wizard.

Yussa Errenis: Experiencing a great disturbance in the Astral Sea, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and then just like, kept doing that.

Conclusion: I decided to really go all out last week on the infinity jokes and left myself nothing to go on, huh. Anyway this breakdown goes to 11 (out of 10).

[tending-the-hearth]

Could you write your favorite Disney musicals, and why they are your favorite?

oooooo of course!

this is in order of my most favorite to still my favorite but not as much as others

Beauty and the Beast

it's always going to be my favorite Disney movie/musical, and it's overall one of my favorite Broadway shows! The OBC is one of my favorites, with both Susan Egan and Terrence Mann as Belle and the Beast, and the Broadway Gold Dress is probably one of my all-time favorite pieces of theater costuming. The music is also beautiful, with "If I Can't Love Her" and "Home" being two of my favorite Broadway songs.

also this show was the very first musical i ever saw live in person, and it was so beautiful. it's the reason i love musicals so much!

Tarzan

SUCH an underrated musical, and it breaks my heart that people don't show it more love. Josh Strickland is an incredible Tarzan, and Merle Dandridge makes me sob every time i hear her sing "You'll Be In My Heart". I absolutely love all the practical effects, and Jane and Tarzan's main love song, "For the First Time" is always on my love song playlist.

The Lion King

iconic, beautiful, amazing, there aren't enough words to describe this musical. I was lucky enough to finally be able to see this on Broadway back in October, and I cried pretty much the entirety of "Circle of Life" and "He Lives in You". It's one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen, and it's obvious why it's been on Broadway for so long.

The Little Mermaid

another VERY underrated musical in general! Sierra Boggess is such a sweet Ariel, and I love that they confirmed Triton and Ursula as siblings in the show, it just brings an entirely new level to the relationships in the show! "Her Voice" and the "If Only" quartet are my favorite songs from the show, and all the characters just feel a lot more fleshed out in the musical!

Aladdin

another wonderful show that I was very, very lucky to be able to see for my birthday when it was first on Broadway in 2015! James Monroe Iglehart (the OBC Genie) was absolutely incredible, and brought his own spin and personality to the Genie. The costumes were beautiful, and I was so happy they included "Proud of Your Boy", which is one of my favorite cut Disney songs!

Frozen and Hunchback of Notre Dame are also wonderful shows!

[toaverse]

Hi! Encanto to me is special, like really *really* *REALLY* motherfucking special. For me, it took me back to when I was 14 and I know this will be a long winded story, but hear me out. I was 13, 14 and getting really badly bullied at school, to the point where both my twin and I ended up moving schools for a bit but then moved back as the teachers were shit. What got me through the constant harassment, the name calling, the teasing, the purposeful ignoring because I didn't understand social cues and would react and go into meltdown which just added fuel to their fire? Glee. That's right, Glee. It was the right show at the right time and gave me something to look forward to, something to live for. I didn't care if it wasn't a good episode or the songs were off, it gave me hope and happiness at a time where it wasn't around. And just like Glee, Encanto has done the exact same thing. Given the circumstances when I saw it for the first time, it gave me hope and happiness. My relationship at the time with my mum was almost irreparable to the point I wasn't sure if going over for Christmas was a good idea and me being out of the picture that year would be easier. And then I saw it and whilst it didn't fix everything, I had hope and I felt seen. The arguments between Isa and Mirabel, putting too much pressure on myself like Luisa, repressing my true self for the sake of the family like Isa and trying so hard and over compensating the fuck ups like Mirabel. And what got me was not "Dos Origuitas" (though an amazing song nonetheless) but "All of You". "We see how bright you burn, we see how brave you've been. Now see yourself in turn, you're the real gift kid, let us in. Open your eyes. Abres los ojos. What do you see? I see me. All of me." That. Fucking. Scene. Boom, instant waterworks, Mirabel finally seeing for herself her whole self and her family acknowledging her and validating her. As someone who is always after validation (thank you adhd, autism and burnt out gifted kid syndrome) this part got to me. Ever since, it's become my hyperfixation and also my favourite modern Disney film (favourite classic is Hunchback of Notre Dame) and I have so much merch as well, I have a sticker book, a colouring book, a picture book, the junior novel, the art of Encanto, I have it on Bluray, the two book lego sets of Antonio and Isabela's room, a Julieta funko pop, the doll set of Luisa, Antonio, Mirabel and Isa and I went to Wales Comic Con back in April and met Jessica Darrow who I can confirm is the sweetest person ever! She is so nice and genuine and a literal cinnamon roll, she was super patient with me (I was a stimming and partially verbal wreck, it was beautiful) and I wanted to say "Hi, I'm a huge fan, thank you for being Luisa and also I love your new song make it clean!" Instead what came out - "Song!" "Love!" "Keeping clean!" and she understood! I love her, she is incredible and taking a good but sneaky look, I can confirm her butt is fantastic

That’s wonderful to hear!

While I myself really don’t like the film, I’m glad to read that others do, and see their struggles within the characters.😊

Don’t let anyone stop you from that :D

[bibliophileiz]

I haven't seen Phantom Menace since college (when it came out in 3-D and was exceptionally terrible, lol) and watching it again now it's not as bad as I remembered.

Which isn't to say it's good.

Thoughts:

In general, I think the overall plot is a good one. It's the details in the execution that aren't great. The child actors (including sometimes Natalie Portman) are not great, the dialogue is pretty bland and Jar Jar doesn't work any better now than he did in the '90s (in fact he might be worse).

But the podracing is great, and some of the casting is really good. Baby Keira Knightley (who had to have been 12 when this was filmed) does a great job shelving her natural talent accent to play just a wooden bureucratic Natalie Portman. (This sounds mean about Natalie Portman. I usually like her a lot, just not really in this.)

I also think Andy Secome, who plays Watto, does a pretty good job. Also Warwick Davis is in it??? He doesn't have anything to do, but he is there if you want to play Where's Waldo (Where's Warwick).

Also, and I remember noticing this as a 6-year-old in the theater the first time I saw it, but Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan Kenobi is *chef's kiss.* Baby Iz watching this for the first time was trying to figure out how they made Alec Guiness look so young.

But the best has to be Pernilla August, who plays Shmi and who should have won a goddamn Oscar, she breaks my heart in this movie. Her line delivery is really good (especially considering some of the dialogue), and her facial expressions, i mean, gawd. This is a woman who involuntarily brought a child into this shitty, shitty world and all she wants is for him to be free and have a future, and that desire clearly battles with her fear for his safety, from the podracing to leaving with Jedi to help finish their secret mission. And in the end she gives up everything so that he can go off into the stars with strangers who think he's special but they don't know him like she does, and she's just left alone, with nothing, on Tattooine, and URRRGGGHHHHH.

Anyway, Shmi is my favorite character and Anakin is such a useless little fuckboi who didn't deserve her, he should have gone back and rescued her the first time he got Jedi leave.

(although I'm not sure Jedi have leave. Which is just one more way the organization in the prequels is supremely fucked up)

Hmm, what other things are good about this movie?

I really love that two teenage girls (Natalie and Keira -- yes, I know their real names are Padme and Sabe, fuck off, it's Natalie and Keira, and they should hang out more) basically come up with the entire third act on their own because they're tired of waiting for these fuckin old white men to solve their problems for them.

also the final space battle is cool but it needed less dialogue from childactorAnakin

(similarly, the gungun battle would have been fine and i think their space ball weapon thingies are kind of cool, but there needed to be WAY less jarjar and i can't figure out why anyone thought he would make a good foot soldier, let alone a general)

and the lightsaber battle has SUCH. AN EPIC. SCORE. ominous choirs over lightsaber sounds are something i didn't realize i needed from my star wars

(Actually there are a weirdly high number of similarities between this movie and Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame)

And Darth Maul is very cool and should have come back in the sequels.

But the pacing's not very good. Also apparently Liam Neeson hated working on this movie and it shows

So those are my deranged thoughts on Phantom Menace. Now I'm staritng Attack of the Clones (which does NOT have as good a plot) and I'm trying to figure out why Padme's dying decoy thinks she's failed her?? Like, she didn't plan on getting blown up, and clearly if the plan was to keep Padme from getting blown up, then it ... worked.... Which is obviously shitty for the decoy, and Padme should be apologizing to HER

I have a feeling I'm going to be more disappointed in this one than in Phantom Menace.

[the-hunchback-of-notre-dame]

Screenwriter Tab Murphy Talks “Hunchback,” “Atlantis” and “Brother Bear” During Walt Disney Family Museum Happily Ever After Hours

by Tony Betti | Source (x)

Over the weekend I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Walt Disney Family Museum’s Happily Ever After Hours Virtual Program featuring screenwriter Tab Murphy.

Tab Murphy has a wide embodiment of work for the screen, but this program primarily focused on his work for what is now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios. He contributed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Brother Bear.

Right off the bat, Tab said that his first foray into animation was a bit jarring. He wrote the script, and then partnered with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz who, as he put it, had the script posted on walls all around a room and would then go up to certain sections and draw big Xs through the words and say “this is where we think a song should be.” As they worked together though, Tab said he realized how right they were to do that, and the end result is simply amazing.

Anybody familiar with the original story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame may recall that there are a ton of characters present in the original novel aside from the namesake Hunchback, Quasimodo. He said that was where one of the hardest parts of writing the movie adaptation lied, especially for a Disney animated film, noting that there was a certain “checklist” of sorts for a Disney film that the characters had to hit. So they developed the film around the characters that would best fill the roles of the principal lead (Quasimodo), the Hero (Phoebus), and the Princess (Esmeralda), along with the obvious villain, Claude Frollo. He said that the story was exceptionally dark for a Disney film, but he found the heart in it when you would take away everyone else leaving Quasimodo to do his own thing with the birds or the gargoyles, and the world got bright and colorful. This sentiment is actually echoed in the production design of the film, whenever Frollo is present, the colors are grays and dark shadows, and muted and boring hues, but whenever Quasi is involved in his own thing there are far more colors and brightness.

He also elaborated on his love for writing the character of Esmeralda, saying he felt that she was Disney’s original activist, and she was most definitely not a damsel in distress, standing up for the issues, with Tab citing the line (though he flubbed it a little) “You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!”

When asked about the development of Quasimodo, Tab pointed out that more classic adaptations of the story, such as an earlier incarnation from Universal in their horror movie craze, took the character and turned him into a literal monster, some sort of terrifying creature. “This is a human being,” Tab said, adding that his version would not scare you but draw out empathy. But he still had to be realistic. He couldn’t be the hero either, that wouldn’t be true to the source material, but he echoed thoughts and ideas shared by animator James Baxter in a recent program from the museum, that he needed to be gentle and warm to reinforce that this was a human and not a monster.

Interestingly, Tab said that he had not watched the film in its entirety since the world premiere back in 1996 up until about two weeks before the program, forgetting how beautiful the final product turned out. He said he cried his eyes out and believes that story holds up because of that emotion, something that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives, that they’re different and feeling alienated and an outsider who overcomes that. “Everyone who worked on that movie, everyone was on their A-game.”

After Hunchback, Tab was assigned to tackle Tarzan, though he openly admitted he wasn’t as involved in that one as much as people think he was. Shortly after he began, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (directors of Hunchback) asked him to join their team for a radical new movie that would buck the trends of Disney Animation, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. According to Tab, the pair pitched him the idea while comparing it to Disneyland, saying “You know how you go in to [the park] and go right into Fantasyland, through the castle, see the princesses and fairy tales. Well, we’re going to take a hard left straight to Adventureland.”

Tab was excited, this was going to be something so out of the ordinary and he would be a part of it. He noted that he was especially excited because of the subpods that would shoot out of the Ulysses. At another point in the session, Tab mentioned that he was never worried about budget when writing for Disney animation, noting that the animators were so good they would figure out how to get what he wrote onto the screen successfully, with the Subpods off the main submarine as they battled the Leviathan an excellent example of that. He also elaborated on what he referred to as “movie moments,” those special quotes that you know, when writing them, people will always remember and associate with the movie, with Atlantis having one of his favorites, when Helga is firing the flare gun at Roarke’s balloon and uses his own words, “Nothing personal.”

As many know, the film was not an immediate box office success. It didn’t do poorly, it just didn’t reach the numbers that Disney likes to see. Because of that, Tab thought he had written Disney’s first flop. The film came out in 2001, and he said it wasn’t until last year when he was stuck at home that someone had exposed him to the following that Atlantis: The Lost Empire has acquired over the years. He even started getting letters and messages from fans, some saying that the film had inspired them to be linguists or archeologists as those who were younger when they saw it are now adults exploring their career path.

Tab has an almost Jeff Bridges-like quality to him, almost channeling the Dude from The Big Lebowski, and elaborated on the sentiment of career paths, commenting that when he was in school, he was studying forestry and biology. In one of his best pieces of wisdom from the session, he said that “Part of knowing what you want is knowing what’s not meant for you.” It was his love of movies that continued to grow prompting him to get into the industry as a screenwriter. However, that background in forestry and wildlife would come in handy on his next assignment, Brother Bear.

Tab said goodbye to the kids, and jetted off to Florida for a short-term residence at the Yacht Club resort where he would go to the Animation studio that was part of the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) where Brother Bear was in production. Most of the original story, he said, was created from campfire stories that he and director Aaron Blaise would share. Together they wrote the original story which was mostly similar and had Kenai being transformed and subsequently mentored by an older bear named Grizz, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. He packed up and left and only after that did they change one prominent piece of the writing. Grizz would now be dropped for a younger bear, Koda, and that one “movie moment” as Tab says, where Kenai has to say the “he did something bad.”

Tab said the story of what happened on Brother Bear is truly the story of animation. It’s living and breathing. Things get dropped, added, changed, tweaked. He felt like a starting pitcher in a baseball game, there to set you up for success and then be moved or changed out to make sure the game is won, but also only one part of the greater team as a whole. When asked about how he would draw out emotion in his writing he said he would only put the words down, and it was the rest of that same team that would succeed in making you feel something, adding that he might have words that touch you emotionally in scene, but the rest of the team knew how to enhance those words and make it something truly special.

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Any version(s) of hond you’d like

Bless you Reid :')

1996 Disney film:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I cannot in good conscience call it a masterpiece because some scenes *cough* anything with the gargoyles *cough* are just...bad, but individual scenes and tracks in this absolutely fit the bill. The “Hellfire” sequence is one of THE most powerful animated scenes of all time (domino meme: my babysitter shows me this movie and “Hellfire” lurks in my subconscious for years —> I get a whole-ass French degree).

1998 French stage musical (my beloved):

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

You'd better believe I know every single word of this. Also I can't get over the fact that sometimes they just? sang “Belle” on national television??? “Le Temps des Cathédrales”, understandable, but “Belle”? Are you SURE?? (It IS an absolute bop but like...oh my god.) I showed this musical to someone new a few weeks ago and felt EXTREMELY validated when they immediately zeroed in on how hot Bruno Pelletier is in this.

Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (German Disney stage version)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I've never watched the old boots of this but I own the CD and I LOVE it. German “Esmeralda” hits DIFFERENT. Drew Sarich my beloved. God I wish we'd gotten Steve Barton as Frollo, could you IMAGINE

English Disney stage version (DGVND Remastered™)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Disney finally distilled their version of Hunchback into something truly special. Ironically, “Hellfire” is much less effective here, but the other numbers MORE than make up for it. CIARA RENÉE MY BELOVED, also Patrick Page, hot DAMN. But it is Michael Arden's Quasimodo that truly elevates this show into a masterpiece. I love the narrative changes made from the original Disney film and I was so glad when they FINALLY managed to rid themselves of the gargoyles in favor of the Bells; what a fantastic concept! Gahhh I love this show and were I not at work I would be listening to this soundtrack right now.

Oh boy okay what other versions have I seen?? It's been YEARS since I sought these out. Uhhhhh

1956 French/English film (Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn, Alain Cuny)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I remember liking this one at the time?? I think I was particularly impressed by Cuny's Frollo but I'd have to rewatch it to be sure. I watched this long before I saw LoA and many other classic films so it'd be fun to rewatch and see Anthony Quinn in this role since I remember very little about his performance.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (Electric Boogaloo)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

why.

Uhhhh I remember liking a few songs from the Dennis DeYoung musical but I never saw/listened to the whole thing. I know I've seen a few others but I'm blanking.

[theunvanquishedzims]

Disney, a Little to the Left pt.1

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Archdeacon thought he had inspired a true come-to-God moment in the Judge, but the man’s fear lasted only long enough to hear the consequences of his actions. “Saddled with this misshapen creature” was a telling enough reaction. Immediately abandoning the child to the church’s custody could be the act of a busy old man with no childcare experience, but demanding the infant be locked away where no one else could see it was not the action of a man truly intending to raise a child. The way he called it a foul creature and said it may someday be of use to him was the final nail in the coffin of the Archdeacon’s trust.

The cruel name he tried to give the boy rang in the Archdeacon’s ears as he carried the infant inside, louder than any bell. He snorted to himself. “The bell tower indeed,” he muttered. A good place to drown out the cries of an unwanted child, not a soothing place to help a newborn sleep. The boy would be deaf in a month if he lived there.

“I tried,” he sighed as he lit a candle for the soul of the mother, her body still cooling on the front steps. He would need to rouse the gravedigger. “Jesus, Mary and all the saints as my witnesses, I tried to help him atone.” So saying, he prayed a quiet curse upon the Judge, and a plea for forgiveness for his own actions that night. Following the gravedigger to the cemetery, he prayed as many blessings as he could think of over the child. The church at least would guarantee him a pious life full of light and music, scriptures and psalms surrounding him every day of his life...but not safety. The Judge was a murderer, and appealing to his piety had failed. It was naive of him to try, but one must be a little naive to have faith, the Archdeacon mused as he left the gravedigger to his work. He would return to preside over her rites, but for now...

“At least you will have some miracles in your life, little one,” he whispered as he pressed in a stone on the mausoleum and descended the stairs into the crypts. It wasn’t long before he was accosted by the gypsies, but his garb afforded him certain protections. “One of yours,” he said, holding out the quietly snuffling bundle. “The mother is upstairs, soon to be downstairs.” He tried to smile as he tacked on “And soon after, hopefully, further upstairs.”

The masked man chuckled, causing the others surrounding the pair to laugh as well. A little gallows humor was always well received in the catacombs, and in such grim times even a priest’s poor attempt at a joke was cause for mirth. He prayed another silent prayer of forgiveness for the mother’s soul, as though he could deliver her to the gates of Heaven by will alone. Dying to protect her child was surely enough blood to cover even the most egregious of sins. The Virgin Mother would understand, he believed. A strange gulping noise drew him back to the moment.

The jester’s face below the mask was stretched out in a rictus of a grin, frozen for just a moment as he gazed into the bundle. The Archdeacon stopped himself from snatching the child away from the uncertain reception, and for the second time that night, trusted.

“Ah yes, I recognize him immediately!” the jester burst out, and the Archdeacon relaxed. There was some good in humanity after all. “Why this is my nephew...!” The Archdeacon shrugged at the split-second glance. He would not repeat the insult the Judge tried to saddle the boy with. “...Ruskin! Who could forget him, with such lovely red hair!”

“He doesn’t look like any of your nephews,” said a skinny boy with straight black hair, clad in an outfit to match the jester’s, peering around his father’s side to frown at the infant.

“Fool!” shrieked a puppet that manifested above his head, bringing down a small wooden mallet upon said head. “He is obviously the son of our great-aunt’s father’s third cousin’s best friend’s brother’s niece-in-law!” “Be nice to your cousin,” added the jester in his normal voice as the boy whimpered and rubbed his head, handing the bundle down and shooing the children away into the darkness.

The Archdeacon could pass no further than this, he knew. The tentative peace between the gypsies and the church only stretched so far. Still, he watched until the child’s shadow melted away in the flickering light of the torches, knowing this could well be the last time he saw the boy. The jester coughed and raised an eyebrow at him, and the Archdeacon flushed. So many sins to atone for tonight, he thought guiltily as he pulled a candelabra from under his cloak. There were muted exclamations from the men around him as the gold glinted in the firelight. The jester’s eyes sharpened, gaze going calculating and wary, but face still smiling.

“To cover the cost of his upbringing,” the archdeacon said, heading off any questions and doing his best to anticipate potential arguments. This was the most dangerous thing he had ever done, and he felt it in his bones. One wrong step and his skeleton would join the piles around them. “The donor recently passed away, it will not be missed,” he said carefully, feeling for the right words and trying to instill them with authority. “I give it freely, under my authority as archdeacon, to match your generosity in caring for the poor orphan left on our doorstep.”

“Whyever would I need such a gift, for caring for my dear darling nephew, my own flesh and blood?” the jester chirped back at him. The archdeacon steadied his breath and willed his outstretched hand equally steady, feeling the strain, both the weight of the candle holder and the gazes of the thieves surrounding him. He had not been cut down yet, he reminded himself, and that was as good as invitation. He chose his words with even greater care.

“Flesh and blood needs food and drink to sustain it, and the boy may not be able to earn his keep.” The outside as twisted as it is, there is no telling what ailments lay inside. “And being born in such a cold season, it may prove...unhealthy for the child to be upstairs.” It’s not safe for him in Paris proper. “Such a pale child needs sunlight to blossom, though. You may find, when he gets older, that he requires a warmer climate to survive.” Living in the catacombs forever is not an option for a growing boy, but better to pack him into a southbound caravan than risk sending him out to be discovered by the Judge.

The jester pinned him with another long stare, but then the weight in his hand was gone and the candelabra was a glinting, golden spiral as the jester twirled it, cackling madly. The tension in the air was also gone in a rush, laughter and whoops filling the silence. At least two sharp points were suddenly absent from his back, the Archdeacon realized belatedly. He hadn’t even noticed they were there. Hopefully he would not have spots of blood on his clothes to account for later.

“Such a generous gift, but alas, we have no use for candleholders, being torch people ourselves,” the jester said with a grand wave of his arm and a wink. You’ll never see this again, it will be broken and melted by the end of the night. The Archdeacon could read between the lines too. He nodded his head, relief almost turning the dip into a half-bow, and tried not to gasp as the torches all went out at once.

Not even the sound of splashed could be heard and the gypsies abandoned him in the dark, and he was left to grope his way back to the stairs by touch alone. Unpleasant enough in a stone church, but surrounded by the dead, with not even a whisper of moonlight to guide him, it was the stuff of nightmares. He mentally subtracted ten Hail Marys from his running total for the night. Twelve, he thought with a shudder as his fingers caught in an eye socket, feet stumbling upon the stone steps that lead him back up to the safety of the graveyard.

How could anyone call it dark or frightening, he wondered as he climbed out of the grave and scurried a little faster than dignified back to where he left the gravedigger. It was positively bright with silver moonlight and friendly with familiar headstones, the layer of snow casting a heavenly white blanket over the scene. He reached the side of the gravedigger, who quirked a look at him but otherwise kept his mouth shut. An admirable trait in any man, the Archdeacon thought gratefully as he launched into the most heartfelt rites he’d given that year, prayers and blessings pouring over the woman’s shroud as they lowered her to her final rest, the Archdeacon a bit more carefully than the gravedigger.

“-forever and ever, amen. I’ll have a warm meal for you when you’re finished,” he promised the gravedigger. The man merely grunted and picked up his shovel, cold soil cascading back into the hole as he returned to work. The Archdeacon returned to his own work, numb feet carrying him back to the church. First wash the blood from the steps, lest it offend the eyes of the Holy. Then the meal, and perhaps a hot drink for both of them. And then...penance. For this night, and the day that would surely come, when the Judge returned to see his creature. Alas, the poor blighted thing did not survive, its ailments too great, only the love of its mother sustaining it outside the womb for so long. The lie was already fixed firmly in the Archdeacon’s mind, and though he hoped it would bring the Judge even a shred of guilt, he knew in his heart that it would not.

The Archdeacon would waste no more prayers on the man after this night. Judge Claude Frollo was bound for Hell.

[batbobsession]

So I saw the Hunchback of Notre Dame to alleviate the isolation...

Spoilers ahead.

With @lumiereswig‘s recent reblog of her Hadestown experience, I thought I’d share a musical that I saw virtually—the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  This was not a Disney adaptation, I repeat, they took the good stuff from the movie and then told the story straight from the book.

And oh my gosh, it got dark, so spoilers ahead.

Frollo got humanized and it makes him more terrifying.  First off, he’s played by Patrick Page, who, thanks to my recent research, plays Hades in Hadestown, and if that doesn’t draw parallels I don’t know what will

Anyway, Frollo has a brother who is actually a good person and elopes with a Roma woman.  Frollo finds him dying and he gives Frollo his child, who is disfigured, and Frollo, giving us the first reason why we should hate him, tells his dying brother “wow, this thing is a monster because of your sins” and then his brother dies.

Of course, they sing the Dies Irae directly after—an indirect foreshadowing of Frollo’s death by Quasimodo’s hands

“The saints blessed him and the monsters protected him.” my GOODNESS what a line!

And my gosh, the way they introduce Quasimodo is so freaking genius.  Michael Arden comes out like any regular man and then SMEARS HIS FACE WITH BLACK PAINT as Frollo ties the hump to his back (THE SYMBOLISM THERE OMG) and the bells descend from the curtains above as the chorus swells.

Also the chorus plays the statues and each one has its own personality.  It’s so obvious that the statues’ voices are all Quasimodo’s inner psyche tugging him one way and then the other, and every time they speak they use small bells or cymbals to accent their words.

Also Quasimodo can barely speak…UNTIL HE SINGS.  Arden has such an amazing, youthful voice, and I could feel his anxiety for freedom in “Out There.”

And then Frollo comes upstairs and RUINS EVERYTHING.  He uses this kind but CONDESCENDING tone that just makes me want to throw something. Instead of ABC’s, Frollo tells Quasimodo the story of the flight into Egypt, when Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus fled from the persecution of the firstborn and were protected by St. Aphrodisius—MORE FORESHADOWING.  But they are so RUDELY interrupted by the Feast of Fools, and on that note

Phoebus is actually a cocky SOB—like sure, they sent me in just in case the festival goes awry, but all I’m really here for are the ladies, rest and recreation!

AND THEN CLOPIN SHOWS UP and introduces ESMERELDA and she dances and Phoebus is like “I’ve seen the face of an angel! I’ve been forever changed!”

With Quasimodo’s arrival they announce the contest for the king of fools, and that scene is pulled straight from the movie.  Aside from a few little details, they didn’t change much.

And after all that Esmerelda chases him down and tries to apologize, but is stopped by Frollo, who’s like “ew, I know your kind, you practice dark magic” and Esmerelda’s like “if I had magic, I’d use it to save my people!” and Frollo is like “well shoot she’s smart” and then gets tempted

Esmerelda says something very Christian-like and Frollo is like “oh, you wish to be saved? Stay until the end of the service I’d be happy to teach you” and leaves and she sings “God Help the Outcasts” and holy moly does Ciara Renee have a voice or what

But at the end of the song she sees Quasimodo watching her and runs after him, and the statues are yelling at him to find a place to hide, quickly, quickly, she’ll see you

But she finds him and finds out he’s nearly deaf because of all the bells he’s been ringing all his life. He tells her he was talking to his friends and then berates himself, and Esmerelda’s like “No, that’s wonderful, I like your friends.”  And Quasimodo’s face just lights up and immediately starts ringing the bells and telling them to sing for her—if that’s not the most wonderful show of affection I don’t know what is.

They both sing “The Top of the World” and throughout the whole thing Quasimodo slowly realizes that she’s not going to berate him like Frollo would and you just see him become more and more animated throughout the song.  At the end of the song she kisses him on the cheek and you can tell, you can tell that’s the first time he’s been kissed at all

And then Frollo comes upstairs and RUINS EVERYTHING. “Quasimodo what were you doing ringing the bells off-schedule?” He turns and sees Esmerelda and is all like “oh, I thought you had left! I can still teach you the ways of the church, just stay here forever.” And Esmerelda, bless her soul, actually turns him down politely.  “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Frollo reaches for her hand and she backs away.  “I see the way you look at me.”

Frollo jumps back like he’s been stung by the most overdramatic wasp in the world “hOW DARE YOU! Your soul is so unclean you can’t see goodness in others!” And calls the guards on her.

And then he berates Quasimodo for having impure thoughts and the gargoyles whisper around him, like snakes in the shadows as Quasimodo promises to never again think about her.

AND THEN STALKS HER TO A TAVERN. Okay, it’s indirect but stalking all the same.  And watches Esmerelda and Phoebus fall in love.

Then we get into Heaven’s Light, and Quasimodo has seen the true face of God, because there is a human down there who isn’t afraid of him, who touched his face and suddenly the darkness is filled with light, a light so bright it must be from Heaven…

And the next song is literally the flipside of Heaven’s Light; while Quasimodo sings about how pure and open Esmerelda was to him, Frollo clutches Esmerelda’s scarf and sings of Hellfire.  And I mean, Hellfire was the most dramatic part of the movie for me, so this part was a little underwhelming…but Page carried that entire scene.  My GOODNESS his voice.  And him stumbling around as the saints look down on him and berate him while Frollo just keeps repeating “It’s not my fault!” Like, you can tell he believes what he says but he knows there’s evil in him now (I mean, there was evil in him before, but the sneaky kind) as the lights slowly change from blue to red, closing in on him until everything is bathed in a hellish glow…

And for the rest of the musical he wears a black and red cape over his otherwise white robes, showing how he has fallen and is acting on his own urges.  

He visits the prison—literally swoops in like a bat from hell with his new cape—and King Louis XI is there overlooking the prison and he just looks at Frollo and goes “oH! My astrologer told me I would have an unexpected guest!” Frollo just…. dies inside.  I lost it.

Anyway he manipulates the king to give the church military power and now soldiers are going left and right searching for Esmerelda; they come to a brothel and the women refuse to talk and Frollo’s like “fine, burn it down.” and Phoebus is like “whoa, hell no.” and Frollo shrugs, stabs him in the back, and blames Esmerelda

We interrupt this moment to remind you that everyone in the chorus is literally an angel and together they sound like an actual cathedral choir, thank you for your time.

Meanwhile Quasimodo’s like “oh shoot, what do I do? I want to protect her” and the statues tell him to go after her, find her and protect her like St. Aphrodisius protected Mary. Quasimodo is still unsure, but St. Aphrodisius himself comes out of his stained-glass window and gives Quasimodo his blessing (and a bit of unneeded comedy along with it).

Esmerelda makes Quasimodo take care of Phoebus, Quasimodo lies to Frollo for the first time, and Frollo’s like, well, we found her hideout, we attack at dawn.

Phoebus and Quasimodo have the same chemistry in the musical as they do in the movie.  “You can barely speak!”  “You can hardly walk!” Their arguments are funny, but just like the movie, Clopin finds them and is like “well, they’re gonna hang!” Esmerelda stops it, and Frollo shows up and RUINS EVERYTHING.

Frollo has her locked up, he confesses his love in literally one of the most horrifying ways a person can confess.  He starts out soft, believing that he can save her, rescue her from dark magic and be her sanctuary forever.  He says Esmerelda has made him feel human…and then tries to force her to kiss him.  She strikes him. “Help, a demon! Help me, please!” (FINALLY, someone shows him the respect he deserves)

Phoebus and Esmerelda grieve over what’s going to happen, and when they sang “Someday” I cried.

But the song that shook me to my very core was “Made of Stone” where Quasimodo is tied to a post while the statues plead for him to do something and Quasimodo yells back, “I’ve wasted my faith believing in saints of plaster, but the only one worth believing in was my master”

“Take all the dreams you’ve sown, take all your lies and leave me alone!”

“All right, Quasimodo, we’ll leave you alone All right, Quasimodo, we’ll trouble you no longer You’re right, Quasimodo, we’re only made of stone We just thought that you were made of something stronger.”

And when he sings the last line….HOLY. HELL. I just…I don’t have words for that.

But he quickly changes his mind and rescues Esmerelda from the fire.  The choir swells again, singing the Dies Irae, as Quasimodo lays waste to the crowd outside Notre Dame with giant rocks and molten lead.  Phoebus rallies the crowd into rebellion.  As chilling as this scene is, I think “Oh, now it’s gonna be like the movie, right?” NO.

She dies.  The smoke got to her or something.  But she definitely dies.  And Quasimodo’s talk with Frollo doesn’t end with Frollo pulling a knife. It’s sad, and slow, and Quasimodo finally comes to the terms with the abuse he’s been living with while they both grieve over her death in different ways.  The shock on Quasimodo’s face as Frollo repeats the same pious talk of sanctuary just after killing someone…at this point, I want Frollo dead, obviously.

And so does Quasimodo. He stands up straight for the first time and we see…he’s taller than Frollo, and that scares him.  “The wicked shall not go unpunished,” he says.  “The wicked shall not go unpunished,” echo the statues.  The Dies Irae swells one final time as Quasimodo drags Frollo to the balcony, lifts him up—“I told you, master.  I am very strong.”

“You don’t want to hurt me!” Yes you do, whisper the monsters.

“Quasimodo raised his two huge hands, and with a great bellow threw his master over the edge of the roof and into the abyss below!”  And I am chilled to the bone.  Thanks for that.

And then Phoebus arrives cuz he missed everything. He can’t even lift her up, and they’re both grieving.

Then the chorus—they are seriously the best chorus in the history of ever—approach Quasimodo one at a time, smearing black paint on their faces and hunching over.  Quasimodo sets Esmerelda down and turns his back to the audience. The ghost of Quasimodo’s mother sings for him. Esmerelda gets up and walks through the doors to eternal salvation. She turns back to look at him. He stands up and faces the audience, no longer hunched over, not a speck of paint on his face. 

“What makes a monster, and what makes a man?”

And the chorus swells, and they all bow, and I want to see it again.  So I watch it again, because that’s the beauty of the digital age.

[ariainstars]

Star Wars: Fatalism Against the „I Wish” Moment

Here it goes again, the question as to why The Rise of Skywalker sucked. Sigh. It just can’t leave me alone, can it?

After the first two chapters, honestly, I was expecting the sequel trilogy to become as good (or almost) as the original one. But precisely the last chapter set the seal on one of its worst problems: the lack of agenda. 

I love musical theatre. And one of its most beautiful sides is that it teaches you so much about storytelling. Now what makes a story, a character truly compelling? The conflict. Without a conflict, something that has to shift the narrative from A to D going through B and C, nothing makes sense. And in a good story, the conflict is set up right from the start. We meet someone and we are supposed to identify with them due to their agency. 

  Heroes With An Agenda 

To name an example, there is “Into the Woods”, one of my favorite musicals which retells some classic fairy tales with own interpretations and unexpected twists; and it opens with an iconic ensemble number called “I Wish”. (If you’re unfamiliar with it, you might want to check out the 2014 film.) We get to know a bunch of people who all want something, and we follow them through the narrative as some of them get their wish (though not exactly the way they expected it); then are confronted with the backlash, the consequences, the price to pay for the things they wanted. 

With Star Wars now belonging to Disney, it is only legitimate to make a few comparisons with Disney movies.

In The Little Mermaid, Ariel’s song is “Part of That World”, setting up her character as someone who wants for something that fascinates her: the world of humans.

Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, wants to leave his tower and live among other humans, even if only in for a day.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast is introduced to us explaining how she wishes to explore the world outside of the small village she’s living in.

A somewhat disappointing Disney heroine was Merida in Brave: despite the films’ title, the story fails at making its protagonist compelling due to her lack of agenda. Merida knows what she does not want, i.e. becoming like her mother, because she’s a different kind of girl: but she does not know what she actually wants from life. It is quite fitting that in the end she manages to restore and improve the relationship to her mother but does not really change her, or her family’s or her kingdom’s situation. Merida does not grow up. Her story is nice enough, but not really compelling.

Disney “princesses” are often criticized for wanting nothing but a partner from life, and sometimes settling down with a man even if that was not their main goal at the start. But we have e.g. Moana, a girl who wants to help her family and her people and to restore balance in nature. Not surprisingly, her story is interesting and convincing.

Antiheroes With An Agenda 

Perspective is hugely important for a narrative: authors can use it in order to manipulate the audience’s perception of a story in order to make us identify with someone although he is a negative character. Two examples I came across with lately are Joker (Arthur Fleck) and Hannah from the Girls TV series. Both these characters have personal agendas that in the end don’t get their fulfilment. 

We know from the beginning that Arthur will become the Joker, but the film follows him and his social background so closely that we watch everything from his point of view, which makes us sympathize with him despite what he becomes in the end. 

Arthur is poor, mentally ill, in charge of a sick mother, friendless; but he believes he can make a great breakthrough as a comedian. He is at the bottom of the social scale and still believes he can make it to the top; it is only all too clear that he is deluded and that none of the people he admires would move a finger to help him. Though he becomes a criminal, his story is a tragedy; he was born and raised under circumstances that hardly offered him room for a simple, satisfying life. His dreams were all he had. Which is why we feel with him, even if from a moral standpoint we know we shouldn’t. 

Hannah is a toxic personality if I ever saw one onscreen; but she officially is the protagonist, she’s female who wants a career, she has “friends”, she is “sexually independent”, so as female viewers we will automatically identify with her, or at least try. (Personally, after a while I came to the conclusion that about 75 % of the other character’s problems would quickly find an end if they simply shot Hannah and buried her without a funeral, with a few silver crosses to make sure she never comes back.) 

However, Hannah is not from a poor family, she has an education, she has friends. She has things she wants, nothing she desperately needs, like Arthur needs employment or medication. Her whole attitude is subject to her desire to become a famous writer, so her story is about exploring and observing other people’s weaknesses, often even eliciting them for the worse. I find it interesting that when we learn how she first met Adam, he caught her stealing. Apparently, Hannah never understood that you can’t simply take but also have to give something back. Their relationship is so typical for the story because it looks like Adam is using her (mostly sexually), while she is using him in order to make “experiences”, playing with his feelings instead of giving him the chance to grow and mature into a responsible man. Girls always had a bleak undertone; but by manipulating our perspective making her the pivotal character, the authors made us care about Hannah although she is someone who did not deserve it in the first place.

My guess: what makes these two antiheroes in the first place, from a moral perspective, is perhaps the fact that both feel entitled to their dream and won’t settle for less. Disney heroes usually get their wish fulfilment because they go through the moment of openly and innocently admitting their dreams without Arthur’s or Hannah’s latent arrogance.

Now to Star Wars... The Classics

One of the reasons why we so easily identify with Luke Skywalker in A New Hope is because he is introduced to us as someone who dreams. He has a personal wish - leaving his home planet, meeting new people, living adventures and contributing to the future of the galaxy. The “Binary Sunset” scene is not iconic without reason: in a musical, this would have been the moment where he would have broken into song. 😊

Don’t kill me, but Disney’s Hercules reminds me a little of Luke in his first grand scene: he also looks at a sunset, saying that he would go most anywhere to find where he belongs. (Maybe Lucas knew well why he sold the rights to Star Wars to the Disney studios of all places.)

This continues through his other two films: Luke always has a strong agenda. He learns the ways of the Jedi through Obi-Wan (who interestingly never actually questions whether he wants that at all) and Yoda, but his first priority always are his friends. Saving who he loves is what drives him on all of the time, even if this may seem foolish at times - like traveling all alone to Bespine where Han and Leia are kept hostage, or wanting to save his father although he is a dangerous criminal. 

  Star Wars In-Between

Rogue One and Solo are well-made, interesting films, too, because the protagonists know what they want. The Clone Wars is one long story explaining Ahsoka’s development from a Jedi to someone who relinquishes the Jedi’s ways. The Mandalorian wants to follow “The Way”, i.e. his code of honor, in order to help as many war foundlings as he can. This is what you need to do in order to make a story compelling. 

  Star Wars Prequels 

One of the weaknesses which I see to this day in the prequels is that we so rarely witness someone’s personal agenda; the stories are more driven by the plot than by the persons. A few desires are hinted at and never pursued. 

“I’m going to be the first to see all of them” (the stars). - Anakin in The Phantom Menace

“At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.” Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace 

What became of Anakin’s desire to explore the galaxy? And revenge from what, if you please? I can understand that the Sith were a byproduct of the Jedi’s rejection of the Dark Side, their weaknesses all projected unto them: but this also is never explored. 

What did Anakin, Padmé, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon etc. want, after all? When did they ever say or show clearly what they wanted, and what they would do for the purpose? Qui-Gon wants to train Anakin by will of the Force, Obi-Wan wants to train him because Qui-Gon asked him to. The Jedi want to keep the status quo of the Republic and the Jedi Order. There is no actual heart-felt wish from their side. The only person relentlessly pursuing his aims is Palpatine, the mastermind behind the stage. 

Padmé has her political aims, but they are not a really personal agenda for her. She wants to help people who were enslaved or hungry or otherwise suffering, but she does not know such situations from own experience. Her personal wish is having a family, but in her case it is not as passionate as in Anakin’s, who had lost the only family he had with his mother. Add to this that the scene where she talks with Anakin about this desire of hers was unfortunately cut out from Attack of the Clones. 

The compassionate and protective Anakin wants to keep the ones he cares for safe. Interestingly though, the films rarely show us his perspective, we usually rather see other people reacting to him; and since the Jedi always brainwash him not to “let his personal feelings get in the way”, Anakin comes over more as a whiny brat than as a conflicted human being we can sympathize with.

Revenge of the Sith is, though a terrible story, a very well-made film and emotionally very demanding because Anakin finally takes his destiny into his own hands. But it is also not very satisfying, because he wants to prevent things from happening and doesn’t actually have a definite, positive aim in mind. Still when he speaks to Padmé on Mustafar he tells her that he would overthrow Palpatine for her and rule the galaxy according to their wishes; but even in this moment he sounds insecure and confused, and his ideas are everything but clear. 

  The Sequels

The same procedure all over again. Finn wants to get away from the First Order, but where does he want to go? It is only hinted at that he wants a girlfriend (“Do you have a boyfriend?”), and not thematized again. Poe already is a Resistance fighter from the start, no personal aim there either. Rey wants her family back: she does nothing but waiting. On Takodana, we literally see her running from her fate after her vision with the Skywalker legacy sabre. In The Last Jedi, she says she needs someone to show her her place. She says to Luke that she is afraid. Again, she has no agenda.

Kylo was pursuing Luke, but why? What exactly had happened between uncle and nephew before the fatal night at the Temple, why was Kylo’s resentment so deep? He killed his father because he was coerced; he did not actually want it. Later he wanted Rey, but why, if she was almost always aggressive towards him? 

The Last Jedi finally seemed to make up for all of these lacks. Rose was such a powerful character because while she always did everything in her power for the cause, she never forgot or let go of her personal feelings and desires, like keeping Finn safe, inspiring hope in the Canto Bight children, freeing the fathiers. 

The moment Rey ships herself on the Supremacy, Ben kills Snoke and then both team up against the Praetorian Guards is so powerful because both of them, at last, have an agenda, and they pursue it together. It’s a moment of relief for the audience, what we had been waiting for all along: finding out what all of this was about - the Force working in balance. Naively, many of us then assumed this trilogy would be about Ben and Rey finding balance and a happy ending together.

Then The Rise of Skywalker made our frustration flare up again. Rey wants to become a Jedi because Leia expects her to; she kills Palpatine because he wants her to do it; the voices of all Jedi encourage her… great. No personal agenda all over again. Ben saves her from death because he loves her, very well. Then he dies. Han, Leia and Luke all wanted him to come “home”, i.e. back to the Light Side, and they died for the purpose. It seems wanting something is dangerous in itself in this galaxy. And Rey ends up alone on Tatooine. Again, what does she want there?

So It Was All... Fate?

Han, Leia and Luke were much more compelling characters than Rey - their aims were sometimes misguided, but at least they had them and they were clearly defined. Even Palpatine has an aim: it is veiled (typically for him), but it is there. He knows that his spirit will live on in the person who manages to kill him. So, he is still more powerful than Rey. It looks like Rey defeated him, but the truth is that he used her naïve faith that she could erase him by killing him in order to reach his own aim: living on in a younger, more innocent person who believes that being a “Jedi”, she is doing the right thing. 

We may of course argue that the Force is behind all of this; but as intriguing as the Force is, it is not a person. When we follow a story, we want living persons to think and feel and suffer and be hopeful and joyful for. It is all very well if characters want different things or maybe want the wrong things; but at least, their wishes ought to be understandable, and if they don’t come true, we would like to know why, instead of being left with... “reasons”. It is hard to identify with a character if we never learn what drives them after all. I daresay it would be more satisfying to see them pursue an aim and fail, than never to understand what they’re about, what their heart’s wish is. 

I have argued over and over that the ways of the Jedi, i.e. sacrificing everything to a cause, and individual aims are naturally opposite to one another. If there will ever be Balance, future Force-sensitive creatures must find a way in between. But again, this is not openly said and the audience has to either resign to the fact that the films are badly made, or to scavenge them for months searching for messages. Of course, there is nothing wrong with using ones’ own brains. But I would like to leave a cinema after a Star Wars film feeling satisfied. The Rise of Skywalker did not only leave many questions unanswered; in many instances, it did not even start posing the questions.

“Into the Woods” is not a story with a happy ending. One of its messages is that you need to be careful about what you wish for, but I think that’s all right if the moral implications of getting one’s wish are explored. Which with the Star Wars prequels and sequels was not the case - people suffer and die for decades, and in the end, the story goes nowhere. The events of the prequels took place because “they were meant to”; same with the sequels. Anakin turned evil because it was his fate, his grandson the same because it was fate, Rey took over the Jedi mantle although she is not in the least suited for it, but it was her fate so we have to accept it. No wonder everyone is disappointed. 

Star Wars saga, what do you have in store next? After more than 30 years, I dearly hope, someone who actually has an aim and purses it this time. And doesn’t have to die in the process, thank you very much.

[crosbytoews]

the disney renaissance films, ranked

9) tarzan (1999)

let me get a few things straight: 1) i like this movie! and 2) it has the second best soundtrack of any disney movie

however i’m not sure i even consider this a renaissance film. i think its animation is weak compared to the other renaissance flims. i don’t love the story either. 

what i do find interesting about this movie (other than the excellent soundtrack) is how dark it is. it’s pretty violent for a disney movie, especially when the villain, clayton, accidentally & graphically hangs himself. most other disney films show the villain vaguely falling to their death, but not this one! 

8) aladdin (1992)

okay i feel really bad about ranking this film so low, but it’s just not my favorite. i LOVE the character of the genie. he’s one of disney’s best characters. however i don’t find aladdin himself that likable! and i hate abu! not a fan of jafar either! 

a whole new world is the only standout song on the soundtrack. there’s no standout animation. jasmine deserved better. 

7) pocahontas (1995)

i am pocahontas defense squad. at this point in the list, i truly enjoy all the movies. 

let’s get the obvious out of the way: this movie is problematic. they absolutely should not have based the main character off a real person. but i think overall it’s less problematic than you might think: the movie makes it clear that the english were greedy and stole land. they did not make most of them out to be favorable. the romance between pocahontas and john smith is very... questionable (especially the part where pocahontas magically learns to speak english?) but the fact that john smith sails away at the end makes me feel a little better. 

so now let’s get a few things straight: 1) the animation is BEAUTIFUL 2) there are many standout songs on the soundtrack, including colors of the wind, just around the riverbend, and most importantly, SAVAGES PART 2 3) meeko is genuinely hilarious 

also quick fun fact: this movie came out shortly after the lion king. the walt disney company was expecting pocahontas to be their big movie and devoted most of their resources to this movie instead of the lion king. well let’s just say the lion king outperformed pocahontas at the box office

6) hercules (1997)

this is the first movie i saw in theaters! so here’s what i like about this movie:

a great story! a god living on earth, not knowing he’s a god, presumed dead by his god parents? the drama of it all!

AMAZING soundtrack. the muses add an element to the soundtrack disney hasn’t done before. some of the best music of any disney movie. my favorite is i won’t say i’m in love. 

lots of color in the animation! i love a good colorful movie. 

hades is one of disney’s best villains. disney managed to make him likable but not sympathetic. this is a different approach than many of the other disney movies at this time

5) hunchback of notre dame (1996)

i am OBSESSED with this movie and let me tell you why:

first and foremost, it is so dang dark! the movie starts out with judge claude frollo trying to drown a baby in front of a church. so there’s that. frollo ends up “raising” quasimodo and just emotionally abusing him. quasimodo is like: i’m ugly :( and then frollo burns down paris because he wants to fuck esmeralda. many believe this movie wouldn’t have been made today because it’s so dark. however disney was so successful at this point they were just like *shrug emoji* let’s release a movie about catholic guilt. 

the soundtrack is amazing. it’s so dramatic! hellfire is one of the standout songs just because it is so messed up. this entire movie is so messed up. i love it

4) the little mermaid (1989)

there she is! the movie that started this all! disney was producing straight trash until our man men ron clements and john musker came to save the day and directed this fine film. 

like i said, this is the movie that kicked off the renaissance era. it revived the idea of a disney princess. it revived the idea of an animated movie with a strong soundtrack. it revived the idea of putting effort into producing quality animated films! the importance of this film cannot be stated enough. along with colorful animation it has a great soundtrack. under the sea is one of my favorite songs ever. 

3) mulan (1998)

one of my all time favorite movies. perfection. mulan is such a strong character. probably my favorite main character from any disney movie. her story has such a strong feminist message. 

the animation? beautiful! the villain: legitimately so scary. the animal sidekicks?: i would die for them. 

the songs in the movie are so so beautiful. reflection and i’ll make a man out of you are two of the most iconic disney songs. lea salonga and donny osmond knocked this out of the park. my only gripe is there should be more songs. 

anyway “the greatest gift and honor is having you as a daughter” 

2) beauty and the beast (1991)

honesty hour i like mulan better BUT this movie is just so so important to disney history. this was disney’s time to prove itself. the little mermaid was excellent but could they do it again? turns out they could!

this soundtrack is so special to me. it was the last thing howard ashman composed before dying of complications from aids. he never got to see the final product. every song is perfect. 

the animation is beautiful. the character design!!! the animators did an excellent job with lumiere, cogsworth, and mrs potts. the managed to make gaston so hot. 

now for some fun facts: disney had been thinking about making this movie since the 1930s. they sat on this one for a long time. i’m glad they made it at the time they did, when they had the budget and talent to make it truly special. 

an unfinished version of this movie was shown at the new york film festival. even though the animation wasn’t complete, it got a standing ovation. that’s how great this movie is. 

1) the lion king (1994)

not just my favorite disney movie, but my favorite movie of all time. i love this movie so so much. i watch it like once a month lol

what makes this movie so compelling is the story. simba lived for so long thinking he was responsible for mufasa’s death!!! the amount of tragedy and drama is unparalleled. my favorite scene is when rafiki find simba as an adult and is like “he lives in you” omg the drama

however this movie manages to be humorous as well, thanks to timone and pumba. they aren’t introduced until like 30 minutes into the movie but manage to make the biggest impression. i would die for them

the soundtrack is by far disney’s best. my mans elton john knocked it out of the park. every song is a bop. the instrumental music playing in the background is insane. it’s so dramatic/perfect 

lastly, THE ANIMATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it’s unparalleled. it’s so colorful. the animals are drawn beautifully. the backgrounds are jaw dropping. i cannot get over it

***rescuers down under was not included on this list for reasons that should be obvious

[amalthea9]

Top 7 Comfort Movies

Tagged by @lioness--hart  I’m gonna try REALLY hard to narrow it down lol

1) Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Wasn’t allowed to see this film until I was in my early 20s due to a very christian/sheltered upbringing. But when I finally saw it, I was given characters I truly adored. Quasimodo is a character I will always identify with. The songs, the humor, and the story always lift my spirits.

2) Treasure Planet. I share @lioness--hart  ‘s view on this incredible film. I saw this film for the first time a few weeks before my senior graduation and John Silver’s speech to Jim brought me to tears because I was in the middle of being afraid to go to college and just screwing it all up. I did end up failing at college, but Silver’s words have been a comfort in many other instances. Not to mention the entire cast is SO endearing and lovely.

3) The Last Unicorn. I don’t really have words for this one. Saw it in my 20s because I was easily scared as a child and Mom thought the Red Bull might be too intense lol. But this film just....the music, the story, I connected to it. I’ve used Amalthea as my username for everything since because I want to be as magical as she.  

4) The Princess Bride. @lioness--hart another one we share! I don’t know anyone who was born in the 80s who didn’t get blessed with this film at some point during their childhood or teens. My aunt showed it to us one Thanksgiving when I was in my late teens and I was enchanted. And crushed on Inigo Montoya right off the bat. XD Thisfilm NEVER gets old, it gives me joy and laughter every time.

5) Clive Barker’s Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth: I feel weird saying this is a comfort film...but oh well. I ADORE the first one, don’t get me wrong, but in the third one we get to see Doug Bradley without make up and we get a bit of background to High Priest Pinhead and his origins. It’s got some really cheesy bits, but there are also some BEAUTIFUL lines from Pinhead. I adore Pinhead and the entire world that Clive has created so I enjoy watching this one when I’m down.

6) Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V: Okay....this one is a weird one too because for one, it’s a Shakespeare play adaptation that isn’t fluff and romance and two, it’s got violent war scenes. But this one holds a lot of very wonderful memories of my senior year. I took a Shakespeare class during senior year and Henry V was one of the ‘history’ plays that we covered. The way Kenneth Branagh brought this play to life amazed me, and he was able to make me feel what the characters were going through. Not to mention the musical score is Patrick Doyle’s first ever score and it is INCREDIBLE. I remember watching it when I had an intense ear infection that had me in constant tears and it was one of the only things that could bring me any semblance of peace. <3

7) Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules (2014): This one is a weird reason also but oh well. So I’ve been a fan of the legend of Hercules since childhood and have also adored Dwayne for years. So for one of my heroes to play an ancient hero meant a lot to me. ALSO my #1 Daddy, Ian McShane is in it and his character is a DELIGHT. I also loved the idea that Hercules had an entire team of companions, not just Iolaus. And each team member has a personality you like and want to know more about. There’s also a part where Ian McShane’s character awakens Hercules's claim to who he is: a hero. And that always makes me smile.

No idea who to tag really, just whoever wants to participate!

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Disney+ What To Watch: My Top 10 Favourite Disney Classics

#7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Anyone who says this movie is controversial or unfaithful to the original source material really isn’t understanding that Disney always puts their own spin on things and isn’t going to go as dark as the original story is.

But also, you have to understand that while a lot of the dark themes of the original aren’t in the movie, the remaining themes of acceptance, prejudice and extreme religious views are still very much at play.

Here’s why I love this movie. It’s one of the few Disney Renaissance movies that isn’t a Disney Princess movie, the story flows from the introduction of our main villain and his adoption of our main protagonist, to our main protagonist meeting the movie’s love interest, to the main story of the movie being revealed as our protagonists protecting the movie’s love interest from the main villain.

Not just that, but the intertwining story of the love triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus which becomes the motivation for Quasimodo and Phoebus becoming friends and working together to save Esmeralda and the other gypsies from Frollo seemed rather genuine and is a commentary to Disney movies at the time that our main protagonist does not end up getting the girl but instead remains friends and is happy when they do end up together.

I also love the what if factor when it comes to Quasimodo’s interaction with the gargoyles. In some scenes you believe that due to Quasimodo’s forced isolation he is simply going mad and believing the three gargoyles actually come to life and become his only friends.

Especially at the moment, I believe that is very relatable as those of us forced into sole isolation need that escapism and imagination to possibly make inanimate objects real as a means of companionship. Not saying it works for everyone but for some it may actually help.

While it isn’t confirmed, it is implied they are actually real and act as the only real magical component to this movie. But there are a couple of other magical elements throughout the movie despite this being quite a grounded film.

When we see Esmeralda at the festival of fools she enters and leaves the stage through trickery such as smoke bombs and trap doors. This of course leads Frollo to suspect witchcraft and spur the catalyst of the movie where Frollo hunts Esmeralda for being a witch and ultimately attempts to burn her.

However, during said climax of the movie just as Frollo is about to “smite the wicked” and he is knocked onto clinging onto the gargoyle before it lights up and breaks off. People have said it is an act of god but I believe in witchcraft and that all Disney movies have a little bit of magic in them somewhere.

In terms of characters, Quasimodo is a very relatable character in terms of being born with a physical deformity and raised essentially in captivity which makes him a social pariah before finally being accepted by the citizens of Paris.

Esmeralda is one of my favourite female characters in Disney, not only is she a very grounded individual who knows what she’s fighting for and is determined to fight for it. But her genuine kindness in the face of such adversity is very commendable and a great example for anyone not just younger audiences watching the movie.

Phoebus is the 90s version of Kristoff from Frozen to me, he’s the boy scout, the dutiful partner and the loyal friend. However, outside of that he really doesn’t have any character to him. He stands for what is right which is why he cannot blindly follow orders when those orders are to burn an innocent family, does that make him three dimensional? Well no because while yes he ends up with the girl, there’s no real story on his side as to how they got together.

He wanted to be with her from when he first saw her dance. She saw one of Frollo’s soldiers and responded accordingly by bashing him in the head with a candle holder. It wasn’t until he was shot after disobeying Frollo and she nursed him back to health that she actually saw the good in him...but he never really had to get there he was already there, she had to make that journey.

Frollo as a villain is so creepy and controversial and everything wrong about religion it is ridiculous.

As a judge he passes sentence on the guilty and as a devout religious man he believes he is carrying out God’s work by freeing the world of evil and said evil being gypsies because they are witches and witches are the children of the devil.

That’s great villainous motivation particularly when you consider that his religious guilt was what made him adopt Quasimodo rather than, you know, drowning him in a well after murdering his mother...the main problem comes when he has lustful feelings for Esmeralda and on her death pier offers her a final ultimatum of either being with him or dying.

First of all who wouldn’t choose the latter option? Secondly, yes the dark elements from the original needed to be in this movie to some capacity...but little kids will see this movie and what they will see is an old man smelling the hair of a young woman and lusting after her while simultaneously wanting to see her burn.

This culminates beautifully in the song “Hellfire” which is one of my favourite Disney songs ever, the style in which it is performed, the visualisation of Frollo seeing those cloaked figures and Esmeralda’s image in the flames is so harrowing particularly at a young age, and Tony Jay’s singing is actually rather good.

The opening song “Bells of Notre Dame” is an operatic masterpiece, the booming choir, Clopin’s sing-song narration setting the scene of the movie and the dramatic scenes of Quasimodo’s mother fleeing the evil Frollo trying to save her baby was fantastic.

“Topsy Turvy Day” and “A Guy Like You” are fun, they’re the songs kids will play over and over again at parties or when they’re hanging out with friends and they’re on in the background.

“God Help the Outcasts” is harrowing, beautiful, powerful and a real representation as to the type of character Esmeralda is.

I’ve mentioned the climactic battle a couple of times but I wanted to mention it again be it contains a sequence I will never forget and possibly why this movie is so high in my estimations. I am referring to the sequence where Quasi saves Esmeralda from the pier and as he swings in to save her there is great wide shot of the mob that have gathered to watch Esmeralda burn engulfed in the glow of the fire and it is just magnificent as a shot. It’s terrible that Esmeralda is being burned but that visual will always remain as a thing of beauty in my mind.

It may not be the greatest Disney movie ever made but The Hunchback of Notre Dame is undeniably masterfully made under the circumstances and restrictions that the House of Mouse had to work under.

So what do you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Disney+ What to Watch Top 10s as well as more Top 10 Lists and other posts.