#group: trousdale

[crjupdates]

carlyraejepsen: The making of The Loneliest Time. Flipping through memories and feeling all kinds of ways.

First writing trip to Toronto to meet @/Bullionness in person

A song we started there but never finished… who knows b- sides baby? [VIDEO]

Studio hangs

Zooms w @/TavishCrowe and @/patrikbergerking

BENDS day one lyrics w some spelling mistakes

A choir of angels singing “Go Find Yourself or Whatever” harms @/matsor @/trousdalemusic [VIDEO]

[swordheld]

hello! do u have any new music recommendations?

of course!!! going to throw some general pop/indie/rock/instrumental all over vibes at you? these are some of the ones that i've been having on repeat a lot lately because they bring something bright and fun into my days - hope you enjoy them !! 💛

if i'm honest (trousdale) – oh the absolute vibes of this one. the harmonies. the beat. the slow downs and build ups? that ending? it's like easy, slow, growing ease and joy. that point 3/4 of the ways through the song, that building of things? the payoff? those background horns? the drums? i cannot sit through it without some kind of air guitar / drums / chair dance type beat. it's too good that you cannot help it, it just goes so hard.

close one (fizz) – i have been writing so much love poetry to this song. it is soft and slow and serene like light, all golden hour, the soft golden hues of almost, of here, like this, with me? that little 'fuck it' before the chorus is so fun. this group is made of insanely popular individuals (dodie/orla gartland/greta isaac/martin luke brown???) and together .... they are so powerful. cannot wait to see what they create next !!

run (maisie peters) – there is such a fun vibe to this song. that line of the chorus, that 'i've been lied to / i've been cut and deleted / i've heard some things i will leave unrepeated' is sooooo good, that rhyme scheme that syllable count balance? it immediately went onto my writing playlist w/ that fun beat, that synth, that catchy repetition? the whole album this comes off of is so very good too, esp. 'the band and i'? i really enjoy her sound!!

like a brother (hey, nothing) – this song feels like a lullaby, in the way of being swung in a hammock? all late summer, early winter winds? but there is such a lyricism that gets stuck in my brain, the whole layout of the chorus and is just so soft. i feel so many things. another easy one for the poetry playlist.

margo (sally boy) – oh the orchestral, string opening? the easy flow of it, instrumental and light, before hitting that small bit of silence before the guitar and lyrics come in? and then the absolute hit that is the beat of the chorus hitting? obsessed. phenomenal. i love the balance of gentle, light instruments and the slow instruction of the drumbeat, it feels like a whole story that you can experience, the flow of it!

eightball girl (maddie zahm) – i can leave this song for a few days and then out of nowhere it'll just be in my head again, the vibes of it, that beat of the chorus? the layered voice effects? sometimes songs have this balance to them that my brain just sucks up like a sponge and this is one of them. soooo good. i'll be in the supermarket and my brain will just go eightball girllll, tell me how you feel about meeee and it's perfect.

snow angel (reneé rapp) – this was one of the first ones i found on my daylist that was just like, how did i go so long without you. how did i not know about you. and since then it's been a daily listen. the slow, gentle breeze of that beginning? there is such a rising and falling to this song, like seasons, like the breeze? all tide, all here and there and back again, all resilience and ferocity, softness and violence? that electric guitar and the piano and the feedback just makes me want to just. aaaaaaa. this whole album is just banger after banger too!!

grace (henrik) – it's so fun!!! it brings me so much joy and energy, the easy breezy pop vibes, it's so hopeful and gentle and loving. i have it set as my alarm rn because i really do think it'll last through the sisyphean task of getting me out of bed in the mornings, it just feels like sunlight.

[livgr3]

Roundtable: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Description on Disney+: Quasi leaves his tower on Notre Dame to help a kind and beautiful gypsy.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a true hidden gem of Disney's animated filmography, and a movie I've found so fascinating, shocking, and genuinely terrifying since I was a kid. The film was produced and released by Disney in a period retroactively referred to as the "Disney Renaissance," in which the company released several cutting edge animated musicals within a few years of one another, almost all of which were based on literature, history, or cultural mythology as opposed to classic fairy tales. While many of these films were relatively progressive and boundary pushing, Hunchback remains one of Disney’s most daring ventures with its criticism of religious hypocrisy and dark themes of xenophobia, lust, and morality.

Based on Victor Hugo’s 1831 Gothic novel of the same name, The Hunchback of Notre Dame occurs in Paris in the late 15th Century and highlights tensions between Catholic officials and Romani migrants. The film tells the story of Quasimodo, a deformed man who rings the bells of the Notre Dame Cathedral and must remain in the bell tower under the orders of Judge Claude Frollo, a corrupt minister who took a baby Quasimodo from Romani people attempting to flee twenty years prior. Frollo has made it his lifelong mission as the “Minister of Justice” to rid Paris of its Romani population, and hires Captain Phoebus to find the Romani’s safe haven hidden in the city. Frollo’s efforts are complicated by Esmerelda, a defiant gypsy woman whom he lusts after. Esmerelda befriends Quasimodo and the two help one another escape their situations of imprisonment. Meanwhile, Frollo begins to burn down the city of Paris until he finds Esmerelda, adamant that if he can’t “have” her, he’d like to kill her. The film is partially narrated by Clopin, a Romani jester-type figure who also plays a role within the story in the second-act. Other secondary characters are Quasimodi’s three talking gargoyle friends (one of whom is voiced by Jason Alexander/George Costanza).

Scoring and Narrative Context

Hunchback’s music is very crucial to distinguishing and defining the cultural identities of its characters, and its distinct musical styles are often associated with the space and physical location in which a musical number is performed. Given that the narrative centers on cultural differences between religious and ethnic groups, the film’s music takes influence from both Romani folk music and Catholic hymns. The uses of these two musical styles are differentiated by who is singing each number and where the number occurs. Romani folk music, for instance, makes up the introductory song “The Bells of Notre Dame” and the festival number “Topsy Turvy” which are both performed by Romani people and peasants on the streets of Paris. These numbers are fast paced, colorful, and lively, with percussion instruments and discordant chants by the crowds. Lyric and dialogue are indistinguishable from one another as these songs blend seamlessly into the diegetic space of the film and move the narrative forward.

The film uses Catholic music to underscore its scenes in the Cathedral, with deep bells and choral singing creating a contrast to the lively folk music signifying the world outside. It’s with this haunting music that the film’s critique of religious hypocrisy, characterized through Frollo, takes form. The sound of bells often linger as characters wander throughout the cathedral, a precarious space with guards at every turn despite being promoted as a “Sanctuary” for Romani people.

Quasimodo’s songs take elements from both musical styles while also embodying Disney’s more traditional “hero” songs, as he is confined to the cathedral yet yearns for the world of folk music and “freedom” on the streets of Paris.

Familiar Musical Framing

In her essay on the Western musical lens of Disney’s Moana entitled “Time to Face the Music,” Armstrong writes “This musical containment of unfamiliar sounds by familiar ones limits the audience’s access to the unfamiliar, controlling the representation of the otherness of Polynesian music” (113). This idea is quite relevant in reading Hunchback’s selective uses of Romani music and culture, specifically in regards to the character of Esmerelda (who is voiced by white actress Demi Moore).

As Quasimodo and Esmerelda become friends, Quasi remarks that Esmerelda is “not like other gypsies.” Though Esmerelda immediately refutes this claim and encourages Quasi to unlearn the discriminatory ideas which Frollo has taught him, I find that the film itself upholds Quasi’s sentiment through its formal elements. It is particularly through music that Esmerelda becomes more associated with Western culture than with the Romani culture to which she actually identifies. Her solo “I Want” song, “God Help the Outcasts,” is sung in the Cathedral and fuses elements of an archetypical Disney princess song with a Catholic prayer/hymn. It is through this Western visual and sonic environment that we are expected to most sympathize with Esmerelda.

Additionally, this number emphasizes the extent to which Esmerelda is chiefly an object of the male gaze. This is already apparent at a surface level, with her sexualized outfit, constant references to her appearance (see Disney+ description above), and the way her sexual allure brings about Frollo’s most villainous inclinations. Even further, there are only a few scenes in the whole film where Esmerelda is not being looked at by one of the three principal male characters.

For instance: (play last 30 seconds)

Even in what seems to be a private moment of prayer, Esmerelda is being watched by Quasimodo and the gaze of the camera for nearly the whole song. Her positioning within the way of light from the stained glass window at the end of the song makes her seem angelic, contrasting Frollo’s depiction of her as a seductive demon (coming up below). I argue that this over-positive representation of her is still dehumanizing, as she is represented as a conceptual figure of goodness rather than a whole person. The angelic way that Quasi views her also contributes to the film’s penultimate act of white saviorism in its climax:

Character Performance

As I began to touch on before, the musical direction of the film intrinsically links Frollo with the church, and even further associates his “religious” motives of justice and morality with evil and monstrosity. Frollo is displayed as corrupt and irredeemable from the first minutes of the film, with the chords of his song “Hellfire” played around his acts of evil several scenes before he performs the song. The film thus toys with the idea of “authenticity” by attaching Catholic-inspired music to one of Disney’s most evil characters to date. I don’t exactly think that the film is making a statement against Catholicism as a religion, but is rather pointing out the sense of evil that lies within those who believe themselves to be the most morally sound.

This brief moment from “The Bells of Notre Dame” and the iconic song “Hellfire” should speak for themselves:

(0:25-0:55)

(0:20-1:45)

Still, in making the unmistakable point that Frollo’s objectification of Esmerelda is very bad, all other acts of objectification towards her (and Romani people in the film more broadly) seem “good” in sheer comparison. The heightened attention to her beauty and sexuality also not only sexualizes Romani women, but echoes wider cultural notions of who is deemed “worthy” of saving.

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a commonplace book

saturday, jan 27, 2024

*brennan lee mulligan voice* heeeeeeeelllllllllllllloooooooOOOOOOOOO one and all and welcome back for another thrilling episode of...whatever this is. thank you for being here.

It's 2024! Say hi, intrepid heroes!

reading recently finished:

-orwell's roses by rebecca solnit (audio) - glad I listened, ultimately very gratifying - history, criticism, extremely lush garden-filled prose and love for growing things - nona the ninth by tamsyn muir - felt so much about [redacted] it made me cry. i can unblock ALL THE TAGS NOW - the blue sword by robin mckinley (audio) - catching up on old school fantasy continues -when the angels left the old country by sacha lamb (audio) - beautiful. not not in conversation with good omens but doing something different.

recently begun: -the ministry of the future by kim stanley robinson - can't decide if it's a scifi novel or a policy brief about ways to combat climate change- reading on my mom's recommendation -babel: an arcane history by r.f.kuang - withholding judgment, but i know you probably want me to hate it and so far i don't, really! to my own surprise -the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafrón (audio) - spooky, post-modern but incredibly good at sounding like it is of the time it depicts. many thoughts on the audio book narrator's accent work, most favorable -one corpse too many by ellis peters. wild that i have only just begun reading the cadfael mysteries

listening last week was about discovering and putting on continuous loop the group trousdale on the recommendation of @m2pixie (!) and other trusted friends; the energy, the harmonies! they fill a girl group void i didn't realize i had, it feels like the best kind of throwback, like old chicks or something, some desperately needed bops. exhibit a: bad blood.

today my daylist introduced me to joy oladokun and i'm so glad it did. love her vibe, love this cover art. had to take a picture of my desk, the visuals were so satisfying.

watching the newest series of netflix's lupin!! so far i'm really, really enjoying where this season has been spending most of its time-- the new characters, the new heists, the new stakes. especially fun to watch with friends where we can all shout about the mrs doubtfire of it all, the betrayals, the misdirection, the 'he can't keep getting away with this!.' the original lupin series will always bring back memories of watching it in early lockdown; i'm glad that there's this now to think about and remember instead.

playing hollow knight hollow knight hollow kniiiiiiight. bought it a few months ago when it was on sale, after hanging out and watching @dimir-charmer stream for us a bit, but playing it yourself is a different game. i'm having a blast. it's becoming a problem. i'm having to be so so good and mature in how much i let myself just get suckered in to a full day spent in my little buggy maze adventures. the temptation to keep going until i've made a meaningful advancement of some kind (today: got the longer nail! last time: beat hornet! saved zote the mighty, got the baldur shell charm, and beat the gruz mother!) is very, very real. have also gotten around this by listening to lots of lo-fi hollow knight beats to relax and study to while being 'productive.'

(found this screenshot online, and holy extra health batman)

making pancakes. lots and lots of weekend pancakes. sent a bunch of mail since new year's, and have some new arts and crafts (charcoal pencils!! those little paper cone blender guys! better paper) to fuck around with next time i want to get ~artistic. watch this space.

working on teaching is so all-consuming. it's great, i love it. the course (maps class! if you see that tag, this is that) is going well, i think! first three lectures down. the students i've gotten to know i really like, the material has yet to get old (see one - do one - teach one is so real. i understand this class now, finally, in a way i don't think i did just being the TA, even after three times). it takes so much longer to just copy-paste-change color and font on slides than it should! i've regularly been getting four-five hours of sleep on monday nights before teaching on tuesdays, but it has meant that i don't have the brain space to be self-conscious while i'm 'on', i just. go. having fun selecting teaching 'fits, having (less) fun handling all the students who joined in the second or third week and need help with catching up, but it's not their fault there was a waiting list and lots of turnover.

(petrus roselli - portolan chart of the mediterranean, 1466)

non-teaching: - student letter of recommendation for dental school (DONE) - conference panel proposal (due 1/31) -submit revised conference paper for that prize (due 1/30) -send draft of grant application to A for her to be able to write a letter of recommendation (due IMMEDIATELY WHY ARE YOU ON TUMBLR) (you have until 2/15 to fix it but she needs the draft!) -chapter 3 edits (lmao) -read for that other course you're meant to be the TA for (oops) - give i. feedback on her thing (tonight) -RAship hours (c'mon these are actually paid work, please do them)

[90s-2000s-barbie]

Dream Street - It Happens Everytime (Chris Trousdale Tribute 2020)

Dream Street member Chris Trousdale died from complications from COVID on June 2, 2020 and the group did this reunion / tribute in memory of Chris.

[lovesongbracket]

Reminder: Vote based on the song, not the artist or specific recording! The tracks referenced are the original artist, aside from a few rare cases where a cover is the most widely known.

Lyrics, videos, info, and notable covers under the cut. (Spotify playlist available in pinned post)

Waterloo

Written By: Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson & Stig Anderson

Artist: ABBA

Released: 1974

Alternate version included: Original Eurovision performance, 1974; Mamma Mia!, 2008

“Waterloo” was Swedish pop group ABBA’s breakout song (and also the first single to be released under the name “ABBA”), winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The song metaphorically compares a woman “surrendering to her conqueror” (giving up resisting a man’s advances) to Napoleon surrendering following his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

[Verse 1] My, my - at Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender Oh, yeah - and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way [Pre-Chorus] The history book on the shelf Is always repeating itself [Chorus] Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo [Verse 2] My, my - I tried to hold you back, but you were stronger Oh, yeah - and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight [Pre-Chorus] And how could I ever refuse? I feel like I win when I lose [Chorus] Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo [Pre-Chorus] So how could I ever refuse? I feel like I win when I lose [Outro] Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo Woo, Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo Woo, Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Written By: Tony Asher, Mike Love & Brian Wilson

Artist: The Beach Boys

Released: 1966

Cover included: Trousdale, 2020

The opening track of Pet Sounds was later released as the albums' third single with “God Only Knows” as its B-Side. The song was written with young people in mind and expresses the “never grow old” mentality. Quotes from Brian Wilson: “Listen for the rockin' accordions and the ethereal guitars in the introduction. Tony and I had visualized a scene. We had a feeling in our hearts, like a vibration. We put it into music, and it found its way onto tape. We really felt good about that record.” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice' was not a real long song, but it’s a very ‘up’ song. It expresses the frustrations of youth, what you can’t have, what you really want and you have to wait for it. The need to have the freedom to live with somebody. The idea is, the more we talk about it, the more we want it, but let’s talk about it anyway.”

[Verse 1: Brian Wilson] Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? Then we wouldn't have to wait so long And wouldn't it be nice to live together In the kind of world where we belong? [Chorus: Brian Wilson] You know it's gonna make it that much better When we can say goodnight and stay together [Verse 2: Brian Wilson] Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up In the morning when the day is new? After having spent the day together Hold each other close the whole night through [Chorus: Brian Wilson] But happy times together we've been spending I wish that every kiss was never-ending Oh, wouldn't it be nice? [Bridge: Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson] Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true Oh, baby, then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do Oh, we could be married (Oh, we could be married) And then we'd be happy (And then we'd be happy) Oh, wouldn't it be nice? [Chorus: Brian Wilson] You know it seems the more we talk about it It only makes it worse to live without it But let's talk about it But wouldn't it be nice? [Outro: Mike Love] Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby

[christophe76460]

SOUS INDEX :

UNE ÉTUDE DU TRAVAIL DES ANCIENS Qc_0803

Barry Bagott

TITRE DES LEÇONS :

01. INTRODUCTION

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/94rpaBqQ9hgFaZjn/

02. LES QUALIFICATIONS QUE LES ANCIENS DOIVENT POSSÉDER

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ndbkgcWEssyU9oEG/

03. CONCLUSION

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/yRFQPtzziGqYEtZ9/

Barry Baggott

Éditions C. E. B.

4806 Trousdale Dr. – Nashville, TN 37220

– États-Unis Imprimé aux États-Unis – © Tous droits réservés Q-115

https://www.editionsceb.com/

MERCI DE PARTAGER

Note : Cliquez toujours sur le dièse (#) du titre d'une leçon AFIN D'AVOIR UN MEILLEUR VISIONNEMENT DU TEXTE, de rejoindre les différentes parties, l’option de commenter, d'imprimer, de partager les Études Bibliques sur Messenger, votre portail, groupes Facebook ou autre plateformes, à la gloire de Dieu : #_Une_étude_sur_les_anciens

INDEX alphabétisé d'Études Bibliques :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1793477057490510/permalink/2503230596515149/?mibextid=c7yyfP

Groupe public : Assemblée de l'Église du Christ, Ste Foy, Québec

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1793477057490510/

« Toutes les Églises du Christ vous saluent. » Romains 16.16

https://www.eglise-du-christ.org/

[idpgroup13]

Blogpost 07: Atlantis Concept Art

For the text task, Mica helped Theodor with deciding on a prop design for the underwater environment; the group agreed on its setting to resemble the ruins of an Atlantis habitat.

Using a helpful free app, Mica utilised Pureref to create quick mood boards, which consist of images and concepts depicting the Atlantis myth. A few of the images above are environment works produced for Disney's relevant film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).

Mica also looked further into the statues that would occupy Atlantis, and noticed a particular theme - its environment predominantly revolved around Poseidon's statue. With this, the focus of prop included designs pertaining to Poseidon's existence.

Both artists used their Discord group server to relay to each other on the progress of the concept arts. After showing potential designs, Theodor liked the top and bottom right statue ideas, which Mica refined on accordingly. The final design both artists agreed on was the large, mid-body statue of Poseidon:

The initial design was tweaked to add more 'detail' to Poseidon's features, as well as illustrated more reasonably to fit a more 'realistic' appearance of the sea god.

Below are the finished first and second stage of statue designs:

1st Stage

2nd Stage

While drawing the second stage of the Atlantis statue, Mica used a broad reference for Poseidon's appeal. She wanted the sea god's mass to appear similar to character King Triton's, as featured in one of Disney's film, The Little Mermaid (1989).

Fig.1 King Triton

The next task after the statue designs was caused by a reconsideration of our final project idea; due to speculation of underwater being a common concept within our year group, we had decided to improvise by combining our two previously tested ideas together in making an animated experience of 'submerging' underwater into Atlantis.

Since the 'galaxy sky' idea resurfaced, Theodor and Mica had also prioritised on refining it by designing a boat for its scene. Mica produced another mood board for boat ideas - particularly row boats.

After googling and obtaining the relevant angles and types of boat, Mica went ahead to sketch out all boats within the images above. The shapes of these boats were considered first before any detail.

Eventually, Mica picked out four boats for Theodor to choose from.

This was where she added details that were unique to the boats she decided on. However, this is more of an idea on variety in design, rather than a straightforward reference for Theodor to model from.

Sources:

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) Directed by G. Trousdale. [Feature film]. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

Fig.1: The Little Mermaid (1989) Directed by J. Musker. [Feature film]. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

[cowboylarries]

i just found out one of my favorite singers is part of a band and i’m over the fucking moon bc now i have more than just four songs of hers on repeat!!! now i have eight songs on repeat!!!

[moodboardmix]

Orlando Bloom's Bachelor Pad, 1106 N Hillcrest Rd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210,

Image credit: The Oppenheim Group

[agentmmayy]

march music roundup

any day now- trousdale: this song and this group make me go feral. their harmonies have got me barking. i’m in love with the entire vibe of everything. it feels like a group of friends just sitting around and singing and having fun and it makes me want to bite my pillow and scream. also the lyrics of this song?? maybe i have cried over them especially i've been falling out of love with the thought of me the entire song is so unapologetic yet still hopeful i just *shrieks*

wish you well- wrabel: mental illness is canceled whenever i listen to wrabel. his voice is incredible and every one of his songs leave me speechless 

my ego dies at the end- jensen mcrae: this song has been living in my mind rent free this entire month. tried baptism but it felt like burning snatched my very soul when i heard it for the first time. this song needs to be listened to while swaying around the living room 

cold water swimming- quiet houses: oh this song!!! it’s about unrequited love. i want to hold this song close to my chest and never let it go. especially the lyric just turned 22 so why is it i still feel like a kid? it makes me think of standing on the beach on a cloudy cold day

the beach- LEON: once again LEON reads me to filth. i’ve never felt so seen. definitely a song to listen to while laying in bed crying to it

wasted- jukebox the ghost, andrew mcmahon in the wilderness: i was having a good time until i heard long before we cared about winning or worried about our parents getting older back when life was just beginning shut up! i’m so fucking scared right now you shut up!!!!!! the theme of this month has been calling me tf out with lyrics apparently. aside from that, this song is a BOP

i need my girl- aly & aj: as @justanalto said, this is so different from the usual aly & aj but it’s still so good??? it captures the loneliness of growing up and growing apart from a best friend or sister. it feels like grieving and i love it

hannah in the city- bestfriend: this is such a groove?? it’s not loud or glaringly upbeat but instead calm. it’s so sweet and wistful but a little sad- the perfect combination really

chinese satellite (live from sound city)- phoebe bridgers: ok i enjoy this version a lot more than the original though i’m not sure exactly why? maybe the acoustics? maybe the way her voice wavers on i want to go home? this feels like a song you listen to while laying in a hammock during golden hour. it makes me feel safe 

seven kisses- sean frayne, portia tang: this song has got me on my knees. it needs to be in a night scene montage (also gives me teen wolf vibes)

my love- florence + the machine: i lost my gotdamn mind when i first heard this chorus. it’s almost other worldly. it feels like a song that needs to be sung while dancing around a campfire deep in the woods. 

[the-hunchback-of-notre-dame]

‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at 25: An Oral History of Disney’s Darkest Animated Classic

Posted on Slashfilm on Monday, June 21st, 2021 by Josh Spiegel

“This Is Going to Change Your Life”

The future directors of The Hunchback of Notre Dame were riding high from the success of Beauty and the Beast. Or, at least, they were happy to be finished.

Gary Trousdale, director: After Beauty and the Beast, I was exhausted. Plus, Kirk and I were not entirely trusted at first, because we were novices. I was looking forward to going back to drawing.

Kirk Wise, director: It was this crazy, wonderful roller-coaster ride. I had all this vacation time and I took a couple months off.

Gary Trousdale: A little later, it was suggested: “If you want to get back into directing, start looking for a project. You can’t sit around doing nothing.”

Kirk Wise: [Songwriters] Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty had a pitch called Song of the Sea, a loose retelling of the Orpheus myth with humpback whales. I thought it was very strong.

Gary Trousdale: We were a few months in, and there was artwork and a rough draft. There were a couple tentative songs, and we were getting a head of steam.

Kirk Wise: The phone rang. It was Jeffrey [Katzenberg, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios], saying, “Drop everything. I got your next picture: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Gary Trousdale: “I’ve already got Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. You’re going to do this.” It wasn’t like we were given a choice. It was, “Here’s the project. You’re on.”

Kirk Wise: I was pleased that [Jeffrey] was so excited about it. I think the success of Beauty and the Beast had a lot to do with him pushing it our way. It would’ve been crazy to say no.

Gary Trousdale: What [Kirk and I] didn’t know is that Alan and Stephen were being used as bait for us. And Jeffrey was playing us as bait for Alan and Stephen.

Alan Menken, composer: Jeffrey made reference to it being Michael Eisner’s passion project, which implied he was less enthused about it as a story source for an animated picture.

Stephen Schwartz, lyricist: They had two ideas. One was an adaptation of Hunchback and the other was about whales. We chose Hunchback. I’d seen the [Charles Laughton] movie. Then I read the novel and really liked it.

Peter Schneider, president of Disney Feature Animation (1985-99): I think what attracted Stephen was the darkness. One’s lust for something and one’s power and vengeance, and this poor, helpless fellow, Quasimodo.

Roy Conli, co-producer: I was working at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, doing new play development. I was asked if I’d thought about producing animation. I said, “Yeah, sure.”

Don Hahn, producer: The goose had laid lots of golden eggs. The studio was trying to create two units so they could have multiple films come out. Roy was tasked with something hard, to build a crew out of whole cloth.

Kirk Wise: The idea appealed to me because [of] the setting and main character. I worked with an elder story man, Joe Grant, [who] goes back to Snow White. He said, “Some of the best animation ideas are about a little guy with a big problem.” Hunchback fit that bill.

Gary Trousdale: It’s a story I always liked. When Jeffrey said, “This is going to change your life,” Kirk and I said, “Cool.” When I was a kid, I [had an] Aurora Monster Model of Quasimodo lashed to the wheel. I thought, “He’s not a monster.”

Don Hahn: It’s a great piece of literature and it had a lot of elements I liked. The underdog hero. [He] was not a handsome prince. I loved the potential.

Gary Trousdale: We thought, “What are we going to do to make this dark piece of literature into a Disney cartoon without screwing it up?”

Peter Schneider: The subject matter is very difficult. The conflict was how far to go with it or not go with it. This is basically [about] a pederast who says “Fuck me or you’ll die.” Right?

“We Were Able to Take More Chances”

Wise and Trousdale recruited a group of disparate artists from the States and beyond to bring the story of Quasimodo the bell-ringer to animated life.

Paul Brizzi, sequence director: We were freshly arrived from Paris.

Gaëtan Brizzi, sequence director: [The filmmakers] were looking for a great dramatic prologue, and they couldn’t figure [it] out. Paul and I spent the better part of the night conceiving this prologue. They said, “You have to storyboard it. We love it.”

Roy Conli: We had two amazing artists in Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi who became spiritual leaders in the production. They were so incredible.

Gaëtan Brizzi: [“The Bells of Notre Dame”] was not supposed to be a song first.

Paul Brizzi: The prologue was traditional in the Disney way. Gaëtan and I were thinking of German expressionism to emphasize the drama. I’m not sure we could do that today.

Paul Kandel, voice of Clopin: They were toying with Clopin being the narrator. So they wrote “The Bells of Notre Dame” to open the movie.

Stephen Schwartz: [Alan and I] got called into a presentation, and on all these boards [was] laid out “The Bells of Notre Dame.” We musicalized the story they put up there. We used the pieces of dialogue they invented for Frollo and the other characters. I wrote lyrics that described the narrative. It was very exciting. I had never written a song like that.

Kirk Wise: Early on, we [took] a research trip with the core creative team to Paris. We spent two weeks all over Notre Dame. They gave us unrestricted access, going down into the catacombs. That was a huge inspiration.

Don Hahn: To crawl up in the bell towers and imagine Quasimodo there, to see the bells and the timbers, the scale of it all is unbelievable.

Kirk Wise: One morning, I was listening to this pipe organ in this shadowy cathedral, with light filtering through the stained-glass windows. The sound was so powerful, I could feel it thudding in my chest. I thought, “This is what the movie needs to feel like.”

Brenda Chapman, story: It was fun to sit in a room and draw and think up stuff. I liked the idea of this lonely character up in a bell tower and how we could portray his imagination.

Kathy Zielinski, supervising animator, Frollo: It was the earliest I’ve ever started on a production. I was doing character designs for months. I did a lot of design work for the gargoyles, as a springboard for the other supervisors.

James Baxter, supervising animator, Quasimodo: Kirk and Gary said, “We’d like you to do Quasimodo.” [I thought] that would be such a cool, amazing thing to do. They wanted this innocent vibe to him. Part of the design process was getting that part of his character to read.

Will Finn, head of story/supervising animator, Laverne: Kirk and Gary wanted me on the project. Kirk, Gary, and Don Hahn gave me opportunities no one else would have, and I am forever grateful.

Kathy Zielinski: I spent several months doing 50 or 60 designs [for Frollo]. I looked at villainous actors. Actually, one was Peter Schneider. [laughing] Not to say he’s a villain, but a lot of the mannerisms and poses. “Oh, that looks a little like Peter.”

James Baxter: I was doing design work on the characters with Tony Fucile, the animator on Esmerelda. I think Kirk and Gary felt Beauty and the Beast had been disparate and the characters weren’t as unified as they wanted.

Kathy Zielinski: Frollo stemmed from Hans Conried [the voice of Disney’s Captain Hook]. He had a longish nose and a very stern-looking face. Frollo was modeled a little bit after him.

Will Finn: The team they put together was a powerhouse group – Brenda Chapman, Kevin Harkey, Ed Gombert, and veterans like Burny Mattinson and Vance Gerry. I felt funny being their “supervisor.”

Kathy Zielinski: Half my crew was in France, eight hours ahead. We were able to do phone calls. But because of the time difference, our end of the day was their beginning of the morning. I was working a lot of late hours, because [Frollo] was challenging to draw.

Kirk Wise: Our secret weapon was James Baxter, who animated the ballroom sequence [in Beauty and the Beast] on his own. He had a unique gift of rotating characters in three-dimensional space perfectly.

Gary Trousdale: James Baxter is, to my mind, one of the greatest living animators in the world.

James Baxter: I’ve always enjoyed doing things that were quite elaborate in terms of camera movement and three-dimensional space. I’m a glutton for punishment, because those shots are very hard to do.

Gary Trousdale: In the scene with Quasimodo carrying Esmeralda over his shoulder, climbing up the cathedral, he looks back under his arms, snarling at the crowd below. James called that his King Kong moment.

As production continued, Roy Conli’s position shifted, as Don Hahn joined the project, and Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney in heated fashion in 1994.

Roy Conli: Jeffrey was going to create his own animation studio. Peter Schneider was interested in maintaining a relationship with Don Hahn. We were into animation, ahead of schedule. They asked Don if he would produce and if I would run the studio in Paris.

Don Hahn: Roy hadn’t done an animated film before. I was able to be a more senior presence. I’d worked with Kirk and Gary before, which I enjoy. They’re unsung heroes of these movies.

Kirk Wise: The [production] pace was more leisurely. As leisurely as these things can be. We had more breathing room to develop the storyboards and the script and the songs.

Gary Trousdale: Jeffrey never liked characters to have facial hair. No beards, no mustaches, nothing. There’s original designs of Gaston [with] a little Errol Flynn mustache. Jeffrey hated it. “I don’t want any facial hair.” Once he left, we were like, “We could give [Phoebus] a beard now.”

Kirk Wise: The ballroom sequence [in Beauty] gave us confidence to incorporate more computer graphics into Hunchback. We [had] to create the illusion of a throng of thousands of cheering people. To do it by hand would have been prohibitive, and look cheap.

Stephen Schwartz: Michael Eisner started being more hands-on. Michael was annoyed at me for a while, because when Jeffrey left, I accepted the job of doing the score for Prince of Egypt. I got fired from Mulan because of it. But once he fired me, Michael couldn’t have been a more supportive, positive colleague on Hunchback.

Kirk Wise: [The executives] were distracted. We were able to take more chances than we would have under the circumstances that we made Beauty and the Beast.

Don Hahn: Hunchback was in a league of its own, feeling like we [could] step out and take some creative risks. We could have done princess movies forever, and been reasonably successful. Our long-term survival relied on trying those risks.

One sticking point revolved around Notre Dame’s gargoyles, three of whom interact with Quasimodo, but feel more lighthearted than the rest of the dark story.

Gary Trousdale: In the book and several of the movies, Quasimodo talks to the gargoyles. We thought, “This is Disney, we’re doing a cartoon. The gargoyles can talk back.” One thing led to another and we’ve got “A Guy Like You.”

Kirk Wise: “A Guy Like You” was literally created so we could lighten the mood so the audience wasn’t sitting in this trough of despair for so long.

Stephen Schwartz: Out of context, the number is pretty good. I think I wrote some funny lyrics. But ultimately it was a step too far tonally for the movie and it has been dropped from the stage version.

Gary Trousdale: People have been asking for a long time: are they real? Are they part of Quasimodo’s personality? There were discussions that maybe Quasimodo is schizophrenic. We never definitively answered it, and can argue convincingly both ways.

Jason Alexander, voice of Hugo: I wouldn’t dream of interfering with anyone’s choice on that. It’s ambiguous for a reason and part of that reason is the viewers’ participation in the answer. Whatever you believe about it, I’m going to say you’re right.

Brenda Chapman: I left before they landed on how [to play] the gargoyles. My concern was, what are the rules? Are they real? Are they in his imagination? What can they do? Can they do stuff or is it all Quasi? I looked at it a little askance in the finished film. I wasn’t sure if I liked how it ended up…[Laverne] with the boa on the piano.

Kirk Wise: There was a component of the audience that felt the gargoyles were incompatible with Hunchback. But all of Disney’s movies, including the darkest ones, have comic-relief characters. And Disney was the last person to treat the written word as gospel.

“A Fantastic Opportunity”

After a successful collaboration on Pocahontas, Menken and Schwartz worked on turning Victor Hugo’s tragic story into a musical.

Alan Menken: The world of the story was very appealing, and it had so much social relevance and cultural nuance.

Stephen Schwartz: The story lent itself quite well to musicalization because of the extremity of the characters and the emotions. There was a lot to sing about. There was a great milieu.

Alan Menken: To embed the liturgy of the Catholic Church into a piece of music that’s operatic and also classical and pop-oriented enriches it in a very original way. Stephen was amazing. He would take the theme from the story and specifically set it in Latin to that music.

Stephen Schwartz: The fact that we were doing a piece set in a church allowed us to use all those elements of the Catholic mass, and for Alan to do all that wonderful choral music.

Alan Menken: The first creative impulse was “Out There.” I’m a craftsman. I’m working towards a specific assignment, but that was a rare instance where that piece of music existed.

Stephen Schwartz: I would come in with a title, maybe a couple of lines for Alan to be inspired by. We would talk about the whole unit, its job from a storytelling point of view. He would write some music. I could say, “I liked that. Let’s follow that.” He’d push a button and there would be a sloppy printout, enough that I could play it as I was starting the lyrics.

Roy Conli: Stephen’s lyrics are absolutely phenomenal. With that as a guiding light, we were in really good shape.

Stephen Schwartz: Alan played [the “Out There” theme] for me, and I really liked it. I asked for one change in the original chorus. Other than that, the music was exactly as he gave it to me.

Gary Trousdale: Talking with these guys about music is always intimidating. There was one [lyric] Don and I both questioned in “Out There,” when Frollo is singing, “Why invite their calumny and consternation?” Don and I went, “Calumny?” Kirk said, “Nope, it’s OK, I saw it in an X-Men comic book.” I went, “All right! It’s in a comic book! It’s good.”

Stephen Schwartz: Disney made it possible for me to get into Notre Dame before it opened to the public. I’d climb up the steps to the bell tower. I’d sit there with my yellow pad and pencil. I’d have the tune for “Out There” in my head, and I would look out at Paris, and be Quasimodo. By the time we left Paris, the song was written.

Kirk Wise: Stephen’s lyrics are really smart and literate. I don’t think the comical stuff was necessarily [his] strongest area. But this movie was a perfect fit, because the power of the emotions were so strong. Stephen just has a natural ability to connect with that.

Will Finn: The directors wanted a funny song for the gargoyles and Stephen was not eager to write it. He came to me and Irene Mecchi and asked us to help him think of comedy ideas for “A Guy Like You,” and we pitched a bunch of gags.

Jason Alexander: Singing with an orchestra the likes of which Alan and Stephen and Disney can assemble is nirvana. It’s electrifying and gives you the boost to sing over and over. Fortunately, everyone was open to discovery. I love nuance and intention in interpretation. I was given wonderful freedom to find both.

Stephen Schwartz: “Topsy Turvy,” it’s one of those numbers of musical theater where you can accomplish an enormous amount of storytelling. If you didn’t have that, you’d feel you were drowning in exposition. When you put it in the context of the celebration of the Feast of Fools, you could get a lot of work done.

Paul Kandel: The first time I sang [“Topsy Turvy”] through, I got a little applause from the orchestra. That was a very nice thing to happen and calm me down a little bit.

Brenda Chapman: Poor Kevin Harkey must’ve worked on “Topsy Turvy” for over a year. Just hearing [singing] “Topsy turvy!” I thought, “I would shoot myself.” It’s a fun song, but to listen to that, that many times. I don’t know if he ever got to work on anything else.

Paul Kandel: There were places where I thought the music was squarer than it needed to be. I wanted to round it out because Clopin is unpredictable. Is he good? Is he bad? That’s what I was trying to edge in there.

Kirk Wise: “God Help the Outcasts” made Jeffrey restless. I think he wanted “Memory” from Cats. Alan and Stephen wrote “Someday.” Jeffrey said, “This is good, but it needs to be bigger!” Alan was sitting at his piano bench, and Jeffrey was next to him. Jeffrey said, “When I want it bigger, I’ll nudge you.” Alan started playing and Jeffrey was jabbing him in the ribs. “Bigger, bigger!”

Don Hahn: In terms of what told the story better, one song was poetic, but the other was specific. “Outcasts” was very specific about Quasimodo. “Someday” was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Kirk Wise: When Don watched the movie, he said, “It’s working pretty well. But ‘Someday,’ I don’t know. It feels like she’s yelling at God.” We played “God Help the Outcasts” for him and Don said, “Oh, this is perfect.” That song is the signature of the entire movie.

Don Hahn: “Someday” was lovely. But I had come off of working with Howard Ashman, and I felt, “This doesn’t move the plot forward much, does it?” We ended up with “Someday” as an end-credits song, which was fortunate. ‘Cause they’re both good songs.

Kirk Wise: It was all about what conveys the emotion of the scene and the central theme of the movie best. “God Help the Outcasts” did that.

Everyone agrees on one point.

Stephen Schwartz: Hunchback is Alan’s best score. And that’s saying a lot, because he’s written a whole bunch of really good ones.

Gary Trousdale: With Hunchback, there were a couple of people that said, “This is why I chose music as a career.” Alan and Stephen’s songs are so amazing, so that’s really something.

Paul Kandel: It has a beautiful score.

Jason Alexander: It has the singularly most sophisticated score of most of the animated films of that era.

Roy Conli: The score of Hunchback is one of the greatest we’ve done.

Don Hahn: This is Alan’s most brilliant score. The amount of gravitas Alan put in the score is amazing.

Alan Menken: It’s the most ambitious score I’ve ever written. It has emotional depth. It’s a different assignment. And it was the project where awards stopped happening. It’s almost like, “OK, now you’ve gone too far.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s astonishing that Alan has won about 173 Academy Awards, and the one score he did not win for is his best score.

The film featured marquee performers singing covers of “God Help the Outcasts” and “Someday”. But one of the most famous performers ever nearly brought those songs to life.

Alan Menken: I met Michael Jackson when we were looking for someone to sing “A Whole New World” for Aladdin. Michael wanted to co-write the song. I could get a sense of who Michael was. He was a very unique, interesting individual…in his own world.

I get a call out of nowhere from Michael’s assistant, when Michael was at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York. He had to [deal with] allegations about inappropriate behavior with underage kids, and the breakup with Lisa Marie Presley. He’s looking to change the subject. And he obviously loves Disney so much. So I mentioned Hunchback. He said he’d love to come to my studio, watch the movie and talk about it. So we got in touch with Disney Animation. They said, “Meet with him! If he likes it…well, see what he says.” [laughing]

There’s three songs. One was “Out There,” one was “God Help the Outcasts,” one was “Someday.” Michael said, “I would like to produce the songs and record some of them.” Wow. Okay. What do we do now? Michael left. We got in touch with Disney. It was like somebody dropped a hot poker into a fragile bowl with explosives. “Uh, we’ll get back to you about that.”

Finally, predictably, the word came back, “Disney doesn’t want to do this with Michael Jackson.” I go, “OK, could someone tell him this?” You can hear a pin drop, no response, and nobody did [tell him]. It fell to my late manager, Scott Shukat, to tell Michael or Michael’s attorney.

In retrospect, it was the right decision. [But] Quasimodo is a character…if you look at his relationships with his family and his father, I would think there’s a lot of identification there.

“They’re Never Going to Do This Kind of Character Again”

The film is known for the way it grapples with the hypocrisy and lust typified by the villainous Judge Frollo, whose terrifying song “Hellfire” remains a high point of Disney animation.

Gary Trousdale: Somebody asked me recently: “How the hell did you get ‘Hellfire’ past Disney?” It’s a good question.

Alan Menken: When Stephen and I wrote “Hellfire,” I was so excited by what we accomplished. It really raised the bar for Disney animation. It raised the bar for Stephen’s and my collaboration.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought the would never let me get away with [“Hellfire”]. And they never asked for a single change.

Alan Menken: Lust and religious conflict. Now more than ever, these are very thorny issues to put in front of the Disney audience. We wanted to go at it as truthfully as possible.

Stephen Schwartz: When Alan and I tackled “Hellfire,” I did what I usually did: write what I thought it should be and assume that [Disney would] tell me what I couldn’t get away with. But they accepted exactly what we wrote.

Don Hahn: Every good song score needs a villain’s moment. Stephen and Alan approached it with “Hellfire.”

Alan Menken: It was very clear, we’d thrown the gauntlet pretty far. It was also clear within our creative team that everybody was excited about going there.

Don Hahn: You use all the tools in your toolkit, and one of the most powerful ones was Alan and Stephen. Stephen can be dark, but he’s also very funny. He’s brilliant.

Gary Trousdale: The [MPAA] said, “When Frollo says ‘This burning desire is turning me to sin,’ we don’t like the word ‘sin.’” We can’t change the lyrics now. It’s all recorded. Kinda tough. “What if we just dip the volume of the word ‘sin’ and increase the sound effects?” They said, “Good.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s one of the most admirable things [laughs] I have ever seen Disney Animation do. It was very supportive and adventurous, which is a spirit that…let’s just say, I don’t think [the company would] make this movie today.

Don Hahn: It’s funny. Violence is far more accepted than sex in a family movie. You can go see a Star Wars movie and the body count’s pretty huge, but there’s rarely any sexual innuendo.

Kathy Zielinski: I got to watch [Tony Jay] record “Hellfire” with another actor. I was sweating watching him record, because it was unbelievably intense. Afterwards, he asked me, “Did you learn anything from my performance?” I said, “Yeah, I never want to be a singer.” [laughing]

Paul Kandel: Tony Jay knocked that out of the park. He [was] an incredible guy. Very sweet. He was terrified to record “Hellfire.” He was at a couple of my sessions. He went, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen when it’s my turn? I don’t sing. I’m not a singer. I never pretended to be a singer.” I said, “Look, I’m not a singer. I’m an actor who figured out that they could hold a tune.”

Kathy Zielinski: I listened to Tony sing “Hellfire” tons. I knew I had gone too far when, one morning, we were sitting at the breakfast table and my daughter, who was two or three at the time, started singing the song and doing the mannerisms. [laughs]

Don Hahn: We didn’t literally want to show [Frollo’s lust]. It turns into a Fantasia sequence, almost. A lot of the imagery is something you could see coming out of Frollo’s imagination. It’s very impressionistic. It does stretch the boundaries of what had been done before at Disney.

Kirk Wise: We stylized it like “Night on Bald Mountain.” The best of Walt’s films balanced very dark and light elements. Instead of making it explicit, we tried to make it more visual and use symbolic imagery.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We were totally free. We could show symbolically how sick Frollo is between his hate and his carnal desire.

Kathy Zielinski: The storyboards had a tremendous influence. Everybody was incredibly admiring of the work that [Paul and Gaëtan] had done.

Don Hahn: They brought the storyboarded sequence to life in a way that is exactly what the movie looks like. The strength of it is that we didn’t have to show anything as much as we did suggest things to the audience. Give the audience credit for filling in the blanks.

Gary Trousdale: It was absolutely gorgeous. Their draftsmanship and their cinematography. They are the top. They pitched it with a cassette recording of Stephen singing “Hellfire”, and we were all in the story room watching it, going “Oh shit!”

Paul Brizzi: When Frollo is at the fireplace with Esmeralda’s scarf, his face is hypnotized. From the smoke, there’s the silhouette of Esmeralda coming to him. She’s naked in our drawings.

Gary Trousdale: We joked, maybe because they’re French, Esmeralda was in the nude when she was in the fire. Roy Disney put his foot down and said, “That’s not going to happen.” Chris Jenkins, the head of effects, and I went over every drawing to make sure she was appropriately attired. That was the one concession we made to the studio.

Gaëtan Brizzi: It’s the role of storyboard artists to go far, and then you scale it down. Her body was meant to be suggestive. It was more poetic than provocative.

Brenda Chapman: I thought what the Brizzis did with “Hellfire” was just stunning.

Roy Conli: We make films for people from four to 104, and we’re trying to ensure that the thematic material engages adults and engages children. We had a lot of conversations on “Hellfire,” [which] was groundbreaking. You saw the torment, but you didn’t necessarily, if you were a kid, read it as sexual. And if you were an adult, you picked it up pretty well.

Will Finn: “Hellfire” was uncomfortable to watch with a family audience. I’m not a prude, but what are small kids to make of such a scene?

Kathy Zielinski: When I was working on “Hellfire,” I thought, “Wow. They’re never going to do this kind of character again.” And I’m pretty much right.

“Straight for the Heart”

“Hellfire” may be the apex of the maturity of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but the entire film is the most complex and adult Disney animated feature of the modern era.

Gary Trousdale: We went straight for the heart and then pulled back.

Kirk Wise: I was comfortable with moments of broad comedy contrasted with moments that were dark or scary or violent. All of the Disney movies did that, particularly in Walt’s time.

Don Hahn: A lot of it is gut level, where [the story group would] sit around and talk to ourselves and pitch it to executives. But Walt Disney’s original animated films were really dark. We wanted to create something that had the impact of what animation can do.

Will Finn: Eisner insisted we follow the book to the letter, but he said the villain could not be a priest, and we had to have a happy ending. The book is an epic tragedy – everybody dies!

Kathy Zielinski: It’s a little scary that I felt comfortable with [Frollo]. [laughing] I don’t know what that means. Maybe I need to go to therapy. I’ve always had a desire to do villains. I just love evil.

Don Hahn: Kathy Zielinski is brilliant. She works on The Simpsons now, which is hilarious. She’s very intense, very aware of what [Frollo] had to do.

One specific choice in the relationship between Frollo and Esmeralda caused problems.

Stephen Schwartz: I remember there was great controversy over Frollo sniffing Esmeralda’s hair.

Kirk Wise: The scene that caused the most consternation was in the cathedral where Frollo grabs Esmeralda, whispers in her ear and sniffs her hair. The sniffing made people ask, “Is this too far?” We got a lot of support from Peter Schneider, Tom Schumacher, and Michael Eisner.

Kathy Zielinski: Brenda Chapman came up with that idea and the storyboard. I animated it. It’s interesting, because two females were responsible for that. That scene was problematic, so they had to cut it down. It used to be a lot longer.

Brenda Chapman: I know I’m probably pushing it too far, but let’s give it a go, you know?

Kirk Wise: We agreed it was going to be a matter of execution and our collective gut would tell us whether we were crossing the line. We learned that the difference between a G and PG is the loudness of a sniff. Ultimately, that’s what it came down to.

Brenda Chapman: I never knew that! [laughing]

Don Hahn: Is it rated G? That’s surprising.

Gary Trousdale: I’m sure there was backroom bargaining done that Kirk and I didn’t know about.

Don Hahn: It’s negotiation. The same was true of The Lion King. We had intensity notes on the fight at the end. You either say, we’re going to live with that and it’s PG, or we’re not and it’s G.

Brenda Chapman: I heard stories of little kids going, “Ewww, he’s rubbing his boogers in her hair!” [laughing] If that’s what they want to think, that’s fine. But there are plenty of adults that went, “Whoa!”

Don Hahn: You make the movies for yourselves, [but] we all have families, and you try to make something that’s appropriate for that audience. So we made some changes. Frollo isn’t a member of the clergy to take out any politicizing.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We developed the idea of Frollo’s racism against the gypsies. To feel that he desires Esmeralda and he wants to kill her. It was ambiguity that was interesting to develop. In the storyboards, Paul made [Frollo] handsome with a big jaw, a guy with class. They said he was too handsome. We had to break that formula.

Stephen Schwartz: I [and others] said, “It doesn’t make any sense for him to not be the Archdeacon, because what’s he doing with Quasimodo? What possible relationship could they have?” Which is what led to the backstory that became “The Bells of Notre Dame.”

Don Hahn: The things Frollo represents are alive and well in the world. Bigotry and prejudice are human traits and always have been. One of his traits was lust. How do you portray that in a Disney movie? We tried to portray that in a way that might be over kids’ heads and may not give them nightmares necessarily, but it’s not going to pull its punches. So it was a fine line.

Stephen Schwartz: Hugo’s novel is not critical of the church the way a lot of French literature is. It creates this character of Frollo, who’s a deeply hypocritical person and tormented by his hypocrisy.

Peter Schneider: I am going to be controversial. I think it failed. The fundamental basis is problematic, if you’re going to try and do a Disney movie. In [light of] the #MeToo movement, you couldn’t still do the movie and try what we tried to do. As much as we tried to soften it, you couldn’t get away from the fundamental darkness.

Don Hahn: Yeah, that sounds like Peter. He’s always the contrarian.

Peter Schneider: I’m not sure we should have made the movie, in retrospect. I mean, it did well, Kirk and Gary did a beautiful job. The voices are beautiful. The songs are lovely, but I’m not sure we should have made the movie.

Gaëtan Brizzi: The hardest part was to stick to the commercial side of the movie…to make sure we were still addressing kids.

Kirk Wise: We knew it was going to be a challenge to honor the source material while delivering a movie that would fit comfortably on the shelf with the other Disney musicals. We embraced it.

Roy Conli: I don’t think it was too mature. I do find it at times slightly provocative, but not in a judgmental or negative way. I stand by the film 100 percent in sending a message of hope.

Peter Schneider: It never settled its tone. If you look at the gargoyles and bringing in Jason Alexander to try and give comedy to this rather bleak story of a judge keeping a deformed young man in the tower…there’s so many icky factors for a Disney movie.

Jason Alexander: Some children might be frightened by Quasi’s look or not be able to understand the complexity. But what we see is an honest, innocent and capable underdog confront his obstacles and naysayers and emerge triumphant, seen and accepted. I think young people rally to those stories. They can handle the fearsome and celebrate the good.

Brenda Chapman: There was a scene where Frollo was locking Quasimodo in the tower, and Quasi was quite upset. I had to pull back from how cruel Frollo was in that moment, if I’m remembering correctly. I wanted to make him a very human monster, which can be scarier than a real monster.

Roy Conli: We walked such a tight line and we were on the edge and the fact that Disney allowed us to be on the edge was a huge tribute to them.

“Hear the Voice”

The story was set, the songs were ready. All that was left was getting a cast together to bring the characters’ voices to life.

Jason Alexander: Disney, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Victor Hugo – you had me at hello.

Paul Kandel: I was in Tommy, on Broadway. I was also a Tony nominee. So I had those prerequisites. Then I got a call from my agent that Jeffrey Katzenberg decided he wanted a star. I was out of a job I already had. I said, “I want to go back in and audition again.” I wanted to let them choose between me and whoever had a name that would help sell the film. So that series of auditions went on and I got the job back.

Kirk Wise: Everybody auditioned, with the exception of Kevin Kline and Demi Moore. We went to them with an offer. But we had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Meat Loaf.

Will Finn: Katzenberg saw Meat Loaf and Cher playing Quasimodo and Esmeralda – more of a rock opera. He also wanted Leno, Letterman, and Arsenio as the gargoyles at one point.

Kirk Wise: Meat Loaf sat with Alan and rehearsed the song. It was very different than what we ended up with, because Meat Loaf has a very distinct sound. Ultimately, I think his record company and Disney couldn’t play nice together, and the deal fell apart.

Gary Trousdale: We all had the drawings of the characters we were currently casting for in front of us. Instead of watching the actor, we’d be looking down at the piece of paper, trying to hear that voice come out of the drawing. And it was, we learned, a little disconcerting for some of the actors and actresses, who would put on hair and makeup and clothes and they’ve got their body language and expressions. We just want to hear the voice.

Kirk Wise: We cast Cyndi Lauper as one of the gargoyles. We thought she was hilarious and sweet. The little fat obnoxious gargoyle had a different name, and was going to be played by Sam McMurray. We had Cyndi and Sam record, and Roy Disney hated it. The quality of Cyndi’s voice and Sam’s voice were extremely grating to his ear. This is no disrespect to them – Cyndi Lauper is amazing. And Sam McMurray is very funny. But it was not working for the people in the room on that day.

Jason Alexander: The authors cast you for a reason – they think they’ve heard a voice in you that fits their character. I always try to look at the image of the character – his shape, his size, his energy and start to allow sounds, pitches, vocal tics to emerge. Then everyone kicks that around, nudging here, tweaking there and within a few minutes you have the approach to the vocalization. It’s not usually a long process, but it is fun.

Kirk Wise: We decided to reconceive the gargoyles. We always knew we wanted three of them. We wanted a Laurel and Hardy pair. The third gargoyle, the female gargoyle, was up in the air. I think it was Will Finn who said, “Why don’t we make her older?” As the wisdom-keeper. That led us to Mary Wickes, who was absolutely terrific. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Mary, and 98% of the dialogue is her. But she sadly passed away before we were finished.

Will Finn: We brought in a ton of voice-over actresses and none sounded like Mary. One night, I woke up thinking about Jane Withers, who had been a character actress in the golden age of Hollywood. She had a similar twang in her voice, and very luckily, she was alive and well.

Kirk Wise: Our first session with Kevin Kline went OK, but something was missing. It just didn’t feel like there was enough of a twinkle in his voice. Roy Conli said, “Guys, he’s an actor. Give him a prop.” For the next session, the supervising animator for Phoebus brought in a medieval broadsword. Before the session started, we said “Kevin, we’ve got a present for you.” We brought out this sword, and he lit up like a kid at Christmas. He would gesture with it and lean on it. Roy found the key there.

Gary Trousdale: Kevin Kline is naturally funny, so we may have [written] some funnier lines for him. When he’s sparring with Esmeralda in the cathedral and he gets hit by the goat. “I didn’t know you had a kid,” which is the worst line ever. But he pulls it off. He had good comic timing.

Kirk Wise: Tom Hulce had a terrific body of work, including Amadeus. But the performance that stuck with me was in Dominic and Eugene. There was a sensitivity and emotional reality to that performance that made us lean in and think he might make a good Quasimodo.

Gary Trousdale: [His voice] had a nice mix of youthful and adult. He had a maturity, but he had an innocence as well. We’re picturing Quasimodo as a guy who’s basically an innocent. It was a quality of his voice that we could hear.

Don Hahn: He’s one of those actors who could perform and act while he sang. Solo songs, especially for Quasimodo, are monologues set to music. So you’re looking for someone who can portray all the emotion of the scene. It’s about performance and storytelling, and creating a character while you’re singing. That’s why Tom rose to the top.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought Tom did great. I had known Tom a little bit beforehand, as an actor in New York. I’d seen him do Equus and I was sort of surprised. I just knew him as an actor in straight plays. I didn’t know that he sang at all, and then it turned out that he really sang.

Paul Kandel: [Tom] didn’t think of himself as a singer. He’s an actor who can sing. “Out There,” his big number – whether he’s going to admit it to you or not – that was scary for him. But a beautiful job.

Brenda Chapman: Quasimodo was the key to make it family-friendly. Tom Hulce did such a great job making him appealing.

Kirk Wise: Gary came back with the audiotape of Tom’s first session. And his first appearance with the little bird, where he asks if the bird is ready to fly…that whole scene was his rehearsal tape. His instincts were so good. He just nailed it. I think he was surprised that we went with that take. It was the least overworked and the most spontaneous, and felt emotionally real to us.

Kathy Zielinski: Early on, they wanted Anthony Hopkins to do the voice [of Frollo]. [We] did an animation test with a line of his from Silence of the Lambs.

Kirk Wise: We were thinking of Hannibal Lecter in the earliest iterations of Frollo. They made an offer, but Hopkins passed. We came full circle to Tony, because it had been such a good experience working with him on Beauty and the Beast. It was the combination of the quality of his voice, the familiarity of working with him, and knowing how professional and sharp he was.

Though the role of Quasimodo went to Tom Hulce (who did not respond to multiple requests for comment), there was one audition those involved haven’t forgotten.

Kirk Wise: We had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Mandy Patinkin.

Stephen Schwartz: That was a difficult day. [laughing]

Kirk Wise: Mandy informed Alan and Stephen that he brought his own accompanist, which was unexpected because we had one in the room. He had taken a few liberties with [“Out There”]. He had done a little rearranging. You could see Alan’s and Stephen’s spines stiffen. It was not the feel that Alan and Stephen were going for. Stephen pretty much said so in the room. I think his words were a little sharper and more pointed than mine.

Stephen Schwartz: I’ve never worked with Mandy Patinkin. But I admired Evita and Sunday in the Park with George. He came in to audition for Quasimodo. When I came in, Ben Vereen was sitting in the hallway. Ben is a friend of mine and kind of a giant star. I felt we should be polite in terms of bringing him in relatively close to the time for which he was called.

Mandy took a long time with his audition, and asked to do it over and over again. If you’re Mandy Patinkin, you should have enough time scheduled to feel you were able to show what you wanted to show. However, that amount of time was not scheduled. At a certain point, I became a bit agitated because I knew Ben was sitting there, cooling his heels. I remember asking [to] move along or something. That created a huge contretemps.

Kirk Wise: Gary and I stepped outside to work on a dialogue scene with Mandy. As we were explaining the scene and our take on the character, Mandy threw up his hands and said, “Guys, I’m really sorry. I can’t do this.” He turned on his heel and went into the rehearsal hall and shut the door. We started hearing an intense argument. He basically went in and read Alan and Stephen the riot act. The door opens, smoke issuing from the crater that he left inside. Mandy storms out, and he’s gone. We step back in the room, asking, “What the hell happened?”

Gary Trousdale: I did a drawing of it afterwards. The Patinkin Incident.

Stephen Schwartz: Battleship Patinkin!

“Join the Party”

The darkness in the film made it difficult to market. Even some involved acknowledged the issue. In the run-up to release, Jason Alexander said to Entertainment Weekly, “Disney would have us believe this movie’s like the Ringling Bros., for children of all ages. But I won’t be taking my 4-year old. I wouldn’t expose him to it, not for another year.”

Alan Menken: There was all the outrage about Jason Alexander referring to it as a dark story that’s not for kids. Probably Disney wasn’t happy he said that.

Jason Alexander: Most Disney animated films are entertaining and engaging for any child with an attention span. All of them have elements that are frightening. But people are abused in Hunchback. These are people, not cute animals. Some children could be overwhelmed by some of it at a very young age. My son at the time could not tolerate any sense of dread in movies so it would have been hard for him. However, that is certainly not all children.

Don Hahn: I don’t think Jason was wrong. People have to decide for themselves. It probably wasn’t a movie for four-year olds. You as a parent know your kid better than I do.

If everyone agrees the score is excellent, they also agree on something that was not.

Alan Menken: God knows we couldn’t control how Disney marketing dealt with the movie, which was a parade with Quasimodo on everybody’s shoulders going, “Join the party.” [laughing]

Roy Conli: I always thought “Animation comes of age” would be a great [tagline]. I think the marketing ended up, “Join the party.”

Brenda Chapman: Marketing had it as this big party. And then you get into the story and there’s all this darkness. I think audiences were not expecting that, if they didn’t know the original story.

Kathy Zielinski: It was a hard movie for Disney to merchandise and sell to the public.

Gaëtan Brizzi: People must have been totally surprised by the dramatic sequences. The advertising was not reflecting what the movie was about.

Stephen Schwartz: To this day, they just don’t know how to market “Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.” I understand what their quandary is. They have developed a brand that says, “If you see the word Disney on something, it means you can take your 6-year old.” You probably shouldn’t even take your 8-year old, unless he or she is very mature, to Hunchback.

Alan Menken: We [Disney] had such a run of successful projects. It was inevitable there was going to be a time where people said, “I’ve seen all those, but what else is out there?” I had that experience sitting at a diner with my family, overhearing a family talk about Hunchback and say, “Oh yeah, we saw Beauty and Aladdin, but this one…let’s see something else.”

Stephen Schwartz: I did have a sense that some in the critical community didn’t know how to reconcile animation and an adult approach. They have the same attitude some critics have about musicals. “It’s fine if it’s tap-dancing and about silly subjects. But if it’s something that has intellectual import, you can’t do that.” Obviously we have Hamilton and Sweeney Todd and Wicked. Over the years, that’s changed to some extent, but not for everybody.

Roy Conli: Every film is not a Lion King. [But] if that story has legs and will touch people, then you’ve succeeded.

Kirk Wise: We were a little disappointed in its initial weekend. It didn’t do as well as we hoped. We were also disappointed in the critical reaction. It was well-reviewed, but more mixed. Roger Ebert loved us. The New York Times hated us! I felt whipsawed. It was the same critic [Janet Maslin] who praised Beauty and the Beast to the high heavens. She utterly shat on Hunchback.

Don Hahn: We had really good previews, but we also knew it was out of the box creatively. We were also worried about the French and we were worried about the handicapped community and those were the two communities that supported the movie the most.

Will Finn: I knew we were in trouble when the first trailers played and audiences laughed at Quasimodo singing “Out There” on the roof.

Kirk Wise: All of us were proud of the movie on an artistic level. In terms of animation and backgrounds and music and the use of the camera and the performances. It’s the entire studio operating at its peak level of performance, as far as I’m concerned.

Gary Trousdale: I didn’t think people were going to have such a negative reaction to the gargoyles. They’re a little silly. And they do undercut the gravity. But speaking with friends who were kids at the time, they have nothing but fond memories. There were adults, high school age and older when they saw it, they were turned off. We thought it was going to do really great. We thought, “We’re topping ourselves.” It’s a sophisticated story and the music is amazing.

Kirk Wise: The 2D animated movies used to be released before Christmas [or] Thanksgiving. The Lion King changed that. Now everything was a summer release. I always questioned the wisdom of releasing Hunchback in the summertime, in competition with other blockbusters.

Paul Kandel: It made $300 million and it cost $80 million to make. So they were not hurting as far as profits were concerned. But I thought it was groundbreaking in so many ways that I was surprised at the mixed reviews.

Kirk Wise: By most measures, it was a hit. I think The Lion King spoiled everybody, because [it] was such a phenomenon, a bolt from the blue, not-to-be-repeated kind of event.

Gary Trousdale: We were getting mixed reviews. Some of them were really good. “This is a stunning masterpiece.” And other people were saying, “This is a travesty.” And the box office was coming in, not as well as hoped.

Don Hahn: I was in Argentina doing South American press. I got a call from Peter Schneider, who said, “It’s performing OK, but it’s probably going to hit 100 million.” Which, for any other moviemaker, would be a goldmine. But we’d been used to huge successes. I was disappointed.

Peter Schneider: I think it was a hit, right? It just wasn’t the same. As they say in the theater, you don’t set out to make a failure.

Don Hahn: If you’re the New York Yankees, and you’ve had a winning season where you could not lose, and then people hit standup singles instead of home runs…that’s OK. But it has this aura of disappointment. That’s the feeling that’s awful to have, because it’s selfish. Animation is an art, and the arts are meant to be without a price tag hanging off of them all the time.

Paul Brizzi: We are still grateful to Kirk and Gary and Don. We worked on [Hunchback] for maybe a year or a year and a half. Every sequence, we did with passion.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Our work on Hunchback was a triumph of our career.

Kathy Zielinski: There are certainly a whole crowd of people who wish we had not [done] the comedy, because that wasn’t faithful. That’s the main complaint I heard – we should’ve gone for this total dramatic piece and not worried about the kiddies.

Gaetan Brizzi: The only concern we had was the lack of homogeneity. The drama was really strong, and the [comedy] was sometimes a little bit goofy. It was a paradox. When you go from “Hellfire” to a big joke, the transition was not working well. Otherwise, we were very proud.

James Baxter: We were happy with what we did, but we understood it was going to be a slightly harder sell. The Hunchback of Notre Dame usually doesn’t engender connotations like, “Oh, that’s going to be a Disney classic.” I was very happy that it did as well as it did.

Jason Alexander: I thought it was even more mature and emotional on screen. It was an exciting maturation of what a Disney animated feature could be. I was impressed and touched.

“An Undersung Hero”

25 years later, The Hunchback of Notre Dame endures. The animated film inspired an even darker stage show that played both domestically and overseas, and in recent years, there have been rumors that Josh Gad would star as Quasimodo in a live-action remake.

Alan Menken: I think it’s a project that with every passing year will more and more become recognized as a really important part of my career.

Stephen Schwartz: This will be immodest, but I think it’s a really fine adaptation. I think it’s the best musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, and there have been a lot. I think the music is just unbelievably good. I think, as a lyricist, I was working at pretty much the top of my form. I have so many people telling me it’s their favorite Disney film.

Alan Menken: During the pandemic, there was this hundred-piece choir doing “The Bells of Notre Dame.” People are picking up on it. It’s the combination of the storytelling and how well the score is constructed that gets it to longevity. If something is good enough, it gets found.

Paul Kandel: I think people were more sensitive. There was an expectation that a new Disney animated film would not push boundaries at all, which it did. For critics, it pushed a little too hard and I don’t think they would think that now. It’s a work of art.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Hunchback is poetic, because of its dark romanticism. We have tons of animated movies, but I think they all look alike because of the computer technique. This movie is very important in making people understand that hate has no place in our society, between a culture or people or a country. That’s the message of the movie, and of Victor Hugo himself.

Jason Alexander: I think it’s an undersung hero. It’s one of the most beautiful and moving animated films. But it is not the title that lives on everyone’s tongue. I think more people haven’t seen this one than any of the others. I adore it.

Peter Schneider: What Disney did around this period [is] we stopped making musicals. I think that was probably a mistake on some level, but the animators were bored with it.

Don Hahn: You know people reacted to Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. They were successful movies in their day. You don’t know the reaction to anything else. So when [I] go to Comic-Con or do press on other movies, people started talking about Hunchback. “My favorite Alan Menken score is Hunchback.” It’s always surprising and delightful.

Kirk Wise: I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, “This is my absolute favorite movie. I adored this movie as a kid. I wore out my VHS.” That makes all the difference in the world.

Paul Kandel: Sitting on my desk right now are four long letters and requests for autographs. I get 20 of those a week. People are still seeing that film and being moved by it.

Alan Menken: Now there’s a discussion about a live-action film with Hunchback. And that’s [sighs] exciting and problematic. We have to, once again, wade into the troubled waters of “What is Disney’s movie version of Hunchback?” Especially now.

Jason Alexander: Live action could work because the vast majority of characters are human. The story of an actual human who is in some ways less abled and who is defined by how he looks, rather than his heart and character, is timely and important, to say the least.

Kirk Wise: I imagine if there were a live-action adaptation, it would skew more towards the stage version. That’s just my guess.

Stephen Schwartz: I think it would lend itself extremely well to a live-action movie, particularly if they use the stage show as the basis. I think the stage show is fantastic.

Kirk Wise: It’s gratifying to be involved in movies like Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback that have created so much affection. But animation is as legitimate a form of storytelling as live-action is. It might be different, but I don’t think it’s better. I feel like [saying], “Just put on the old one. It’s still good!”

Gary Trousdale: There were enough versions before. Somebody wants to make another version? Okay. Most people can tell the difference between the animated version and a live-action reboot. Mostly I’m not a fan of those. But if that’s what Disney wants to do, great.

Don Hahn: It’s very visual. It’s got huge potential because of its setting and the drama, and the music. It’s pretty powerful, so it makes sense to remake that movie. I think we will someday.

Brenda Chapman: It’s a history lesson. Now that Notre Dame is in such dire straits, after having burned so badly, hopefully [this] will increase interest in all that history.

James Baxter: It meant two children. I met my wife on that movie. [laughs] In a wider sense, the legacy is another step of broadening the scope of what Disney feature animation could be.

Kirk Wise: Hunchback is the movie where the final product turned out closest to the original vision. There was such terrific passion by the crew that carried throughout the process.

Roy Conli: It’s one of the most beautiful films we’ve made. 25 years later, I’d say “Join the party.” [laughs]

[charliepaume-e]

Étude comparative de la représentation de genre dans Le Bossu de Notre-Dame (1996) et Notre-Dame de Paris (1998)

Un des défis des adaptations réside dans le choix de l'actualisation ou non des représentations genrées et de sociétés lors de la transposition d'un média à un autre si la production originale se trouve éloignée temporairement. On peut prendre pour exemple le roman Notre-Dame de Paris de Victor Hugo qui s'est vu beaucoup adapté durant la seconde partie du XXème siècle et dans des médias très différents. L'écart temporel et sociétal des cadres de production des oeuvres justifie à première vue l'adaptation systématique de la représentation de genre des personnages, ou en tout cas une nuance dans le propos de l'oeuvre autour du sujet. Pour autant, une adaptation contemporaine, ou du moins post-bouleversements féministes du XXème siècle, n'assure pas forcément une actualisation dans la représentation des genres. Au travers de l'étude comparative des adaptations de la fin du vingtième siècle du roman de Victor Hugo Notre-Dame de Paris que sont la comédie musicale éponyme de Luc Plamondon produite pour la première fois en 1998, et le film d'animation des studios Disney réalisé par Gary Trousdale et Kirk Wise Le Bossu de Notre-Dame sorti en 1996, nous verrons dans un premier temps comment la féminité se construit par le regard masculin puis dans un second et dernier temps comme la masculinité d'abord incarné de manière unie par trois figures peut être plurielle.

I. Une féminité qui se définit par et dans le regard masculin

Les figures de Fleur-de-Lys et d'Esmeralda semblent être tout d'abord construites en opposition, une opposition qui se retrouve en premier lieu dans le physique dès les descriptions de Victor Hugo. Fleur-de-Lys est présentée comme une jeune femme blonde et à la peau très blanche tandis qu'Esmeralda comme une brune aux grands yeux noirs et à la peau mate. Leurs origines sociales sont aussi aux antipodes. Fleur-de-Lys appartient à la noblesse de Paris, Esmeralda est quant à elle moins qu'une citoyenne étant donné qu'elle appartient à un groupe de gens de voyages. Cette situation la place dans une position sociale marginale, elle n'appartient pas directement au fonctionnement social général et son groupe social s'en trouve marginalisé et stigmatisé, tandis que Fleur-de-Lys est placée dans une catégorie privilégiée. L'opposition se poursuit aussi dans la construction morale des personnages, même si l'asymétrie physique est assez atténuée dans la comédie musicale Notre-Dame de Paris. On reste sur une dichotomie blonde/brune, mais on peut déplorer l'absence de racisation apparente du personnage d'Esmeralda avec le choix d'Hélène Ségara pour le rôle d'Esmeralda pour le casting originel de 1998. On y conserve néanmoins cette construction en opposition morale et sociale. Cette construction morale se place, comme dans le roman, autour de la sexualisation de ces deux personnages féminins et de leur capacité à se l'approprier.

a)La sexualisation des personnages féminins

Esmeralda est une figure ultra sexuée, sa caractérisation première porte sur son physique et le désir qu'il provoque auprès des personnages du genre opposé. Il s'agit même de la cause du déroulement dramatique de l'intrigue : le déferlement incontrôlé du désir et ses conséquences désastreuses.

Plamondon respecte à la lettre cette base et les textes des chansons soulignent souvent l'apparence physique d'Esmeralda et l'attirance qu'elle provoque. Lors de la première rencontre de Phoebus et d'Esmeralda, le premier qualifie la seconde de «bel oiseau de paradis». L'intérêt qu'il manifeste pour la jeune femme ne prend sa source que dans une contemplation purement physique et exotique de celle-ci. Elle est dès le départ objectifiée, caractérisée par sa position d'exotisme dans le cadre géographique et culturel où elle se trouve. Ce constat se retrouve exprimé avec plus de virulence dans La Sorcière où Frollo qualifie Esmeralda d'«étrangère», «chienne», «chatte de gouttière» en plus de «sorcière». On retrouve aussi régulièrement l'image de l'hirondelle pour désigner le personnage au cours des dialogues chantés et des chansons, Esmeralda l'emploie elle même dans Les oiseaux que l'on met en cage : «J'étais comme une hirondelle». Les paroles appuient aussi sur le fait que le supposé pouvoir de corruption du personnage est lié à son physique, et non pas à la parole ou aux actes : «C'est un péché mortel à regarder/Il faudrait la mettre en cage/Qu'elle ne fasse plus de ravages/Dans les coeurs dans les âmes/Des fidèles de Notre-Dame». L'apogée de la sexualisation du personnage arrive avec la chanson Belle où les trois personnages masculins principaux, Quasimodo, Frollo et Phoebus, regardent simultanément Esmeralda après qu'elle ait donné à boire à Quasimodo condamné à la roue. Le personnage est alors représenté uniquement au travers d'un male gaze, ce qui se traduit par une focalisation sur le physique de l'objet de la chanson. La mention des jupes et de ce qui se trouve dessous revient à chaque couplet avec «sous sa robe de gitane» dans celui de Quasimodo, «jupon aux couleurs de l'arc-en-ciel» pour Phoebus et dans celui de Frollo on parle directement du «jardin d'Esmeralda», image qui vient être soutenu par les «monts et merveilles»3 employés dans le couplet de Phoebus. S'il y aussi les images classiques des «cheveux»3 et des «grands yeux noirs qui vous ensorcellent» comme motifs classiques des traits féminins séducteurs, la focalisation du désir masculin est ici très directe et littérale, il n'y a pas de place pour le doute quant à la nature de l'attirance que provoque le personnage. Elle est même qualifiée de «fille de rien» et de «joie», il y a une véritablement stigmatisation de la sexualité supposée du personnage, quand bien même la supposition semble ne se baser sur aucune donnée factuelle diégétique et est même démentie par Phoebus, « la demoiselle serait-elle encore pucelle ? ». Dans le Disney, ce male gaze se retrouve principalement dans les mouvements de caméra, ce qui n'a rien de surprenant pour un support filmique mais aussi dans le cadre d'une production Disney, comme le rappelle Simon Massei dans son article «Les dessins animés c'est pas la réalité Les longs métrages Disney et leur réception par le jeune public au prisme du genre», page 100 :

Seules les héroïnes voient ainsi leur corps « morcelé » et filmé en gros plan, procédé qui vise essentiellement à souligner leur beauté et la finesse de leurs traits. Les plongées et contre-plongées – ayant respectivement pour effet d’« écraser » et de « grandir » les sujets – semblent également faire l’objet d’un usage différencié selon le sexe des personnages. Sans surprise, les contre-plongées sont majoritairement utilisées pour souligner la carrure ou le dynamisme des personnages masculins – ce type d’angle de vue faisant ressortir les pectoraux, les épaules et la forme de la mâchoire – , tandis que les plongées, souvent éloignées, servent au contraire à « objectifier » les personnages féminins (Mulvey, 1975), ou à en souligner la vulnérabilité physique ou émotionnelle.

On retrouve cette sexualisation jusque dans les costumes du spectacle. Comme le souligne Bianca van Dam dans sa thèse Disney's Fashionable Girls signs and symbols in the costume dress of Disney's female characters, page 12 :

Certain female characters on screen are portrayed through seductive traits such as having a decolleté, being supplied with either magical or physical destructing tools, catching the gaze of the viewer and having hypnotizing features. In Disney the witches, queens, stepmothers and evil women possess this set of traits, as well as all of them are provided with heavy accents of cosmetics, jewelry and often black dress13. Numerous times they also change their outfits in relation to a situation or their expressive mood. This look is usually displayed by a swiftly changing appearance where the wardrobe turns into a synonym for her unreliability14. Sexuality is here displayed as a character trait of the evil, but the princesses show certain symbols of evolving sexuality through their dress as well.

Le changement de costumes des personnages n'a alors rien d'anodin : il s'inscrit comme soutien d'une narrativité et exprime une évolution, ou son absence, de certains personnages féminins. Et ce mécanisme ne se limite pas uniquement aux productions animées de Disney, et peut parfaitement s'étendre à d'autres médias.

Durant le premier acte, Esmeralda porte une robe verte qui, bien que longue et arrivant environ jusqu'aux chevilles d'Hélène Ségara, présente cependant un décolleté assez prononcé et profond et une jupe largement fendue sur la droite qui révèle donc totalement sa jambe. La couleur permet de facilement repérer le personnage sur la scène, elle est d'ailleurs le seul personnage à porter une couleur comme celle-ci et une tenue avec des motifs ainsi que des brillants qui parcourent le tissu.

Fleur-de-Lys porte en comparaison une robe dans une pâle nuance de rose avec un décolleté bien moins prononcé, bien que la robe soit beaucoup plus proche du corps, probablement parce que taillée dans un tissu plus fin et souple.

Le second costume d'Esmeralda est une simple robe blanche, elle est bien moins sexualisée. On se rapproche de la figure de martyr avec celle-ci, c'est la tenue d'une condamnée mais aussi ce qui servira de linceul au personnage. Le blanc est ici à la fois la couleur de la pureté, qui souligne l'innocence complète du personnage, et celle de la mort.

Dans le Disney, Esmeralda a une garde-robe composée de trois tenues, la première qu'elle porte durant la majeure partie du film, la seconde durant la scène de la Fête des Fous, et enfin celle de la fin du film après sa capture par Claude Frollo. La première tenue est beaucoup plus colorée que celle proposée par Plamondon, ne serait-ce que sur la quantité de couleurs utilisées. On trouve en effet une chemise blanche qui laisse les épaules avec un léger décolleté mais néanmoins présent. Un corset vert et doré met en valeur la finesse de sa taille qui fait écho aux bijoux dorés qu'elle porte, sa jupe est violette et laisse ses chevilles nues. On note aussi la présence d'une étole sur le bas de la taille, dans un ton un peu plus sombre que le violet de la jupe.

Cette tenue est moins sexualisée que la robe chez Plamondon, ce qui n'exclut pas une certaine sexualisation. Le corps du personnage est en effet mis en avant, mais c'est bien la seconde tenue qui contribue le plus à cela lors de la scène de danse.

Le rôle de la robe blanche est le même que dans la comédie musicale : souligner l'innocence d'Esmeralda; mais on perd la dimension de deuil et de mort qu'elle apportait puisque le personnage survit dans la version de Disney. On peut même le voir dans le final comme la marque d'un renouveau, voire comme une robe de mariage symbolique avec Phoebus. Comme le rappelle Bianca van Dam, «Disney always maintains the heterosexual love between a good-looking man and woman which is instant and steadily works out», on n'échappe pas à cela dans Le Bossu de Notre-Dame puisqu'on assiste à la création du couple Phoebus-Esmeralda sur les bases d'une alchimie immédiate et d'une attirance commune qui ne feront que s'affirmer de plus en plus au cours du film.

Le degré sexualisation d'Esmeralda dans l'adaptation de 1996, certainement un des plus élevés et assumés chez une héroïne d'un film d'animation Disney, s'explique par la racisation du personnage, comme le montre Vanessa Matyas, B.A dans Tale as Old as Time, page 16 :

The heroines who are racial minorities, such as Pocahontas or Esmeralda from The Hunch Back of Notre Dame, are depicted as being much more athletic than the white heroines. In addition to the emphasis on these characters’ athleticism, they are also illustrated to emphasize that they have reached sexual maturing (LaCroix 220). This difference in the construction of the characters, along with their costuming in the film, emphasizes the characters of a racial minority to be exotic and sexual.

On conserve la position exotique du personnage qui permet une sexualité supposément plus importante dans un contexte occidental post-colonialisme de diffusion et de production. Avec Plamondon, on ne remet pas en compte cette supposition en ne blâmant pas les personnages masculins de leur obsessivité mais traitant tout sous l'angle d'une fatalité irrévocable : les hommes sont esclaves de leurs pulsions et les femmes des victimes plus ou moins conscientes. Cependant, la situation est plus nuancée dans l'adaptation de 1996. La sexualisation du personnage est toujours présente, comme on a pu le voir au travers de ses costumes. Mais cette fois, le blâme tombe bien sur le personnage masculin obsédé qui diabolise autant qu'il désire la figure féminine, puisque Claude Frollo est construit et présenté irrévocablement comme un antagoniste. Si on ne change en effet rien à la sexualisation du personnage féminin principal, cette dernière est cependant assumée et conscientisée en sous texte par le personnage.

b)La conscientisation de cette sexualisation.

Le personnage d'Esmeralda dans la comédie musicale de Plamondon n'a pas conscience de ce pouvoir d'attraction qu'elle exerce, elle n'a même aucune volonté de provoquer cela. Cet aspect du personnage est d'abord exprimé par Clopin, qui fait ici aussi office de figure paternelle pour le personnage avec la chanson Esmeralda tu sais. Celle-ci sert d'avertissement : «Esmeralda tu sais/Tu n'es plus une enfant», mais cette mise en garde n'atteint pas son objectif dans la mise en scène, puisque le regard de l'actrice se porte toujours sur Phoebus qui se trouve de l'autre côté de la scène avec Fleur-de-Lys. Puis, durant l'acte 2 dans la Visite de Frollo à Esmeralda : «Qu'est ce que je vous ai fait/Pour que vous me haïssiez? [...]/ Mais qu'est-ce que j'ai donc fait/Pour qu'ainsi vous m'aimiez/Moi pauvre gitane/Et vous curé de Notre-Dame», on appuie sur l'inconscience d'Esmeralda. Elle se retrouve ainsi placée dans une position d'innocence, complètement dédouanée de toute responsabilité que l'on pourrait lui imposer. Par ce stratagème, elle évite les reproches que pourrait lui faire le patriarcat, des choses comme «elle l'a bien cherché» ou encore «elle aurait dû s'y attendre». Elle devient une figure d'innocence et de pureté. Jamais elle ne doute qu'on finira par la sauver, que ce soit par l'intervention de Quasimodo ou de Phoebus : «Où es-tu mon Quasimodo ?/Viens me sauver de la corde/Viens écarter mes barreaux» «Phoebus/ Si tu m'entends viens me sauver/ Viens leur crier la vérité». Elle est alors une pure victime des évènements et de la folie humaine, entièrement laissée à la merci de la justice des hommes qui la condamne à mort. On construit une figure de martyr, voire christique, autour du personnage. Pour Frollo dans Belle, elle est à la fois porteuse du «péché originel» et une «fille de joie, une fille de rien» et paradoxalement celle de «la croix du genre humain». Elle se retrouve strictement définie par la dichotomie de la représentation féminine : soit comme une prostituée, soit comme une sainte, et on constate une confusion entre ces deux perceptions dans le discours de Frollo. Phoebus la prend simplement pour une fille de joie, tandis que pour Quasimodo, c'est l'image de la sainte qui domine. La représentation d'Esmeralda au travers des regards masculins se retrouve donc prise dans un spectre de sanctification et de mépris, mais où l'hypersexualisation est une constante. Ce constat est cependant à nuancer dans le cas du film d'animation. En effet, contrairement à la comédie musicale, la sexualisation d'Esmeralda passe principalement par le regard du personnage de Claude Frollo, là où elle est unanime auprès des personnages masculins du spectacle live de 1998.

À première vue, Fleur-de-Lys est donc bien moins sexuée que le personnage d'Esmeralda. S'il y a quelques éléments durant Ces diamants-là avec la mention par Phoebus de son corps offert, sa sexualisation est à son apogée dans la chanson La Monture lors du second acte. La première et principale nuance entre la sexualisation d'Esmeralda et celle de Fleur-de-Lys est l’identité du personnage qui la produit. Esmeralda n'est pas consentante, ni consciente, de sa sexualisation, ce sont les hommes de son entourage qui produisent cela. Fleur-de-Lys, quant à elle, est l'instrument et l'objet de son discours, elle est proactive dans ce domaine.

Ce simple élément contribue à changer drastiquement la perception de ces personnages féminins par le spectateur. Fleur-de-Lys devient détestable, puisque manipulatrice et égoïste. L'opposition se retrouve aussi dans ce qui les rapproche, c’est-à-dire leur désir de Phoebus dans l'unique chanson qu'elles partagent : Il est beau comme le Soleil, ce qui fait d'ailleurs échouer la production au test de Bechdel puisque les deux personnages féminins ne se retrouvent que pour parler d'un homme. On a ici la construction de deux discours féminins autours de la figure aimée sur une structure en miroir. Ils diffèrent non pas sur la forme, mais sur de petites nuances dans le fond en vérité. Toutes deux s'accordent dans une admiration proche de l'idolâtrie pour la personne du soldat, elles chantent à l'unisson «Il est beau comme le soleil/ Ma merveille, mon homme à moi». Cependant, dans chacun de leurs couplets individuels, un portrait différent est dressé du capitaine de la garde. En effet, si la partie d'Esmeralda reste assez homogène avec ce couplet commun puisque l'on reste dans l'idéalisation, celui de Fleur-de-Lys se montre beaucoup plus critique envers le capitaine.

Esmeralda est en quelque sorte l'incarnation d'un fantasme masculin de la femme exotique désirable à l'extrême, mais soumise et impuissante, ce qui lui retire tout potentiel danger. Si elle empoisonne, brise même, la vie des hommes qui l'entourent, ce n'est pas volontairement, mais simplement car ces derniers ne sont pas capables de contrôler leurs pulsions. Esmeralda n'est alors qu'un outil plutôt qu'une cause. Fleur-de-Lys, quant à elle, devient une figure bien plus dangereuse pour la masculinité que représente Phoebus, et donc bien plus détestable. Elle n'est pas dans la soumission et sait se servir des armes qu'on lui donne. Sa jeunesse assumée, quatorze ans si on en croit Ces Diamants-là « Mes quatorze printemps sont à toi», ne constitue plus à la fin du spectacle une donnée rassurante, puisque le personnage est celui qui malgré cela se montre le plus fin, éclairé, et cynique. C'est elle qui décide des actions de Phoebus et donc du dénouement. Ce pouvoir, indirect puisque passant par un homme, est effrayant dans un contexte patriarcal. Même réduit, il est détenu par un personnage féminin qui n'est pas caractérisé par la douceur, la soumission ou la compassion, et encore moins par la maternité même symbolique. On peut alors voir le personnage de Fleur-de-Lys comme une menace en puissance pour le monde masculin, et cela peut certainement expliquer son retrait dans l'histoire.

Dans Le Bossu de Notre Dame, Esmeralda n'est plus une figure passive victime des événements, mais bien un personnage actif qui prend une grande part de l'action et de l'intrigue. Elle sauve régulièrement les deux autres protagonistes masculins, s'oppose directement et publiquement à l'antagoniste masculin. Elle est celle qui s'indigne du traitement de Quasimodo durant la fin de la Fête des Fous et qui crie «Justice !» à Frollo. Elle fait preuve d'une conscience politique et sociale particulièrement développée, et provoque le réveil des consciences de Phoebus et Quasimodo. La dimension christique du personnage est gardée dans la caractérisation du personnage comme altruiste, voir la chanson Les bannis ont droit d'amour où, malgré sa situation désespérée, les pensées de la jeune femme sont tournées vers les autres et un idéal de justice sociale «Protège mon Dieu/ Les malheureux/ Éclaire la misère/ Des coeurs solitaires/ Nulle âme à part moi/ Ne les entendras/Si tu restes sourd/Aux mendiants d'amour/ [...]Je ne désire rien/ Ni gloire, ni bien/ Mais le gueux qui a faim/ Doit mendier son pain/ Entends pour mes frères/ Cette humble prière» tandis que les choeurs sont tournés vers leur individualité : «Je veux de l'or/ Je veux la gloire/ Je veux qu'on honore un jour ma mémoire/ Fais que l'on m'aime Dieu immortel». Cependant, on échappe à la figure de martyr, puisque le cours des événements diégétiques change, tout comme la sexualisation d'Esmeralda passe au second plan. Elle n'est en réalité importante que pour Frollo, qui objectifie et diabolise le personnage au contraire des deux protagonistes masculins. Il ne s'agit plus d'en faire une représentation d'innocence et de candeur victime des hommes, mais une figure forte consciente du monde qui l'entoure. La représentation d'Esmeralda dans le Disney constitue une étape de transition dans la représentation genrée de leurs personnages féminins dans leurs productions animées, mais effectuée avec un peu d'avance. Dans l'article «Gender and Speech in a Disney Princess Movie», page 236, les auteurs rappellent rapidement l'historique schématisé de la représentation genrée chez Disney:

Gender portrayal in Disney movies can be categorized into three main eras.

The first era is the first generation of Disney princess which includes three movies: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1938), Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. The female characters in these movies are Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora. These characters share similar characteristics. They are gentle, soft-spoken, dutiful and beautiful. They also portray the least amount of independence, rely on the male characters to achieve their dreams and have lack of power. The second era is the second generation of Disney princess movies. Although there are some similar traits in the second generation movies with the first generation movies, the characters in the second generation are reinvented by the Disney production. The female characters are more independent, they strive to achieve their dreams, and they show some power or control in their characters. However, the female characters still retain gender stereotype because at the end of the movie, the female characters do not perform final rescue without the involvement of the male characters (England, Descartes, & Melissa, 2011). Some examples of second generation Disney movies are The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995) and Mulan (1998). The third era of Disney princess movies are the ones presented to the third generation, such as Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013). The characters in these movies are Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and Anna and Elsa. They are very independent characters, and are not portrayed as being gracious and gentle, unlike the first generation characters. They are brave and pursue their dreams with minimum help from the male characters. They are strong-willed, adventurous and bold.

On note que le personnage d'Esmeralda, bien qu'appartenant techniquement à la seconde ère décrite, présente nombre des caractéristiques de la troisième ère, et ce avec près de vingt ans d'avance.

Dans la comédie musicale de Plamondon, Esmeralda et Fleur-de-Lys sont des figures féminines qui sont principalement définies par leur sexualisation et leur sexualité, elles sont perçues et définies par le regard masculin. La principale différence entre elles n'est alors que la conscience de cette sexualité et leur utilisation, ou non, de cette dernière. On limite la féminité à la dichotomie classique au sein du patriarcat de la sainte et de la pute. Cependant ici les jeux de représentations sont inversés, puisque la représentation sociale et raciale pousserait à définir Fleur-de-Lys comme la sainte et Esmeralda comme la fille de joie. C'est justement cette construction qui permet une si forte sexualisation que l'on retrouve chez le Disney, la diégèse construit l'image inverse des personnages. La figure d'Esmeralda dans le Disney, si toujours sexualisée et avec une intensité plus importante que les autres personnages féminins de la firme qui peut s'expliquer par la racisation du personnage, dresse cependant un portrait plus nuancé d'une féminité qui se montre plurielle et définie sur un spectre plutôt que par une binarité. On peut alors se passer aisément du personnage de Fleur-de-Lys puisqu'Esmeralda peut désormais faire preuve d'astuce, d'intelligence et être consciente de sa sexualité sans être diabolisée ou blâmée. Il y a un décalage dans la représentation genrée de la féminité, puisque Notre-Dame de Paris reste en 1998 sur une représentation datée du XIXeme siècle sans la remettre en question, alors que Le Bossu de Notre-Dame, même s'il réduit le casting féminin, se montre beaucoup plus moderne et progressiste avec une héroïne en avance sur celles de Disney durant cette période.

II.La masculinité triplement incarnée qui devient plurielle

La représentation genrée masculine dans les oeuvres étudiées est elle aussi intéressante à observer en contraste avec celle féminine. En effet, nous avons trois représentants principaux du genre masculin contre deux dans la comédie musicale de Plamondon et un dans le Disney. On remarque que cette fois la masculinité ne se définit jamais par le regard féminin, il n'a pas d'influence sur elle, bien que la réciproque ne soit pas vraie. Pour autant, il semble intéressant d'observer et d'analyser les choix d'adaptations et de représentations personnage par personnage dans ce cas-ci. En effet, il semble que la représentation de la masculinité se fasse au cas par cas et dans la nuance.

a)Phoebus

À première vue, le personnage de Phoebus semble être celui qui connaît le moins de changements dans ses représentations respectives. Dans les deux adaptations, Phoebus reste caractérisé par son physique et sa position sociale de capitaine de la garde : il semble être celui qui se rapproche le plus d'une conception classique de la virilité, telle que définie dans Tale As Old As Time, page 12 :

Masculinity is often depicted in terms of power. Strength and financial control determine the value of the male character, and maleness is constituted by conventional ideas of masculinity. Drinking, fighting and fornicating are considered central to the characterization of masculinity, where physicality and authority are essential attributes [...] Disney has a reputation of designing male characters to fulfill the role as the “alpha-male”, where “alpha-male” stands “for all things stereotypically patriarchal: unquestioned authority, physical power and social dominance, competitiveness for positions of status and leadership, lack of visible or shared emotion, social isolation” (Gillam & Wooden 3).

Pour autant, ces éléments, qui pourraient lui faire prétendre à la position d'«alpha-male» en répondant à la définition de Gillam et Wooden rapportée par Vanessa Matyas B.A, ne constituent pas la caractérisation complète du personnage dans l'adaptation de 1996 alors qu'elles collent bien mieux à celle de 1998. En effet, contrairement à sa version dans la comédie musicale de Plamondon, le personnage voit sa libido être mise au placard. Au contraire, les chansons consacrées au personnage et ses interventions chantées dans Notre-Dame de Paris ne font état que de cela.

Le personnage de Phoebus est en premier lieu défini par Plamondon au travers de sa sexualité, son rôle social de soldat est en réalité très secondaire. Ainsi dans Belle : «Belle Malgré ses grands yeux noirs qui vous ensorcellent/La demoiselle serait-elle encore pucelle?/Quand ses mouvements me font voir monts et merveilles/Sous son jupon aux couleurs de l'arc-en-ciel/Ma dulcinée laissez-moi vous êtes infidèle/Avant de vous avoir menée jusqu'à l'autel/Quel/Est l'homme qui détournerait son regard d'elle/Sous peine d'être changé en statue de sel/Ô Fleur-de-Lys, Je ne suis pas homme de foi/J'irai cueillir la fleur d'amour d'Esmeralda», la focalisation du personnage se centre sur la potentialité sexuelle d'Esmeralda. Comme vu précédemment, il ne la définit qu'au travers de ce prisme. Et cela ne se limite pas au seul personnage d'Esmeralda, la même chose a lieu pour Fleur-de-Lys dans Ces diamants là: «Tout l'or qui dort encore sous le lit de la terre/J'en couvrirai ton corps que tu m'auras offert». Le romantisme se limite à l'attente de l'acte sexuel. Si le mariage, contrairement à Esmeralda, est une composante diégétique sine qua non à la consommation du produit qu'incarne Fleur-de-Lys pour le personnage, c'est une consommation qui est néanmoins planifiée et intégrée mais qui pour autant n'implique pas un mensonge total: «Celui qui t'aimera sera un homme heureux».

Il y a donc bien une absence assumée de sentiment amoureux, on est dans la luxure revendiquée et assumée. De plus, le déchirement moral du personnage, exprimé dans la chanson Déchiré durant l'acte 1, ne provient pas d'un dilemme quant à sa position sociale ou la justesse des ordres qu'il exécute, mais bien de son attirance pour deux femmes. Pour autant, cette chanson n'aura aucune conséquence sur le reste de l'intrigue et le personnage n'est jamais plus défini que par sa luxure et sa lâcheté.

Son rôle de soldat lui confère de manière implicite une force physique, caractéristique de l’«alpha-male». Quand bien même secondaire dans la caractérisation du personnage, cette dimension est bien présente. Elle fait même partie de la figure d'autorité incontestée qu'il incarne, puisque capitaine de la garde de Paris. Phoebus est sur tous les points dans une position de puissance, que ce soit en tant qu’homme consommateur dans un système patriarcal où les femmes sont les objets de consommation, ou que représentant des forces de l'ordre et donc du pouvoir dominant sur la population civile. Phoebus, chez Plamondon, n'émet jamais aucun retour sur ses actions. Il répond aussi sans hésitation à l'autorité de Claude Frollo et ne remet jamais en question ses ordres, même quand ils consistent à aller malmener les bohémiens aux portes de Paris. Il cesse cela uniquement parce qu'il croise le personnage d'Esmeralda qu'il entreprend de séduire.

Le personnage de Phoebus s'inscrit pleinement dans la conception classique du masculin et ne souffre jamais d'aucune conséquence ou remise en question. Il est d'ailleurs le seul personnage masculin à rester en vie lors du dénouement du spectacle, même si son inaction a précipité la fin d'une innocente.

Le Phoebus de Disney a quand à lui une présence bien moindre à l'écran, il n'interprète d'ailleurs aucune chanson. Pour autant, il jouit d'une caractérisation plus nuancée que son homologue chez Plamondon. Si sur le plan physique on reste sur un héros qui apparaît «sous les traits de['un] séduisant[s] guerrier[s] à l’assurance et au courage inébranlables», il faut cependant souligner que le personnage connaît un décalage dans sa représentation physique, avec un tout jeune Patrick Fiori chez Plamondon et un Phoebus présenté comme plus âgé dans son design chez Disney. En effet, si les traits du personnage reste très harmonieux et plaisants, ils demeurent moins fins que ceux de la plupart des personnages masculins servant de romance dans les films Disney. Il est aussi beaucoup moins juvénile dans ses traits, comme le marque sa barbe.

On constate également un décalage dans le passif qui lui est donné : alors que Plamondon choisit de n'en donner aucun au Phoebus de Notre-Dame de Paris, Trousdale et Wise choisissant eux d'en faire un soldat parti à la guerre depuis vingt ans «On quitte Paris pour deux décennies et on ne reconnaît plus rien». Ce détail permet de justifier l'obéissance de Phoebus aux ordres de Claude Frollo, quand bien même une certaine réticence est marquée dans l'animation des traits du personnage dans un premier temps. Ce n'est pas une absence de conscience ou un égarement moral qui motive son obéissance, mais la crainte de retourner au front, sa position de capitaine de la garde étant une promotion due à ses états de service. Pour autant, dans sa scène d'introduction, le personnage est immédiatement rendu sympathique par la générosité dont il fait preuve : il donne une pièce à un spectacle de rue et ce avant même de voir Esmeralda danser, et il aide à la fuite des bohémiens lorsque la garde intervient en abusant de son pouvoir de façon comique. On construit alors un personnage caractérisé par son sens de l'humour et de la répartie qui se place dans la bienveillance.

S'il incarne une figure d'autorité, il n'hésite cependant pas à prendre des libertés et à s'opposer aux ordres de Claude Frollo lorsqu'il les juge injustes. Il le fait d'abord indirectement, en ne prévenant pas les autres soldats lorsqu'il repère Esmeralda se réfugiant dans la cathédrale, pour ensuite prétendre qu'elle a demandé le droit d'asile devant Frollo pour la protéger; puis frontalement lorsque le juge lui demande de mettre le feu à une maison où il vient d'enfermer toute une famille. Il refuse alors, puis se précipite dans la maison pour sauver les innocents des flammes. Phoebus n'est alors plus une force suivant aveuglément des ordres mais bien une figure de protection des plus faibles, dotée de valeurs, qui n'hésite pas à se détacher complètement de institutions d'autorité pour faire ce qui lui semble juste et ce sans se soucier des conséquences sur sa personne. Il devient un détenteur d'une force physique bienveillante et protectrice, au contraire de celle de l'«alpha-male» qui semble plus être tournée vers la domination.

Quant au rapport au féminin et à la sexualité, si le personnage montre un intérêt flagrant pour Esmeralda dès qu'il la croise pour la première fois dans sa scène d'introduction, et plus encore lors de la scène de la Fête des Fous alors qu'elle entame sa danse : «Claude Frollo : Vous voyez cet écoeurant spectacle ? Phoebus : Oh que oui ! », le physique de celle-ci ne constitue pas son principal intérêt. Il est le premier à remarquer les déguisements et astuces qu'elle emploie pour échapper à la garde. Si l'attraction physique a son rôle dans la romance développée entre lui et Esmeralda, ce n'est pas l'unique élément qui permet sa construction, au contraire de celle dans Notre-Dame de Paris. En effet, le film prend bien toute l'heure et demie qui la compose pour travailler sur cette relation, qui se fonde aussi sur une cohésion intellectuelle. Lors de la scène dans la cathédrale, les échanges verbaux démontrent d'une certaine alchimie qui se crée et qui n'est pas, uniquement du moins, basée sur l'attraction physique. C'est un jeu de répartie et de mots, il y a une admiration et un respect mutuel qui se construisent. Le personnage ne considère plus celui d'Esmeralda comme un objet de consommation, mais bien comme une personne avec qui il convient d'abord d'établir le dialogue sur des valeurs communes et une appréciation de la personnalité.

b)Claude Frollo

Claude Frollo est certainement le personnage à avoir le moins changé entre les deux adaptations. Le principal changement notable réside dans la fonction sociale et politique qu'occupe le personnage. En effet, si dans le roman et la comédie musicale de Plamondon le personnage garde son rôle d'archidiacre de Notre-Dame, le Disney fait le choix d'en faire un juge. Pour autant, ce changement n'influence en rien la représentation de genre, puisque l'on reste alors dans une masculinité qui détient un pouvoir politique. Frollo reste une figure d'autorité liée à la religion. En effet, bien que sa fonction semble en être coupée dans le Bossu de Notre-Dame, le personnage y reste rattaché par son fanatisme religieux dont il se sert pour justifier ses actions : «Le juge Claude Frollo combat le vice et le pêché/ D'un monde corrompu et qui doit être purifié». Il est convaincu de sa vertu et de n'avoir jamais rien à se reprocher, quand bien même il vient de tuer une innocente et s'apprête à jeter un enfant dans un puits : «Frollo : Ce n'est qu'une créature démoniaque que je renvoie à l'enfer auquel elle appartient/ L'archidiacre : Vous qui souillez par les armes et le sang le parvis de Notre-Dame/ Frollo : Elle s'est enfuie, je l'ai poursuivie, je suis innocent./ L'archidiacre :Vous voulez rougir du sang d'un enfant le parvis de Notre-Dame/ Frollo: J'ai la conscience tranquille», «Je clame que mon âme est pure,/De ma vertu j'ai droit d'être fier/[...] Mon coeur a bien plus de droiture,/ Qu'une commune vulgaire foule de traîne-misère». On reste dans une position de pouvoir que le personnage n'hésite pas à exploiter pour remplir ses objectifs personnels, il est certainement celui qui surplombe le plus l'ensemble des personnages sur le plan social. Son autorité est présentée comme incontestée, en particulier chez Plamondon. Dans l'adaptation de 1996, il rencontre la résistance du trio héroïque qui pousse finalement la ville de Paris à se soulever contre lui; pour autant, il a joui auparavant d'au moins vingt années de règne incontesté et a, au cours du film, brûlé la ville. Si la masculinité de Frollo ne se manifeste pas d'un point de vue physique, cela ne l'empêche pas de déborder dans la violence physique et morale qu'est capable de produire le personnage. Celle-ci explose chez Plamondon lorsqu'il poignarde Phoebus, mais chez Disney, cette explosion est plus tardive et spectaculaire lors de la scène de combat final, qui fait ressortir toute la monstruosité du personnage dans un décor dantesque. On peut même dire que la monstruosité du personnage est accentuée dans le Disney, ne serait ce que par la corruption de la figure paternelle que représente le personnage pour Quasimodo. En effet, tout acte de bonté et de générosité dans l'adoption est retiré puisque d'abord il tue la mère de l'enfant, et ne prend ce dernier sous son aile que forcé et contraint. Il est aussi à noter qu'il l'éduque beaucoup moins dans la bienveillance dans la version de 1996 que laisse suggérer les paroles des chansons de Plamondon. On le voit notamment dans Rien qu'un jour conforter Quasimodo dans une position d'insécurité, de dénigrement de lui-même et d'isolement. Frollo n'a rien d'une figure paternelle positive dans l'adaptation de 1996, et c'est un rôle qui est pour le moins très secondaire pour le personnage dans l'adaptation de 1998.

Le rapport au féminin n'évolue pas non plus entre les deux adaptations et on reste sur une construction très classique de la masculinité dans ce domaine : «Masculinity is created through aggression and the objectification of women», Frollo correspond parfaitement à cette définition quelque soit l'adaptation étudiée ici. Ces agressions sont essentiellement verbales dans la comédie musicale de 1998, mais le Disney les rend plus apparentes. En plus de la dimension verbale, on voit Claude Frollo s'en prendre physiquement au personnage d'Esmeralda, on se souviendra particulièrement de la scène où il lui respire les cheveux. Esmeralda n'est jamais qu'un objet de désir inaccessible et diabolisé par le personnage, vue comme un corps à posséder et non comme une personne.

En réalité, les différences du personnage entre le Disney et la comédie musicale se situent majoritairement dans une accentuation des traits composant sa masculinité déjà présents dans le personnage d'origine, sans pour autant les contrebalancer ou présenter le personnage comme un protagoniste ou antihéros à suivre. Il est clairement et indéniablement traité comme un antagoniste, il est un contre modèle qui s'inscrit dans la lignée des antagonistes «hyper virils» de Disney parmi «[l]es contre-modèles qu'incarnent, chacune à sa manière, les méchants et méchantes des opus étudiés. Il semble, pour être plus précis, que la position qu’occupent ces personnages dans le schéma narratif détermine leur degré de virilité, de féminité».

c)Quasimodo

À l'instar de Phoebus, le personnage de Quasimodo n'échappe pas à sa définition par son physique et son statut de sonneur de cloches. Les principales différences se portent sur le rapport à l'extériorité et le désir de reconnaissance, plus subtilement dans le rapport à la figure féminine. La figure de Quasimodo reste toujours une figure de marginal, d'abord par son physique monstrueux qui le met en marge d'une société moyenâgeuse où l'apparence physique est un critère fondamental dans l'intégration sociale. Les deux adaptations font le choix de ne pas minimiser cette caractéristique du personnage : il est difforme et représenté comme tel, que ce soit par le grimage de Garou ou dans le design du personnage chez Disney.

Ce rapport au physique est important pour le personnage, on le voit notamment dans les chansons de Notre-Dame de Paris Le Pape des fous «Qu'est-ce que ça vous fait/Que je sois si laid ?» et L'enfant trouvé «Moi l'enfant trouvé/ L'enfant rejeté/ Par ceux qui avaient honte/ D'avoir mis au monde/ Un monstre». La question de l'acceptation et du rejet y est centrale, et on la retrouve aussi dans les chansons du Disney Rien qu'un jour «Frollo : Tu es difforme/ Quasimodo : Je suis difforme/ Frollo : Et tu es très laid/ Quasimodo : Et je suis très laid/ Frollo : Ce sont des crimes/Aux yeux des hommes/Qui sont sans pitié». Le regard des autres est central pour le personnage, les marques d'acceptations deviennent donc capitales pour lui. Dans la comédie musicale de Plamondon, c'est d'ailleurs ce qui justifie la fidélité aveugle du personnage envers Frollo : «Toi qui m'as recueilli/ Adopté et nourri/ [...] Je t'appartiens/ De tout mon être/ Comme jamais un chien/ N'a aimé son maître», «Tu me demanderais/ N’importe quoi/ Je le ferais pour toi/ Tout ce que tu voudras/ Tu le sais/ Tout ce que tu voudras/ Je le ferais pour toi». Cette fidélité et adoration se déporte sur Esmeralda par la suite. Quasimodo ne s'inscrit pas dans une masculinité de domination, mais de dévotion, au contraire des deux autres personnages masculins principaux dans le spectacle. Cet écart peut s'expliquer par le fait que le personnage ne se positionne pas dans un référentiel social classique, du fait de son état physique qui le met en marge. Il est dans une posture de dépendance émotionnelle et sociale, puisque sa situation dépend grandement de celle du personnage de Frollo et qu'il lui doit beaucoup. Seulement, il s'agit d'une relation déséquilibrée, Quasimodo faisant beaucoup plus au cours du spectacle que Frollo en fait pour lui, il paie même pour les actes et les décisions de ce dernier. Il en porte toute la faute et jamais Frollo ne prendra sa défense; c'est ainsi qu'on arrive à la scène de la roue qui marque le début du changement d'allégeance du bossu de Frollo à Esmeralda. Ce moment pourrait être pris comme un début d'émancipation de la figure paternelle, et ainsi une affirmation dans une masculinité plus «classique». Pour autant, les actes qui lui permettent de se défaire de l'influence de Frollo ne sont pas efficients ni positifs. En effet, il se montre incapable de protéger et de sauver Esmeralda, et son arc se clôt par le meurtre de Frollo, qui peut se rapprocher d'un parricide, et son suicide lorsqu'il choisit de se laisser mourir auprès du corps de la gitane. Quant à la relation au féminin, et donc au personnage d'Esméralda, c'est d'abord et avant tout sa beauté physique qui importe. En effet, avant même leur première interaction, on remarque déjà que Quasimodo est focalisé sur celle-ci «M'aimeras-tu/ Esmeralda ?/ M'aimeras-tu ?/ Mais tu t'en fous/ Esmeralda/ Oh ! tu t'en fous/ Qu'ils m'aient élu/ Le Pape des Fous» et il n'est jamais fait mention de la générosité ou de l'empathie d'Esmeralda, qui la poussent à venir lui donner à boire lorsqu'il est mis à la roue, mais bien de sa beauté encore une fois « Belle/ Belle» «Ma laideur est une insulte/ À ta beauté insolente/ [...]Moi si laid et toi si belle/ Comment pourrais-tu m'aimer ?» . Esmeralda reste un objet défini par son attraction physique. Si, contrairement à Phoebus, on se trouve plus dans l'adoration que dans la perspective de consommation, il n'en reste pas moins que le personnage n'est jamais perçu que comme une potentielle compagne. De plus, il est important de rappeler que les élans protecteurs d'un personnage à un autre dans le cadre des études de genre peuvent être des expressions d'une domination sous-jacente :

the male character is able to assert his masculinity over the female character by establishing himself as the protector over the weaker gender. By doing so, the male is able to dominate the heterosexual relationship, where he fulfills the primary role as the active patriarch in relation to the passive female that the male will save and/or dominate (Boyd 78)

Ici, Esmeralda n'échappe pas à ce constat. Elle est une chose à posséder quel qu'en soit le prix, et c'est bien Quasimodo qui obtient la possession finale du personnage. Il enlace son corps pour l'éternité : c'est un acte de possessivité qui se fait par la force, en se passant du consentement de la seconde partie concernée puisqu'elle n'est plus capable de la donner. Esmeralda le confirme en ne qualifiant jamais leur relation comme étant romantique, mais bien d'amitié «Amis à la vie à la mort». Bien que différente de celle des autres protagonistes masculins, la masculinité de Quasimodo reste ici défaillante à l'instar de celle de Frollo et Phoebus. Elle ne s'en détache pas réellement, le changement de sociabilité ne suffit pas à influencer pleinement la représentation de genre dans ce cas.

Dans le Disney, Quasimodo s'affirme bien plus comme une figure de masculinité alternative, mais viable cette fois. Il est d'abord à remarquer que sa situation emprunte beaucoup aux codes de représentation de genre des héroïnes Disney, comme le rapport à l'intériorité qui rappelle nombre d'héroïnes des studios «Symboliquement assignées à résidence par les contes puis par les dessins animés». En effet, contrairement à la version de Plamondon, le Quasimodo de Trousdale et Wise se trouve dans une position d'isolation sociale uniquement due à Claude Frollo, qui interdit à Quasimodo toute sortie de la cathédrale. Il est aussi à noter que le personnage est tourné vers des activités artistiques, avec la créations de figurines, plutôt que martiales ou physiques. Ses capacités physiques sont cependant appuyées, comme avec les scènes d'acrobaties sur les toits de la cathédrale ou encore la scène où on le voit soulever Phoebus en armure sans ciller, qui agissent comme des rappels à une représentation plus attendue de la masculinité. Seulement, la représentation de Quasimodo est très éloignée de celle de l'«alpha-male» qui se caractérise aussi par :

“alpha-male” stands “for all things stereotypically patriarchal: unquestioned authority, physical power and social dominance, competitiveness for positions of status and leadership, lack of visible or shared emotion, social isolation” (Gillam & Wooden 3). [...] . Masculinity is continuously defined by “its violence, its isolation, its lack of emotion and its presence”

Ces définitions ne correspondent pas au personnage de Quasimodo tel que construit par Trousdale et Wise. En effet, si le personnage est isolé, ce n'est pas volontairement mais bien par contrainte. Il n'aspire qu'à se mêler à la population et à intégrer la vie sociale de la ville, comme le montrent la chanson Rien qu'un jour et les trois gargouilles, ayant un rôle de comic relief dont le statut diégétique est assez flou, entre pur produit de l'imagination du personnage pour compenser vingt ans de solitude et êtres existant réellement, sans qu'une réponse claire ne soit jamais donnée. Elles représentent dans tous les cas le désir de socialité du personnage et d'ouverture sur le monde contrarié par Claude Frollo. Elles traduisent son émotivité, le personnage est d'ailleurs extrêmement expressif, quand bien même on marque son manque d'assurance dans la première moitié du film, avant qu'il ne commence à agir activement pour sauver les gens qui lui sont chers. Le personnage est aussi caractérisé par son altruisme et sa gentillesse; la première scène qui l'introduit le montre en train d'aider un oisillon à voler. Durant le film, il n'hésite pas à se mettre en danger pour aider Phoebus et Esmeralda, même si cela va à l'encontre de son maître. L'accent n'est pas tant mis sur sa force durant le film, mais bien sur son intelligence tranquille et ses capacités émotionnelles.

Le rapport au féminin se passe d'ailleurs de tout mécanisme de domination ou d'appropriation. Si, à l'instar de Phoebus, le physique d'Esmeralda est un élément qui entre en compte dans l'attirance, c'est bien le reste de sa personnalité qui conduit à charmer Quasimodo, en particulier son altruisme et le respect qu'elle lui montre. Il ne la considère pas en premier lieu comme une potentielle compagne, mais bien comme une amie. Ce sont les gargouilles, à travers la chanson Un gars comme toi, qui lui proposent cette lecture, ouvertement erronée et en décalage avec la réalité. Une fois cette possibilité démentie, il n'y a pas de détérioration dans les rapports qu'entretiennent les personnages : Quasimodo accepte d'aider Esmeralda sans rien attendre d'elle, si ce n'est son amitié. Il n'y a pas d'idée de récompense due dans leurs échanges, et c'est une relation extrêmement saine à voir dans les fictions. Le rapport à Esmeralda ne se situe pas dans l'objectification, elle est vue comme un être humain indépendant et une ouverture sur le monde. On a une inversion des rapports classiques dans les Disney : c'est la figure féminine qui se révèle plus émancipée et porteuse d'enseignements que la masculine. On construit une dynamique relationnelle saine entre Quasimodo et Esmeralda, au contraire de la relation présentée par Plamondon.

On a donc la mise en place d'une masculinité qui emprunte beaucoup à une conception de la féminité chez les Disney, c'est à dire tournée vers l'intériorité, l'émotivité et la quête d'identité et d'acceptation de soi, beaucoup sensible et tournée vers des activités artistiques que Phoebus. Elle se place donc sur un spectre large plutôt que sur un système binaire.

Le trio masculin principal dans la représentation qu'en fait Plamondon ne se distingue pas réellement malgré les différences sociales développées entre ses représentants, ils restent les porteurs d'une masculinité défaillante et toxique qui semble être vue comme une fatalité. Au contraire, les réalisateurs du Bossu de Notre-Dame proposent des masculinités variées et saines, capables de coexister ensemble avec les personnages de Phoebus de Quasimodo, et un modèle de masculinité toxique qui se rapproche beaucoup de celle présentée par Plamondon, qui elle est traitée comme un exemple à ne pas suivre.

Ainsi, nous avons vu que ces deux adaptations produites à seulement deux années d'écart ont fait des choix de représentation des genres extrêmement différents. Notre-Dame de Paris préfère en effet rester très près de la matière de base qu'elle adapte et fait le choix de ne pas influencer la représentation des genres que l'on retrouve dans le roman de Victor Hugo. De l'autre côté, si Trousdale et Wise ne proposent pas une oeuvre parfaite, loin de là, ils font des choix d'adaptations et de réactualisation dans la représentation genrée de leurs personnages sans pour autant s'éloigner complètement du matériau de base. Ce qui est conservé l'est fait avec un sens, que ce soit pour être contrebalancé avec un autre élément inédit, abordé par un angle différent, ou encore accentué pour servir un propos quant à la représentation genrée. Le Bossu de Notre-Dame est ainsi une oeuvre beaucoup plus riche et nuancée dans le traitement qu'il fait du genre que ce que l'étiquette Disney pourrait laisser supposer, tandis que Notre-Dame de Paris reste ancré dans des représentations datées et problématiques.

[peterascott]

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(SIR) RINGO STARR is the world-famous drummer of the British pop group "The Beatles". In 2018, he was knighted by the Queen of England.

(SIR) RINGO STARR's poppy artworks are collected all over the world! He exhibited his art in Europe, South America, Australia and the United States.

He created paintings and designs for the famous, US shoe company "The Timberland Company", the restaurant and hotel chain "Hard Rock Café" and other world companies.

(SIR) RINGO STARR donates all fees and royalties from his artistic work as a painter to the Lotus Children Foundation!

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