The first time I saw this one, I hated it. I absolutely despised it. I convinced my mom not to rent it. But in order to successfully pull off MALT3K: TWiNE, I found it necessary to watch it again (which resulted in a rather embarrassing conversation with the guy at the Hollywood, but that's beside the point).
As you have probably guessed, I am very glad that I did. This time around, I was experienced enough to relate to the characters, old enough to comprehend the depth of the story, and mature enough to not giggle during "Hellfire".
Unlike most of my other favorites, I only loved one of the characters enough to give him a page (who, you ask? doi!), but I liked most of them. I could have done with out the gargoyles, and I don't know many who disagree, but other than that, they were all good characters (::sigh:: even Phoebus).
The animation in this movie was beautiful. Aside from a few CGI elements, that is. What was that stuff at the end?! The colors, buildings and character designs were amazing. And the voice acting was pretty good. Let me take this opportunity to say that I have revised my preachings. Instead of condemning all SAs doing voiceovers, I shall first give them a chance. If the character is modeled around the actor, then I shall condemn them. If the actor conforms to the character, then I’ll be a little more lenient. ::sigh:: I still don’t like the fact that they do it, though.
Anyhow, back to HoND. The story is beautiful. I am by no means a religious person, but that didn’t really affect my experience the second time around or any of the subsequent viewings. Like I’ve said so many times before, it is a truly unfortunate thing that teenagers today don’t take movies like this seriously. If anyone deviates from the norm, they are automatically ostracized. That is, unless they are the trendsetters of the group, in which case they may say or do what ever they choose. But this is turning into another rant. I apologize again.
Who couldn’t feel sorry for the unfortunate Quasimodo? Who couldn’t be drawn to the mysterious Clopin? The lovely Esmerelda? Who doesn’t shudder at Frollo’s, or rather Tony Jay’s, rich, deep, evil voice? And Djali wasn’t a pest, as in the cases of most cute animal sidekicks.
I didn’t really care much for Quasi’s singing voice, and when Clopin hit the high notes on “Bells of Notre Dame”, I cringed a little, but other than that, the music was okay. And I really loved “God Help the Outcasts”, despite the fact that someone ALWAYS talks over it. I must say, though, that this movie is the runner up in the Catchiest Soundtrack Competition, judged by the length of time that I have the songs, or parts of them, stuck in my head after watching it – “It’s Tough to Be a God” beat “Topsy Turvy”’s two weeks, three days by a couple of days.
This is definitely the most moving of all of the movies on my page, and Disney’s most controversial film to date. They took some chances that lowered it in the eyes of most parents who, like those who complained about TRtED, were expecting “The Little Mermaid” played out in a different setting, and made it a favorite of true animation fans looking for a little more substance. I prefer DreamWorks because they are willing to stray off of Disney’s path of G-rated, stereotype-laden fairytales (not that I don’t like the G-rated, stereotype-laden fairytales…), and HoND has proven that the big D, too, can be daring when they put their minds to it.
HoND was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Earl Hamner Jr.
The songs were written and composed by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, and it was based on the novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.
Thanks to Animated Lust for the picture of Quasi.
