Let’s get Superficial – The looks of the Archdeacon Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

What can we say about Disney’s Archdeacon in terms of looks? Well he’s old, he has white hair, he has long bushy sideburns and eyebrows.  He has a square-ish face with a bulbous nose. He’s not much of a looker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much like the 1939 version his duds look modern and not medieval. I give Disney a little credit this vestments  look less modern than the 1939 version, but not enough to praise Disney for their  astute costume research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Archdeacon is also ages during the film. When we first see him in the flashback,  his hair is just grayish black.  In the DVD commentary, the directors made a point of mentioning how Frollo looked 20 years younger in the flashback, and in a subtle was he does a little bit but you can really see it with the Archdeacon’s look. Mainly because Frollo goes from ashen gray to gray whereas the Archdeacon goes from grayish black to white.  Not sure who is older, Frollo or the Archdeacon, my guess would be the Archdeacon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Archdeacon also bares a striking resemblance to his Voice Actor David Ogden Stiers. It’s part of Disney’s process to record the voice actors during their recodring session and infuse the voice actore into character’s animation and character design. This would mean that the Archdeacon and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast look-alike

 

 

 

That’s pretty much it,  he’s not in the movie for long and he only kind of a main characters so I think his looks are more functional than indicative of personality. But he does make a creepy smile. Expressions  are one thing Disney excels at.  (I don’t know,  I find that smile really odd, maybe it’s the half closed eyes and the downward tilt of his head and the upward eyebrow.)

 

Well that’s it, we’re done with the character analysis of Disney (Hooray!)

Next Time – Voice Acting….

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