A brief Hunchback of Notre Dame reference that may  go unnoticed is in the 1999 film Runaway Bride.

 

Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) rings a church bell, Runaway Bride, Picture image

Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) rings a church bell, Runaway Bride

During Maggie Carpenter’s (Julia Roberts) wedding rehearsal rings the church bell to which  Ike Graham says “Sanctuary.” Twice!

 

Ike Graham (Richard Gere) says "Sanctuary," Runaway Bride picture image

Ike Graham (Richard Gere) says “Sanctuary,” Runaway Bride

A mixed-up reference as Quasimodo don’t say Sanctuary when he is ringing the bells but whatever. Bells and uttering “Sanctuary” is a recipe for a Quasimodo reference.

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) and Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) and Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

Let’s talk about the direction of the 1956 version of Hunchback of Notre Dame and its complete lack of style. So what do I mean when I say lack of style. I mean the angle of the framing or the camera angles. Almost every single shot in this film has exactly the same angle:  straight-on or flat angles. Straight-on  angles have their place in cinema but when nearly the entire film in made up of them it get  very, very,  very dull. Every now and then they do a shot-reverse-shot (two people talking) but even that is considered boring.  This movie doesn’t hide the fact it was shot in the most efficient way possible. It was most likely shot this way because they shot it twice, a French version and an English version. This dual version prove detriment to the final product as it’s an 1 hour 49 minutes of straight-on angles with an occasion pan or zoom. It feel like they recorded a play and not a movie.

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) with Phoebus (Jean Danet), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) with Phoebus (Jean Danet), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

The flat-angle also making the blocking and composition insanely dull as well. Also the editing rarely cuts away from the medium long shots.  So scene play out  with people talking and the camera sometimes panning to follow. Rarely does it cut to a close up or reaction shot.

Robert Hirsch as Gringoire & Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre dame picture image

Robert Hirsch as Gringoire & Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre dame

But for the sake of argument let’s look at the big scene of Hunchback, Quasimodo saving Esmeralda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxzj403ihYg&feature=youtu.be

This scene is usual big and epic is rather small and dull. But what really gets me is after Djali walks into the cathedral there is a dissolve which means a passage of time. This makes the big ‘sanctuary shot” feel like it was thrown in. I compare this to Disney

and its dullness is amplified. One can argue that the 1956 scene plays out like the book but there is no excuse for the all flat which steals the life away from any scene. However the film isn’t devoid of inserting camera work they just seem to be allocate to Esmeralda’s dance. The Angles again are mostly flat but the editing has a degree variety.  I think the most interesting single shot in the movie is Frollo staring at Esmeralda as she being reflective in the window next to him.

Frollo (Alain Cuny) stares while Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) dances, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Frollo (Alain Cuny) stares while Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) dances, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

All in all this film is made boring in it execution.  The framing, the editing, the composition of the shot are all so mind-numbingly dull.

Interior Set, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Flat Angle, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

Next 1956 post- an editing mistake.

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

An AMV made by Rider4z it uses Sanctuary to Summer Wars, which is an anime movie.

Horror from The Pagemaster  picture image

Horror from The Pagemaster

The Pagemaster is a forgettable little movie about a boy over coming his fears by reading books. In the boy, Richie, played by Macaulay Culkin, gets trapped in alternative library reality where he encounters three annoying books one is called Horror. Horror resembles Quasimodo. He also at one point shouts “Sanctuary” (no no real reason) and anyone who yells the word “Sanctuary” in a film is a referencing Quasimodo.

Kingdom Hearts 3D; Dream Drop Distance picture image

Kingdom Hearts 3d; Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance is realsed today and this the first time they Franchise will go to the Disney Hunchback world. So if you can check it out. It is available on the Nitendo 3DS and the PSP. Or Just enjoy a trailer


This trailer starts inside Notre Dame. The song in the tailer is called Sanctuary. It was from the second game and is performed by Hikaru Utada, who has been singing the songs for Kingdom Hearts since the beginning.

Notre Dame of Paris Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Notre Dame of Paris Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

In Victor Hugo’s original book, Notre Dame is more than just a setting. Notre Dame was character and the whole of Quasimodo’s universe. Quasimodo’s existent was so much engrained in Notre Dame that Quasimodo was essentially its soul.

 

Frollo looking up at Notre Dame Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Frollo looking up at Notre Dame Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo during Out There Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo during Out There Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Esmeralda and Quasimodo looking over teh edge of Notre dame Disney Hunchabck of Notre Dame

Esmeralda and Quasimodo looking over teh edge of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney’s representation of Notre Dame of Paris in very much in opposition to the book. In the Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, it’s just a building and its’ role is more like a prison than a sanctuary. Frollo arranged baby Quasi to live in the bell tower where he can be “locked away where no one else can see.”  Quasimodo then dreams of getting out of Notre dame. Now in the book Quasimodo loved Notre Dame he didn’t want to leave it,  he loved it. Esmeralda also tells the Court of Miracles that Quasimodo ” helped her escape from the Cathedral”. Notre dame is pegged as something that has to be escaped because it’s a prison. Which is why it’s odd when Phoebus makes his speech about Frollo declaring war on Notre Dame. Frollo seems to be an agent working with Notre Dame to keep people in, so why do people want to defend it? I think it just Frollo-hate on the part of the Parisians, I mean he did burn the city. And when Quasimodo declares santaury for Esmeralda. The movie presents it as prison not sanctuary so why is it so great for Esmeralda to have sanctuary? Really, that climix is contrived when it you think about.

Molten Lead over Notre Dame Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Molten Lead over Notre Dame Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

My guess is original text had an attack of Notre Dame where Quasimodo defends it and Esmeralda from misidentified attackers and pours molten lead out the gutters and Disney really wanted to do that shot and that’s why they had to do it. But Notre Dame’s status in the story got lost among the 18 story writers.  That’s right, 18 people worked on the story, there are not even 18 characters. It’s a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen. I think ultimately that the 18 writer are to blame for all the differences to characters and to plot and for making an important point of the book the role of Notre Dame from sanctuary to prison.

Next Time – Disney and the other movies associated with Hunchback

Reverse King Kong Shot Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Reverse King Kong Shot Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Notre Dame of Paris Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Notre Dame of Paris Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

I had said in my 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame review on setting, that movies shouldn’t take too much from Notre Dame’s structure as it’s changed a lot from it’s state from the time the story takes place to when Victor Hugo wrote the book to when Disney created the film.

Frollo and Notre Dame Bells Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Frollo stares at Notre Dame during the Bells of Notre Dame FDisney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Satellite Dish during Out There Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Satellite Dish during Out There Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Disney makes  Notre Dame much taller than it actually is. It’s a flaw but it not something to rage over. It’s just kind of laughable large. Another flaw that can be over looked is the all the exterior sculptures on the Cathedral are shown as plain, natural-colored stone. At the time the story is set, they were polychromatic – painted in colors. Again  it can be overlooked because Notre Dame current look is so iconic that it would have looked strange to audience to have colors associated with the exterior. I can also overlook the square in front of Notre Dame also that wouldn’t have been there in 1400 but you can forgive.

The aspects of the depiction that I have a hard time overlooking is the how the sanctuary is depicted. In the scheme of Hunchback cartoons and movies it’s very accurate, there are some terrible representations of Notre Dame but the way it’s set up in the film is problematic. The Sanctuary is show once in the film during “God Help the Outcast

 

Quasimodo watching to Esmeralda during God Help the Outcast Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo watching to Esmeralda during God Help the Outcast Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Esmeralda singing God Help the Outcast Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Esmeralda singing God Help the Outcast Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at Notre Dame’s set up and structure Notre Dame seems both bigger and smaller. Esmeralda strolls though the layout a a very leisurely pace yet the Cathedral seems more expansive than it is. She also isn’t impeded by the structure. At about at the 2:00 minute mark of the song, Esmeralda is seen walking in the side aisles and to her left there are columns. Then in the very next shot, Esmeralda is against a Fresco, with no columns in the shot. Which means Esmeralda needed to veer to another side of the column but she did not. So I guess the columns magically go away for a better shot. Also if her head in level with the fresco how tall is she? Because her height is really inconsistent and she’s bare foot and those Frescos are pretty high off the ground. Then this could be inconsistency. But do make the inside of the Church not in proper proportion.

Check out this website to see what I mean;

 http://www.fromparis.com/virtual-tour-notre-dame/ click around to get a visual tour of Notre Dame

Quasimodo during Out There with anachronism Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo during Out There with anachronism Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

So getting back to what I said at the beginning of this about being careful not to copy Notre Dame in it current state to much is that after Victor Hugo wrote Notre Dame de Paris, the cathedral when though a massive changes. The statues that can be seen in Out There towards the end when Quasimodo talks “Ordinary Men” where add after the novel was written in 1831. Those statues are 12 apostles that adorned the spire. I don’t think I would mind this but Quasimodo motions to the statues as an examples of “ordinary men” The 12 Apostles are ordinary men Disney? Really? The fact the Disney used the statues as more than just Background but a visual aid is where I find fault.

Next Time – Major Differences between Disney and the Book

Quasimodo Hunchback of Notre Dame Disney picture image

Quasimodo's Reveal Hunchback of Notre Dame Disney

Quasimodo Illustrtion Francois flameng

Illustration of Quasimodo