Frollo’s Character Design – Angular & Austere
As I mention in my Character analysis of Frollo, he is of the elegant Disney Villain variety. Other Villains include but are not limited to, Jafar, Yzma, and Doctor Facilier. Frollo is thin and tall, (perfect super model body.) He has a very angler face and a hook nose.
Like many of the characters he has small eyes. Oddly enough he has grey hair but black eyebrows which are thin. Thin eyebrow makes one look older and fuller brow make one look younger. So Disney Frollo is old, and considering he looked old in the back story, he’s probably clocks in at 60 or so.
He wears a long black robe with purple and red elements. As I also mentioned in my 1939 costume post, long black slabs of fabric look very unapproachable and it’s like a giant arrow that says” I’m a bad guy.”
The first time you see Frollo, you know this be the villain. Of Course a big black scary horse helps, plus he arrests people for no reason. However his clothes assert his evil.
How does Disney Frollo Compare with Frollo in the Book?
Well in the book Frollo’s face is described as austere, calm and sombre. He’s bald with a few gray hair that form a natural tonsure. He has a broad forehead that is furrowed with wrinkles and deep-set eyes. His eyes are the only thing expressive about him. Frollo is also 35 in the book. Which is supposed to be old but the idea is that he’s not too old, just old to shallow 16 year-old.
Disney Frollo’s does has an austere look but Disney didn’t base Frollo’ s design off the book. They based it off of Sir Cedric Hardwicke’s look. They have the same dower look that gives way to insane bat-shit crazy looks. They have the same framing locks which is impossible not to notice. Disney’s Frollo is just older and balder, though he’s only balding. But it doesn’t take a genius to see where Disney got their inspiration from. Disney Frollo is almost an exact copy of Hardwicke’s Frollo.
Next up Esmeralda the “pretty” one
I think Disney’s Frollo really resembles much more actor Stewart Granger than Cedric Hardwicke. However, it is true that the whole film was inspired more by the 1939 film than by the original novel.