After looking through the casting rumors for the Disney live action movie it is apparent that the Gargoyles are going to be comedic. The Gargoyles are a point of contention for the original Disney film as their humor was too much for the overall tone of the movie.
There has been two musicals based on Disney’s Hunchback that took different approaches to Quasimodo’s imaginary friends. The German musical made the Gargoyles subtle in their humor. They were characters but they didn’t mess with the tone of the production. In the American musical version there are not gargoyles or characters so to speak but there is an ensemble or the congregation. They are more like voices that are part of the cathedral as in statues or stained glass windows.
Rumor had it that the congregation was a reason why the show didn’t go to Broadway because of the amount of people it called for and the The Actors’ Equity Association. I do not know if that is true.
Getting back to the 2024 Live action version, the actors rumored to being playing the Gargoyles are Ed Helms for Victor, Jane Lynch for Laverne, and Jason Alexander reprising Hugo. So this would make Gargoyles go in a comedy direction.
However can the production has its proverbial cake and eat it too? Yes! Yes, it could! And if the movie goes for this method I would just assume they had the same idea as me, which would be great.
I think they should use the actors who they cast as the Gargoyles to also play townspeople, like the ones that Quasimodo made models depicting, the people who Quasimodo sings “Knowing them as they will never know me.” So Jason Alexander go play Hugo and also play the baker for example.
Contextually this would make the Gargoyles part of Quasimodo’s parasocial relationship with the people of Paris. They can still be humorous but it would make the characters both darker and sadder without the need for any lines to explain it. The production would just need to show actors early on in their townspeople roles which they can easily do in the opening number, The Bells of Notre Dame. Unless they do something else with the opening.
So that is one way this version could still have funny gargoyles that could offer Quasimodo more pathos.
I’m sure there way to convey this in the narrative in this movie wants to go in that sort of direction and it’s also they don’t. We shall see.
What do you guys think? How would you like the gargoyles handled in line action version?
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