Esmeralda, François, Quasimodo, Episode 16, The Duel of Magicians, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo
It rather just occurred to me that there is a percentage of children whose first experience of the characters is this show since it pre-dates the Disney movie by mere weeks. The approach to the characters is far different as is the scope of the story. Just a little interesting aspect to consider.
Also a question, what age range is this show for? I’d say 6 to maybe 8? But maybe 5 to 7? I can’t see a ( or 10 year old gravitating for this show but I could be wrong. Also it depends on the child.
In this episode we get a backstory about Esmeralda’s locket, which was passed down from her grandmother’s great-grandmother after she healed the High Priestess of Council of Magicians in the woods. Since the locket has lost its energy the gang of pals ventures to find the magicians. Naturally Frollo gets winds of this plans and also goes so that he get more power. Why he doesn’t wait? Who can say?
After the gang of pals gets lost Frollo infiltrates the Magicians and spreads lies about the gang. Isabel, the High Priestess, isn’t paying it and has Esmeralda and Frollo Magician duel which reveals what in their hearts. Esmeralda conjures spring and Frollo conjures gold and thus loses and gets his mind wiped about the magicians. Prior to the duel Isabel recharges the locket and after the duel she gives Esmeralda a magic rings the reveal friend and foe which Esmeralda plans to give to her grandmother.
This episode is alright. There is nothing to really push it into the delightful range but nothing that makes it overly annoying. Frollo did have to take some stupid pills for this one to work but there needs to some conflict. I did enjoy Esmeralda dancing and François was used sparingly.
And if you’re wondering if there is a cave in this episode, the answer yes of course, gotta have a cave for that cave quota….
I love Notre Dame de Paris and I love costumes so here some ideas for more costumes for the show.
Let me just preface by saying these ideas are adding, not subtracting or even really changing existing costumes in the show. Also I only have ideas for three characters.
So let’s start with the idea that is the least likely to happen, (also I do not think any of these ideas will get used in the show but if they do that would be great.)
1st idea: Quasimodo’s Grand Reveal.
Gringoire spotting Quasimodo during the Feast of Fools
When Quasimodo is first seen in the show he on the cathedral rock wall structure and the audience sees his figure descending down. I think it could be cool if he had a cloak that really accentuates his form. Maybe with a wired structure or something. The cloak could be made in such a way it’s pulls a parts prior to his song for a dramatic true reveal. Might be hard to execute but could be done. It’s not like the his entry isn’t enough as is, this would just be extra spectacle . Or they do opposite and hide Quasimodo’s form with the cloak till his first song making him more of a reveal.
2nd idea: More Esmeralda Costumes.
Hiba Tawaji as Esmeralda
As I said I like costumes so more costume is always a plus and it’s more of a plus when they added thoughtful. Esmeralda doesn’t necessarily need more costume changes but there are places in the show that they could go and would work for the narrative. In theory she could be a different dress for the Fête much like in the Disney movie. This one is least necessary but I just wanted to mention it as possibility.
At the end of act 1 she meets Phoebus for their tryst. In a few movies versions Esmeralda gets a costume change for their meeting. Also the show did use a red rose fringe dress for promotion that depicted this scene. The dress was used for the London cast, 2001 French Cast also maybe the Russian cast too. So this would a very good place to add another pretty costume for Esmeralda.
Shirel as Esmeralda in the Red with Laurent Ban as Phoebus Notre Dame de Paris 2001 French Cast
Beginning of Act 2 Esmeralda as been arrested for killing/attacking Phoebus. She is recused by Quasimodo. In the book Quasimodo gives her some new clothing which is white and a nun’s habit. Not saying that for “Vivre” but it would be nice to have different costume from the prisoner one. Also in the original cast Esmeralda had her ruffle dress plus a lab coat looking item which she wears after “Vivre” though that could be for practical reasons. So she had two looks in the 2nd act, at least she did in the pro-shot. Maybe something white and a little ethereal and ephemeral to counter the previous costume which is now a heavy textured costume.
3rd idea: The Noblelady Fleur de Lys.
Lilly-Jane Young as Fleur de Lys Asian Tour Cast Notre Dame de Paris 2012
This idea would be the easiest to add to the show. A lot of the costumes have multiple layers, like coats and vests. Though over the years the production have played around with it, Gringoire still have his coat as does Frollo. Clopin has lost his coat in favor of a vest. Esmeralda has long since lost her lab coat thing. Phoebus’ chainmail get taken off and on but Quasimodo and Fleur de Lys never got an extra layer. It makes sense for Quasimodo but for her….
I think Fleur de Lys should have detachable sleeves for the 1st act and for the curtain call and them have off for act 2. This would give her more prim elite noblewoman appearance in 1st act and then 2nd act when she use her sexuality to get Phoebus to make sure Esmeralda hangs her bare arms would further get the point across. She’s showing some skin to manipulate her man though showcase the power dynamics in their relationship. It would show how her character has changed throughout the show.
The type of sleeves I would like to see for her is not historically accurate but none of the costumes in this show are so it doesn’t matter. I would like to see her with long sleeves with a tippet. A tippet is hanging piece of fabric off a part of a garment. For Fleur de Lys it would a long streamer attract to the upper part of the sleeves. In this picture of Buttercup from The Princess Bride, the silver part of the sleeve is the tippet. So that and the sleeves would be detachable.
I could see the performer having fun this these especially during the curtain calls as the Fleur de Lys performers tends to spin and hold her arms out. Plus it would make her look even more noble and would be a subtle change from the first act to the second act.
So are my costume ideas for Notre Dame de Paris. If i could pick one it was be Fleur de Lys sleeves, even the designer went in a different direction it would be great for the character.
Quasimodo and Djali The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo Episode 12
This episode is a bit emotional. Well, emotional enough for this show. Also Djlai! I know it’s taking me forever to get this show watched/reviewed but is the the first time Djali has appeared? I’m pretty sure it has. I am all for it, I love Djali.*
In the episode Esmeralda and François are invited to perform at the the King’s Royal Retreat which is super exciting. François wants to woo the Princess so he packs all his clothing, which makes him indecisive and an over-packer, very relatable …
As they are about to set off Quasimodo is informed that a couple matching the description of his awesome parents have been spotted conveniently near where Esmeralda and François are heading, at the Port City of Lujon and they are bound for England. So the Gang of Pals are off along with Djali and a super helpful coachmen, seriously this guy and Djlai are the MVPs of the episode.
Quasimodo and the siblings split off to their separate ways, Quasimodo gets in a minor scrape involving a rock side, a cave-in and an earthquake and yet despite all that he is totally fine. It felt as through that scene was to pad out the episode’s runtime OR the show has a cave quota because it seems this show loves cave. I mean who doesn’t? Stalagmite and Stalactite are awesome.
The siblings however get into coach accident where the coach is suspended over a raging river. Esmeralda gets knock-out and François hangs from a tree. Djali, being an MVP, finds Quasimodo for help.
Here is the choice, Quasimodo must decided between reuniting with his awesome parents or saving his friends and one of those friends might be more than just a friend. His and Esmeralda’s flirting was amped up this episode. And with tears in his eyes Quasimodo makes his choice and I got to say it got me for a second. You got me show, you got my little emotions. Happy?
So Quasimodo and the MVP Coachman save Esmeralda and François but unfortuntly François’ clothing didn’t make it.
Quasimodo doesn’t regret his choice and François stalks the Princess.
All in all this episode was alright. No magic but we did get Djali and if that wasn’t enough, and it is, the coachman was top-shelf, seriously this guy is just helpful and nice. I doubt we will see more of him but we better see more of sweet, smart resourceful Djali.
* Rereading the post of episode one of this show and Djali does appear there, I just forgot. I suppose that is what happens when it has taken me so long to watch/review this show. I do take reasonability for my taking so long but the show should use a cute goat more.
Esmeralda and Djali, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo Episode 12
At Home Depot, minding my own business, looking at the paint swatches and then BOOM!
Paint Colors with a Hunchback Surprise
It’s not a great of the actual colors but if you count the meaning of the name then there are three refs here. Maybe there are more but this what I saw on a super quick trip.
Quasimodo and Esmeralda with an orphan, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo Episode 9
This episode is about orphans and a one-starred reviewed inn.
While hanging out with some orphans, the landlord comes to collect the rent which the lady in charge doesn’t have, because of course she doesn’t. Quasimodo informs the landlord that the chest is on its way by the way of Dennis and François. However the gold is stolen when the duo stopped to rest at a shady inn.
So it’s up to our Gang of Pals to get the gold and save the orphans from certain eviction. And they have to get it back before a notorious highwayman can find it at the same inn.
Turns out the cruel inn keeper, Rasperin (I think that is his name) took it and is mean to orphans AND his inn is booty-trapped and that is not even the biggest problem with this place either. I mean at least the trap doors function which is more than you can say for the bridge to get to the inn. Anyway, it turns out the highwayman has some morals and would never steal from orphans. However the orphans crew trapped Esmeralda and François along with the highwayman in some hold that is flooding and the innkeeper tells the orphans to let them die. Remember he is a real meany.
The orphans team up with Quasimodo to save them and then they get the gold and leave their bad overlord who is mean and we hate him and now they can be orphans somewhere nicer, hooray.
The gold is then used to build a nicer orphanage because the landlord was mean and greedy and we hate him too.
All in all not the best episode but then again my boy Cartoonishly Evil Magician Frollo-type wasn’t in it. There seems to be three main types of episodes in this show one is Frollo magical shenanigans, the second is Quasimodo’s family quest and finally the greedy types steal which hurts the innocent. There are some overlaps like in episode 7 when the thieves threatens France by threatening France/the King seems another thing this show likes to do to up the stakes. But the common thread in every single episode is that Quasimodo is awesome. This time he is awesome to orphans.
I do appreciate the Lon Chaney reference, Dennis says the highwayman is a man of a thousand faces. It something so I will take it.
Also I think Esmeralda like-likes Quasimodo. Is very cute.
Quasimodo, Esmeralda, François, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo Episode 10
Episode 10: Dragon Rock
Well, Cartoonishly Evil Magician Frollo-type is back.
In this episode the Gang of Pals is doing some charity work for an impoverished village where Esmeralda used to live. Consequently, a guy from there named Carlos has a crush on her. When the gang gets there it seems that the village doesn’t need charity because of “The Generous one’ who lavishes gifts on the villagers and asks for nothing in return, yet.
Of course it’s Frollo who has a masterplan and part of it is to ensnare the village with stuff. Greed and being selfish is bad, that is the lesson of the day.
So what is Frollo’s plan? His plan is to build a fortress that is hidden in the stony hills and arm it well enough to destroy all his enemies and to roll in gold from the royal treasury. However he is still at the groundbreaking stage so he needs his Mountain Smasher which is exactly what it sounds like. So he smashes the mountain causing water from an underground lake to pour towards the village.
Carlos learns that being a selfish underling is bad and helps the gang. They trick Frollo and get him to smash the mountain that causes the water to get redirected toward his lair. Frollo orders the water to stop but it doesn’t work.
In the end the village uses the water for their farms thus solving their issues with being impoverished.
Frollo is very confusing. He wants power and money and he wants to get it through strength of arms and yet he invented a machine better than dynamite. A few episodes ago he had no issues with Da Vinci’s toy machine for this purpose but now he wants to get through a weird long game plan. Oh well, he does get some funny villain lines.
It seems mean-spirited to make digs at all the weird little things so yeah they are there and shugs. I suppose cactuses in France and the superpowers of the Traveler’s horses and wagons are all part of the charm of the show.
Also I kind of wish Azarof’s name was Azaruff, bad joke sorry.
Frollo and Azarof, The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo Episode 10
Hey all, I’m sorry I haven’t been updating and I’m sorry that I haven’t finished watching/reviewing The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo. I’m not going to go into reasons or excuses as to why as they pertain to matters of my personal life and I am not going there on this platform. All I really can say I’m not sure when I will get back to those review posts. Just know that I would like to at some point. For now posts will remain sporadic.
And now an unrelated story.
Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris
So I also write Hunchback content on Hubpages. Way back in the before times of 2011 I did a page on Esmeralda’s green costume from Notre Dame de Paris. She wears this costume throughout the first act. You can see that hub here.
On this page I compare the different versions of the costume from production to production. Mostly the costume is fairly consist from cast to cast with minimum differences in the overall design. Basically aside from the Italian version, which deviated in design very early on from the Original French version and the Korean version being darker, the costume has remained mostly unchanged from the original 1998 design.
There some changes though. For instance the costume was getting tighter and shorter especially from 2012 to 2015. Good for sex appeal but not for dancing. In 2021 I decided to update all my hubpages which is still an ongoing thing since many require a lot more work. I should mention that prior to my update of the Esmeralda’s green costume page I hadn’t updated it since 2015, a year before the current World Tour production, can’t really say cast since the cast has changed since 2016.
In the 2015 update of my page, I added an observation which basically said that the costume needed a redesign because the newer iterations lacked movement. And in 2016 they did update the costume along with some others in the musical.
Hiba Tawaji as Esmeralda
The new version of Esmeralda’s green costume has lots layers of lightweight fabric to show off the performer’s movement.
COINCIDENCE?
Maybe. It is suspect though given the timing. Perhaps my obsessive breakdown of the costume gave the production the idea to do a redesign. Perhaps it was parallel thought. Perhaps my page was one voice amongst many asking for a change. I do not know. More than likely it’s a case of parallel thought and the production and I had the idea independently of each other. The simplest explanations are typically the most likely.
Would I like to think I had something to do with it? Yes I would.
It is nice to see that the costume got more movement since that should add to the overall experience for the audience who is watching the musical live. And I guess I can comment on that further when I see it next month (July 2022) in New York City!
Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame
The time has come to start getting our Halloween plans in gear. For many costume-goers the go to Esmeralda costume for Halloween is Disney.
And that is great but diversity is the spice of life, so more Esmeralda costumes are needed. If I wear to dress-up as Esmeralda for Halloween I would go with the Gina Lollobrigida version of Esmeralda.
Why? Because while I love the Notre Dame de Paris green dress it doesn’t read as Halloween costume, Gina Lollobrigida’s costume does even if people don’t recognize it. Plus it’s more of a costume of Lollobrigida more than Esmeralda herself. Like when people don a pink strapless gown with a short blonde wig and wear some diamonds, are they dressing up as Lorelei from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or are they dressing up as Marilyn Monroe???
So let’s just say you’re lazy or not the best at sewing what can you purchase to assemble to get a costume of Gina Lollobrigida’s Esmeralda? Here are the elements you will need. Don’t be afraid to cut them up to get a more authentic look to Gina’s costume. And should have some of this on-hand already? Lucky you, you’re one step closer to costumes and candy and an Esmeralda costume!
Wide V Neck Shirt
For the shirt, go for a red fitted shirt with a wide v-neckline. You can of of course cut a deeper v-neck and add some cuts to the sleeves for that tattered effect. For the more enterprising type you get some fabric paint for the stitching details
Red Skirt
For the skirt make it long and red. If you can get one with a slit so much the better. Flowiness for dancing is a plus
Red Hip Scarf
For the hip scarf, try to go for an unadorned one. Of course if you want to go for the belly dancing ones with the coin go for it.
Belt
Ideally go for a brown belt with gold studs but any brown belt should do. You could always paint or stud the details yourself if you want.
Red Veil
A simple red scarf should work for Esmeralda’s red veil. Just bobby pin it in place.
Jewelry
For the jewelry you will need gold coin earrings and lots of gold bangles with coin details. For the earrings two tiers are closer to the costume. You should be ok with any gold bracelets so along as they are not too detailed or have stones. You will want a few on each wrist.
Other add-ons
The other things you can add is the knife prop and the glamorous 50s’s cat eye. You can also throw in a wig if you want. I couldn’t find a good enough knife/dagger on amazon. If I do I will add it.
Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida) with Phoebus (Jean Danet), 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame
Remember this all for fun. And have a safe fun halloween.
I have been obsessed lately with Jenny Nicholson’s video on Pandora- The World of Avatar at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. Also she drops a Hunchback reference, so if you haven’t seen that video, go see it. I have seen it multiple times and it’s and it’s like an hour long and I have no attention span.
In Jenny’s video she talks about the history of Animal Kingdom and how there was supposed to a medieval fantasy section called Beastly Kingdom as the concept of the park was explore animals of the present, past and myth but they ran out of money and went for the Dinosaur part. Long story short, after Disney lost out on Harry Potter to Universal, the management of Disney went for another cultural significant movie franchise experience that was insanely immersive, so they went with Avatar, not the Airbender one, the Dances with Wolves in space.
Unlike Harry Potter or Star Wars, the buzz and staying power of Avatar haven’t held up over time so it’s odd that Disney just went for this concept but the land looks really cool and does speak to the fantasy element and conservation angle. But it also of speaks to Disney’s influencing power. It maybe a generalization but kids haven’t seen the movie, it was rated PG-13, came out nearly a decade ago and is really only good in an imax setting but Disney went for it and kids can now adopt Banshee puppets for $65 dollars a pop, $90 if you include the perch. FYI I think the Banshee puppets are cute.
It really fascinates me that Disney pushed so hard on this project and yet a lot of their own properties get ignored within the parks, like Hunchback. So I have been on a slight deep drive into Disney parks, learning what I can about them, mostly via Youtube videos since I have no plans as right now to go to any of the parks.
First let’s talk about the Characters, the Face characters, though I guess Frollo and Quasimodo are not technically Face Characters but all I mean is characters that you meet. The Question is can you even see/meet/greet any of Hunchback Characters at any of the Disney parks worldwide?
According to Fill my Passport, you can but not a Disney Land or Disney World. This information is a bit old as it’s from 2017.
According to Fill my Passport Quasimodo makes extremely rare appearance at Disneyland Paris. Esmeralda can often see at Tokyo Disney and once in a while at Disneyland Paris. Frollo can be see at Halloween at Tokyo Disney. He used at appear at Disney USA parks during Halloween but not so much now. Clopin can be see at Disneyland Paris. And Phoebus doesn’t show up anymore. Fill my Passport as talks about other rare Disney characters in the Disney park so do check out that blog.
However videos from a year ago show a rare meet and greet with Esmeralda and Clopin. It seemed to have occurred at DVC Moonlight Magic Special Event during after hours in the Magic Kingdom, in early 2018.
Here is a meet and greet with Phoebus from 3 years ago at the France pavilion at Epcot.
Hunchback characters meet and greets seem to be extremely rare these days so if you see a hunchback character walking around try to see them, if you like that experience.
This gown is by Tadashi Shoji. It resemble Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris costume in both the green color and lacy texture but the tiers are akin to Disney’s Esmeralda. But also the tiers have flamenco vibe which works Esmeralda’s personality in most any version.
