The animation is amazing and the score is awesome. The characters are pretty interesting and the villian is one I actually HATE! All the songs are so beautiful, except for the gargoyle song, "A Guy like me" It doesn't even belong in the same film, that had the songs "God help the Outcasts" and "Out There" because those two songs are so beautiful!

A good story, with beautiful music and animation. A great film, and I love the message! 3 1/2 stars!

It's a shame that Disney has all but disowned this film.
Although I don't remember any sort of uproar or controversy surrounding Hunchback in 1996, now that I look at it again with a pair of more mature eyes, I see that it was a very daring and edgy film for Disney to undertake. It's a very heavy, and much more adult piece than movies such as The Lion King or The Little Mermaid. The film isn't quite as dark as say, The Black Cauldron, visually. In fact, there are some pretty vibrant, colourful scenes, such as the Festival of Fools one. But this film deals with *much* more mature and adult themes. I mean, you've got a man of the church lusting after a gypsy girl, while at the same time wanting to kill her, as he sees his desire to posess her reason for eternal damnation. In fact, much of the film is very much fixated on sin, the devil, and Hell. Hellfire, which in my opinion, is among the best Disney villain songs (if not THE best), sent chills down my spine when I was 9.
The voice casting is superb: Tom Hulce brings a sweetness and gentleness to Quasimodo; Demi Moore brings strength to Esmeralda; Kevin Kline captures Phoebus' rugged toughness, while simultaneously bringing out his softness; the banter between the gargoyles (Victor, Hugo, and Laverne, played by Charles Kimbrough, Jason Alexander, and Mary Wickes, respectively) is fantastic; and of course, Tony Jay is delightful as the villainous Frollo.
The animation is simply exquisite. The amount of detail put into every character and scene astounds me.
The music is quite good. The Bells of Notre Dame is a powerful song to introduce the film with, God Help the Outcasts is sad and beautiful, Topsy Turvy is a wacky and fun, Hellfire (as stated before) is downright creepy, and although there really is no point in having A Guy Like You in the film, it's a fun little song.
Although many have complained that it doesn't remain faithful to the book, that comes with adapting a piece of literature to the screen, especially to an animated film. The movie is pretty dark as it is, it had to have a happy ending to appeal to the kids. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad. It's just a different way of telling the story.
I wanna see a platinum edition DVD of Hunchback come out, as all I have is the original 1996 VHS.

A very nice movie. The story was done fairly well, although sometimes I think the film was too short and rushed things a bit. The animation is great, and ranks up there with many of the great Disney 90's films. The music is good, although there were a couple songs that could have been dropped to make more time for story development. The characters that I don't really care for are the gargoyles. When I was younger I enjoyed them because they provided some good laughs, but now that I'm older I just find them a bit obnoxious since they don't really contribute to the story.
I guess without them though the film would be a lot darker.
Overall I think this movie is worth watching a few times.

There is so much to like about this film, yet there is so much that leaves me cold. I'd say 'Hunchback' fails. Now I've just got to try to explain why I think that.

Perhaps it's easier to break it down into 'what works' and 'what doesn't'.

Well, the art direction works. Nothing absolutely mind-blowing about the animation, but the backgrounds, and the direction are together responsible for some truly breathtaking scenes. There is an undeniable granduer and emotive potency to some scenes, often purely because of the composition, the use of light and shadow, or colour.

Unfortunately, everything else, to a greater or lesser extent, falls short of greatness. There seems to be an attempt to brighten proceedings with endless singing (and I mean, particularly in the first half of this movie, there's probably more singing than talking, and none of it is really outstanding)

The characters are much more of a problem. With the exception of Quasimodo himself, none of the characters are particularly memorable or likable. The goat is one of the most gratuitous and pointless animal sidekicks Disney has ever come up with. Whereas Meeko almost stole the show in 'Pocahontas', Djali is just a characterless shape which takes up screen space.

I don't have a problem with the adult, darker themes in 'Hunchback'. Some have made a big deal out of Frollo's licentiousness, but as a fan of Ralph Bakshi's early films, it's going to take a bit more than that to rattle me. Nor do I think that such an element is really out of place in a drama for kids. However this does lead into what I think is perhaps the film's biggest fault: it tries to have it both ways. It tries to tell a dark, dramatic story which involves the seedier side of human nature, some almost iredeemable sadness and injustice, and at the same time it tries to undercut this with the frivolity of talking gargoyles, relentlessly 'uplifting' songs, a horse who sits on people, and a 'feel good' ending which doesn't feel all that good.

Here's my biggest problem. At the heart of Disney's interpretation of Hugo's novel is the implicit message that beauty is only skin deep (hello, have we been here before?), and that Quasimodo's looks aren't important. The gargoyles encourage him, and the viewer, to think that he can really 'get the girl'. But honestly, does anyone really expect Esmerelda to choose the hunchback guy over the square-jawed, charming, compassionate Captain of the Guard? Of course not, and to have it insinuated that Quasimodo's release from the Cathedral somehow negates his romantic rejection by Esmeralda is not just hollow, it's actually tragic at the exact moment that it's supposed to be triumphant.

So the ugly guy is never going to find real love, but at least the public will tolerate him. That's your happy ending? Forget it. It's just not convincing. It's a consolation prize.

Most people who don't like this film seem to feel that it was too dark. Perhaps its real fault is in trying to superimpose a feel-good flim-flam on top of a tale which, as a matter of fact, is all dark.

(ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum, ba...)

EDIT: a couple of years later. Looking back on this Disney film, I find it just plain boring, and predict it will become a footnote in the studio's history.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the second of Disney's "heavy hitter" movies. The first one is The Lion King, so comparisons between the two are natural. Compared to The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has moments of animation that rivals anything seen in The Lion King. It also has animation that looks no better or no worse than anything Disney's put out in the last few decades. And it sometimes has animation that's practically lousy(like the scene with the often touted crowd control technique). Compared to The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has a few songs that's far better than any of The Lion King's average songs, a few songs that's just as good as any of The Lion King's songs, and one song that's pretty unnecessary and downright lousy. The Hunchback of Notre Dame also has one main character that's probably stronger and more developed than the main character in The Lion King, and one secondary main character who's poorly designed and blandly characterized.

In terms of everything else, the things that worked in The Lion King don't work in this movie. Despite being Disney-fied, the story in The Hunchback of Notre Dame is still more disturbing than any parent has a right to expect. This movie has themes of persecution and lust. Of course this doesn't pose a problem for this movie's adult fans. Frollo makes an excellent and menacing villain, especially during the scene where he tosses the torch into the miller's house. However the development of his lust for Esmerelda comes out of nowhere. The movie's sidekicks, the three gargoyles, are just plain bad. The humor in this movie is shoehorned in and just isn't funny in the least. The climactic battle scene, at least, is probably more gripping here than in The Lion King. However, the resolution is both shocking and empty-feeling.

I'm not sure what compelled me to do this movie as a comparison to The Lion King. Perhaps because they were released close to each other(Pocahontas often gets compared to The Lion King too). Perhaps because they seem to be the two most popular Disney movies. Perhaps because they're Disney's two biggest dramatic(and sometimes over-dramatic) movies. When I first reviewed this movie on this site's old incarnation, I was a little harsh on it. This time I'll give it a fairer recognition because like The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame succeeds in making an impression where it counts. Like The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't as grand or well constructed as many of its fans are saying. However, unlike The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't as entertaining the second or third time around or years later down the road. Some say that this movie is Disney's best since The Lion King. However if I had to choose which of the two movies I'd rather watch now, I'd always choose The Lion King. But this movie is popular for its own reasons, and it has the right stuff where it counts.

This is such a great film for so many reasons. When I learned Disney was making a "Hunchback of Notre Dame" I actually got the original Victor Hugo book from the library. Often films based on books come out as shallow copies, but I think Disney did a great job of 'updating' Hunchback and I find I prefer their version of the tale to the original. One of the great things about this film is what it allows itself to do--this is a dark tale about prejudice and lust with serious Christian undertones and the film takes on all those elements unflinchingly. I honestly didn't think Disney could handle it but I've never been so pleased to be proven wrong. The only thing I could have done without was the Gargoyles showing up periodically to throw in their comedic two cents... one flaw--I can live with that.

"Hunchback" is visually stunning, to put it mildly. This film takes full advantage of light and shadow to create tension and splendor in all the right places. One particular sequence that left me breathless was the rescue of Esmerelda by Quasimodo. When the 'camera' swings around as Quasimodo holds Esmerelda's lifeless body over his head screaming, "Sanctuary!"... well, it was very moving and I know I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after that. View this movie on a large screen if you have the opportunity.