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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $15.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A breathtaking masterpiece
Review: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is with-out-a-doubt one of Disney's best. The music itself will sweep you off your feet into a world previously unexplored by Disney, leaving you breathless. Not only is the music great, but the story is so well put to film that you may find yourself watching it over and over and over....
For anyone who thinks that the movie may be too much for younger children to see, I say this: Disney makes movies that inspire kids to follow their dreams. Hunchback does just that. It disregards the sugar-coated custom of most children's movies, and shows kids that life sometimes deals out a hard hand to play. Quasi, like a lot of people in the world, isn't perfect. But in the end he over comes his personal struggles, showing great moral fiber that most disney characters may lack. I just dont why it is wrong to show kids that not all hero's are perfect - that following your dreams is not just the hero's right, but everyone's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WoNdErFuL on TWO levels
Review: This is one of my all-time fav. Disney movies for a million reasons, but here are a few that I'll point out to ya...
First the cast is excellent! Demi Moore has the sexy, yet affectionate and caring voice for Esmerelda. Kevin Kline adds a strong and sensitive tone to Phoebus. And Jason Alexander is perfect for the wise-cracking Hugo. Not to mention Tom Hulce as Quasimodo. He's got a beautiful singing voice, also humbling, innocent as well as hopeful character voice.
Second I watched this movie as a child and it has every element of they typical Disney movie. Catchy songs, loveable characters, color and magic and a moral to it all. I would sit and watch it over and over again, I loved it and so did other kids my age.
Now that I watch it at age 16, totally different elements in the movie interest me. The time period, for one, is amazing. 1480 something is about the time, and the arcitecture, Romanequse and Gothic styles combined for beautiful Cathedrals in Paris. The festivals, typical in Europe in the late Middle ages, give insight on life back then. Aside from the cultural aspects, are the characters. Quasimodo, the deformed bellringer, is held high in the tower, away from society. On his first journey down from the tower, he befriends and later falls in love with the beautiful Esmerelda. Esmerelda soon meets Pheobus, the captin of the guards assigned to kill her, and they fall in love. All the while, Frollo, the evil gaurdian of Quasi, becomes obsessed with Esmerelda's entrancing ways. He decides that if he can't have her, no one can. He prays to God to have mercy on him for his obession, and in the end can't control it. So the troublesome "love circle" all the characters are caught up in adds an emotional twist, esp. when Quasi doesn't get the girl in the end.
The music is great in the film also. Not as many catchy beats, which is unusual in a Disney film, but rather Catholic hymms of forgiveness. The motif of these songs and lyrics in latin almost give an eerie feel to the film. Quasi's songs of love and life outside Notre Dame's walls almost left me in tears. Esmerelda's hymm of prayer to God shows her selflessness and is an uplifting scene in the film. Finally, Frolo's dark "Hellfire" is totally a radical move for Disney. A threat on the gypsy's life, as well as the visual elements of fire, demonds and hell is enough to leave you with chills.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie has to be the best movie Disney has come out with.
One of the things i liked about this movie was the soundtrack, the soundtrack featured opera singing and it fit into the movie so well. Especially with the end scene with the fight against frodo.

This movie can be a bit scary for younger kids, one scene that scared me was the scene where frollo died. and i can imagine how painful it would be to fall head first off a catherdral.

another good thing about the movie was the computer animation, nearly all the characters in the background of a crowd were computer animated ad taught to dance or fight or walk in a certain direction.

overall this is an awesome movie, pity they screwed the sequal up.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyable yet a little dark and creepy
Review: This movie came in 12th of 41 but there was a distinct divide by age. The strong characters and emotional music that the adults liked were a little intimidating for the younger children. There was a darkness and a creepy feel to the movie that made it less popular with some in the family, especially the devilish song sung by a church leader. One sometimes wonders about Disneys motives since the storys that have emerged about some of its management. But all in all this was an extremely well done movie, that you may want to hold back until the kids are well past their Barney phase. Had the younger childrens vote been the only ones counted this movie would have finish more like 20th, instead of 12th.

We had a lot of fun by gathering the family together to rank the 41 Disney movies we have that include some cartoon work. All the kids, ages 6 to 27, participated along with mother and dad. Lion King was selected number 1 of the 41 as the family favorite, but narrowly. Peter Pan was 2. Pete's Dragon 3, Beauty & the beast 4, Sleeping Beauty 5, Snow White 6, Robin Hood 7, 101 Dalmatians 8, Fox and the hound 9, Cinderella is 10th and Rescuers 11.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: Let me start out by saying that this is not a movie for children to watch, at least alone. Children need parental guidance for this movie, which is why I think this movie should be rated at least PG. For instance, my daughter was troubled by the scene in the town where people were throwing tomatoes at Quasimodo. There is also a somewhat provocative dance scene featuring Esmerelda, and an even more provocative proposition from Frolo toward the end of the film. Also, there are some very intense death scenes.

The animation in this film is top notch. And the score is the most amazing music to be featured in a Disney film to date. It will give you CHILLS!

I recommend this film, as a film for adults. It was pleasant to see Disney branch out into another genre. It's unfortunate though, seeing as this movie is adult oriented, that they didn't stick with the original ending. Nevertheless, this movie was well done in my opinion.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tony Jay is great!
Review: I love Hunchback of Notre Dame! The best thing about this movie is the villain, Judge Claude Frollo, who is even better than Maleficent, Scar, Cruella DeVil, Ursula and Jafar. Tony jay gives Frollo such a good voice, and his song is amazing! Hellfire has to be the best song Disney ever made! The only thing I don't like about him is his death. I don't like how Disney made Frollo die. He knew he couldn't support his weight on that gargoyle. Other than that, Frollo is a great villain. The other characters are great to.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Underappreciated
Review: This probably has one of the best Disney scores in recent memory. It's unusually dark for the company and in the long standing Disney tradition (and as other reviewers have pointed out), rips the source material to shreds, effectively "'disney-fying" a classic, brutal novel. But it's still a fine movie that's a thrill to watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Review: This is the best animated picture I've ever seen.The art, music, characters are incredible. I never thought that the cartoon can be so alive. The story is so gooooood, especially the Gypsy Girl and the Hunchback, they are just amazing. It's one of the Disney's best pictures, i recommend to have it, 'cause it's toooo gooood. And there's a little preview for the Hunchback of Notre Dame:

Quasimodo
Belle,
Is the only word I know that suits her well,
Whe she dances, oh, the stories she can tell,
A free bird trying out her wings to fly away,
And when I see her move, I see hell to pay.
She dances naked in my soul and sleep won't come,
And it's no use to pray these prayers to Notre Dame.

Tell,
Who'd be the first to raise his hand and throw a stone?
I'd hang him high and laugh to see him die alone.
Oh Lucifer, please let me go beyond God's law,
And run my fingers through her hair, Esmeralda

Frollo
Belle,
There's a demon inside her who came from hell,
And he turned my eyes from God, and oh, I fell.
She put this heat inside me, I'm ashamed to tell,
Without my God inside I'm just a burning shell.
The sin of eve she has in her I know so well,
For want of her I know I'd give my soul to sell.

Belle,
This gypsy girl, is there a soul beneath her skin?
And does she bear the cross of all our human sin?
Oh Notre Dame, please let me go beyond God's law
Open the door of love inside, Esmeralda.

Phoebus
Belle,
Even though her eyes seem to lead us to hell,
She may be more pure than the words can tell.
But when she dances, feelings come, no man can quell,
Beneath her rainbow, colored dress, there burns the well.
My promise one, please let me one time be untrue,
Before in front of God and Man, I merry you.

Who
Would be the first to raise his hand and throw a stone?
To be with her, I'd let the devil take me whole.
Oh Fleur de Lys, I am a man who knows no law,
I go to open up a rose, Esmeralda
...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great animatiion, but Why was this made into a movie?
Review: The animation and the music in this movie is incredible. The art is so amazing that you feel like you are right in the middle of France where there is injustice in the 1480's. But people, you must look at the title and realize that the movie is based on a terribly sad and partly violent book written by Victor Hugo, who was writing to show that the rich were getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Children cannot understand this. They cannot begin to fathom this fact because they have not really been exposed to this yet unless they themselves are poor.

The opening scene is violent and scary. There is a part in the movie in which the villain Frollo is in front of the fire place, asking the virgin Mary to either let him have Esmerlelda so that he can act out his fantasies or for Esmerelda to burn in hell for tempting him for this sin. Is this a theme needed in a Disney movie? I don't want my children to be exposed to this man who is PRAYING to the Virgin (Catholics ask Mary to intercede- they don't WORSHIP her) to let him fall into the sin of adultery, or if she can't do that, let her burn in hell!

What next, a Les Miserables in which everyone is happily singing and they use walkie talkies instead of muskets?!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Beautiful yet deceptive
Review: The animation and music was lovely! From Disney, we expect no less. But, a bit like Esmerelda herself, there is more to this movie than a pair of big green eyes. I think Disney took on a real challenge when trying to turn Victor Hugo's tragic tale into something meaningful for children. For the most part, they did a admirable job. But I feel like someone needs to point out that they have jumped on the proverbial wagon, and Disney has thrown its own weight behind some perpetually cruel and misleading stereotypes. This movie does not acurately portray the Gypsy (Romani) people. However, I LOVE that fact that it does highlight some of the injustice they have suffered over the centuries of their wanderings, that it manages to cast sympathy on their plight and suggest that yes, Gypsies are people too, capapble of love and fear and compassion. Hopefully these lessons of tollerance will be more lasting to our children than the visions of seductive women in sugestive clothing that can read palms and conjur magic.


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