Home :: DVD :: Kids & Family :: Animation  

Adapted from Books
Adventure
Animals
Animation

Classics
Comedy
Dinosaurs
Disney
Drama
Educational
Family Films
Fantasy
General
Holidays & Festivals
IMAX
Music & Arts
Numbers & Letters
Puppets
Scary Movies & Mysteries
Science Fiction
Television
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Astoundingly Short.
Review: This movie ends half a minute before it hits an hour's length. Exactly. Therefore it is unfulfilling in its shortness, and is the shortest Disney sequal of the recent ones. What are they going to do? Keep getting shorter and shorter until there is a sequal only ten seconds long? I was not expecting this movie to be great, but it was worse than I hoped. Admittedly, I would watch it again, but I'm strange and like to watch bad movies repeatedly to laugh at them. Now, of the recent sequals, I thought Cinderella II was surprisingly good. Peter Pan II was so-so. It was on the wavelength of the Hunchback, in fact. The plot in a nutshell is: Sarousch wants to steal pretty bell. Madelline falls in love with Quasimodo and is supposed to help Sarousch, her circus boss, steal pretty bell. Madelline no want to steal pretty bell. Madelline save Zephyr, Esmerelda and Pheobus's son, from Sarousch and save pretty bell and go to the festival "d'amour." The music in here is HORRIBLE. Short, bland songs without catchy tunes are all they are. I can't believe some of these voice actors from the original agreed to be in this one knowing how dreadful many aspects of it are. And the animation? BAD. The people look awful, the sky is always pink, everything looks dark the whole time for some ungodly reason...anyway, about these characters. Madelline, despite their attempt to create an endearing, cute, pretty, tomboyish girl, is completely average and not terribly lovable. Zephyr IS cute but he's not very funny and he's sort of dumb. Come to think of it, there's nothing really funny in this movie. Except for the fat gargoyle falling in love with the goat...I sincerely hope that goat is a girl, cuz it don't look like one. Only when it suddenly grows those long eyelashes at the end. Sarousch is...well, a villain. A nasty looking, greedy, conceited villain. And there's not much more to say. Clopin scared me right from the first movie, and he looks much worse here. The heavily-hyped Jennifer Love Hewitt song at the end is OK. In the DVD extras, she talks about the movie as if it is the best one ever and Madelline the most unique, attractive girl...gimme a break. How much did they pay her to say that? The two games are for the very young or else the very, very simple-minded. And the Gargoyle poem read by Jason Alexander is kinda cute. Pretty creative. Not something you'd watch over and over though. All in all this movie is sad. It's predictable in the extreme, not totally interesting, a little corny, a little cheesy, one of those things where you see what they were going for but they didn't even come close to it. I don't see why they have to keep chucking these uninspired sequals as us, (and I DON'T include Cinderella II in that category) but as long as they do, while they're waiting for a really good idea to come along, I'll keep seeing them...if only to laugh at how incredibly stupid they are. Don't take this the wrong way, though. I don't hate this movie completely, and I DO think you should see it to judge for yourself. But you'll probably come away with my opinion anyway.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The First One is Better
Review: This movie is as bad (or worse) than everyone has said. the animation is shoddy, and the storyline is boring. If you are looking for a good cartoon... look elsewhere. You'd be throwing your money away on this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: As bad as they say...
Review: This movie is as bad (or worse) than everyone has said. the animation is shoddy, and the storyline is boring. If you are looking for a good cartoon... look elsewhere. You'd be throwing your money away on this one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not as bad as I thought but no oscar
Review: This movie is cute as in I don't have the heart to be a harsh critic. Hunchback of Notre Dame II is pretty package and nothing more. I always thought this movie was a bomb. It still is . It's animation is pretty cheap. I'd definitly hire these animators. But no way in heck I'll charge them for stories in which they are sorely lacking as this movie illustrates. Stick to the original or read the novel if you are 18 and older. IN short pretty cheesy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disney is hard up for material
Review: This movie really stunk, especially when compared with the original Hunchback. It was so boring I couldn't get my five year old to stay in the room to watch it, and she's a video watching fanatic. I wish Disney would stop making these lame...really lame....sequels. There's enough good literature out there that they haven't even tapped yet. They care nothing for entertainment anymore, all they care about is making a buck. Well, we rented this one only, (thank heavens!) and that's all the money Disney's getting out of me on this really rotten flick!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Hunchback is Failing........
Review: This sequal is disaponting and terribly made. The animation was shocking and the plot, stupid and childish. Deffinetly not what was expected.

Harsh as I may sound, it is the truth and the truth hurts.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Yes!
Review: This sequal to the heartwarming 1996 film lives up to the magnifiance of the original.
The undying message throughout the movie is that "it's what's inside that counts."

Another festival is on the way and Quaisimodo and his old friends are busy preparing. After seeing a circus, Quasi falls in love with the beautiful Madelline. The master of the circus is Saurchoush, a crook who wants to steal the famous jeweled bell. Quaisi finds out that Madelline was using him. Madelline says that her heart isn't in the evil scheme.

Could Quasi fall in love?
Will he be able to save the bell? If you are a true fan of Disney, ignore the negative reviews, a see this for yourself!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! THEY CAN'T BE DOING THIS!!!!!!!!
Review: What do you want when you watch a sequel?

Well, if you really loved the first movie, you want to see your favorite characters in a new adventure with the same feel as the first movie, right?

You're not going to get what you want when you watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame II. The old characters are there....sort of, but they look like they went through plastic surgery and act so...not like themselves. And they follow up the wonderfully dark, complex story in the first movie with an overly-sweet simple romance.

Now, the original Hunchback of Notre Dame happens to be my favorite movie of all time! (see my review of it) When I watch a sequel, I want to visit the same world again, not a sweetened-up, underdrawn version. This movie was NOT aimed at fans of the original, but rather at the parents and critics who complained that the first movie was too dark for the wittle kiddies.

Okay, I'll tell you what's so bad about this sequel, and how big a disgrace it is to its preceedor.

1. Animation. It STANK!!! Of course no DTV project could live up to the dazzling work of the original, but this animation truely STANK. Characters moved so choppily at some scenes that I wondered if there were frames missing. When people talked (particually Phoebus), their jaws appeared to be broken. And come on, can't they at least decide what color to make Esmeralda's skin???

2. Story. A circus comes to Paris and the ringmaster Sarousch wants to steal the La Fiedle bell from Notre Dame. The bell is used in a festival that appears to involve nothing execpt every couple in Paris shouting out their true love's names (oh pleeeeaase!). Sarousch sends his assistant Madellaine to trick Quasimodo into showing her where the bell is, but she ends up becoming fond of Quasimodo (ala Hercules and Megara). But Sarousch takes the bell and Quasi now has to learn how to trust Madellaine and find true love (blah, blah, blah).

First off, everyone knows that the whole city would rejoice if they were spared having to shout who they loved to the world while a big bell clanged.

Secondly, Quasimodo and Madellaine's romance (the sole purpose for this movie's existance) is one of the weakest love stories Disney has ever cooked up. They meet with a string of bad jokes and obnoxious laughter, then Maddy sees Quasi's face and runs away, then Quasi immediatly starts dreaming about marrying the girl. Oh PLEASE!!! Esmeralda and Phoebus had a more believeable love story in the first movie, and their romance wasn't even the center of the story!

3. Characters. Like I said, the old characters act nothing like themselves. And the new characters are hardly memorable.

Quasimodo acted like a total dip. He must be at least 26 by now, but he acts SO IMMATURE!! He babbles on and on about being lovesick for Madellaine like a dope (he acted much more dignified when he was in love with Esmeralda!). What happened to his deep personality???

Esmeralda didn't seem to do much other than counsel Quasimodo about how to find true love and get angry at Phoebus for being prejudiced. NOOOOOOOO!!! SHE NEEDS MORE SCREEN TIME THAN THAT!!! Did they keep her out of the story so they wouldn't have to pay Demi Moore as much???? Well....at least her character wasn't butchered so much as some of the other characters.

Phoebus acted like a jerk. Since WHEN is he prejudiced against circus people???? They turned him into a not-as-mean version of Frollo! He kept rambling on and on about how circus people can't be trusted, but then he plays right into Sarousch's plan like an idiot. "How could I have been such a fool?" he moans. I don't know, Phoebus, you tell me!

Madellaine was a hundred times inferior to Esmeralda. I lost count how many times she'd say something like "Oh, I'm so stupid," and then Quasimodo would tell her she's not. And she has a real silly sense of humor (discribing a bell as a big hat for one thing). I cannot believe Quasimodo would go from loving Esmeralda to loving her! And if the whole purpose of the sequel is to give Quasimodo true love, shouldn't his new love be as good or better than his old one?? Quasi deserves better than this!

Sarousch has to be one of the stupidest characters ever to come off the drawing board. We follow Frollo, the deepest, darkest, and most intruiging villian ever with a vain, one-dimentional ringmaster who was ALWAYS looking in the mirror and saying things like "Oh, lovely." I can't believe Disney would even CONSIDER this!!!!!

And Esmeralda and Phoebus's son Zephyr is one of the most one-dimentional kid characters they've ever done. (Is it just me, or is Disney obessed with their heroes and heroines having children lately?) Most of his lines consisted of "Wow!" and "Yay!" over and over again, and his sole purpose in the story seemed to be to get kidnapped, so the climax wouldn't be just about saving a bell. And his design looks like they simply took Phoebus and made him 20 years younger. (Very fitting for the child of an interracial marriage, right?)

4. Songs. Awful. Typical DTV junk, especially one where Quasimodo and Zephyr sing about their friendship. How on EARTH could they follow Alan Menken and Steven Schwartch's wonderful soundtrack with this!!!!

I could go on ranting forever, but I have a feeling I'm reaching the 1000 word limit. In short, if you're a critic who hated the first movie because it was too dark for kiddies, you'll be satisfied.

But we Hunchback fans are left with a murder.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Touching Sequel
Review: While the animation of Hunchback II was not as crisp as that of the original, it had a brighter, more cheerful ambiance. Most of the characters from the first movie have returned, with a few additions. Young Zephr (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), the son of Phoebus and Esmeralda, is Quasimodo's best friend. Quasimodo also finally meets his true love in Madellaine (voiced by Jennifer Love Hewitt), a spunky yet insecure circus performer. Unfortunately, Madellaine has been forced by her boss, the evil, flamboyant Sarousch, to help steal La Fidal, a valuable bell from the cathedral.

The developing affection between Quasi and Madellaine was beautifully depicted: he helped her to focus on her strengths while she was able to see the beauty within him. (La Fidel could perhaps be seen as a metaphore for Quasi since it was plain on the outside with a beautiful, glittering interior.) The scene where the hunchback was showing Madellaine the sights of Paris was a joy.

Although I initially didn't think that the songs were as good as those of the first film, I found that, after a couple of viewings, they have grown on me: I find them playing through my head from time to time.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable film and a pleasing compliment to the first Hunchback movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The First One is Better
Review: Whoever said Quasimodo was ugly deserves to have a burning spear thrust through their skull and their arms and legs nailed to bricks. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" teaches that superficiality never pays, and that a loving heart is much more important than looks, but what's the point if people are too shallow to understand?
The first movie was outstanding, and this one isn't as good, but it's still entertaining. It's much more kid-oriented than the first. Rent it first.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates