The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Disney Movie vs the Victor Hugo Novel (#144)

At the time of recording, I’m only a couple of days away from the opening of a show I’m in: a local production of the Broadway musical adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (By the time this episode goes out, the show will be done!)

I thought today I’d dive back into the world of Dark Disney, and talk about the Disney film vs the Victor Hugo novel. I only just watched the film for the first time last week, and realised there are major differences between the Disney-fied version, and the story that the musical more closely follows. So let’s compare them!

The Disney Version

Let’s start with a summary of the story as told by the Disney film, because it’s actually quite a complex plot compared to other Disney films. (Thank you to the Disney Fandom Wiki for this plot summary!)

The movie opens in 16th Century Paris with Clopin, a Gypsy puppeteer, telling a group of children the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The story begins in 1482 as three gypsies sneak illegally into Paris but are ambushed by a squadron of soldier-like thugs working for Judge Claude Frollo, the Minister of Justice and de facto ruler of Paris.

A gypsy woman attempts to flee with her baby, but Frollo, thinking the woman is carrying stolen goods, catches and kills her just outside Notre Dame, intending to kill her deformed baby (Frollo says to the Archdeacon that the baby is "an unholy demon" and that he is "sending it back to hell where it belongs"), but the Archdeacon appears and accuses him of murdering an innocent woman. Frollo denies that he is in the wrong, saying his conscience is clear, but the Archdeacon declares he cannot hide his crime from heaven. Fearing for his soul and to atone for his sin, Frollo reluctantly agrees to raise the deformed child in the Cathedral's bell tower as his son, naming him Quasimodo.

Twenty years later in 1502, Quasimodo has developed into a kind yet isolated young man with three gargoyles as his only company, called Laverne, Victor and Hugo. He is constantly told by Frollo that he is a monster who would be rejected by the uncaring outside world. Despite these warnings, Quasimodo sneaks out of the Cathedral to attend the Feast of Fools, where he is crowned King of Fools but immediately humiliated by the crowd when Frollo's thugs start a riot. Frollo refuses to help Quasimodo, and the crowd only stops when a kind and beautiful gypsy Esmeralda frees Quasimodo from his restraints. She then throws the crown at Frollo, deeming him to be the biggest fool. The judge immediately orders her to be arrested, but she escapes in a puff of smoke, which Frollo calls "witchcraft." Frollo confronts Quasimodo and sends him back inside the Cathedral.

Esmeralda follows Quasimodo to find him, but she is followed by Phoebus, Frollo's Captain of the Guard. Phoebus, who does not approve of Frollo's methods, refuses to arrest her inside the Cathedral, saying that she has claimed 'Sanctuary' and thus cannot be arrested as long as she remains in Notre Dame. She is warned that she will be captured as soon as she leaves.

Esmeralda finds Quasimodo in the bell tower and befriends him. As gratitude for helping him in the crowd, Quasimodo helps Esmeralda escape Notre Dame. In return, she leaves him with a map to the gypsy hideout, the Court of Miracles, should he ever choose to leave Notre Dame again. Meanwhile, Frollo begins to realise his lustful feelings for Esmeralda and wishes to be free of them to escape eternal damnation. He soon learns of Esmeralda's escape and instigates a city-wide manhunt for her, which involves burning down countless houses in his path.

Realising that Frollo has lost his mind, Phoebus defies the judge by saving an innocent family, as Frollo orders him executed for treason but Esmeralda helps him escape. After being hit by an arrow, Phoebus falls into the Seine River and is left for dead by Frollo, but he is rescued by Esmeralda, who takes him to Quasimodo for refuge.

Frollo soon returns to the cathedral, forcing Quasimodo to hide Phoebus. Discovering that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, the judge bluffs that he knows where the Court of Miracles is and intends to attack it at dawn with a battalion. After he leaves, Phoebus requests Quasimodo's help in finding the Court before Frollo does. He reluctantly agrees to join. Using the Emserelda’s map, they find it and are almost hung by Clopin for being spies, but they are saved when Esmeralda intervenes and clears up the misunderstanding. Phoebus tries to get the court to retreat as Frollo plans to invade; however, Frollo's army appears and captures them all, with the judge revealing that he followed Phoebus and Quasimodo.

Frollo then orders Esmeralda be burned at the stake after she refuses his proposal for her to become his mistress. Frollo gets a torch and burns the wheat Esmeralda is standing on, and she starts coughing, and then she goes unconscious. Quasimodo, chained up in the bell tower, initially refuses to help under depression, but when he sees Esmeralda in pain, he gives in to his anger and rescues her, bringing her to the cathedral.

As Frollo grabs a sword and orders his men to attack the cathedral, Phoebus ignites a rebellion among the people of Paris who have had enough of Frollo's tyranny, and a battle ensues between the citizens and Frollo's army. Quasimodo places Esmeralda's unconscious body on a bed and pours a cauldron of molten copper onto the streets to ensure nobody gets inside. Frollo, however, manages to break in and force his way past the Archdeacon.

Quasimodo, believing Esmeralda to be dead, breaks down in tears beside her body as Frollo comes into the room to kill him with a dagger. Quasimodo disarms Frollo and tells him that people like him are the only reason the world is so "dark and cruel". Esmeralda wakes up alive, and Quasimodo grabs her and flees. Frollo chases them onto the balcony, where he attacks Quasimodo and Esmeralda with his sword.

The battle ends with Frollo and Quasi both falling from the balcony. Frollo falls to his death, but Quasi is caught by Phoebus on a lower floor. Phoebus, Esmerelda and Quasi are reunited. As the citizens celebrate their victory over Frollo, Quasi emerges from the Cathedral to face the crowd, only this time, he is hailed as a hero and is finally accepted into society, and they all dance off together in a Disney-like happily-ever-after fashion.

The Victor Hugo Version

In comparison to the Disney film, the Victor Hugo novel is filled to the brim with dark and morbid subject material that would definitely be considered inappropriate for younger family members. As we’ve seen in all of our Dark Disney episodes, the Disney writers took considerable liberties with the original source material and altered the story to fit their family audience. (The musical version follows the actual story a lot more closely, despite also having some differences inspired by the Disney film, and there’s a reason why our show isn’t recommended for anyone under 8.).

Here’s the summary (thanks to SparkNotes) of the Victor Hugo novel, and I’ll also add in some notes about things that are different or similar in the musical.

During the 1482 Festival of Fools in Paris, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, is elected the Pope of Fools for being the ugliest person in Paris. He is hoisted on a throne and paraded around Paris by the jeering mob. Pierre Gringoire, a struggling poet and philosopher (who doesn’t appear in the musical), tries unsuccessfully to get the crowd to watch his play instead of the parade. Archdeacon Claude Frollo appears and stops the parade and orders Quasimodo back to Notre Dame with him.

Meanwhile, Gringoire admires the graceful beauty of La Esmerelda, as she’s called in the book, a gypsy street dancer, and decides to follow her home. After rounding a corner, she is suddenly attacked by Quasimodo and Frollo. Gringoire rushes to help her but is knocked out by Quasimodo as Frollo runs away. The King's Archers, led by Phoebus de Chateaupers (Phoebus de Martin in the musical — not sure why they changed it) arrive just in time and capture the hunchback. Later that night, a group of beggars and thieves are about to hang Gringoire when La Esmerelda comes forward and offers to save his life by "marrying" him for four years only.

The next day (and this all happens in the show), Quasimodo is put on trial and sentenced to two hours of torture. He suffers both the pain of being stretched and pulled apart as well as being publicly humiliated by the crowd of people, who hate him for his ugliness. He begs for water, but no one answers his pleas until La Esmerelda comes forth and brings him something to drink. Nearby (this doesn’t happen in the show), a recluse called Sister Gudule, screams at La Esmerelda for being a "gypsy child-thief" and blames her for her daughter's kidnapping fifteen years earlier.

A few months later, La Esmerelda is dancing in front of Notre Dame and Phoebus calls her over to him. She has fallen in love with him and blushes when he asks her to meet him later that night. Frollo watches them from the top of Notre Dame and becomes incredibly jealous of Phoebus. His obsessive lust for La Esmerelda has made him renounce God and study alchemy and black magic. In his secret cell at Notre Dame, he plans to trap La Esmerelda “like a spider catching a fly with its web”. Later that night, he follows Phoebus with La Esmerelda and stabs Phoebus repeatedly. Frollo escapes and La Esmerelda is captured by the King's guard.

After being tortured at her trial, La Esmerelda falsely confesses to killing Phoebus and to being a witch. She is sentenced to hang. Frollo visits her in jail and declares his love. He begs her to love him and show him some pity but she calls him a "goblin-monk" and a murderer, refusing to have anything to do with him. Before her execution, La Esmerelda is publicly humiliated in front of Notre Dame.

Looking across the square, she suddenly sees Phoebus and calls out his name. He actually survived the murder attempt but doesn't want anyone to know that he was injured. He turns away from La Esmerelda and enters the house of his bride-to-be. Just then, Quasimodo swings down on a rope from Notre Dame and carries her back to the cathedral, crying out "Sanctuary!" He had fallen in love with her when she brought him water and had been planning her escape all along.

La Esmerelda is safe from execution just as long as she stays inside the cathedral. At first, she finds it hard to even look at Quasimodo, but they form an uneasy friendship. Even though he is deaf, he enjoys being around her when she sings. Meanwhile, a group of vagabonds resolves to save La Esmerelda after hearing that Parliament has ordered that she be removed from Notre Dame. But when Quasimodo sees them attack the cathedral, he thinks they have come to kill La Esmerelda and he fends them off as best he can, killing a large number of them.

Frollo has used the attack as a diversion to sneak La Esmerelda out of the cathedral. He offers her two choices: she can either say she loves him, or be hanged. She demands to be executed and he leaves her with Sister Gudule. To their astonishment, they discover that they are mother and daughter. Gudule tries to protect La Esmerelda, but it is too late. Back at Notre Dame, Quasimodo goes to the top of the north tower to find her. Gazing off into the distance, he sees the figure of La Esmerelda in a white dress hanging from the scaffold.

He bellows out in despair and grabs Frollo by the neck. Holding him up in the air, Quasimodo sighs with grief and then throws Frollo down to his death. Looking at La Esmerelda hanging off in the distance and Frollo's wrangled corpse down below, Quasimodo cries out: "There is everything I ever loved!" Quasimodo is never seen again.

Years later when a gravedigger stumbles across La Esmerelda's remains, he finds the skeleton of a hunchback curled around her. When they attempt to drag the man's skeleton from the woman's, it falls to dust. (The musical also ends with everyone dead and the cast bows in silence, with no musical underscoring for bows.)

Key Differences

So, a few key differences between the book and the Disney film:

• In the book, Quasimodo was deaf, and had unintelligible speech; in the film, he was not deaf, and quite capable of fluent speech.
• In the book, Frollo willingly adopts Quasimodo; in the film, Frollo is made Quasimodo's guardian by the Archdeacon as atonement for murdering Quasimodo's mother.
• In the book Quasimodo's mother is cruel and neglectful, having abandoned him on the steps of Notre Dame. In the film, she is kind and caring towards the deformed Quasimodo, as she loves him in spite of his deformity, even sacrificing herself to save Quasimodo from the cruelty of the French government led by Frollo.
• In the film, Esmeralda saves Quasimodo and Phoebus from being hanged in the Court of Miracles. In the book, she saves a man named Pierre Gringoire.
• In the book, Phoebus was an untrustworthy womaniser. He was much kinder and friendlier to Quasimodo and Esmeralda in the film.
• In the book, Frollo successfully killed Esmeralda. In the film, Quasimodo rescues her from being burned at the stake and it all ends happily.
• In the film, Phoebus truly loves Esmerelda, later happily marrying her and having a child in the film’s sequel. In the book, Phoebus tried to seduce Esmeralda, was stabbed by Frollo (who framed Esmeralda for it), but survived, but instead of pursuing her further, he married a woman named Fleur-de-Lys, though their marriage ended up being an unhappy one.
• In the book, Clopin leads his Gypsies in an attack below Notre Dame, using a scythe to fight and singing gleefully, until he is shot and killed. In the film, Clopin is mostly absent from the final battle, only seen leaping out of his cage with other Gypsies when the townspeople free them; he survives the battle and provides the closing narration/reprise.
• In the book, during Esmeralda’s execution, the people of Paris vehemently condemn her as a witch. However, in the film, I guess to make it happier and more family friendly, the people have an exact opposite reaction. Instead, they protest against Esmeralda’s burning by proclaiming and maintaining her innocence. Some have even been seen struggling against Frollo’s soldiers.