Film Review - Hunchback of Notre Dame, The

I'm not going to do my normal rant about how Disney screws up classic stories and politically corrects them to death. I will say the only reason I watched this movie was it was on the Disney Channel, which I receive as part of basic cable; otherwise, I would not have spent money on this film.

That said, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has some of the best animation I have ever seen. The fluid motion jumps out at you. Some of this stands out as computer generated. Disney tends to not like people realizing they animate with computers. They think the knowledge will take the magic out of the film. I firmly disagree, computer animation has allowed smooth animation of confetti, and other chaos theory driven objects in Hunchback. Do I care it was done on a computer? Only with a professional curiosity. Does it detract from my enjoyment of the film? Au contrare! If not for these great illusions, I would be hard pressed to find something nice to say about this film.

The story is poor. The situation is the same as the book, but the conclusions are completely different and insult the memory of the author.

Dust Bag Full

Film Facts

Directed by
Gary Trousdale
Kirk Wise

Released in 1996

MPAA Rating: G

Reviewed by Mongo