Arsia Iromloo

Before I get started, I want to mention that I didn’t grow up watching this film; I watched it from start to end yesterday, so my review is unbiased. Aside from a few nitpicks such as unnecessary side characters, jokes that take away from the tension, and a few characters’ voices, this is a really solid film. I love the character designs, especially of Quasimodo, Frollo, and Esmeralda. I respect the decision to make the tone dark and grim as it offered something fresh for Disney at the time. This movie tackles things such as jealousy, heartbreak, public humiliation, and manipulation, and it does it really well. I felt genuinely upset for certain characters in certain instances and it made the payoff so much greater. The soundtrack is great as well. Not just the score, but the songs as well. Quasimodo’s song around the beginning of the film was really powerful. But, I think the characters broke out into song too often, even if the songs were good. I always like the specific setting in cinema where the story takes place in the 14th or so century where religious extremists violently oppress whichever groups they believe use witchcraft and are satanic. It reminds me of Castlevania and some other works. I also like that Esmeralda is initially set up to be the love interest for Quasimodo, but she ends up falling in love with another guy. You see Quasimodo have his heart broken when she kisses the other man (which was a really emotional scene), but then he later accepts it and stays happy regardless. It was a good expectation-subversion One last thing: the G rating for this film is strange as no six year-olds or under should watch this movie. By today’s standards, it would be a high PG rating. Overall, this movie is amazing and extremely underrated. I definitely recommend it and I’m very glad I watched it.