''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is a
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
media franchise
A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or ...
, commencing in 1996 with the release of ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
''. The franchise is based on the 1831
novel of the same name by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
.
Overview
''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
'' is one of the few Disney films of their
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
era of animation (along with ''
The Rescuers Down Under
''The Rescuers Down Under'' is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 29th Disney animated feature film and the second movie to be produced during the Disney Ren ...
'', ''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
'', ''
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
'', and ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'') to not have a female protagonist featured in the
Disney Princess
''Disney Princess'', also called the ''Princess Line'', is a media franchise and toy line owned by the Walt Disney Company. Created by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney, the franchise features a lineup of female protagonists who ha ...
franchise that was created in the early 2000s, due to its female protagonist Esmeralda not being classified as a princess. This has resulted in the franchise having to rely on films, video games, and other merchandise that includes its characters and story alone. York Vision argues the relatively less successful nature of this franchise is "perhaps owing to the lack of a definable ‘Princess’ character," although some people classify her as a princess.
Films
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...
. The film is based on
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
's 1831
novel of the same name. The plot centers on
Quasimodo
Quasimodo (from Quasimodo Sunday) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (1831) by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster, but h ...
, the deformed bell-ringer of
Notre Dame, and his struggle to gain acceptance into society while rebelling against his ruthless and bigoted master, Judge
Claude Frollo
''Monseigneur'' Claude Frollo () is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (known in French as ''Notre-Dame de Paris''). He is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, as well as an Alchemi ...
.
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame II''
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame II'' is a 2002 American animated romantic musical comedy-drama film and a
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
to the 1996 Disney animated film ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
''. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Japan. Some years after the events of the first film, Quasimodo is pitted against a group of circus thieves led by the narcissistic Sarousch.
Live-action remake
A live-action remake of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' was announced in January 2019. The script will be penned by
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...
with Menken and Schwartz returning to write the music.
Josh Gad
Joshua Ilan Gad (born February 23, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Olaf in the '' Frozen'' franchise, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical ''The Book of Mormon'', and playing Le Fou in the live-action adap ...
is set to produce and is possibly considered to play Quasimodo.
In 2023, Menken suggested that development on the live-action remake was stalled owing to the original movie's content and themes, commenting that "the ''Hunchback'' movie, ''Hunchback'' story involves a lot of real, real issues that are important issues and should be explored to be discussed. And there has to be an agreement about how we deal with those issues. You know, do we do a ''Hunchback'' without '
Hellfire'? I don't think so ... So it sits in this limbo right now."
Stage musical
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Der Glöckner von Notre Dame)''
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is a musical based on the 1996 Disney film of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the 1831 Victor Hugo novel of the same name. It has music by
Alan Menken
Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for ''The Little Mermaid'' (1989), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ''A ...
, lyrics by
Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...
, and book by
James Lapine
James Elliot Lapine (born January 10, 1949) is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for ''Into the Woods'', ''Falsettos'', and '' Passion''. He ha ...
. The musical premiered in 1999 in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
as ''Der Glöckner von Notre Dame'' (literally translated in English, The Bellringer of Notre Dame). It was produced by
Walt Disney Theatrical
Disney Theatrical Productions Limited (DTP), also known as Disney on Broadway, is the flagship stageplay and musical production company of the Disney Theatrical Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios, a major business unit of The Walt D ...
, the company's first musical to premiere outside the U.S. It ran for three years, becoming one of Berlin's longest-running musicals. A significantly revised version of the musical, with a new book by
Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell (; born 1953) is an American Broadway and Off-Broadway playwright, television writer, and children's book author. Parnell is also Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild of America, the professional association of playwrights, compo ...
, premiered at the
La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
History
La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer. In 1983, it was revived under ...
in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 2014. Both versions of the musical restore Victor Hugo's darker ending and are in general closer to the tone of the novel.
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' studio cast recording
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A New Musical'' is a 2016 studio cast recording of the 2015
Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theater with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey on the Rahway River. Due to its relatively close location to Manhattan, it draws from the pool of actors (and audience members) who live in ...
production of ''Hunchback''. It was released by Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.
Unprecedented for a non-Broadway cast recording, the album sold 10,000 copies, hitting No. 1 on the Cast Albums chart, No. 17 on Top Album Sales, and No. 47 on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart.
Theme park attractions
Festival of Fools
Festival of Fools commenced in 1996 and held its last show on April 18, 1998. LaughingPlace cited a review of the final show that said: "In the pantheon of great Disneyland parades and shows, the Festival of Fools resides in the top echelon. It operated on so many levels (history, humor, and heart felt emotion to name a few), stirred a passion seldom seen among its most faithful (of which I am no doubt one), and brought 1239 fun filled energetic performances to the wondrous eyes of children young and old, that it's very difficult to sum up the run or my feelings toward it".
Video games
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvy Games''
In 1996, to tie in with the original theatrical release, ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvy Games'' was released by
Disney Interactive
Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversaw various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company.
History
1995–1996: Formation and beginnings
In December 1994, Disney announced that it wa ...
for
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...
, which is a collection of mini games based around the Festival of Fools that includes a variation of Balloon Fight.
''Disney's Animated Storybook: The Hunchback of Notre Dame''
''Disney's Animated Storybook: The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is a point-and-click video game released by Disney Interactive for the PC. It retells the film's plot in an abridged animated storybook form.
''Kingdom Hearts''
A world based on ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
'', La Cité des Cloches (The City of Bells), made its debut appearance in the ''
Kingdom Hearts
is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square (video game company), Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya ...
'' series in ''
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance''. It was the first new Disney world confirmed for the game. Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus, Claude Frollo and the three gargoyles appear as characters in the world.
''Disney Magic Kingdoms''
The
world builder
World Builder is a game creation system for point-and-click adventure games. It was released in 1986 by Silicon Beach Software and had already been used for creating Enchanted Scepters in 1984. On August 7, 1995, developer William C. Appleton ...
video game ''
Disney Magic Kingdoms
''Disney Magic Kingdoms'' is a 2016 city building game developed and published by Gameloft for iOS, Android, and Windows. It is themed off the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. The game was officially launched on March 17, 2016.
Storyline
The game ...
'', during a limited time Event based on ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
'', introduced Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus, Claude Frollo and Djali as playable characters, as well as Bells of Notre Dame and Clopin's Puppet Wagon as attractions, in a storyline serving as a continuation after the events in the film.
Music
Soundtrack
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack'' is the soundtrack to the 1996 Disney animated feature film, ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
''. It includes songs written by
Alan Menken
Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for ''The Little Mermaid'' (1989), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ''A ...
and
Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...
with vocals performed by
Paul Kandel
Paul Kandel (born February 15, 1951) is an American musical theatre actor and tenor singer best known for his film role in Disney's ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996) as the voice of the Roma leader Clopin Trouillefou. He also has appeared on ...
,
David Ogden Stiers
David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in ''The Magic Show'', in which he appeared for four ...
,
Tony Jay
Tony Jay (2 February 1933 – 13 August 2006) was a British actor.
A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in radio, animation, film, and video games. Jay was particularly noted for his distinctive bari ...
,
Tom Hulce
Thomas Edward Hulce (; born December 6, 1953) is an American actor and theater producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film ''Amadeus'' (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kr ...
, Heidi Mollenhauer,
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor, comedian, host and director. An Emmy and Tony winner, he is best known for his role as George Costanza in the television series '' Se ...
,
Mary Wickes
Mary Wickes (born Mary Isabella Wickenhauser; June 13, 1910 – October 22, 1995) was an American actress. She often played supporting roles as prim, professional women, secretaries, nurses, nuns, therapists, teachers and housekeepers, who made ...
, and Mary Stout, along with singles by
All-4-One
All-4-One is an American male R&B and pop group best known for their hit singles "I Swear", "So Much in Love" and "I Can Love You Like That". The group is composed of Jamie Jones, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez, and Tony Borowiak, all from t ...
/
Eternal
Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to:
* Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state
* Immortality or eternal life
* God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism
Comics, film and television
* ...
, and the film's score composed by
Alan Menken
Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for ''The Little Mermaid'' (1989), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ''A ...
.
* "
The Bells of Notre Dame"
* "
Out There
Out may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander
* ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...
"
* "
Topsy Turvy
''Topsy-Turvy'' is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W.S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The st ...
"
* "
God Help the Outcasts"
* "
Heaven's Light"
* "
Hellfire"
* "
A Guy Like You
"A Guy Like You" is a song from Disney's 1996 film ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''. It is performed by the three gargoyles as they try to console Quasimodo. The song was also featured in the German stage musical version, but was replaced with Fl ...
"
* "
Someday
Someday or Some Day may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Someday'' (1935 film), a British film directed by Michael Powell
* ''Someday'' (2011 film), a Japanese film directed by Junji Sakamoto
* ''Someday'' (2021 film), an Indian Hindi-langu ...
"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunchback of Notre Dame
Walt Disney Studios (division) franchises
Film series introduced in 1996