June 21 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1996, Walt Disney Pictures widely released its 34^th animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame, two days after its world premiere at the New Orleans Superdome. The idea for adapting Victor Hugo’s epic novel came in 1993 to David Stainton, one of Disney’s development executives, after reading one of those Illustrated Classic comic book versions (feel free to insert your own jokes here about the reading levels of corporate clowns, but it was actually David’s job to read that kind of stuff looking for new material to mine). Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who had co-directed Beauty and the Beast a couple years prior, were struggling to put together an adaptation of the Greek myth Orpheus when Jeffrey Katzenberg assigned them to helm Hunchback. It didn’t take Gary and Kirk long to get excited about the project while at the same time they quickly realized that many of the books dark themes were going to have to be toned way, way down in order to get a G rating.

So Gary and Kirk went to work. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz came on board to do the music and also to help shape the story. A whole bunch of characters were shown the door. A few new ones were introduced, specifically Quasimodo’s gargoyle friends. The ending was made a lot (and I mean a lot) happier. In the book, literally everyone but Phoebus dies, although Hugo does quip that the soldier doesn’t get off scot free because he ends up getting married (you can see why Hugo is known for drama and not comedy). And in the end, Hunchback did get its G rating but it is still one of the, if not the, darkest Disney animated films ever made (Frollo sniffing Esmerelda’s hair, anyone?).

Image copyright Disney

At its release, Hunchback received mostly positive reviews and its fair share of controversy. To date, it is the only Disney animated film to overtly take on the issue of religion, which it did with mixed signals. On the one hand, the only actual religious figure in the film, the Archdeacon played by David Ogden Stiers, is weak, doesn’t offer much spiritual guidance other than to vaguely hint at God and presents the official church as mostly ineffective at actually helping people (although he does keep Frollo from committing infanticide at the beginning, day to day nurturing seems to overwhelm him). On the other hand, God Help the Outcasts clearly denounces religious hypocrites and, in the end, it’s strongly suggested that God himself kills Frollo when the cathedral itself causes him to fall to his death. Needless to say, there are obvious reasons Disney hasn’t touched religious material since then.

Image courtesy disney.fandom.com

The Hunchback of Notre Dame earned an Oscar nomination for its score, ten Annie Award nominations and numerous other award nominations. It won a Satellite Award for best Animated Film, two Golden Reel Awards for editing and a BMI Film Music Award for Alan Menken. The movie would later be adapted into a stage musical that only played in Berlin, Germany. But that wasn’t the only stage version that came out of the deal, which leads us to the second part of today’s post.

Also on this day, also in 1996, The Hunchback of Notre Dame – A Musical Adventure debuted at the Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Considered by many guests (and cast members) to be one of the best productions to ever grace a Disney theme park stage, the Hunchback show opened to coincide with the release of the film. Closely following and condensing the plot of the movie (the only songs not included were Hellfire and The Court of Miracles, for obvious and logistic reasons respectively),  it ran for six incredible years on the Backlot Stage, then abruptly ended. The show is now infamous in the annals of Disney entertainment history as a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks being cast in a successful show equates to job security.

Image courtesy laughingplace.com

The story goes that Hunchback went down for one of its periodic refurbishments, as all shows and attractions that run 365 days a year have to do. However, not only wasn’t any refurbishing work done but part way through the refurbishment period, it was announced that the show wasn’t coming back. No explanations, just it’s done. It would be pure speculation how much management knew in advance of the decision to close (somebody somewhere was very aware). It also isn’t clear as to why the decision was made, although the best guess is that the company was no longer willing to shell out for the size of the cast required with the amount of costly expertise needed to pull the production off. What is clear is that there wasn’t a burning desire to put something else in Hunchback’s place. The Backlot Stage stood empty for years after the show’s closing.

Not to be left out of the Hunchback celebration on this day, in 1996, Disneyland also debuted their own show, The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Festival of Fools. Festival of Fools was similar to A Musical Adventure in that it was a retelling of the film but it was a very different staging of the story. The Disneyland version had more of a carnival atmosphere than a stage show. Festival wasn’t nearly as successful and only ran for two years.