Why Disney's Frollo is Too Evil (Hunchback of Notre Dame Analysis)

a couple of months ago I was on a tinder date now I know what you're thinking Oh God James uses tinder and to that I say shut up tinder is a valid social interaction site and I have had plenty of valid social interaction to hit okay I just want to find someone I can talk to about musicals with for five hours that's not really a difficult request so me and this girl who shall remain nameless because I actually don't remember her name and I don't feel like looking it up talked about musicals for five hours it was nice we texted back and forth for a little bit after that but eventually she stopped texting me back and I was like oh well guess she's not interested back to writing my Shrek 2 review god feels like a million years ago I wrote about Shrek 2 did I mention her studying the cinematography is this [ __ ] puts live-action movies to shame oh wait we were talking about tinder girl okay so the point of my story is she did leave one important impact on me even after all this time she got me to watch her favorite musical The Hunchback of Notre DOM not the Disney movie I've seen that the musical based on the Disney movie the one that never really made it to Broadway or Community Theatre circulation in my area and thus I never saw it so I watched the bootleg and it's really good Quasimodo has a deformed sounding voice that comes across as haunting kind of like evil Lupita and us but less Tom Phoebus is a dude bro odd choice but he has more character here than he did in the movie and you still buy his transition into a hero who opposes for Low's actions Esmeralda's mostly the same but give him more songs to develop her character and her plight the gargoyles are way cut down and a guy like you is cut entirely which is music to my ears plus their one good line from the movie is capitalized on during a pivotal song [Music] man that's deep overall it's a great adaptation with more thought and care put into it than most other Disney stage adaptations oh wait did I miss a character oh yeah the greatest Disney villain to ever exist judge called Frollo the dude who's so evil he captures a family murders a woman in cold blood on the steps of a church and attempts to drown her baby in a well and this is just the first five minutes of the movie how did an even darker more adult take on the Disney version of this story handle the most evil monster to ever come out of this studio well he seems like a nice guy at first did not see that coming yeah Claude Frollo religious fanatic an abusive father who sniffs a woman's hair tries to force sex out of her by threatening her with death he seems okay at first and that is the scariest aspect of this character let me break down Froyo in the musical for you in general the musical seems to follow the original novel a lot closer than the movie did by how much exactly that I don't know since I never read the book because much like my longtime $10 patreon supporter I am an uncultured swine seriously they support me on patreon I need to feed my five kids Rollo immediately makes a positive impression in the musical bitey posing so two and a half minutes in you see that tipos and you're like okay maybe this guy is alright he's wearing white he's the Archdeacon in this version and not some corrupt judge I mean the Archdeacon was so nice in the movie so frou-frou is gonna follow suit in this version right religious people are always really nice and holy and spiritual right none of them are sadistic monsters right correct I mean it should be getting back to the opening though the musical deviates from the film by telling frollo's backstory rather than just starting out with him being a bloodthirsty monster and the musical Frollo has an unruly brother Jehan who's much more wild and free compared to the stoic devout good Christian boy Frollo Jehan brings a gypsy lady home one day for Claude and he's like no thank you please so Claude writes his bro bro out who was then expelled for being a bad boy several years pass and Claude gets a letter from Bowser I mean his brother anyway his brother is now dying and his girlfriend died but they have a baby I think you know where this is going so yeah in this version Quasimodo isn't just an adoptive son he's actually froze biological nephew yes we've done that before but this presents a new sense of ambiguity to their relationship in this version how much does Frollo truly care for Quasimodo in the original not at all I think that became obvious when he tried to drown the baby in a well but he doesn't do that in this version obviously Quasimodo has explicit meaning to him as the last remnant of his brother as well as his brother's last request he doesn't care for Quasimodo out of obligation since he's gonna go to hell if he doesn't he cares for the child because he wants to honor his fallen brother and yet there's still the sense that Frollo doesn't consider the child fully human [Music] I may not have seen my brother but I will say this [Music] road so that's the gist of the bells of Notre Dom in this version obviously the lyrics in the tempo and everything is different and from a musical and storytelling standpoint yeah I prefer the original it's more intense more dramatic more in line with an almost biblical epic about a mad zealot and his quest to purge the world of what he perceives as a sinful group but in terms of starting Frollo story here it really does him a disservice as a character for years we've always said that he's an amazing disney villain because he has way more depth behind his motivation than the typical disney bad guy but does he I mean yeah he does compared to other Disney villains but does that make him a complex layered antagonist with motivations behind his actions why does he hate gypsies in the movie I don't know he's an [ __ ] there now watch them crushes ladies neck with a spiky boot it just makes sense don't question it the musical however clearly defines what makes this guy hate gypsies he blames them for the supposed a downward spiral of his brother also he doesn't start out murdering gypsies with no remorse all he does is talk about avoiding their temptation and describing them as an infestation this is definitely harmful rhetoric but it's not literal murder so that's better in hindsight I feel like they played their hand too early with movie for a low he goes from zero to a hundred in the first five minutes so from there you can't really progress that much in terms of how evil he can get scarred in trying to murder baby Simba in the first five minutes of the Lion King which makes his murder of Mufasa later on a little more shocking and Hades does try to murder her Gilley's very early on by he's funny so it's okay Hercules is very totally distant from Hunchback it's much less serious so starting a movie with attempted baby murder is fine gosh no that's not what I meant no wait please no but ya hunchback is pretty serious and it sets Frollo up right away as someone not to be trifled with but the musical while a bit clunky er in the way it delivers its narrative pits a much more compelling portrait of a misguided person to stuck on his own strict beliefs to realize the value of helping the less fortunate so that's the opening the movie is more entertaining and better constructed but the musical is more compelling and thought-provoking and for the most part that's a bit of a theme continuing on Frollo generally is the same disposition towards gypsies in the musical as he does in the movie though it doesn't seem quite as sadistic and he doesn't express his hatred quite as vividly he doesn't give a professional whipper advice on the best way to torture people and he doesn't squish a bunch of bugs for the evils the first major deviation comes when quasi is being attacked by the crowd at the Feast of Fools Frollo still does this whole a lesson needs to be learned here stick and doesn't help quasi right away leading the Esmeralda appearing and giving him water in the movie Frollo tells her to get down at leading to a confrontation where the crowd is very much on Esmeralda side but in the musical Frollo doesn't call her out the crowd does since they're mad she ruined their fun which actually sounds like how a crowd in real life would react these people are [ __ ] to the guy they just tortured they would obviously also be [ __ ] to the oppressed minority woman who stopped their fun the movie lives in a slapstick fantasy realm but I digress Esmeralda vanishes without interacting with Frollo at all then the crowd tries to attack quasi again only for Frollo to stop them that's oddly kind of him it's a weird scene Frollo using religion to justify a positive action considering how much he uses it as a crutch to do bad stuff but yeah compared to mr. cold and unfeeling you get the sense that maybe this Frodo feels bad for the boy the scene leads into a semi repressive out there where Frollo seems to express genuine remorse for quasi both frollo's were right in telling quasi that the world is cruel and wicked and that dumb 15th century talams folk will revile him as a monster but musical furlough is the only one who seemed to tell quasi this out of genuine concern for his well-being though there is his own reputation worried about which makes this lyric particularly brilliant [Music] so yeah genuine concern for Quasimodo or selfish concern for his reputation it's really up to interpretation this is not that's not even the most compelling interaction Frollo has let's talk about him and Esmeralda does the movie make you uncomfortable well it should he's super pervy and gross right away and that becomes even more abundantly clear during Hellfire but what does the musical do well as morale that comes looking for quasi and she and Frodo have an argument it's pretty simple all things considered eventually Esmeralda asks him an armor-piercing question oh that's the golden rule I learned that from VeggieTales boils and girl OHS so yeah this it's Frollo a little hard he still won't renounce his hatred of gypsies but he tells us Morelle though to stay for midday mass and maybe find Jesus I don't know my travel your people Austin is something unity was saved absolutely see what through years we can continue this conversation afterwards so this is really interesting if you're unfamiliar with how the story goes whether it be the Disney narrative or the original novel here were 40 minutes in and I don't know if I could effectively call Frollo the villain here he seems misguided and blinded by his hatred for gypsies a hatred that was founded by a tangible event in his past even though his reaction to it was misguided and not only is he generally kind to Quasimodo and Esmeralda but you get the sense here that maybe he isn't beyond saving maybe the narrative will be about reforming him and he can let go of his bigotry in hatred with Esmeralda's help where was the other Frollo at this point in the story oh yeah sniffing hair yeah no this guy's going to hell and if you do drugs you go to hell before you die but anything could happen with the complex character we see in the musical let's see what he does next I really hope it's not something horrible so after Esmeralda meets Quasimodo he doesn't help her escape since well she's not a prisoner in this version Frollo comes upstairs and the two of them talk some more and he offers to instruct her in how to be righteous and he asks her to live in the bell tower stay in Cathedral be yeah never mind this is uncomfortable and yeah this is an abridged version of how it happens in the real world people with authority tried to build a sense of trust with someone they desire and it turns out to have been manipulation the whole time it's genuinely beyond disturbing and while the movie does deserve credit for not being afraid to depict a creepy lustful man as its villain it doesn't really come as a shock he's a monster from the start here Frollo breaks as Morales trusts and the audience's trust neither of which he had in the original and this is where the limitations of a pure evil villain really start to show themselves movie Frollo is a rotten evil perv to the bone which leaves very little in terms of compelling characterization musical Frollo is trying to lie to himself and everyone around him about his true intentions with Esmeralda one of my favorite lines from the movie is when Frollo referring to Esmeralda says she live soon enough this use of our harkens back to the main contrast between quasi and frollo's reactions to Esmeralda heavens light versus Hellfire she affected them both in different ways the same mindset is present in this scene from the musical you resisted her whatever you say dickweed but yeah the extent to which Frollo is trying to deceive himself that Esmeralda is just some sort of pious test really shows just how T humanizing he is towards her and her people it also conveys a sense of twisted kinship between him and Quasimodo is polar opposite in the story this scene is where he's that is scariest so far because we've never seen him be this scary before but we've seen the progression he took to get to this point moving on Frollo merely has Esmeralda thrown out of Notre Dom in this version not in prison there he tries to move on but he ends up searching the streets for her night after night until he finds her at a conga rave which is a little weird but it's okay because his song freakin slaps [Music] any witnesses her and Phoebus making out which drives them a little crazy and this leads to hell fire obviously the song is the exact same in the musical cuz he can't fix what's already perfect I wish the staging and the costuming was better in the version I watched like seriously where's the red hooded figures of death but again that comes down to who's performing the song what's different about the song however is the context it's an amazing aspect of both narratives but here's the difference in the movie the song is the most dimension Frollo gets it makes his previous actions all the more sinister and begs the question of whether or not he's going insane dude he was less than obsession but it's not like this idea was expressed super well or in depth earlier on in the movie it just kind of happens here and boom instinct compelling villain in the musical however it's a perfect natural progression of everything we've been seeing on stage for the past hour it's clear from his actions in his dialogue in his backstory that he has the capability of being a genuine human being but the twisted way his urges have manifested have slowly turned him into an uncaring uncomfortable vile creature you get the sense that he didn't have to become the emotionally abusive monster he ended up being and that his choices in life warped him into this thing and I'm sorry to say but this is quite simply too complex of an idea for Walt Disney Animation to tackle not that a character that progresses into a villain is too complex for kids to understand but Disney would never try to tackle that sort of thing villains either have to be evil from start to finish an [ __ ] at the start who becomes full-on evil by the end or a twist villain who was evil the whole time but only pretended to be good musical Frollo is none of these the closest would be category two but I wouldn't call him an [ __ ] in the same vein as Gaston or Clayton he has unexpectedly kind attributes to him that shined through in spite of his personal biases but these get snuffed out as the story progresses by his madness by his lust by his obsession with being pious and wiping out anyone who doesn't fit that description movie Frollo is a lot less complex than we give him credit for it's great to watch an entertaining unabashedly evil villain but this story in particular begs for its characters to be complex and musical Frollo is just that also ET poses at the end of hellfire boom that's Tootie poses how many T poses does movie Frollo have zero I thought so things progressed pretty much as expected from here on out there are a few differences like instead of hitting Phoebus with an arrow for a low stabs him in the back and then blames Esmerelda for it what a guy but the next major deviation comes after Esmerelda is captured there's an added scene where Frollo comes in and begs her to build a sanctuary with him claiming that he can still save her soul if she gives herself over he expressed the sentiment right before lighting her on fire in the movie but again here it's a natural progression of the previous scenes between them this lunatic has convinced himself that his vile treatment of her is justified and morally right everything culminates in this interaction which is one of the best scenes in the entire show like dude just watch this musical I don't want to give anything away it's just a stunning piece of theater and this scene gave me chills like three or four times it perfectly conveys the idea that Frollo genuinely traumatized her and destroyed her life there's a simple question as morel de asks herself in this scene that utterly devastated me with how accurately it illustrated the horror of her situation I think we can stop there you can see how it ends for yourself it's on YouTube The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical as the masterful adaptation that the movie was desperately trying to be but wasn't allowed to the musical is free of the awful tone issues that plagued the original the added songs are actually fantastic and fits so well that it's hard to tell the difference between what came from the original and what was added the characters are more compelling and you buy their plight in their interactions way more but Frollo stands in a class all his own I thought the movie Frollo was the greatest Disney villain of all time and while he's still great he's also a huge missed potential Disney could have crafted the most thought-provoking complex and disturbingly dark antagonist in any of their movies and they kind of did I'll admit but he could have been so much more and that's what this musical gets so right by making him a real human being they made him scarier I know it doesn't seem like an amazing feat to make an animated kids movie darker when you adapt it into a live-action musical but the thing is that's not what Disney does forget the live-action movies those are obvious terrible cash grab look at the Disney musicals none of them are terrible but they are cash grabs bringing Little Mermaid Beauty and the Beast Aladdin and the Lion King to the big screen didn't improve these stories it's the same story but with some more pointless songs thrown in that doesn't apply to every song I mean she's in love as a genuine Jam and the piece says a couple of solid ballets here and there but these musicals don't exist because the movies demanded to be on stage and be more mature they exist because the movies were popular but I'm on Broadway I had a few songs about a boom money The Hunchback of Notre Dame movie was made because the creators had a story they wanted to tell and the musical was made because the creators had a story they wanted to improve and that's what they did this is such an excellent piece of theater so I'm so glad that it never made it to Broadway and was shunned by Disney in favor of frozen that's a movie that needed a musical frozen yeah remember when I said the Disney musical adaptations weren't terrible well I forgot about this one with its pitiful three Tony nominations a spongebob musical when Mean Girls got 12 nominations apiece that same year fYI Hunchback probably would have swept the Tonys but no I'm so happy we got frozen on Broadway instead isn't that great oh goody but at least this musical despite not being on Broadway is really starting to gain traction among theater fans I've talked to a lot of people who say this is one of their favorite musicals a sentiment I've never heard expressed about frozen so there's that and I think a lot of this musical success not only comes from the expansion of the elements that made the movie a cult classic but the revision of certain aspects that we're done to make this a more compelling work of Arts it's not perfect I'm not a big fan of the core is narrating everything and also actually yeah that's my only big issue but I think at the center of these compelling changes is Claude Frollo because in stark contrast to what the movie has been telling me my entire life despite all of his awful tendencies Claude Frollo is truly human and that makes him an even greater monster than before so yeah turns out the movie Frollo isn't quite as compelling as we all thought maybe we can't call him the greatest Disney villain of all time because of this flaw I guess we'll have to give that distinction to a villain who has no flaws Tama Toa baby Oh that was his mistake

Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 1,879,076

Rating: 4.9408321 out of 5

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Frollo, Disney

Id: neCFEjf09I4

Length: 21min 38sec (1298 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2019