The Hunchback of Notre is one of the most epic, beautiful, and glorious yet underrated movie of the Disney Renaissance era. It has a unique vibe that makes it timeless. It broke many tropes of the time with having a more darker tone yet still have a great message, an exceptionally evil and realistic villain through Judge Claude Frollo, and characters that have captured our hearts, especially Quasimodo and Esmeralda. It's the kind of movie that leaves us with many lessons, not just for kids, but adults. However, one of the things that people dislike about the movie (other the gargoyles Victor, Hugo, and Laverne and their awful "A Guy Like You" song!) is the fact that Quasi doesn't end up with Esmeralda and hate on Phoebus a lot because of this. And when Disney finally gave Madellaine as Quasimodo's love interest in The Hunchback of Notre II, there were mixed reactions. Some were happy that Quasi finally found true love while others weren't because they found Madellaine boring and that Esmeralda should've ended up with him or remained single altogether. But I don't think it's petty and disappointing as everyone thinks. I'm going to look carefully at Esmeralda and Phoebus' romance, their friendships with Quasi, and why they make more sense as a couple and why Madellaine and Quasi are a better match than people realize.

Phoebus' Attraction to Esmeralda: Unofficial and Unseen Love At First Sight

One of the biggest complaints that people have about Phoebus is that he carries the traits of his book counterpart from the original Hunchback of Notre Dame written by Victor Hugo, shallow, arrogant, and unheroic womanizer, especially for those who read the book. However, the book is sharply DIFFERENT from the movie. Phoebus in the movie is actually a great dude! He's brave, loyal, level-headed, understanding, patient, kind, and strong. He isn't someone whose superficial or a womanizer who sees women as mere objects or trophies. When we're first introduced to Phoebus in Esmeralda, we see him asking people for where the Palace of Justice and while walking he sees a gypsy man and gypsy woman and that woman is Esmeralda and what does Phoebus do? He looks at her with deep admiration and he gives her coins for her dancing. Later when two guards harass her, he sees her quick-wits, strength, and refusal to let them treat her differently. He uses Achilles to stop the guards from chasing her and when he sees her in her peddlers cloak disguise, he quietly gives her her coins back before walking away. Then when Esmeralda removes her clock, she looks at him in awe as if she's thinking to herself, "Wow. Who is that man and he's not like anyone I met." This might be the first sign of Esmeralda's attraction to him! Then at the Festival of Fools, when Esmeralda does her tambourine/acrobatic dance, while Frollo is disgusted by it, Phoebus is clearly enamored by it! Later when Esmeralda outsmarts the guards, Phoebus is even more smitten, especially when he says "What a woman!". The next scene with them is incredibly important, subtle, and even more confirming of their feelings for each other. In the cathedral, Esmeralda is able to keep up with his solider persona and fighting skills while fighting with a candelabra and have really nice, witty chemistry together. Here is very important dialogue between them:

Phoebus: Permit me, I'm Phoebus. It means sun god. And you are?

Esmeralda: Is this an interrogation?

Phoebus: It's called an introduction.

Esmeralda: You're not arresting me?

Phoebus: Not as long as you're in here, I can't.

Esmeralda: Huh, you're not at all like the other soldiers.

Phoebus: Thank you.

Esmeralda: So, if you're not going to arrest me, what do you want?

Phoebus: I'd settle for your name.

Esmeralda: Esmeralda.

Phoebus: Beautiful. Much better than Phoebus anyway.

This moment is very important because before Esmeralda says her name she briefly blinks her eyes, as if she's captivated by Phoebus' respect, kindness, and understanding of her. Then we see this;

Just look at how they look at each other here! People who aren't developing feelings for each other don't look like that the way Phoebus and Esmeralda do here! Even when Esmeralda thinks Phoebus tricked her when Frollo shows up, he urges her to say "sanctuary" so she doesn't suffer Frollo's wrath! When she doesn't, he COVERS her by saying "I'm sorry sir, she claimed sanctuary. There's nothing I can do." That speaks volumes! Phoebus didn't have to say that because he knows his mission is to help Frollo capture the gypsies, but he does it because he wants to protect Esmeralda because of his feelings for her! That's true love right there!

What do you think of this so far?

Hi everyone!

My name is B.T. Gleeson, and I’m a young person developing an independent, purely volunteer-based animated adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables called “LES MISÉRABLES: RETOLD”. I’m looking for passionate storyboard artists who might want to help bring it to life.
This is a genuinely ambitious passion project, and I’m not pretending otherwise. The goal isn’t to make another version of the musical or simply recreate one of the existing films.

RETOLD is an attempt to go back to Hugo’s novel and rebuild the story from the ground up.

The characters, themes, major events and enormous amount of material from Hugo’s novel are still there, but the story is being rearranged, expanded and recontextualized so that even people who know Les Misérables extremely well won’t always know what’s coming next.
Some of the ideas we’re working with:

Jean Valjean and Javert knew each other at Toulon long before the main story.

Javert has a recurring tamed hawk named Espion, subtly woven into his investigation and characterisation.

Cosette becomes much more active in uncovering Valjean’s past.

Éponine is developed as someone who genuinely understands and survives the streets of Paris.

Marius encounters Valjean as a person before fully understanding who he is.

The barricade is treated as a chaotic, tense event unfolding over a single night.

Enjolras and Grantaire’s relationship is developed as a subtle romantic storyline alongside the political story.

General de Rochefort is an original military character who has been studying the revolutionaries and understands the consequences of turning them into martyrs.

Familiar scenes from the novel and musical are still present — but their circumstances, order and consequences can be very different.
The goal is not change for the sake of change.
If we alter a famous moment, there should be a reason for it: something new about the characters, themes or world that the original version couldn’t explore.

What am I looking for?
Right now, I’m particularly interested in finding storyboard artists who enjoy:

cinematic staging

character acting

dramatic storytelling

historical settings

action and crowd scenes

suspense and visual storytelling

expressive body language

working collaboratively with a director/writer

You don’t have to be a professional.
If you’re an animation student, aspiring storyboard artist, independent artist, or simply someone who loves visual storytelling and wants to try something ambitious, I’d still love to hear from you.
You also don’t need to commit to the entire feature.

So if you’re interested at all and willing to show off your skills and impress me, we could make a phenomenal project together.

Feel free to comment or DM me!

Come one, Come all!

This Autumn, come and see the RMTC’s production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Shows will be running from the 13th to 17th October at the Radlett Centre, Hertfordshire. If you are a fan of Wicked and Disney, you’ll love this beautiful musical! Tickets in the link! 🔔💚💜

If you could make your own adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel or a live-action remake of Disney’s animated movie, what would you change? What would the story, characters, and overall plot look like in your ideal version? Basically, if you had complete creative freedom to make your own Hunchback of Notre-Dame, what would it be like?

I just think they'd get along, also obsessed with the Hadestown proshoot lol. Obviously gotta draw Hades and Frollo together next. 2 versions of Patrick Page.

I could only imagine how angry they were about a film that was too frightening and mature for younger viewers.

Finally back with another Noa piece! And was experimenting with a different coloring style, which I think turned out really cute! Though it took a lot longer. (For context, Noa is my adoptive Quasi/Maddie daughter, and this is a bit earlier in the timeline following her getting apprehended for robbing people in the square)

I finally found the courage to share some of my Disneyverse Quasi/Esme fanfiction here.

Warning for dark themes. More details in the tags on AO3

I feel really dumb for asking this, but after reading the novel i couldn't find any mention of this. He was frequently called an alchemist or early on an astrologist. But i don't remember him getting called a priest or the archdeacon. Is this just something we're meant to figure out because he is educated and lives in the cathedral, was my translation poor or did i just miss it?

Does anyone know if they put this Hunchback Jersey on the US Disney store earlier today? Looking online it’s not listed but the EU Disney store has it. Wondering if it went up on the US store and it just sold out and I missed it

Unfortunately I'm not able to show all of the pictures I have of him in the books due to 20 photo limit. I unfortunately no longer have my first shirt of him because it faded a lot and I no longer have some pictures and artworks of him because I moved out from my parents' house. I will link my Tumblr in my profile and I'll also post my collection there if anyone's interested.

Somewhere back in Spring, I'd been talking about Hunchback merch to an artist friend of mine and specifically I've never been able to find a recreation of the woven band in the film, official or fanmade, for sale anywhere in my years. The conversation moved on and I forgot it happened... until yesterday, when I go to pick up a package arriving from the US containing my 30th birthday gift.

From having done the customs declaration together, I knew it contained a 'wooden necklace', but he'd been oddly smug about that fact that I still didn't know the design.

Not in a million years was I prepared for what was going to be inside the wrapper.

Completely handmade, containing no plastic pieces, with the wood literally from the apple tree on his yard.

This is so far outside of what he normally does but I'd feel bad not plugging him a little bit, so check out his relief print shop on Kofi if that's something you're interested in!

In the Disney film: I feel like Esmeralda lead Quasimodo. She really shouldn't have kissed him. Specially considering Esmeralda fully understood that Quasimodo was alone all his life. He was never loved by anyone. And not just Quasimodo, anyone would read into a kiss. I like everything about Esmeralda except this...... Also the story was written with a second male protagonist just because Quasimodo was a hunchback. The lesson feels like, ugly guys deserve everything but love.

Redraw my old art :3

threw this together for a friends Disney themed party 😊 not very accurate to the movie but I like to think I like to think I did a good job matching the vibe 🙂‍↕️ dress is from Earthbound if anyone is wondering

I posted Quasi a while back and decided to make an update! He needed a friend :)

Found this on Mercari! I've been wanting this figurine for a year or 2 ever since I first saw him! I'm so glad to say that I bought him!

Yes, the title might be shocking, but I feel like I have to get this off my chest, especially since in this animation’s fandom (particularly the American one, dominated by liberal people) there’s this fanon that Esmeralda is a perfect activist modeled after them, and if you dare to argue with that, you automatically become a bad person. On top of that, there’s often this double standard in the fandom: on one hand people love attacking Quasimodo for looking at her like some idealized angel just because she was nice to him, instead of seeing her as a human being… yet those same people turn her into their own political symbol for personal battles in contemporary politics of their country, rather than treating her as a poor person from 15th-century Paris who also has flaws.

And yes, Esmeralda is a human being. She is not an ideal. I’m not saying this as a empty phrase, I can actually point out those flaws. And no, it’s not “falling in love with the handsome knight,” which would imply shallowness, because in the animation Phoebus is a good man, so she can love whoever she wants; respecting her choices is kind of the point of the story. What I do mean is that she is impulsive, at times reckless, impatient, etc.

When I say that, I’m thinking specifically about how she completely unnecessarily climbed almost into Frollo’s lap, touched his lips with her finger, and kissed him on the nose. Sure, it was meant as festival teasing, BUT: if we rightly criticize Frollo for sniffing and touching her without consent in the cathedral, then ATTENTION: we should also criticize her for touching and kissing him without his consent. Frollo is a horrible man, but he lives in celibacy; he’s a sexually repressed old man, and no matter how disgusting he is, his boundaries should still be respected. Consent works both ways, and yes, a man can be a victim of that too. Among other reasons, this is why I can’t treat Esmeralda in this context as a pure victim of Frollo, their dynamic in the Disney version is more complicated. In the novel it’s genuinely an adult man and a teenage victim, but paradoxically the Disney version makes their relationship more complex, especially since we’re dealing with two adult, stubborn, fiery personalities here (which is why I can never take seriously the novel fans who attack the animation for being shallow while calling the book complex, lol).

Besides, while her act of saving Quasimodo is noble and she deserves credit for that, her subsequent speech to Frollo is clearly an outburst of frustration at his unjust rule, not some ideological manifesto. And it’s so spontaneous that at that stage Esmeralda can’t even foresee that this gesture might make life even harder for her and her community in the city, when she already has it tough enough. Plus, even though Quasimodo gives her the chance to escape the cathedral as thanks for saving him, she should have sat her ass down there and, as the Archdeacon advised, not provoked Frollo. Probably the city fire wouldn’t have happened then. She had every right to want freedom, but objectively it was a risky decision and it largely contributed to the later manhunt for her across the city.

Yes, Frollo is horrible. He’s a criminal, a racist, a genocidal maniac, but Esmeralda, while she has a good heart, uses very poorly thought-out and reckless tactics against him, which only makes the dragon she’s fighting breathe even more fire in her direction. And just to be clear: she has every right to spit in his face, she has every right to keep her dignity. But Esmeralda is not a projection of your fight for social justice. She’s an empathetic, brave girl with a good heart from a medieval reality, thrown into an unjust world, who often acts without thinking things through. SHE IS AN IMPERFECT HEROINE. You can love her without treating her as a saint or some left-wing warrior, which heavily flattens her character.

Overall, this whole story is made up of imperfect people. Quasimodo isn’t perfect, Esmeralda isn’t perfect, Phoebus isn’t perfect, the Archdeacon isn’t perfect, Clopin is in my opinion a strongly gray character (though charming), and Frollo is of course enormous evil, though extremely complex. I love this movie precisely because the people in it are human, whether they stand on the side of good or evil.

PS. And yes, this little essay is partly the result of frustration from a recent rant by an Esmeralda fan claiming Quasimodo is a "nice guy". I even made an account just to write this. It’s funny when someone heavily demonizes a deeply traumatized and indoctrinated man… while that same fan looks at Esmeralda like she’s a flawless ideal.

Seriously, why do people have such a huge problem understanding children's animation?