THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996) ** It's probably for the best that Victor Hugo doesn't have to see this. I mean, there is such a thing as great literature, and there is such a thing as cartoons. Great literature is the one that doesn't lend itself to twenty minute explication in two minute segments interrupted by ten minutes of horrible Broadwayesque song muzak. Hugo's skeleton plot is enough to somewhat save such a thing, but it's criminal that it was put in position to do so. Some of the animation is nice, not historic but well done, particularly the cathedral in question. Demi Moore's voice sounds suspiciously beach-laden coming from Barbie Doll Gypsy. But enough Californication, what was Hugo trying to say? Esmerelda seems more of a prize, or a spirit, than a character. Notre Dame was built in the wake of the crusades, a monument to the feminine (spiritual) ideal, and above the ruins of a temple of Diana. The passion aroused by Esmerelda is clearly central to the dynamic. Of course Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake in the shadow of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the flames are apparent and permeate the film treatment. It has even been written (before now) that Victor Hugo was Grand Master of the ultra-shadowy and conspiratorial Priory of Sion. Of course you can write anything. So, they're subconsciously telling the youth of the world that...what? That the heathen feminine sensual ideal (in some mystical format), liberated by Knights Templar from the Holy Land to Notre-Dame, has once again been lifted and now resides in Hollywood? Sounds like a great plot for a pompous and portentous cartoon (or film review seeking to untangle a great mystery in the second half of 250 words), if they can just make sure that no one writes songs for it.
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