The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Video 1996) - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Video 1996) - User Reviews

3/10

bonniejoy-978-6876329 May 2016

Warning: Spoilers

Wow. Just wow! I didn't think something could be worse than The Secret of the Hunchback or even Disney's Hunchback 2. Yes, you heard me right. These two atrocities are masterpieces in comparison with this film.

The story is about the gypsy Melody (get used to the name changes) and her magical talking instruments. Yes, this is for real. Jean-Claude (not Frollo) wants to kill her for turning him down and Quasimodo (surprised they even kept that name) does as little as he can to save her while the musical instruments do the saving.

Where do I start with it? First off, it's clearly a ripoff of the Disney classic, except done worse. Worse as in careless writing, lazy animation, unlikable characters, ear slitting songs, shoehorned morals, and a sappy ending. I know Disney does happy endings (mostly), but this is sappy in comparison to what Disney does. Disney always had a way of making well deserved endings thanks to the often careful writing. The ending in here was not at all earned. Second, the comedy is terrible. Most of it revolves around the joking bats and the talking musical instruments and none of them are funny. They are the exact equivalent of waving keys in front of a child's face and avoiding the plot. Why is it that writers don't realize that kids will get anxious for the plot to move forward? Do they seriously think they are that stupid?

And last but not least, Quasimodo's not at all hideous. I could just punch the creators of this film for saying that, really I could! Every adaptation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney included, would confirm the book's theme that Quasimodo's the ugliest creature ever: hunched over, blind in one eye, one foot shorter than the other, and deaf. In this version, the only ugly thing about him is his bangs are in front of half his face. I'm not even kidding. Literally, all they do at the end is brush back his bangs and he looks "handsome" and shoehorn the theme that looks don't matter anymore. Wow, that is so hypocritical and most likely damaging to a viewer's self esteem as well as throwing Victor Hugo's ghost into a violent rage.

If fans of the Victor Hugo novel are angry at Disney for slightly G rating the novel, I would hope that it would be forgivable in comparison to this. This had absolutely no respect for kids' intelligence and completely missed the point of both the Disney adaptation and the Victor Hugo novel.

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2/10

A really awful adaptation

darkghost340017 June 2015

Warning: Spoilers

Let's go, this is one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen in my life! Where could I begin? There is not story to be told. The storyline is completely shallow. What happens? A girl who is haunted by a cheesy villain because she uses magic. That was supposed to happen because it was considered witchcraft, not because a Gaston wannabe (He is a blatant copycat of Gaston of Disney's Beauty and the Beast) wanted to be a killjoy. The dialog is really cheesy! The romance between Quasimodo and Esmeralda was truly forced and rushed. They just did reunite in the cathedral once and quickly they decide to marry her. The characters are terrible. The characters who aren't bad, like Quasimodo, aren't a big deal. The worst of everything was that talking bats and that living instruments, because they only delayed the "plot" with their unfunny, obvious comments and have little if any importance in the storyline. The villain is ludicrous. Composing Phoebus, the Frollo bros. and Gaston was not a good idea, because it was not believable at all. The villain had not reasons to act in that way. The artwork is decent, but there is a big problem. We are told rather than shown that Quasimodo is (or was) ugly, and Quasimodo is (or was) just deformed, not ugly. Talking about enjoyment, this film was irritating and cheesy. I laughed for reasons I shouldn't, namely the bad writing of everything. The animators of this lousy film had done some good works, but this film is definitely not one of these.

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3/10

Yet another childhood favourite that doesn't hold up

TheLittleSongbird29 August 2012

Golden Films have done some animations I've loved like Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, The Christmas Elves, The Night Before Christmas and Princess Castle, but also have done some I've not liked like Tarzan of the Apes, The Jungle King and Anastasia. Sadly, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one that I didn't like as well. It is not completely terrible, the classical music was great, the Toreador Song was fitting as the villainous-looking character makes his very "look at me and pay attention" sort of entrance, the bats were cool and Esmeralda is a nice, sympathetic character. However, the animation is terrible, the character design lack any kind of fluidity in their movements and the colours are often over-saturated. The songs are forgettable at best and I didn't care for Esmeralda's singing voice, very breathy and sometimes out of tune, there is one very unexpected note that she completely misses and the orchestration that doubles her makes that all too obvious. The writing is cheesy and doesn't flow very well from one line to the next, the story constantly feels rushed and is too much of a love story with little genuine sense of conflict. The talking instruments add absolutely nothing to the story either. Of the characters, only Esmeralda and the bats have any sense of likability. Quasimodo is never grotesque or poignant enough and sounds too much like a playboy, while the villain is stereotypical both in appearance and voice, complete with a very unidiomatic accent, and is a blatant rip-off of Gaston but with a moustache. In conclusion, Golden Films have made some worthwhile stuff, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is not one of them. Stick with the Burbank Films Australia or Disney versions instead. 3/10 Bethany Cox

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1/10

No...

rain_bow9515 May 2019

Warning: Spoilers

No. Just no. I was into watching rip off movies and I came across this one because the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of my favorite animated movies of all time. It came out during my baby days and I stayed with my whole life because of good story, the incredible characters, the incredible songs and music, etc. I even watched many of the other adaptations, many of them being upsetting due to them being closer to the Victor Hugo novel. But it was still fun watching the other versions.

But this...this movie is trash. For one this, this movie is extremely disrespectful to the book. Nothing about this movie relates to the book at all. The characters are all trash. Melody (RIP off Esmerelda) is a lame as hell character who has talking musical instruments following her around for some damn reason. The instruments and Melody have more damn lines than the rest of the characters combined because the movie is always cutting to them!! There's bats in the bell tower that never move from their spot, the scene never changes as it is always daylight in their background despite some scenes being nighttime (that's exactly how I explained it), and their jokes...my God their jokes are AWFUL!!!! Pierre is nothing like the character from the book, looks like something you'd see as a cookie brand mascot. Jean Claude (Frollo/Gaston rip off) is literally constant screaming Gaston. And Quasimodo is the lamest damn title character I have ever seen. Because he's so lame, I forgot many times he was in the movie. In addition, Quasimodo does not even look ugly. He looks like he is part of flipping One Direction or the Jonas Brothers...the animators worked "hard" to make the supposed ugly on the outside character, handsome on the outside. So the villagers look even more ass because they are freaked out just by him having a hump...There's probably more characters but who cares they all suck too.

There's about 3 songs in the movie. Long story short, they are all garbage.

The animation is pretty awful as well. I've seen bad animated movies that looked rushed and/or weren't trying. This movie has both of those. There were plenty of obvious errors that could be seen by anyone whether they are EVEN looking for the errors or not. The animation is pretty very sloppy and choppy. The character lip syncs are always very off. Some characters talk without opening their mouths. There are many scenes where the animation randomly cuts right in your face (like an arm is there then it's not in a couple of frames), and it looks awkward and bad. Most notably and the most obvious, the resuing of animation. The same animation was used (starting from that ass of a song at the beginning of the movie to the end) was used at least 4 or 5 times throughout the movie!!

Then there's the story. There is no story. There's just some obvious Gaston-looking ass villian complaining about people illegal dancing and playing music in Paris and he keeps going after Melody. She escapes to the church and quickly hit it off with fake Quasimodo. Then later she is kidnapped and about to be executed but Quasimodo saves her from execution. Then suddenly he becomes handsome...as in his hair moves out his face and his back is straightened handsome. Melody supposedly has magic that makes inanimate things come to life but it is never explained so it makes no sense. The story is extremely disrespectful to the book and pretty much to the other adaptations. While they all weren't the same, they still were able to make the point that ugliness on the outside does not define how one is on the inside. This movie way off that moral. Quasimodo is only considered ugly because of his back, but is in general, a handsome character. Makes no sense because that means the characters hate and fear him for what could be considered a disability (I know 14th-15th century setting but still...this guy is called a "monster"). But the ending when he suddenly became even more handsome out of nowhere and Melody says "You look so handsome," that was incredibly baffling and made me extremely angry. Golden Films wanted to get this out the same time as the Disney movie, but even Disney knew the story they were adapting from. All Golden Films knew is that there is a deformed (might be an overstatement since their character is NOT DEFORMED) bellringer in the bell tower of Notre Dame, kept from the outside world because of his looks. That's all there is in the movie. There's nothing of who Quasimodo's "parent(s)" are, there has never been a priest seen in the movie, there is no Phoebus, there is no...dark, mature scenes, there's nothing that makes this movie relatable to the book...or even to anyone in general.

I get these movies were made for kids, but to be honest I would not let any children watch this film. The animation sloppy, the characters are either annoying, boring, or unlikable (or all of the above), the music is too annoying, and there is no message at all. Everything that happened the last few minutes was so terribly put together that finding out what the moral is is not likely. I would not waste time making sense of anything in this movie because if will never make actual sense. The Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a way better movie to watch. Yes it's darker and more mature, but so is the book, and I appreciate Disney for putting together what I think is one of greatest 2D animated films of all time.

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1/10

The worst thing I have EVER seen!

spyroman2 April 2017

If I were allowed to give this lower than a 1, this movie gets a 0 out of 10 from me. To make a long story short, there is absolutely no redeeming this movie! Everything is wrong to a point where it is virtually unwatchable. It's all the more shameful that it is a rip off of the Disney version made in the same year!

I will not spoil any plot lines, but the things in this movie that are uniquely awful in this movie ranges from the inconsistent voice acting, the constant reuse of animation, the actual story is so bad it made me physically ill, and the editing is the worst you will ever see in any medium! I have never seen a movie edited so sloppily in all my life. Characters will teleport all over the environment, shots jump between entire buildings, the scene continuity is HORRIBLE, and the shots literally change from night to day in between shots for no reason. The film even resorts to flipping shots horizontally and reusing multiple scenes to cut back on animation costs! The voices are also as inconsistent as the editing. Some animals have awful human voices, and sometimes they use actual animal sounds other times.

The story will not be spoiled like I said before, so to sum it up without diving in, this movie changes plot lines from the Disney version, and the changes are really bad! It got to a point where it was so bad, my stomach was churning. It also has songs, but they aren't anything special. They just make the movie longer while showcasing the editing problems I mentioned before.

This isn't even so good its bad! This is just shameful! It's clearly a pandering cash in on the Disney version, but it is so carelessly made that it makes me wonder if anybody working on it even cared! Nobody tried, nobody looked into fixing the flaws, and this is what they got! This "movie" is an insult to the film industry, and Golden Films can take the cake for one of the worst production studios I have come across!

Again, this website will not let me give this movie a 0 out of 10, so I am forced to give it a 1 against my will, and that's too generous a score! this movie gets my personal rating of 0 out of 10!

Seriously, unless you have literally nothing to lose, do not watch this trash! Its truly embarrassing, and shame to the people responsible for not bothering to try! I would rather watch Disney's Hunchback 2 than this!

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1/10

Bad bad movie

murphdog123426 April 2020

Don't waste your time with this trash RIP off. Watch the Disney version instead. The superior version

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10/10

Awesome!

desmondkyle17 June 2022

I actually say this as someone who has enjoyed most of Golden Films' animations. The New Adventures of The Hunchback Of Notere Dame did work for me Perfectly And Am So Satisfy With The Movie Because It's Full Of Good Music And Stunning Characters Well If You Haven't Try This Before You Better Go Ahead And Try This Now! Because It's Literally Fun.

Best Of Luck Guy's.