Plastic Doll with Toy Food

marzipanandminutiae:

prismatic-bell:

its-your-mind:

nadiaoxford:

cannonbarrage:

nadiaoxford:

I submit the intro for Hunchback of Notre Dame beats Circle of Life raw.

Especially since the former doesn’t have flocks of pink birds that immediately make me think, “Sure, Disney, you weren’t influenced at all by Osamu Tezuka. Tell us another one.”

This movie was surprisingly hardcore for a Disney retelling of Victor Hugo’s really screwed up story.

It also did a ton of great stuff with God and religion and Catholicism that somehow managed to still be about people and not bring “Why Religion Sucks” into the whole thing, which is aces.

One thing that surprises me is how well the animation has aged. Strangely enough, it looked weird at the time; we weren’t really used to traditional animation blended with computer backgrounds. But now that pretty much everything is computer animated, you can really appreciate how effin’ gorgeous the Cathedral backgrounds are.

Also, God Help the Outcasts is the most honest song featured in a Disney movie. “Honest” meaning it doesn’t feel manufactured specifically to be played in a suburbanite van ferrying kids to McDonalds. It’s raw, open, and genuine.

(Needless to say, there is nothing suburban about Hellfire, ho ho ho. Will we ever again see a Disney villain essentially sing, “Help me Mary, I have an unholy erection?”)

okay but NO DISNEY VILLAIN SONG has EVER gone or WILL ever go as fucking hard as Hellfire.

the fucking LATIN CHANTING IN THE BACKGROUND?

It’s not my fault!

(Mea culpa)

I’m not to blame.

(Mea cupla)

It was the gypsy girl, the witch who sent this flame!

(Mea maxima cupla)

the fucking LATIN CHANTING of the PENITENTIAL RITE the taken DIRECTLY from the ROMAN MISSAL? the STANDARD EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE professed aloud by all the members of the congregation during the ENTRANCE RITE of the CELEBRATION OF MASS???

I confess to almighty God

and to you, my brothers and sisters,

that I have greatly sinned,

in my thoughts and in my words,

in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,

through my fault (mea culpa), through my fault (mea cupla),

through my most grievous fault (mea maxima cupla);

therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,

all the Angels and Saints,

and you, my brothers and sisters,

to pray for me to the Lord our God.

A prayer meant to be IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED by absolution by the priest??????

May almighty God have mercy on us,

forgive us our sins,

and bring us to everlasting life.

Because the maxima cupla? The most grievous fault??? Is referring to Original Sin. A flaw passed down to humanity that we as individuals have never been able to control, that we are not expected to control on our own. It’s our job to try to do the right thing! But when we mess it up! We can just ask for forgiveness! Ask for help! And try again! Come back next Sunday! Say the same prayer! “Hey I fucked up and I’m real sorry and I don’t want to anymore! Please help!”

But! And this is critical! Frollo literally spends this entire song (and tbh the whole movie) rejecting the idea that he has ever done anything wrong ever, and so if he did, CLEARLY it MUST BE someone else’s fault.

It’s not my fault!

(Mea culpa)

If in God’s plan,

(Mea culpa)

He made the Devil so much stronger than a man!

(Mea maxima culpa)

(Fun fact, follows the same kind of finger-pointing as in the OG sin in Genesis 3 - Adam blames Eve (and also God - “the woman who you put here with me gave it to me, and so I ate”), and then Eve blames the Serpent “The serpent tricked me, and so I ate it.”)

It’s someone else’s fault, anyone else’s fault, but not Frollo’s. The prayer Frollo is parroting is a request for mercy (for wrongs done) and grace (to avoid wrongs in the future). It is a prayer that is built upon the understanding that the maxima cupla is yours, but you are not to blame. You need help to overcome it.

And so while Frollo may be praying the words of the Penitential Rite, he is fundamentally misunderstanding the function and meaning of the prayer. He is not asking for forgiveness. After all, his conscience is clear. He is a righteous man. It is what has been placed before him (“the woman whom you put here”) and the power of the Devil (“the serpent tricked me”) that have led him to this place.

OKAY BUT LISTEN THERE’S ANOTHER THING.

Quasimodo’s disability.

Back in the day I had one of those giant “the making of” books for this movie. THE ANIMATORS HAD TO FIGHT FOR HIS DISABILITY. Early on producers wanted him to wear his hair “in a beautiful spray over his face” to hide it, and didn’t want him to have a limp. THE RANK-AND-FILE ANIMATORS DEMANDED IT. There was actually a risk of it going into development hell because of it. It made him more difficult to animate and they still fought for it.

There’s a reason the animation in this movie went so hard. Even during development the animators knew they’d never get to do something like it again, and they made DAMN sure we knew what they could do if only they were allowed.

I also like that Hellfire comes right after Heaven’s Light- another song about a man desiring Esmeralda. making it clear that the problem isn’t desire; it’s possessiveness

it’s not without issues (see: leaning into some Romani stereotypes and using the G-word) but damn. that movie went hard

(via mousegard)