The Disney classic is the only animated film to receive an Oscar and Razzie Award nomination

If you needed more reasons to write off the Golden Raspberry Awards, which “honor” the worst films in any given year: In 1997, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame received a nomination for “Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million.” Of all the Disney movies you can submit for a Razzie Award, Did you choose one of the most daring and ambitious?

“Hunchback” also took home a less questionable honor at the Oscars: Best Original Musical or Comedy, an accolade well-deserved for Alan Menken’s composition and Stephen Schwartz’s lyrics.

“The Hunchback” also received 13 nominations at the animation-focused Annie Awards, the most nominations for any film that year. (Tony Jay, who was nominated for Best Achievement in Voice Acting, should have taken the win for his performance as the evil Judge Claude Frollo.) So, with all this praise, why Razzie? “Hunchback” directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise helped usher in the Disney Renaissance with “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991. That meant expectations were high, and “The Hunchback” didn’t meet them all.

In his contemporary review, Roger Ebert called it Best Disney movie since the last Trousdale & Wise. “I wondered if ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ could work as a Disney animated film,” Ebert opened before the review went on to explain how the film proved his doubts wrong. On the contrary, Janet Maslin in the New York Times He praised the efforts and passion of the filmmakers but mocked the film’s sentimentality and tonal contrast.

“There’s no way to entertain kids with a feel-good version of this story,” Maslin said, calling the film a “self-parody” of Disney trying to blend dark material with fairy tale songs. Razzie’s voters clearly sided with Maslin’s opinion. But for many others, it is this darkness that makes “The Hunchback” a flawed masterpiece. What keeps it “flawed” is that it should be a Disney movie.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is based on French author Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, which is named after its titular character, Quasimodo (Tom Hulse in the film), a disfigured man who rings the bells of the real Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Quasimodo was abandoned at birth and raised by Frollo. (In the film, Frollo kills Quasimodo’s mother and raises the boy as penance.) In the novel, Frollo is a priest, not a judge like the film. In both versions he is obsessed with the Roma girl Esmeralda (Demi Moore) who does just that no Return his wish. In the novel, Frollo’s lust is a descent into evil, while in the film he is truly evil and wants to exterminate the entire Romani population of Paris. Quasimodo misses Esmeralda very much, but she is in love with the handsome Captain Phoebus (Kevin Kline).

Hugo’s novel is a tragedy – a bleak tale with a dearth of sympathetic characters, from which no hope escapes. Disney specializes in G-rated children’s films, so changes were necessary to adapt “Hunchback.” There’s obviously a happy ending, and the main theme is turned into a kid-friendly lesson about not judging someone’s inner self by their physical appearance. Some controversial parts of the novel were deleted; Take for example how Frollo is still a religious fanatic, but not an actual agent of the church.

Frollo’s lust for Esmeralda is… no Sterile, anyway. His sinister song “Hellfire” sees him pleading with Beata Maria for guidance and mercy. The song ends with Frollo declaring that he will condemn Esmeralda to “the flames of this world and the next” if she does not submit to him. Compare One of Hulse’s earlier films, 1984’s “Amadeus.” – Frollo covets Esmeralda just as Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) covets Mozart’s (Hulsey) musical talent. Both Salieri and Frollo hate God because of the curse of wanting what they cannot have.

“Hellfire” gets a lot of (deserved) attention for how dark it isbut it’s just one beautiful song out of many. “Hunchback” contains some of Disney’s most comprehensive and mature songs. Quasimodo’s longing to see the world is felt in “Out There,” sung passionately by Hulse. In “God Helps the Outcasts,” Esmeralda (Heidi Mollenhauer replaces Moore) sings, asking God to give her people hope. The song contrasts her sincere and humble faith with other churchgoers who selfishly pray for their own gain, which is a bold message in a sweet song.

However, among those beautiful songs, there’s also the goofy “A Guy Like You,” in which Quasimodo’s (imaginary?) friends try to convince him to confess to Esmeralda.

Many identify gargoyles as the Problem with “hunchback”. They are Disney’s funny friends, similar to the talking furniture in Beauty and the Beast, who exist to keep children entertained at the expense of the film’s dramatic tone. In the oral history of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, “In the book and many of the movies, Quasimodo talks to gargoyles,” Trousdale explained. “And we thought: ‘This is Disney, we’re making a cartoon.’ And the gargoyle can respond.”

Al-Hakim added that they were You try To pepper the film with gargoyles, lest the picture be a “trough of despair.” Trousdale admitted that the negative reception to the gargoyles set him back a bit: “They’re a bit silly, and they undermine the appeal, but talking to friends who were kids at the time, they have nothing but fond memories.”

Are gargoyles a symptom of a deeper problem? Is the story of “The Hunchback” too incompatible with Disney’s style of storytelling? That may be what Razzie voters thought at the time, but the heights that “The Hunchback” reaches are as lofty as the cathedral itself. Have pity for those who cannot see them.