A Plot…of Sorts
I can’t get my head around this version. To get to the point, yes the Dingo Pictures version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is very bad. Anything that is “enjoyable” about it is because it crosses the line to so bad that it’s at least somewhat funny. Yet this version had someone, somewhere along the line who read the book and recalled enough of it to make an oddly fairly faithful adaptation.
So yes, it’s bad but they kept to the book, so one whole point, I guess, if fidelity matters. Now they most likely kept to the book because adapting to a different medium does require a lot of thought and effort and that was not so much the aim of Dingo Pictures. I would say cheap expediency was the name of the game. So they followed the book with little to no thought to how the story worked in animation.
Some key differences between the book and this adaptation
The first key difference is Frollo is not lusting after Esmeralda. He hates her because she’s pretty, popular and distracting. This change could be a way to simplify the story and the character. It easier if his hate can be explain is a few lines of dialogue and zero visuals. And maybe this solely in the English dub and is different in the original German. I do not speak German so I do not know. Also Frollo is an Abbé which is just a low-ranking priest and not the Archdeacon.
Another difference is Quasimodo’s arrest. He is arrested when a random lady accuses him of attacking her. Which is really ridiculous because of limits of the animation, the lady in question and Quasimodo never even share the same frame. Again this just a simplification.
There are a few notable characters missing. First off there is not Phoebus. There is a blond solider but he’s a nameless extra. Since there is no Phoebus there is not Fleur de Lys unless Fleur de Lys is the name of the old lady that accused Quasimodo of attacking her.
And another big different is the ending. Esmeralda leaves Paris with Gringoire after reuniting with her mother. Quasimodo is arrested this time for killing Frollo and is left to rot in jail. It’s a downer ending even though Esmeralda gets away, Quasimodo is left alone to die in a jail cell.
The Story is more or less there
If I’m being nice, this is more like animated storybook. It steam rolls through the story without any subtly, nuance or characterization. Characters will just exposit information and when they can’t the narrator does it.
This expositing of information does make Esmeralda seem level-headed as she says that she is not in love with Gringoire as she doesn’t know him and he doesn’t know her. Her saying this just an excuse to artlessly say her backstory. This version of the few versions to have Gudule a.k.a. Sachette and the only version that Esmeralda knows of her mother’s existence. It doesn’t really factor into any character moments it’s just there because it’s easier that way.
Ultimately what we have here is a “more or less” version of the Hunchback.
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