Three talking gargoyles and a hunchback

 

I must admit when watching a Disney animated feature film, I sometimes cringe because there are good ones like Aladdin and Mulan and then, there are bad ones like Pocahontas and The Return of Jafar. Every time I think about Pocahontas or The Return of Jafar, I get the willies because these films are bad. Thankfully, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (based off of Victor Hugo’s novel), is not one of those horrible Disney films. It’s not the best Disney film I ever saw, but at least, it has wonderful supporting characters in Hugo, Victor, and Laverne (see picture of the three stone gargoyles below) and one of the best villains that Disney has ever created, in Judge Claude Frollo (voice of Tony Jay). In fact, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is an example of what makes Disney so successful; likeable characters that are either objects or animals and a memorable villain who the audience despises.

Disney’s, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is about a deformed bell ringer named Quasimodo and his love for the beautiful Gypsy, Esmeralda who he must save from the clutches of the sinister, Judge Claude Frollo (see picture below). Joining Quasimodo, in protecting Esmeralda, are Hugo, Victor, Laverne, Phoebus (who also falls in love with Esmeralda), and Djali (Esmerald’s clever goat). While I think the love triangle between Qusimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus is interesting and charming, I believe that Quasimodo’s interaction with the three stone gargoyles (Hugo, Victor, and Laverne) and the cruelty of Judge Claude Frollo make the film work, so successfully.

Every time, I watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I always chuckle at the antics of the three gargoyles, Hugo, Victor, and Laverne. I think they provided the necessary comic relief needed, in what would otherwise, be a dark story for a Disney film without. Believe me, the original was not so happy. In fact, it was really dark and morose. I especially like the parts where the gargoyles convince Quasimodo to leave the bell tower, instead of staying in the tower and when they convince Quasimodo that he has a chance with Esmeralda, which the gargoyles do through singing ( “A Guy Like You” ), which is typical of Disney films. Without, the gargoyles providing Quasimodo companionship and support through songs and jokes, the film would fall flat like The Black Cauldron did.

The cruelty and ruthlessness of Judge Claude Frollo also adds to the appeal of the film because a good memorable villain’s job is to make the audience despise him and feel sympathetic towards the hero. This is especially true, when Frollo refuses to help Quasimodo out at the “Feast of Fools” after the crowd starts hurling things at him or when he lusts after Esmeralda. When Frollo sings “Hellfire,” it is very chilling and disturbing because it shows how obsess he is, with Esmeralda. The pinnacle of his cruelty comes when he tries to kill Quasimodo for rescuing Esmeralda; Frollo also reveals, at this point, that Quasimodo’s mother did not abandon him, but that he killed her. In the end, we cheer when Frollo fails to kill Quasimodo and meets his maker. 

Overall, Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, is a good example of what makes a Disneyfilm, so successful. The fact that the film has wonderful supporting characters like the three stone gargoyles (Hugo, Victor, and Laverne) and a memorable evil villain like Judge Claude Frollo, helps make the film a success, instead of a failure like The Black Cauldron was. In the end, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is a really well made Disney film.      

The little people inside your computer

Imagine, if a group of people were residing inside your computer and basically, doing all the normal stuff we do like eating at a local diner or riding a bicycle in a park. Think, this is crazy. You’re right, but in the world of Mainframe Entertainment’s (now called Rainmaker Entertainment) Reboot, however, there are whole cities with people living inside a computer just like mine and yours. Reboot is about the adventures of Bob the Guardian, Dot Matrix, Enzo Matrix, Frisket, and Phong (see list of characters) as they battle the evil autocratic Megabyte and his chaotic loving sister, Hexadecimal (see picture of both computer viruses below), who has a love/hate thing for Bob.

Reboot, which came out in 1994, is considered the first animated series to use computer graphics imagery or CGI, according to Wired.com’s article (written by Rogier van Bakel), “Before Toy Story there was Reboot.” When you first take a glimpse into the CGI world of  Reboot, you will see a world filled with lots of imaginative characters, computer related humor, and visually colorful graphics. Despite this though, Reboot does have a few kinks with regards to the animation in the early days (i.e. characters look either too block-like or not realistic and little or no shadow effects). A lot of these problems were rectified as the series progressed. In the end, Reboot is a charming series with lots of good characters and wonderful animation.

The episode, I selected is an episode, I really like because it highlights the creativity and imaginative storytelling of the series, really well. The episode is called Painted Windows and it starts out with Hexadecimal breaking into the Princple Office’s archives and stealing an old paint program to cause mischief and mayhem. Within a matter of  moments, Hexadecimal causes complete chaos to the city of Mainframe (the city where our heroes live) by flooding the streets with paint, turning Megabyte’s lair into a place to hold sun flowers and him into a jester (she also pastes Megabyte onto the sky), erases Phong’s face and replaces it with a green apple (Phong too, ends up pasted onto the sky), and Enzo ends up turning into a VidWindow (VidWindows act as a form of face-to-face communication).

Bob comes up with a plan to undo all the destruction that Hexadecimal has caused, by tricking her into giving an interview with Mike the TV (see picture below), while Bob quietly sneaks off and undoes all the problems. At the same time, Dot and Enzo head to the Princple Office and wait for Bob’s signal to break the link between the archives and Hexadecimal’s lair, where she is controlling the paint program. Hexadecimal, however, soon gets suspicious and realizes that she has been tricked and targets Bob.  When Bob sees her coming, he freaks out and uses the paint program to remove her mask, not realizing that by removing Hexadecimal’s mask, her powers become unstable and could obliterate Mainframe.

Realizing his mistake, Bob tries to use the paint program to re-paste Hexadecimal’s mask, but is thwarted by Dot, when she broke the link after Bob fixed all the mess that was done to Mainframe. Thinking quickly, Bob uses his key tool called Glitch to close the file that contains Hexadecimal’s mask and than copy and paste it back onto her face. The removal of the mask caused damaged to Hexadecimal’s already fragile mind and Bob decides to leave Mike the TV behind to keep her company.

Overall, Reboot is a fun and imaginative series filled with quirky characters, computer related humor, and visually colorful graphics. The episode, entitled, Painted Windows, in my opinion, does a good job at highlighting, the creativity and imagination of the series because of the use of computer based humor and colorful visuals, especially with regards to Hexadecimal hijacking a paint program and going wild with it, in Mainframe. In the end, I recommend Reboot for people who enjoy computers, good CGI animation, and lots and lots of humor.

I thought this video memorializing the late Tony Jay (voice of Megabyte and Judge Frollo from Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame) was very touching.