Category: musical

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

30 Mar 2021

I’m not a diehard Disney fan, so I don’t know what I’d call my absolute favorite Disney movie (The Lion King, Aladdin, and Tangled are definite contenders for that place), but The Hunchback of Notre Dame – an achievement that’s both baffling and brilliant – is the one whose existence fascinates me the most.

Cinematically, the film takes my breath away more than any other Disney movie, from the art style to the visual scope to the grandiose musical score filled with actual Latin chants to the riveting musical numbers to the wonderfully rendered characters. A romance that leaves a sympathetic third party heartbroken is audacious enough for Disney, but… Themes of prejudice, attempted genocide, the corrupting powers of lust and pride, religious hypocrisy… While Disney is often darker than it’s usually given credit for, how on earth did they think this would fit their brand, and how on earth did it get away with a G rating?

Still, I admire Disney’s audacity to go this mature, and although the juvenile humor, from the slapsticky bits to the gargoyle sidekicks, is an intrusion upon that tone, I’m not above laughing with it.

Yet, while I understand that Disney tones down the book’s critique of the Catholic Church (and makes the ending much happier, as Disney usually does for the stories they adapt), this is still Disney’s most divisive film within Catholic circles, with no wide agreement on whether it’s pro-Catholic or anti-Catholic.

This version does present the clergy and Notre Dame itself as forces for good, with God’s might being shown through the cathedral itself especially, but the archdeacon who at times influences the characters has too minor a presence, there isn’t a prominent good character as explicitly Catholic as the hypocritical Judge Frollo to counteract his twisted ideas, the apparent witchcraft the gypsies use goes unchallenged by the heroes, and although Esmeralda’s attractiveness is essential to the story, her sensuousness could have been toned down (even then, the vision of her dancing in the villainous “Hellfire” number had to be toned down to get the film a G rating… That’s the only line they drew at giving it a G rating?!).

In the end, the story is less a call to lead people to Christ and more a call to tolerate them, and while I wouldn’t call it persuasively anti-Catholic, I wouldn’t call it persuasively pro-Catholic either.

Although I have conflicting feelings about it on a thematic level, it’s like how I feel about video games like Zelda and Ori despite my gripes about their spiritualities: there’s so much in Hunchback that I love on a cinematic and emotional level that it’s nonetheless one of my favorite Disney movies. Although if its pro-Catholic elements were expanded upon, it would be one of those contenders for my absolute favorite.

T.’S GRADE: B-

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

1 Mar 2018

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There was a time in the 90s where Disney inspired every other studio to make an animated musical. While Disney was part of my childhood, it wasn’t to the extent where I look back on their movies in high regards (which I’m actually glad about), even if thematically questionable Disney movies can impress me on a technical level. So, to me, the thought of another studio from that era out-doing Disney at their own game is not a stretch, and the studio that did this was newly founded Dreamworks with what Disney itself rejected pitches for, The Prince of Egypt, an adaptation of the Book of Exodus that results in not only the most ambitious animated musical of its era but probably the most historically accurate (as opposed to other historical musicals like Disney’s Pocahontas and Mulan and Fox’s Anastasia).

Of course, it’s not without creative liberties, especially with how cool it makes Moses. Moses not only has the confidence to speak for himself (as he does in most Exodus adaptations), but his confidence comes from the support of Miriam and Tzipporah, with Aaron, Moses’s spokesperson in scripture, being reduced to a foil to the trio voiced by Jeff Goldblum; it’s not that Jeff Goldblum’s acting style isn’t awesome in its own way, but it would be more fit for a biblically accurate Moses who needed someone to speak for him. As a biblical adaptation, it conflicts me in some ways, but as an animated Hollywood musical, it astounds me.

One creative liberty that adds to the emotional impact is making Moses’s relationship with his fictional pharaoh brother Ramses its heart, with Ramses making for a layered antagonist. The musical numbers work brilliantly to abridge the story, with not a single dud in the soundtrack; “Deliver Us” and “The Plagues” are particular showstoppers. Although the CG effects transposed with the phenomenal cell animation look stiff and muddy by now, the spectacle they create is jaw-dropping for its time, with the Burning Bush sequence especially still retaining its emotional and visual power. The film doesn’t shy away from darker aspects of the story either, although the film doesn’t go further than a final image of Moses preparing to carry the Ten Commandments down Mount Sinai because, well, what happens after that would be hard to make family friendly. I like to think that this film is the reason why Disney started a hiatus from musicals the following year.

T.’S GRADE: A-

The Greatest Showman (2017)

25 Jan 2018

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If done poorly, a musical can embarrass me like no other movie genre (i.e. John Huston’s Annie); if done well, a musical can lift my spirits like no other movie genre. The Greatest Showman falls into the latter; it’s the best musical I’ve seen since Les Miserables (Frozen, Moana, and La La Land are the only other ones I can remember seeing since), which also happens to star Hugh Jackman.

Alas, it’s because it glosses over shocking details about its subject’s, P.T. Barnum’s, actual story to transmogrify it into something uplifting that I’m really torn on it. It’s not that there’s no record of the man who invented the circus doing any good, but he used showbusiness to scam audiences and exploit people in degrading and racist ways; the film touches upon his darker side, but in a sugar-coated, family-friendly way that allows him to eventually get redeemed of it. Of course, this is on top of how the film abridges his life story, makes his American Museum out to be a flop, and gives him a fictional business partner.

On its own terms, it had me smiling the whole way through with its thrilling choreography, stylish storytelling, and revisitable soundtrack that was off-puttingly poppy for the context until it soon grew on me. Still, when that joy comes at the expense of the real story’s spirit, I’m not sure how highly I can appraise or recommend it.

T.’S GRADE: C+

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

4 Jan 2018

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The Wizard of Oz is the grandfather of movies that virtually everyone knows, more known than Star Wars or even most Disney movies (speaking of which, it was made initially in response to Disney’s Snow White), whether it delighted or traumatized young impressionable viewers. Since one of my parents hates to even be reminded of it to this day (apologies to them in case they come across this post), a lot of my childhood experience with The Wizard of Oz was in private, and it wasn’t until a couple years ago where I rediscovered it for the first time in a decade. I’ve now made a tradition of it being the first movie I watch every year.

Although its dated production design gives off the vibe of a stage production, it’s still pure movie magic. It’s unfortunate how a film that has brought so much joy to generations of viewers was anything but a joy for its stars to work on, whether it was due to the insufferable makeup or the manners of the crew. Not to mention, studio demands caused all of the songs in the third act to be cut and preserved on soundtracks.

Still, this is one classic case of a troubled production resulting in a timeless icon. It’s the type of movie that means so much to me that I don’t know how to do it justice. What I can say is that it’s one of the pinnacle films that remind me of why I love movies: the whimsy, the hilarity, the frights, and the nostalgia. While I wouldn’t call it my favorite movie of all time, it’s certainly close; no movie, not even Lord of the Rings (my true top contender), can make me feel like a kid again quite like this, and that’s partly because its famous philosophy, “There’s no place like home,” is a celebration of the place where one grows up.

T.’S GRADE: A