The Hunchback Of Notre Dame Disney / Tropes A to C

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) Trope Examples
A - C | D - G | H - N | O - Z

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• 0% Approval Rating: The only love Judge Frollo receives in Paris is from his own Mooks. Everywhere else, just about everyone despises him, but it's not until he attempts to burn Esmeralda at the stake, and subsequently attacks Notre Dame to retrieve her from Quasimodo, that the citizens finally rebel against him.
• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: This was the first and only Disney film to use computer animation to animate the crowds. It is especially jarring in closeups when you notice their faces.

A

• Abled in the Adaptation: Quasimodo is certainly not deaf in this version. The change was presumably made to ease communication between him and the other characters.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Near the climax, Frollo pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda on the balcony of Notre Dame, all the while cleanly slicing through stone gargoyles attempting to slash at them.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: While searching for the Court of Miracles, Phoebus and Quasimodo descend into the Paris Catacombs, a network of spacious tunnels lined with countless skeletons; which Phoebus complains is flooded with ankle-deep sewage water.
• Acting Unnatural: When Quasimodo is entertaining Frollo, all the while desperately hoping he doesn't notice the wounded Phoebus hidden under the table, Frollo suspiciously points out that Quasimodo hasn't eaten any of his dinner. Quasi nervously shoves a handful of grapes into his mouth and almost chokes on them.
• Action Girl: Esmeralda openly insults Frollo and his guards, can outrun and outwit many soldiers (even if they are rather stupid), and is shown to have better-than-average combat skills when she fights Phoebus. While at the stake facing certain death, she spits in Frollo's face and gives him a Kubrick Stare when he tells her, "Choose me or the fire."
• Actor Allusion:
  • During "A Guy Like You", the gargoyles put wigs on Quasimodo. The wigs are similar to the ones his voice actor Tom Hulce wears in Amadeus.
  • Demi Moore starred in Striptease in the same year Hunchback came out; there too she played an exotic dancer who brings down a man in power.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Disney's version heavily changes the ending of the story - in the original Victor Hugo novel, both Esmeralda and Quasimodo die; in the Disney version, they both survive, Esmeralda marries Phoebus and Quasimodo gets accepted by the society. Interestingly, the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of the Disney movie brings back the Downer Ending.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Played with. The book basically lists Quasimodo's deformities^note "We shall not attempt to give the reader an idea of that tetrahedron nose- that horse-shoe mouth- that small left eye over-shadowed by a red bushy brow, while the right eye disappeared entirely under an enormous wart- of those straggling teeth with breaches here and there like the battlements of a fortress- of that horny lip, over which one of those teeth projected like the tusk of an elephant- of that forked chin- and, above all, of the expression diffused over the whole-that mixture of malice, astonishment, and melancholy." and then tells the reader to gather what the combination looks like from there. The Disney character designers clearly did, almost to a T- but figured out a way of making the results adorably homely rather than monstrous.
• Adaptational Context Change: Here, Quasimodo's pillory scene occurs during the Feast of Fools, a result of the fickle mob suddenly turning against him. In the original novel, this scene took place the next day, and it was Quasimodo's punishment for having attempted to kidnap Esmeralda on Frollo's orders.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In the book, Phoebus is a womanizing Jerkass who gets no comeuppance for letting it be believed he was killed by Esmeralda, only "punished" by having an implied Awful Wedded Life with Fleur-de-Lys. Here, he's decent to start, and pushed from being a loyal soldier into a revolutionary who opposes Frollo whenever he can.
  • The film makes the Romani more sympathetic than in the book, omitting the reveal that a group of them kidnapped Esmeralda as a baby from her French birth mother.
  • Frollo's lie that Quasimodo's mother abandoned him as a child was actually the case in the book. Here, in her only scene, Quasimodo's mother flees when Frollo tries to take her baby and begs for sanctuary in Notre Dame.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • While still a heroic character, book Quasimodo was much more asocial and inclined to violence, displaying a softer side only toward Frollo and Esmeralda due to them being the only human beings to treat him somewhat decently. This incarnation pretty much is a Nice Guy with no resent or animosity toward anyone.
  • Also in the novel, Clopin is an extremely violent and roguish cad who is an Anti-Hero at his best. Here, he's a colorful, over-the-top jester (outside of the Court of Miracles, at least).
• Adaptational Protagonist: Believe it or not, Quasimodo was never supposed to be the main character of the novel Notre-Dame de Paris. The actual protagonists of Victor Hugo's work are Pierre Gringoire (who functions as an Author Avatar), Esmeralda, Claude Frollo (a much more complex character than later portrayals), Phoebus Chateaupers and the cathedral itself (which is elaborately described in a chapter halfway through the book). They all interact with Quasimodo, but he barely gains plot relevance until the climax (possibly the only part most people know of, Disney movie or not). This is also the reason why Victor Hugo despised the title of the first English translation: it puts emphasis on the wrong character and undermines the importance of the rest of the above-mentioned cast.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Frollo was definitely an antagonist in the original story, he was still a sympathetic character who had genuinely good qualities, and only became evil due to being driven insane by his lust for Esmeralda. Due to Disney's general aversion to moral ambiguity, the movie removes all of Frollo's good qualities and gives them to the Archdeacon, resulting in a portrayal of pure evil. This is perhaps best seen in his relationship with Quasimodo. In the book, Frollo adopted him when nobody else would, genuinely caring for him and keeping him out of sight due to justified fear of how the outside world would treat him. In this portrayal however, Frollo killed Quasi's mother when he was just a baby, and then tried to drown him because of his deformity. Frollo only adopts the hunchback because he fears God's punishment, and even then, he treats him like shit and later tries to kill him.
• Adapted Out: Gringoire, Jehan Frollo, Fleur-de-Lys, Sister Gudule, and King Louis XI are all absent from this version. Gringoire's role in the plot has been mostly given to Phoebus, so he's not really necessary. The King is said to be away fighting in the wars, so this allows Frollo to have full control of the city.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Why her smoldering eyes still scorch my soul?"
• Aerith and Bob: Victor, Hugo, and... Laverne. The first two double as Shout-Out Theme Naming, to Victor Hugo obviously.
• All-Loving Hero:
  • The Archdeacon extends the same compassion to the despised and the deformed as he does to everyone else.
  • Esmeralda. If her singing of "God Help the Outcasts" doesn't fit the bill, her treatment of Quasimodo does.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Frollo and his men invade the Court of Miracles after he tricks Quasimodo into revealing its location.
• Amazon Chaser: Watching Esmeralda single-handedly trounce Frollo's guards makes Phoebus exclaim "What a woman!" despite nearly being decapitated.
• Ambiguously Brown: Due to her literary counterpart having been an example of Ambiguously Brown, it is uncertain if this portrayal of Esmeralda is truly a Race Lift or still an example of Roma by adoption with her backstory having been cut.
• Amusing Injuries: During the siege of Notre-Dame, Victor throws a brick that lands square on a soldier's head, and we even sink his neck and head sinking into his armor (read: torso) as a result. This is treated as a joke and seen by audiences only as painful, but in real life it would be instant death.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • This film gets a tobacco warning on Disney+ due to Esmeralda's use of a tobacco pipe in a disguise—despite tobacco being a New World crop that Europe wouldn't learn about for at least another decade. Quasimodo gets hit with tomatoes, and pumpkins are also seen at the Feast of Fools. These too are both New World crops.
  • Oddly enough, the use of the arquebus is not included in this adaptation, presumably because a musket would've looked too modern, despite the fact that it had existed for nearly 50 years by the time the story is set.
  • The fuchsia elements of Clopin's jester outfit wouldn't be possible in 15th century Europe. Not because there was no natural dye to make that color, mind. While fuchsia dye became available synthetically in the 19th century, it was possible to dye things a natural fuchsia color using cochineal in the Americas, long before Europeans arrived on the continent. It's because—like pumpkins and tomatoes—cochineal was also from the New World and wouldn't have been accessible in France until the 1600s.
  • The powdered wig wouldn't come into use in mainland Europe until the early 17th century, yet Clopin has one as part of his "lawyers and judges" costume.
  • Laverne (the gargoyle). That name was patched together in the USA in the 19th century, there's no chance it could've been heard in France in the 15th century.
• Angry Mob Song: "The Court of Miracles" is sung primarily by Clopin, but it includes all the people in the court, and they're all angry at Frollo.
• Animal Metaphor:
  • The scene where Frollo squashes an entire ant colony with a stone slab is a metaphor for his genocidal plans to kill the gypsies. He's been killing Gypsies one-by-one over the years, but has been unsuccessful in finding the Court of Miracles.
  • The Roma who inhabit the Court of Miracles (including Clopin) liken themselves to "hornets protecting their hive" in their zeal in protecting their haven.
• Annoying Arrows: It takes one shot to down the armoured Phoebus, though not long after being downed by the arrow (approximately a couple hours in movie-time), he's fine. The wound was cleaned, stitched and still hurts him, but he's using the affected muscles to catch falling hunchbacks with no difficulty.
• Answer to Prayers: the Villain Song "Hellfire" is a two-part monologue sung by Frollo as a prayer to the Virgin Mary. He begs her to free him from the spell of the Gypsy witch Esmeralda and send her to Hell "or else let her be his and his alone ". Immediately after he delivers that line, one of Frollo's guards opens the door to his lord's chambers and reports that Esmeralda has left the cathedral. Frollo replies by promising he'll find her even if he has to burn Paris to the ground. Despite not being openly stated, this sudden occurrence is implied to have a symbolic meaning: the Virgin Mary offers Frollo the chance to give up his obsession over Esmeralda, but the villain rejects the divine sign and sets course for the path which, courtesy of a fiery Disney Villain Death, will lead him to eternal damnation.
• Anti-Hero: Esmeralda is a Knight in Sour Armor (jaded but still acts heroically) while Clopin is an Unscrupulous Hero (happy to kill perceived enemies).
• Any Last Words?: Clopin, while preparing to hang Quasi and Phoebus in a parody of Frollo's court. When they can't say anything due to being gagged, he quips, "That's what they all say."
• Apologetic Attacker:
  • Phoebus tries one on Esmeralda, while she has him pinned to the floor with his own sword at his throat, and it works!
  • Victor goes so far as to cover his eyes as he drops a single brick on a soldier from atop the cathedral. After it impacts, he peeks over the edge of the cathedral and calls down an apology.
• Arc Words:
  • "Sanctuaryyyyyy!!!!!!!"
  • "Who is the monster, and who is the man?"
  • "Kyrie eleison, kyrie eleison..."
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Phoebus is told by Frollo to burn down an innocent family's house with them inside.
  Phoebus: With all due respect, sir, I was not trained to murder the innocent.
  Frollo: But you were trained to follow orders!
• Artistic License – History:
  • The depiction of the medieval Paris is full of inconsistencies, most of which would only be picked up by historians (e.g. a bridge represented next to Notre-Dame built decades after the timeframe of the film).
  • The real Notre Dame de Paris never had steps leading up to the front doors; the entrance has always been at ground level. Presumably the film makers added them for dramatic effect (and so it would be easier for Frollo to 'accidentally' kill Quasimodo's mother when she falls and breaks her neck.)
  • Tomatoes and tobacco pipes (two products from South America) are present in France ten years before discovery of the New World.
  • While Paris really did have a place called the Court of Miracles, it was a slum area of the city, not a hideaway beneath it for the local Romani population.
• Ascended Extra: Quasimodo, the titular Hunchback of Notre Dame, is much more important to the plot than in the original.
• Ass Kicks You: Phoebus helps Esmeralda to escape from the guards by having his horse Achilles block their path, and then having Achilles sit on the one who gets knocked down.
• As the Good Book Says...: Averted; Frollo's Ironic Last Words sound like a verse from The Bible, but aren't. However, it does bear resemblance to Isaiah 11:4 ("[A]nd he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked").

B

• Back from the Dead: Frollo invokes this to Phoebus after the latter was struck down by an arrow and fell into the river earlier for defying his orders - and then found alive in the Court of Miracles.
• Barefoot Poverty: Esmeralda, as a poor Romani woman. At the end of the film, she falls in love with the clearly wealthy-looking Captain of the Guard, Phoebus, and in the sequel she inexplicably gains shoes.
• Batman Gambit: How Frollo finds the Court of Miracles. He knows that Quasimodo is in league with the Roma and so likely has a means of communicating or meeting with them. Thus, he tells him that his men have found the court and that he plans to advance upon it in the near future. This is a lie, as Frollo has no idea where the court is. Quasi buys it, though, and heads off to warn the Roma. Frollo covertly follows him and ends up discovering the court.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Esmeralda's act of kindness of defending Quasimodo during the Feast of Fools is what makes Quasimodo fall for her.
• Be Careful What You Wish For : Especially if you like to interpret Frollo's fate as Divine Intervention. He yells for God to smite the wicked and throw them into fires of hell. You can almost hear a voice from the heavens going "Okay", as it's literally what happens to him a second later.
• Been There, Shaped History: The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France has two pillars on its balcony missing, one of its gargoyles broken off, and the doorknob smashed off one of its doors. According to the climax of the movie, Quasimodo broke off those two pillars which Frollo chained him to, to save Esmeralda from being burned at the stake. During the final battle, Frollo smashes off the doorknob on one of the cathedral doors to enter the cathedral, and the damaged gargoyle was the one that dispatched Frollo in the end.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Quasimodo is sweet and kind, almost to a fault, but if you cross him, look out; he can break steel chains.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Clopin acts like a silly jester on the streets, but underground, in his own territory, he is a terrifying authority figure.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The Archdeacon steps in to save Baby!Quasimodo from drowning.
  • Esmeralda is the only one who stands up to not only Frollo, but to the entire crowd when they torture and bully Quasimodo during the Festival of Fools.
  • Esmeralda stops her people from hanging Phoebus and Quasimodo.
  • Quasimodo rescues Esmeralda in the climax.
  • Phoebus for that family in the burning building and also when he rescues Quasimodo from falling.
• Big Good: The Archdeacon opposes Frollo and keeps him to a certain degree of civility.
• Big "NO!": Happens four times times in the climax. Played completely straight, given the horrific circumstances behind it. The first time is by Quasimodo when Frollo lights the stake to burn Esmeralda alive, the second by the people of Paris when they rebel against Frollo, the third when Frollo falls to his well-deserved death when he realizes, far too late, that he is the wicked one that God will smite, and the fourth when Esmeralda loses grip on Quasimodo's arm and he only escapes falling to his death thanks to Phoebus.
• Bigot with a Crush: Throughout the whole of the film, Judge Claude Frollo expresses nothing but distaste for the Romani population of Paris, hunting them down for the flimsiest of reasons and eventually planning to kill them all. This doesn't stop him from lusting after Esmeralda. He's honestly conflicted by his feelings, but eventually decides to just burn her at the stake if she won't be with him.
• Big "SHUT UP!":
  • Frollo yelling "Silence!" towards Esmeralda for calling him out for his cruelty. She counters this with "Justice!"
  • He also delivers one to the Archdeacon who protests to his storming of Notre Dame.
    Archdeacon: Frollo! Have you gone mad?! I will not tolerate this assault on the house of God!
    Frollo: Silence, you old fool!
• Big Word Shout: "STOP!" cried the Archdeacon!
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • During the "Hellfire" sequence, the Ominous Latin Chanting in the background is the Confiteor, a prayer Catholics recite during the Mass that is an admission of guilt and wrongdoing. When Frollo is proclaiming that it's not his fault, what the red hoods chant back at him is "mea culpa" and "mea maxima culpa", Latin for "through my fault" and "through my most grievous fault" respectively. As if that isn't enough, the portion of the Confiteor that actually asks for forgiveness is omitted.
  • During "Hellfire", when Frollo says "God have mercy on her / God have mercy on me", "kyrie eleison", Greek for "Lord, have mercy", is chanted in the background.
  • The Latin lyrics to the piece that plays as Frollo hunts Quasimodo and Esmeralda is "dies irae" or "Day of Wrath", which is about how the wicked shall be punished in eternal fire. It gets even better when you realize that the same lyrics were used in the score much earlier while Frollo was chasing down Quasimodo's mother, as in both cases, he is using his religious fundamentalism to justify hunting down an innocent who is trying to protect someone who cannot defend themselves. On top of that, the only lines sung when Frollo chases Quasimodo's mother, right after we're informed he's a judge, are:
    Dies irae! Dies illa (The day of wrath, that day)
    Solvet saeclum in favilla (Will dissolve the world in ashes)
    Quantus tremor est futurus (How much tremor there will be)
    Quando iudex est venturus (When the judge will come)
  • 'Notre Dame' is not the name of the cathedral. The full name is Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris - often translated as "The Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris" or simply "Notre Dame Cathedral,". 'Notre Dame' directly translates to 'Our Lady' but is used specifically to refer to the Virgin Mother, Mary. This means that the Archdeacon's line about 'the very eyes of Notre Dame' just as much refers to the 'eyes of Our Lady', the Virgin Mary, as he does the Genius Loci of the cathedral. The statue of Mary is featured prominently in the accompanying animation sequence. This is brought up again and made even more brilliant with Phoebus' line "and now [Frollo] has declared war on [Our Lady] herself!" Frollo, in his quest to murder innocent people and purge entire races, has now began an attack on the epitome of all innocence; the Mother of Christ herself. ^note It is worth noting that in the novel it was heavily implied by the author that the cathedral was a character itself and it is quite possible that the movie characters refer both to Mary and the cathedral.
  • The lyrics of the choir in Sanctuary, the score that plays while Quasimodo saves Esmeralda from being burned at the stake, match up perfectly with the animation when translated - such as "Libera me Domine de morte aeterna" ("Free me, Lord, from everlasting death") while Quasimodo is breaking from the chains holding him; "Sit sempiterna gloria" ("May You always be praised") as he climbs Notre Dame while carrying her; and "Sanctus, sanctus in excelsis" ("Holy, holy, in the highest") as he claims sanctuary. The entire set of verses as he's freeing Esmeralda is a prayer for strength and salvation:
    O, salutaris hostia ("Oh saving victim")
    Quae caeli pandis ostium ("Who expand the door of heaven")
    Bella premunt hostilia ("Hostile wars press us")
    Da robur, fer auxilium ("Give us strength, bring us aid")

    "O Salutaris Hostia" has the verse rendered in English as

    O saving Victim, open wide
    The gate of heav'n to us below,
    Our foes press on from ev'ry side;
    Your aid supply, your strength bestow.
  • And then when Frollo moves to attack the cathedral:
    Judex ergo cum sedebit (Therefore, when the Judge will take his seat)
    Nil inultum remanebit (Nothing shall remain unpunished)
  • And when Phoebus rushes to the rescue:
    Quem patronum rogaturus (To what protector shall I appeal)
    Cum vix justus sit securus? (When scarcely the just man shall be secure?)
• Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed, to the point it could even qualify as Earn Your Happy Ending. Quasimodo and Esmerelda are both freed from Frollo's tyranny, but they ultimately don't end up together despite Quasimodo falling in love with her. Even still, their friendship endures — Quasimodo even blessing Esmerelda's relationship with Phoebus — and in the end, he gets the thing he really wanted all along; to be accepted by and live among the people of Paris.
• Birds of a Feather: Played with. Esmeralda and Quasimodo bond over their mutually restricted freedom, and while Esmeralda and Phoebus are both sarcastic and rebellious to do what is right, Phoebus doesn't rebel against Frollo until Frollo attempts to burn down a house with an innocent family still inside.
• Black Comedy: A visual example during "A Guy Like You". When Hugo sings the lines "Those other guys that she could dangle...", we see three little ragdolls getting hanged.
• Blatant Lies:
  • "Besides, knights in shining armour aren't her type", and the entire song following that line.
  • Many of Frollo's lies are quite blatant to the audience, but some of them are blatant to Esmeralda as well. Consider the scene where he sniffs her hair.
    Esmeralda: What are you doing?
    Frollo: I was just imagining a rope around that beautiful neck.
    Esmeralda: I know what you're imagining.
    Frollo: ... Such a clever witch. So typical of your kind to twist the truth, to cloud the mind with unholy thoughts.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three main protagonists form this pattern. Phoebus is the Blonde, Esmeralda is the Brunette, and Quasimodo is the Redhead.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • When Frollo kicks Quasimodo's mother, she falls to the steps unmarked.
  • The battle at the feet of Notre-Dame is either shown from very afar or featuring only blunt hits that draw no blood. By the next morning there is barely an indication that a battle even took place.
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: No bloodier than you'd expect for a Disney animated film, but Phoebus lampshades it in his fight with Esmeralda inside the cathedral's sanctuary: "Candlelight, privacy, music! Can't think of a better place for hand-to-hand combat!" It's done much more seriously in the climax, as Frollo and Quasimodo fight on the parapets of the bell tower.
• Boggles the Mind: When Frollo is running Quasimodo through the alphabet, Quasimodo—whose mind is on the Festival of Fools—says "festival" in response to 'F' instead of "Forgiveness".
• Bookends: "Bells of Notre Dame" is played at the beginning of the film, and its reprise plays at the end of the film.
• Bothering by the Book: Frollo warns Phoebus to not disappoint him as the previous captain did. When Phoebus is ordered to arrest Esmeralda, he orders his men to surround her in the Festival, but obviously to discourage escape rather than beat down on her. After she escapes, he gives orders to search for her but not harm her and capture her alive. Then when he follows her into the cathedral, and they spar, he lies to Frollo that she claimed sanctuary and thus he cannot touch her. While Phoebus agrees with Esmeralda that what happened to Quasimodo was wrong, he still has to obey Frollo. He just doesn't want to be a dick about it. He finally outright defies Frollo when asked to burn down the miller and his family alive.
• Bowdlerise:
  • On the Disney Sing-Along Songs video released to promote this movie, the title track is an edited version of "Topsy Turvy". Not only did they cut out Esmeralda's dance, but they also rewrote the lyrics so that Clopin wouldn't mention religious concepts (as well as beer). See for yourself here. However, in non-English versions of the sing-along (most notably the French version), the lyrics appear to be uncensored.
  • The film straddles the line in between playing this straight and averting this. On one hand, Phoebus is a good guy, the gargoyles are comic relief, Esmeralda is old enough to make Phoebus' attraction to her natural, and there's a happy ending. On the other, Roma are portrayed as both entertainers and cutthroats, genocide is implied, and Frollo's sexual desires conflicting with his religious beliefs is only downplayed enough to make it as a family film.
  • Played straight with the racial politics of the film. The Roma of the novel are mostly dangerous & violent, though Clopin is portrayed sympathetically, and the Sack Woman does not hate Roma for taking Esmeralda away from her after they reunite. This film, on the other hand, is explicitly anti-racist. Also, while Quasimodo's humiliation occurred in the book, there it was semi-justified as he had tried to kidnap Esmeralda and not because the crowd was just sadistic. Also, he was actually whipped as punishment, and Esmeralda's kindness involved giving him water after he begged for it.
  • Finally, Claude Frollo is rewritten to be a judge rather than the archdeacon, out of concern that religious groups would protest.
  • In post-production, very minor changes were made to the film's soundtrack to avoid a PG rating from the MPAA. This included drowning out the use of the word "sin" in the "Hellfire" number and lowering the sounds of Frollo sniffing Esmeralda's hair.
• Brick Joke: An Old Con is accidentally freed twice from his current imprisonment only to find himself accidentally falling into another, both times saying the lines "I'm free! I'm free! ... Dang it. First he is released from a cage during the Feast of Fools and falls into wooden stocks, then in the final battle he is released from the stocks and falls into an open manhole.
• Broomstick Quarterstaff: Esmeralda uses a long candlestick as a fighting staff during her brief fight with Phoebus.
• Butt-Monkey: The old man, who is imprisoned in first a cage, then a pillory, then a sewer:
  [The cage breaks]
  Old Man: I'm free! I'm free!
  [He stumbles into a pillory and gets locked back up again]
  Old Man: Dang it!
  [Later the pillory breaks]
  Old Man: I'm free! I'm free!
  [He stumbles into an open sewer grate]
  Old Man: Dang it!

C

• Calling the Old Man Out: During the film's climax in the cathedral, Quasi says to the main who raised him, Frollo: "All my life you've told me that the world is a dark, cruel place, but now I see that the only thing dark and cruel about it is people like YOU!"
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Frollo spares Quasimodo, though the main reason Frollo can't kill Quasimodo as a baby is that the Archdeacon caught him trying and used his fear of God to get him to adopt Quasimodo. He does, however, state that he's going to find a use for the "foul creature".
• Catch a Falling Star: Phoebus manages to catch Quasimodo as he falls off of Notre Dame and haul him inside. It's an especially egregious example of snatching someone out of midair since he'd gotten shot through the shoulder the day before.
• Celebrating the Heroes: While Phoebus and Esmeralda get to hold hands, Quasimodo gets carried on the shoulders of joyful Parisians, proud of the recluse of the belltowers that defeated the haywire Judge Frollo.
• Central Theme: The central theme of the film is that one's actions define their worth, not their appearance or their background. The contrast between Quasimodo, deformed reclusive bellringer but kind and helpful person, and Frollo, a pristine public official but ruthless and cruel bigot, emphasizes the theme.
• Cerebus Callback: During "A Guy Like You", a borderline Disney Acid Sequence, the gargoyles give Quasimodo the Ace of Hearts card while they're trying to convince him that Esmeralda would love him. Shortly after this when he sees Esmeralda kissing Phoebus, he pulls out the card and rips it up.
• Chase-Scene Obstacle Course: A Romani mother is fleeing from the vicious Judge Frollo down a Parisian street. She's running on foot and carrying an infant, while Frollo is riding his fearsome black stallion. The only reason Frollo can't overtake her is that various shop signs hanging from overhead brackets impede his progress, at times nearly knocking him off his horse.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The amulet that Quasimodo receives from Esmeralda. It is a perfect map of Paris with the Ile de la Cite (the island in the River Seine where Notre Dame stands) as the reference point. Phoebus and Quasimodo use it to locate the Court of Miracles in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (the still-standing graveyard in Paris' 20th district).
  • That gargoyle head that breaks under Frollo's feet during the climax? He sliced halfway through it a few moments earlier.
• Chekhov's Gunman: One of the "lame" beggars who can walk in the Court of Miracles appeared in Esmeralda's escape from Frollo's guards during the Feast of Fools.
• Children Are Innocent: The little girl who hugs Quasimodo at the end, plus infant Quasimodo.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Phoebus. He's obviously very excited by Esmeralda's dancing (and much less ashamed of his excitement than Frollo is), but is able to look beyond just that to her kindness and spirit.
• Chromatic Arrangement: It's subtle with the gargoyles, but Laverne is slightly reddish, Victor is slightly bluish, and Hugo is slightly greenish.
• Climbing Climax: The Final Battle takes place on Notre Dame, from the main hall all the way to the top of the tower.
• Clothing Combat: Esmeralda uses her scarf as a sling to hurl a stone into the rump of Frollo's horse; causing it to rear and allowing Phoebus to make for a break for it.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: During Phoebus' introduction, Frollo explains to him that the previous captain of the guard was "a disappointment." Cue a whip crack in the background as a man screams in agony as Phoebus looks disturbed and Frollo just smirks.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Esmeralda has green eyes. Her name even means emerald.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Frollo's black is punctuated by purple, signifying his high station.
  • Frollo's soldiers are all in black armour.
  • Phoebus, a gallant war hero, has gold-coloured armour as in the circumstances he is The Ace.
  • The Roma wear brighter and more vivid colours.
  • Quasimodo wears earthy greens and browns.
  • At the end, Phoebus and Esmeralda are both wearing white, which stands for purity and is the customary color to get married in.
• Comically Missing the Point: The gargoyles ward off the soldiers with the help of a catapult. Instead of shooting projectiles with it, they throw the entire thing at the enemy. It misses the soldiers, falling face down.
  Victor: Are you sure that's how it works?
  (the catapult deploys, flipping over and hitting the guards; smashing them like a mousetrap)
  Hugo: Works for me!
• Companion Cube:
  • A minor example, but the bells are this to Quasimodo. He has names for all of them, and refers to them in terms of gender. ^note  The bells really do have names in real life.
  • Assuming that the gargoyles are truly in Quasimodo's imagination, then they'd be these too.
• Company Cross References:
  • "Out There" has references to no less than three previous Disney movies. Fellow France native Belle is seen strolling along reading yet another book, Pumbaa is shown being carried through the street on a stick, and the Magic Carpet is draped over a man's arm. In addition, Jafar's old man disguise appears for a slapstick gag in the climax.
  • Clopin's animator noticed how similar the music for "Court of Miracles" was to Dukas' L'apprenti sorcier (best known for its use in Fantasia), that at one point, he had Clopin dance and lift with his robe like Mickey. This melodic similarity is probably what led Alan Menken to change the melody for the song in the theatrical adaptation.
  • One can hear the Goofy yell at one point during the film.
• Composite Character:
  • Phoebus, who gains his good traits from Pierre Gringoire, an Author Avatar character who appeared in the book. Clopin also absorbs some of Gringoire's traits, while Hugo receives Gringoire's attraction to Esmeralda's goat.
  • Due to the film more resembling the 1939 film than the book, the character of Claude Frollo is a judge, which his brother Jehan (Called "John" in that film) was in the 1939 film, rather than the archdeacon that the character was in both the book and the 1939 film.
• Compressed Adaptation: The film compresses a really big book into an animated film not much longer than an hour in length, and several characters-Gringoire, Jehan Frollo, Fleur-de-Lys, Sister Gudule, and the King of France-are all Adapted Out.
• Conspicuously Light Patch:
  • The ant-infested tile Frollo picks up.
  • Played with in that the gargoyles, when they aren't "alive", appear as matte paintings, but then look like this when they come to life.
• Convection, Schmonvection: During the climax, Quasimodo pours a ton of molten lead down onto the guards besieging the cathedral. Frollo is trapped behind the fall of molten metal, barely an arm's length away, and is absolutely fine.
• Cope by Pretending: Quasimodo spends practically his entire life in the belltower because his "adoptive father" Judge Frollo refuses to let the world see how ugly he truly is, and is really only caring for Quasi to atone for murdering his mother. Judge Frollo and the three gargoyles are Quasimodo's only company, so he spends most of his time fantasizing that he is a normal person interacting with the people of Paris.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Frollo attempts to remedy this in the film's climax but ultimately failed.
  Frollo: Now I'm going to do what I should have done twenty years ago!
• Covering for the Noise: Quasimodo is hiding a wounded Phoebus under his table when Frollo comes to visit. As Quasimodo starts eating the grapes Frollo brought, Phoebus moans, and Quasi tries to cover it up by going "Mmmm!". When Phoebus keeps moaning, Quasimodo kicks him under the table and pretends to be choking on seeds.
• Creator Cameo: Gary Trousdale, the director, voices the prisoner who is freed from one prison before landing in another.
• Crowd Song: "Topsy Turvy" is the official song of the Festival of Fools and so is sung by many people there.
  • The first few verses of God Help the Outcasts are sung by the regular congregants-selfish prayers for things "I can possess," to contrast Esmerelda's prayer for succour for the homeless.
• Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: While the film still sexualizes Esmeralda and uses the word "gypsy" to describe her, it portrays the Romani much more humanely than the book did. They are sympathetic victims of persecution and refuse to give up Esmeralda's location to Frollo when he arrests them. And unlike the book, they didn't kidnap her when she was a baby.
• Curse Cut Short:
  Esmeralda: You sneaky son of a...
  Phoebus: Ah ah ah, watch it. We're in a church.

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