YMMV / The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: This version redefined the story to have a 'justice for the oppressed' message, made the Romani more sympathetic, gave Esmeralda a more proactive personality and removed the plot point about her being a stolen French baby, albeit it never goes into her background period making it ambiguous if she is still French by birth. Disney's 1996 animated adaptation takes a lot more from this film than from the original novel.
• Common Knowledge: It is frequently claimed that this film started the trend of Esmeralda being Romani by birth rather than by adoption. However, Esmeralda was of dubious mixed ancestry in the original novel; her biological mother was a prostitute of French origins, and there is nothing said about her father's origins. And, with her backstory being cut in the film, it's never clarified. Additionally, keep in mind that it's generally assumed that characters are of the same race as the actors that play them and Maureen O'Hara was definitely not Romani.
• Creepy Awesome: Quasimodo. He's deformed, socially inept, and possibly afflicted with a mental disorder, but he fiercely defends Esmeralda and thwarts a mob of rioters who were attacking Notre Dame.
• Heartwarming Moments: Esmeralda praying to the Virgin Mary —surrounded by selfish people praying for riches, beauty, or material things— she asks "take everything I have, please help my people".
• Vanilla Protagonist: Surrounded by Quasimodo, Gringoire and the Frollo brothers, Esmeralda is not exactly the most memorable of protagonists, seeming to just be the standard lower-class medieval female protagonist of the 1930's.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • The Romani are portrayed simply as innocent people who want shelter and safety from the world, being unjustly persecuted by prejudiced people. This was made right as Nazism was persecuting Jews and the Romani in Europe, and World War II broke out while the movie was being shot.
  • Esmeralda is played by Maureen O'Hara, who was Irish. The Irish themselves were oppressed and demonized like the Romani, and Ireland was in the process of becoming independent from Britain when the film was made. Her casting was likely just buzzed around a possible new star, but it adds another powerful undercurrent to Esmeralda's new role.

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