I started watching this show like two years ago and finally I have watched the whole thing. The duration of how long it took me to watch the entirety of the show doesn’t really reflect the show. It’s weird and odd but it’s not the worst show ever.
Episode 25: The Guardians
Four year old me freaking loved this episode.
The gang of pals learns of a nature sanctuary from one of his parents’ books which the only book not written in code. 25 episodes into this show and we get the word “Sanctuary.”
As they talk about going Frollo appears at the door of the library and overhears them. I have too many questions about why Frollo is just walking into the Notre Dame library? But he is needed for the plot and we are too far from the spooky tunnel lair. If ONLY Dragon, Frollo’s stone flying gargoyle, could have overheard this it but OH well, Frollo is just walking around in broad daylight . I should say Frollo’s lair was mention in this episode BUT there are no caves/subterranean lairs instead we get so much more…..
On route Frollo swipes the book from Quasimodo and after tussling on Dragon they both fall off. Quasimodo is saved by a man with a freaking unicorn and brings him to the Hidden Valley Sanctuary.
There Quasimodo learns that his parents were the only people from the outside world to enter the valley and were good friends with the King. He also learns that they King’s nephew is power hungry. But the biggest thing that Quasimodo learns is that the valley is home to mythical creatures referred to as “Living Treasures.” So we have unicorns. dragons, Pegasi (Pegasus), a sauropod dinosaur and more!
Quasimodo warns the King about Frollo and the King assures him that Frollo will be dealt with. However the nephew overhears and promptly finds and teams up with Frollo so they can use the “Living Treasures” for war and conquest. Shenanigan ensues but with the help of Doris the Gargoyle and the lovely Gorgon the day is saved and Quasimodo is given his parents’ code book.
This episode felt a lot more like the earlier weirder episodes. Like the one when the star was falling and everything went crazy. Defiantly a creative episode. Minor weird nitpick, François’ voice changes a lot in this episode. Makes me think that it was an older episode that got pushed back for some reason. I only noticed because after episode 24 I rewatched clips of episode 2 and it was different cadence to his voice in that episode that in present in parts of this episode.
Another nitpick was that it was very much implied that Quasimodo’s parents did make a Philosopher’s Stone as they sent gold to the King which helped the valley care for the “Living Treasures.” It’s a little odd given the episode of them finding Flamel’s which was dangerous and the results were temporary. Not sure if the de Bernassac version is less dangerous and more effective than Flamel’s or since they were nobles maybe it was just normal gold but there implication was there that they created one.
Also one of the denizens of the valley was the one who craved the gargoyles of Notre Dame. When? They started going in 1240s as gutters. So what are we talking about here? Though Doris is beyond cute so who cares? I know as you know that this show is not meant to be factual accurate to dates by any means.
Plus there is a sauropod dinosaur! Now I love Doris, she’s best (along side Djali) and there are unicorns, dragons, weird gazelle things, Pegasus (Pegasi) and more but 4 years old me freaking LOVED dinosaurs heck cranky adult me loves dinosaurs. Especially Sauropods. So is this the best episode ever? YES! Yes it is! 110%
No Djali but Dinosaur and Doris made up for it. Doris is the best, tell your friends.
I mean it’s a weird episode for a show that is based on a 1830s novel with religious overtones and totes a depressing ending but kudos for the creativity. And I’d still say the star episode was way weirder.
Also also, Quasimodo misses his geometry test for this adventure, I just wanted to state that.
Episode 26: The Secret of the Templars
This is last episode and we are going out on François focused one with a moral. Up-side a lot of great Djali moments so I will forgive it.
François gets kidnap by some men in strange white costumes. In the effort to save him Good girl Djali head-butts one them and gains a clue, that Dennis identifies as being the symbol of “The Order of the Templars.” Then they get a note from François saying that he is happy and he is surrounded by people who love his poetry. This doesn’t track with Esmeralda as his poetry is known to clear the room, it’s his superpower.
They find Templars’ location immediately but not before getting trapped but Djali gets them out of because Djali is a good girl. Turns out François is now the Grandmaster of the Templars because he is the direct male descendant of the founder which also doesn’t track with Esmeralda, she doesn’t believe that, he just looks like him.
Anyway one the Knights wants the secret treasure which he thinks François knows the location of but François is a Jon Snow in this situation. Esmeralda, Quasimodo and Dennis are then locked up because of this guy. When they try to use François’ poetry as ploy to get the guards to leave so they can escape the guards claim to like the poetry but an encore proves too much and they peace-out. Quasimodo then comes up with another ploy to reveal the greedy knight and the templars give up their quest for the treasure.
François bemoans that he is no longer special because of a supposed bloodline and Esmeralda reminds him that it doesn’t matter because they are super happy people. Dennis then discovers a secret room filled with treasure which he rejects but is then rewarded with two gemstones by Templars ghosts so that he can help the sick and poor.
This episode is very reminiscent of episode 9 “Trapped” when the gang of pals get trapped in that booty-trapped orphanage but this was one more enjoyable probably because of Djali. It’s not the best episode it’s more of middle range. There is some weirdness around the plot because the Templars are using François to find the treasure but there a weird line from which made it seem that the knew where the treasure was located expect for the one greedy one but that was an isolated weird line, they didn’t know. And the ghosts wouldn’t have been happy anyway. Turns out the villager who warned Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Djali and Dennis that the place was haunted was right.
This was weird episode to end off the show. Nothing really happened and it was a smaller scale plot even for this show. François is kidnapped because he looks similar to the founder and might know where a treasure is but he doesn’t and that’s it plus ghosts. There is a moral about how greed is bad and wealth leads to jealousy and corruption. But these are the happiest and least selfish characters imaginable so they don’t need wealth, just each other.
If there were a regular episode it would be fine but as sort of ending it just is very underwhelming. Makes me rather curious if there were going to be more episodes planned or if the episode aired out of order. Both are likely.
Also IMDB’s only trivia for this show says that François was inspired by a John Barrymore movie The Beloved Rouge (1927) where he played a poet named François. Not sure if this is true, Pierre Gringoire is a character in the original novel, is a poet and Esmeralda considers their relationship to more like siblings than romantic. The building blocks were already there so this trivia is more confusing than illuminating, if true.
And now that the show is all watch we can review the show even more! And you hoped we were done!
