The Hunchblog of Notre Dame

25Oct 2017

The Plot of the 1977 version of Hunchback

by jess

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Warren Clarke The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977 picture image

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Warren Clarke as Quasimodo

Like the 1986 burbank version the 1977 follows the plot quite faithfully. Aside from the Sister Gudule plotline this version is the most accurate to the book. There is no vault scene of Quasimodo lying down beside Esmeralda’s body instead there is a weird ending where Phoebus and Fleur de Lys’ wedding processional dances around Frollo’s fallen corpse with Esmeralda’s body hanging in the background. And Gringoire just laughs it off saying the he survive to tell the tale. BAD ENDING!

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Kenneth Haigh as Frollo The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977

But the ending is a symptom of a larger issue with the plot, sure it’s got in a lot of scenes from the book, like the scene where Frollo and Gringoire spirits Esmeralda out of Notre on the boat and Gringoire leaves her with Frollo, that scene is never don except slightly in the Jetlag version but to point the movie doesn’t elevate the scenes. The actors say their lines MAYBE emote a little and that is it. It’s like a very mechanical boring version of the book.

Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame

The adherence to the book is it’s only selling point. There is nothing much this version has to offer but the plot. Aside from that there is no artistic vision, no mood, and no heart.

16Oct 2017

New Hunchback TV show in the works

by jess

Peter Dinklage

It’s been announce that Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage and Charles dance will produce a TV drama called Quasimodo based on The Hunchback. Now we have been burned before on Hunchback versions like with Brolin and that one from Esmeralda point of view and I don’t know what’s up with the Max Ryan version. There is also that universal monster cinematic universe and MAYBE. maybe a Disney live-action version is could maybe happen, maybe. However I’m excited and I hope this gets made.

Charles Dance

I do like the idea of Dinklage and Dance starring as Quasimodo and Frollo. Though they wouldn’t super idea to the roles as Quasimodo is liken to a giant and Frollo is mid-aged from a late renaissance point of view, still I think they could act the roles well pending on how the story is adapted.

Also Charles Dance was one my Hypothetical casting for Frollo and I still maintain that he would be a great Frollo. And oddly George R.R. Martin did allude to Quasimodo when Cersei refer to Tyrion in A Feast for Crows “swing from a rope in the Sept of Baelor” and Dinklage plays Tyrion on the HBO show of Game of Thrones. You can read that post here. So if they do take the roles it would be great casting.

You can read more of this story below;

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/game-of-thrones/268269/peter-dinklage-and-charles-dance-to-executive-produce-tv-drama-quasimodo

16Oct 2017

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical

by jess

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical

Releasing at the end of the month on October 30th is the The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical. It has arrangements of 17 songs from the stage musical adapted from stage musical and the Disney movie. This collection includes vocal line arrangements with piano accompaniment. Pre-order it here

16Oct 2017

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 2 Review

by jess

A Pirate’s Life

Andrew J. West as Henry Mills, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan and Colin O’Donoghue as Hook

The major development in this episode is that the Hyperion Hook isn’t Storybrooke original OUAT Hook but that wish Hook from last season’s wish realm. As the episode goes when Henry’s is in trouble he calls to Regina, Hook and Emma to help him. While Regina and Hook show up Emma is missing as she now pregnant though that info is saved for a dramatic reveal later but wish-Hook also gets the message and shows up.

Wish-Hook then knocks out Real-Hook to trade places so he can be with Emma and makes himself young with Real-Hook’s blood and with other realm Lady Tremaine’s help. The two SOMEHOW seem to know each other. The magic makes Wish-Hook young and changes his clothes too seems Real-Hook’s style is in his DNA apparently. I do take some annoyance that his clothes changed too.

Anyway when Emma does show up and tells Henry she’s pregnant Wish-Hook has a change of heart and goes to where he dumped Real-Hook but Wish-Hook gets stab and reveals that he needed Emma because only true love can break the curse to find Wish-Hook’s daughter. Emma saves him with magic. It’s then decided that Wish-Hook, Henry and Regina will go a-questing while Real-Hook and Emma return to Storybrooke. So they get their happy ending together but we the audience get a version of Hook for cursed-amnesia fun-times

Meanwhile is Seattle, Victoria tries to get Henry out the picture. What does this lady do? Rumple a.k.a Weaver tries to size Hook a.k.a Rogers up by framing Henry which he doesn’t and Henry helps Jacinda sees Lucy in a Ballet recital. You can tell what the weaker plot-line was.

Here some weird issues with the episode. Wish-Hook says he never had love BUT he had a daughter who was locked up but he snuck into play chess with her. He also says that only true love could break what-ever curse was on his daughter. I guess Wish-Hook didn’t watch seasons 1-3 and that weird retcon episode in season 6 where the whole true-love thing does apply to children. Do the writers just forget these rules? So who is Wish-Hook’s baby momma? Do the chess pieces that Wish-Hook and his daughter have point to Alice being his daughter since she is a character? And does this mean that Emma has a daughter with Storybrooke Hook and will that get mentioned? And how come Neal wasn’t mentioned when Henry was asking about the Storybrooke people?

This is just weird, Hook is now a new version of Hook but not Hook but is a version of Hook. OUAT is going Rick and Morty now. With its infinite realms with infinite versions of the characters that are sometimes the same people and sometimes different. Maybe this how the show will now get way with retconning even though the show right now is a glorified retcon. Odd part is I’m not mad, confused at what I should label this version of the character as.

This episode did have some pacing issues. It’s SLOW and the Hyperion plot was boring. The reveal of Emma being pregnant was dumb reveal to withhold. The whole point to show that Hook isn’t the same Hook, fine good twist that does give a hint to why him and Regina are the ones from Storybrooke affected but the new curse since they went off with Henry.

This was an average episode but it does MOVE things and answer some question while raising more.

11Oct 2017

StÃ©phanie Schlesser as Fleur de Lys

by jess

StÃ©phanie Schlesser played Fleur de Lys in 2014-2015 French Language Asian Tour. She does play and sing the role very well. She also played Juliette in the South Korean Tour in 2015 of Romeo & Juliette which is one of France other reloading musicals.

10Oct 2017

Introduction to the 1977 Version of Hunchback

by jess

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977

The poll is closed and the chosen version is the 1977 version. This maybe the last “big” movie version I have left to review till hopefully another movie version gets made (it’s long overdue at this point).

The 1977 version, like the 1982 and the 1997 version, was made as a TV movie and again like the 1982 version it was made from British TV. It was directed by Alan Cooke and the screenplay was writer by Robert Mueller. It stared Warren Clarke as Quasimodo, Michelle Newell as Esmeralda and Kenneth Haigh as Frollo.

So why did it take me so long to get to this version? Was a saving it because it’s amazing? Or is it amazingly shitty? The answer is it either but I hate it! It’s so boring despite it being THE MOST ACCURATE ONE!

Side Note – This version is also dated as 1976 but I’l just go with 1977.

09Oct 2017

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 1 Hyperion Heights Review

by jess

Season 7 Episode 1 Hyperion Heights

Dania Ramirez as Cinderella & Andrew J. West as Henry Mills

And we’re back at this. Why? I don’t know. Let’s just say I was inspired by Hulu show Difficult People. There was an episode where the main character was doing community service by teaching inmates about recapping TV Shows and how that it’s not really about the recap it’s the person doing the recap. So here we go, Season 7 of Once Upon a Time.

Basically they Disney Straight-to-Video-Sequeled it! What does that EVEN mean? You know how one model of Disney sequels is the protagonist’s kid doing the same thing? Well that is what is happening here extensively. Henry’s daughter is getting Henry to fix a curse which he does not believe. Henry is Emma and Lucy is Henry. However in this version Henry is cursed and Storybrooke is Hyperion Heights a neighborhood in Seattle. Seattle is probably also going to play the role of Boston and New York City. Sorry Portland Maine, Once Upon a Time forgot you exist but maybe Portland Oregon will get a Shout-out.

It’s all a soft reboot, doing the same thing Once Upon a Time has always done, Amnesia Curses. However there are different people at play, maybe and different people affected, maybe. We know Regina is affected as she now goes by Roni, a bar owner and Hook is a cop named Rogers. Rumple goes by Weaver but who knows if he affected. So they all get new names to go by which these reviews extra fun… I hope you all get the puns here. Hook is Roger because of the Jolly Roger and Rumple weaved Straw into Gold. It’s all very clever. Not sure where Roni comes from.

The new players are Lucy, Henry and Cinderella a.k.a Jacinda’s daughter. She knows about the curse. Cinderella is Jacinda a single mom working a some chicken restaurant. There is Victoria the new Regina a.k.a The Wicked Step Mother and her daughter/ assistant Druzilla. Her name is credited a Ivy. There is also Alice and Tiana. Tiana has a bit part in this episode declining Frog legs at the ball because oh you get it but she to be a recurring character. Also I’m confused on the subject of custody with Lucy vis-a-vis Jacinda and Victoria. Does a stepmother have rights to custody over her step-daughter’s daughter? Guess it would depend on if Jacinda was minor when she has Lucy. Don’t know but it’s not like Once Upon a Time was ever hazy in custody details before, oh wait, it was for like three seasons.

While Once Upon a Time did do Mystery well in the first season, it never managed to since the that opening season, it does do twists well because it withholds vital information to make the twists happen. Like for example Hook being the/a Dark One, there was no set-up just the reveal. Sure, it makes for a twist but not one that was set up or hinted at. It’s hard to see how this season will stack up to the other seasons since it trying to a lot at once.

Is it bad? No. Was the premiere a rehash? Oh boy was it! Do I hope it does its own thing and is compelling? Yes, am willing to give it a try especially when without Emma we don’t have her whiny savior moping, no hope speeches from Snow White or toxic Belle and Rumple. Though it does seem like Regina/Roni will get the hope speeches this season.

I feel like I shouldn’t question the logic of this show since it’s a slippery slope that leads to head implosions but other Realm Cinderella can drive a motorcycle having only ever before operating a horse-drawn carriage? Stop trying to make How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days more realistic!

12Sep 2017

Thoughts on two Beauty and Beast Movie Versions

by jess

Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as The Beast

In the past five years there have been two major movie adaptation done on Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve’s fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. One was a French film done in 2014 that took some very big swing on adapting the story to a large scale epic and the other was a 2017 Disney remake of the 1991 animated version. Both films are technically an adaption of the traditional French Fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve. The story took inspiration from other stories including Cupid and Psyche. So nothing is original, everything is adaption and elevation, but are these films?

Jean Cocteau Arm homage in 2017 Beauty and the Beast

Both films took their queue from other adaptations of Beauty and the Beast, 2014 was made in the spirit of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version and the 2017 version was a direct remake of Disney’s 1991 movie which also took some influence from Cocteau and other source in addition to the original fairy tale. Though I just want to say the 2017 movie has a shot of the an arm holding a lamp, so there was a Cocteau homage shoe-horned into the movie.

Vincent Cassel as the Beast and LÃ©a Seydoux as Belle

The 2017 movie and the 2014 movie are vastly different attempts at adaptation. The 2014 version follows the story closely till Belle reaches the Beast’s Castle but then take some very big swings and makes a lot of weird decisions like giving the beast a complex backstory that ultimately doesn’t make sense to the narrative and weakens the love story. Basically the Beast wouldn’t have been a beast if he and his first wife just had communicated. On the other end of the spectrum you have the 2017 version which tries to correct some flaws with original 1991 movie but it’s nearly a shot for shot remake that doesn’t enhance the story for the medium of Live-action.

Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as The Beast

The 2017 does add elements that actually makes the story dumber. The only decision that is improve upon and is different is that the stakes are higher for the servants in the castle and the curse is expanded upon and the town is also cursed to a degree. That is the only improved change. The rest of the changes are very misguided, like the book that can go anywhere which was just there because of Belle wanting adventure. However the only time it was used was for backstory on how Belle’s mother died of the plague even though the movie hinted at a more violent end as Maurice talked about being safe in the village. Also they way they reached the conclusion of death by plague was Belle and Beast finding a doctor’s mask. Why would the doctor just leave that behind anyway? It was a poorly thought out addition that didn’t add anything.

Emma Watson as Belle

Disney didn’t have to approach this project so straight on. They could have gone in any number of directions. Not sure where the fault lies as every decision seemed half-baked and followed the lead of a better movie. Maybe the department heads were not allowed to be creative with the look or style. While I don’t like the 2014 movie for how confused and boring the narrative was at least the design of the castle and the costumes were on point and interesting. Also the visuals were good in parts.

Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as The Beast

The result of the 2017 version was a very calculating remake. Disney knew that their 1991 movie was a triumph as it was nominated for a Best Picture award so they knew they could more less stand on the original’s success to make money and maybe some awards. While the 2014 movie was a misguided effort there was still a creative effort which can’t be sayt about the 2017 remake.

Also I hated the acting and the costume but that is for another day because I have words for that ballgown.

06Sep 2017

Next Hunchback Version…. maybe?

by jess

Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame

According to this poll

Next Version for Review?

1977 (67%, 14 Votes)
Dingo version (24%, 5 Votes)
Other (Please Says in the Comments) (10%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 21

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the next review will be the 1977 British TV version, unless somehow between now and when I actually sit down and re-watch the movie that poll dramatically changes. Don’t think that will happen since I didn’t promote the poll. I will just say this for now, I’m not looking forward to watching this version, I don’t like it. I more than likely won’t start reviewing till maybe end of September or Early October but you never know maybe could be next week. I still feel really burnt-out from Once Upon a Time which was suppose to be my break from being burnt-out on Hunchback. It’s kind of funny how the movie series I reviewed seemed to add to my crazy instead of helping.

31Aug 2017

Once Upon a Time Season 6 Finale Review

by jess

Episode 21: The Final Battle Part I

Jennifer Morrison as Emma

Okay for the record Henry is 14 which means 4 years of show time have past but then how old is Neal and Robin? Really just forget about time in the show, it’s easier on the brain.

So the final battle is the Never-Ending Story. The Black Fairy has Emma in a version of Storybrooke where she is a mental patient battling belief. As her belief wanes all the Story realms fade away. Emma’s family except for Henry is back in the Enchanted Forest and the EQ has moved into Regina’s castle. Also Aladdin and Jasmine are back. The hat is mention and Hook gets a bean to save Emma. But Emma burns the book at Fiona’s insistent.

Also really show, more amnesia? Or is the curse a type of alt-world or both. I’m confused.

While the idea of the final battle is more of battle of faith does bring the series full circle, what does The Black Fairy get out of it? She just gave into to the fate of a villain to fight good but that is so basic and now she just doing this whole killing the savior’s belief because that’s what she suppose to do. Doesn’t make much sense for the story. It’s more like the writers had this concept for the last part of Once Upon a Time and the villain was just sort whoever. Or they did know that it was the Black Fairy but didn’t really do a great job at that element that makes a good villain, motivation. The Black Fairy always seemed half-baked in her evil plans. Why did she kidnap babies? Why did she want out of her realm? Why does she want to kill the savior? Shrugs to all those questions except the getting out, she wanted to be with Rumple but did she really???

Also did anyone notice that the plot of Untold story characters fizzled out? It went away awhile ago and really all it amounted to was EQ, Jasmine, and Nemo, Wish we could have know Hyde’s plan.

This episode also adds setup for next season with some little girl in “a time of great upheaval.” And the photoshop work on those pictures of Belle were REALLY bad.

Any that was part one, onto part two.

Episode 22: The Final Battle Part 2

Jennifer Morrison as Emma & Jared S. Gilmore as Henry

I will say, this the ending on one point for I guess that book of Once upon a Time. Next season it will focus on a new book with an adult Henry and his daughter, ye old gender swap plot.

So what happened? Well number one we learned that The Black Fairy’s true motivation for killing the savior and I guess the story realms were so that she could break the laws of magic, whatever those are, and have unchecked power. She baits Rumple with bring Baelfire back to life. She also tells him that she still has Gideon heart and that only he can kill Emma. Rumple them kills the Black Fairy thus breaking the curse. Rumple has committed both patricide and matricide. Anyway Rumple tries and do the right thing by getting Gideon’s heart to stop him but alas it doesn’t work.

So Emma and Gideon fight but she sort stops and lets him stab her which I guess works because she doesn’t die and Gideon gets a restart as a baby. This only works because Emma and Rumple did the right thing. I don’t know how this make sense. I guess Rumple was an anti-Emma this whole time and now he doe switching from be somewhat redeemed and being a power-hungry ass-face.

It all wraps up with everyone being super happy and Emma is Jesus. She is in the Jesus position in OUAT’s version of the Last Supper.

And we did get to see David’s dog again? Where has he been this whole time? Seriously show!

Season 6 was an unfocused mess as it has WAY too many plot threads. Oddly the finale made up for it a little as it was a nice throwback to the first season and did have a sense of what made the first season really good.

And then there is the cliffhanger for season 7 with only three of the cast members returning. The Trailer and a promo recently came out and it does seem weird but who knows I won’t lie and say i’m not a little curious. Maybe this series needs a Fresh Start.

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