https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mquti8yi-Zo
I love that he liked getting a Razzie for worst song of the year for Newies.
So this series of review is really just based on the Cast Album and not so much the show itself, that is not say I won’t say anything about the stage production if there is video of it available. Also at this point I haven’t heard the whole album in its entirety.
Olim – Olim is the actually the first bit of music heard in the Disney movie version and honestly I’m not sure why it’s a separate track. It seems unnecessary to me. Maybe it’s because of the dramatic tone of the opening to what is now The Bells of Notre Dame is different.
All in All it’s the same of the film counterpart, Georgian chanting in Latin. And if your curious the lyrics are; “Once, long ago, God arrived, In this age of brightness, He will come again.” It’s not “Here comes a lion, Father, Oh yes, it’s a lion” but it’s okay.
Michael Arden as Quasimodo, Musical Production of Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Bells of Notre Dame – A part of me wants to like this song more than I do since I love the movie version. Like in the movie we’re given the backstory of Quasimodo and Frollo but it’s very different as it tries to amalgamate the movie with the book. So first difference we are introduced to Frollo’s younger brother Jehan which is like book. Also like the book Jehan is a wild child. Jehan is sent away from Notre Dame for sneaking a Gyspy Girl into the Chruch so Frollo could get some. Unlike the book Jehan is the father of Quasimodo. The mother was Gypsy girl, the same one who Jehan brought into the church. As Jehan is dying he begs Frollo to look after the child and he does and give him the cruel name, unlike the book where it was Quasimodo sunday.
I do like that they brought Jehan into the picture and they’re right that reason why Frollo took in little Quasimodo was out love for his brother but it’s sort of trite here. Book Frollo did it out empathy for a child that had no one because his brother had been in almost same position and here in this musical he does it as a cross to bear out a sense of guilt. Also I don’t like that they have that familial connect of uncle and nephew. It takes away something from their relationship at least for me.
But wait there is more. In the movie when Frollo is chasing down Quasimodo’s mother there is this swell of dramatic music that fits that part perfectly. They have that same music in this version as Frollo is walking with baby Quasimodo but so out place. I really couldn’t tell if Frollo was thinking killing baby Quasimodo or what. It’s jarring and should not have been there despite that fact that it’s awesome music.
The Chorus singing the parts instead of Clopin was interesting not bad just different. BUT one thing I can not and I mean CAN NOT forgive is how they pronounce Jehan. They say like Jay-AN. It’s not inherently wrong but they over emphasis the sounds. They could have just said John. I mean they didn’t keep Phoebus’ last name so what difference does it really make? They call him Phoebus de Martin not sure why since he had a last in the book and plus they missed a great pun by adding that R. He could have been Sun of Morning, Phoebus de Matin. And yet they get Clopin’s last name correct.
Anyway, it’s a good opening that does tries to be a good blend of movie and book it just missed it a bit for me.
Out There – Out There isn’t at all different than its movie counterpart, they play it straight. One thing I did like is the difference of Arden’s voice when he singing the part with Frollo vs his solo. Where he sound more deaf and unsure in Frollo’s presence and then more refined one his own. The movie did this too to a degree but Quasimodo was just meek and timid. It’s a fine version. I will say that song is a little weird considering Quasimodo didn’t seem that interested earlier in the scene. Like he wasn’t the type to really care to remember the town’s people’s faces. Still a nice version it’s just a disconnect between the book and the movie.
Edward Scissorhands
If you had to think of a live action fairy tale movie that seamlessly connected a modern setting with a tried and true fairy storyline you can’t get much better than 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. It was directed by none other than Tim Burton and is romantic gothic romance. It’s sort of a Beauty and the beast, Pinocchio, Hunchback tale.
It’s a cult classic and is considered by many to one of Burton better movies but how does it hold up?
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands
The plot is fairly simple and straightforward and I assume everyone pretty knows it at this point but here it is. Avon rep, Peg Boggs one day goes to a creepy mansion high up on a hill. There she meets a young man named Edward who has scissors for hands. Edward becomes the hot topic of all the bored suburban housewives. Edward is also shown to be a very creative person as he makes lovely whimsical topiaries and gives imaginative hair cuts to the women and their dogs. Edward develops a interest in Peg’s daughter Kim.
Things are going great for Edward till one of the housewives, Joyce, tries to put the moves on him. Edward, in his innocents is confuses and walks out but Joyce lies and says he tried to rape her. Things get even worse when Kim’s jerk-face boyfriend, Jim, gets Edward to break into his own house. Edward knew it was Jim’s house but it for Kim. As a result the Bogg’s are outcast of the neighborhood.
On the night of the Bogg’s annual Christmas party Jim and his buddy get drunk and go the Bogg’s house. They nearly run over Kim’s brother, Kevin. Edward saves him but it looked to the close-minded suburbanites that Edward was attacking the boy. Kim tells Edward to run. He goes back up to the mansion. Kim follows as does Jim. Jim tries to fight Edward and as Jim knocks Kim to the floor Edwards punches Jim through the chest killing him. Kim then lies to the suburbanites that Edward and Jim killed each other in hopes that they will leave the mansion allow.
The movie end with Kim as an old woman telling her grand-daughter that the reason why there is snow is because Edward is carving his ice up at the mansion.
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands & Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs
The plot is simple but in its simplicity it tells a very nice yet deep tale or acceptance and prejudice. That being said the plot is one of the weaker aspects of this movie. Not saying ti’s not good or heartfelt but given the other aspects of the movie it weakest. The Premise is good and imaginative as is the juxtaposition of the bright yet fake suburbanites against the innocent monochromatic Edward. Having the simple beauty and the beast tale was a good move but it a little too on the nose.
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands
Like the plot the characters are presented simply and yet the are fairly complex. The only character that is dynamic in that they change is Kim. She starts out not really liking Edward that much to falling in love. Edward is probably the most interesting character, as he looks weird with his weapon hands but is all sweetness and innocence but can’t touch things with out destroying them even if it’s transformative, making him compelling.
The Suburban jerks are all jerks but you’re not meant to like them. Only the Boggs are cool.
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands
One of the things that is great about this movie is the way Burton uses pale pastel colors to make Edward pop against the colors. It just adds a level of whimsy to the look of this movie.
One of the best aspects of this movie is the music. It was done by Danny Elfman. Who does get all misty eyes when they hear Ice Dance? The whole score of the movie is just lovely and fits the tone perfectly while adding that whimsical bittersweetness.
Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs
Edward Scissorhands is a perfect example of combining classic fairy tropes with a modern setting. It’s magical and quite Bittersweet. It’s also a great Chirstmas movie.
Just a side note these Live Action Fairy Tale reviews are wrapping up this month, only three left.
Esmeralda and Quasimodo Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame
The internet is full of crackpot theories. My favorite ones deal with either Game of Thrones and Star Wars. But then I read this crackpot theory, Could Anna and Elsa be Quasimodo’s Ancestors, which I don’t have to say is all kinds of wrong. But it got me thinking about my own crackpot theories and I thought of one that isn’t probably that super original or out there but it seems like it could be totally true, Are Quasimodo and Esmeralda related???
Quasimodo’s Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame
This theory only takes in to account the Disney version, since book wise it’s not true. The first piece of evidence is the woman known as Quasimodo’s mother. She was a Gypsy woman who died protecting Quasimodo from Frollo. I will say that it is unknown if she is actually Quasimodo’s biological mother or not given the difference of skin tone but MAYBE Quasimodo’s skin tone is part of his deformity. It’s possible so let’s just say, YES she is 100% his mother and Quasimodo’s parents are both Gypsies.
Esmeralda and Quasimodo Disney Hunchback of Notre dame
Now I bet you’re saying, just because Quasimodo is a Gypsy and so is Esmeralda, it doesn’t make them relatives and YES, you are correct, that is not enough but I have other evidence, and it’s more compelling, eye color.
There are only FOUR characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame that actually have eye colors. Those “characters” are Quasimodo, Esmeralda, that little girl who hugs Quasimodo at the end and if you look REALLY closely Quasimodo’s mother. Everyone else has black eyes including Phoebus and Frollo. I’m going at one a limb and say that the little girl’s eye color reflects more of her innocent and is the expectation that proves the rule.
Eye color is not as simple as Mendel thought but green eyes are a recessive trait meaning both parents need to carry the gene. Now it looks like Quasimodo’s Mother has a dark blue color and it is possible for a blue-eyed parent to have green-eyed baby. The green eyes link Quasimodo and Esmeralda. It could be as simple as links them both a outcasts but then why both adding that touch color to Quasimodo’s Mother? Their same color eyes links them in a world full of black eyes.
Esmeralda reading Quasimodo’s palm Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame
So how are they related? I would say they are not siblings as Esmeralda was not with Quasimodo’s parents when they tried to entered Paris. It’s possible but very unlikely. I would say they are more likely cousins. And if they are cousins it makes it better that they are a couple. Plus Esmeralda treats Quasimodo with a type of older sister affection and Quasimodo treats Esmeralda school-boy crush. They are better as friends.
What do you think? Do you think Quasimodo and Esmeralda could be related? And do have or know of any good, crazy or bad Hunchback theories?
Hunchback of Notre Dame Cast Recording Album
In 1999 there a German musical version of Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was always the desire of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz that the production should come to the States. It wasn’t till 2013 when The King’s Academy did a production of it which was a collaboration with Disney. This paved the way for two profession versions to be performed as a pre-Broadway try-out at La Jolla Playhouse in last 2014 and at the Papermill Playhouse in early 2015. Ultimately the show did not go to Broadway and is being played around the Country at smaller Professional venues. However on January 22 there was a Studio Cast Album released. It has gotten some critical acclaim and was the number one for Cast Album sales, as well as 17 in album sales and made Billboard 200 at 47. So it has done well.
For the next couple of weeks, because that is how I do things, we’re going to look a few songs at a time. I’ll give my impressions, thoughts etc. And we’ll see if this really is the critical darling of people’s dream or is just pale comparison to the German version. My guess is that is somewhere in the middle.
In the Company of Wolves
Right away I want to say, In the Company of Wolves is a weird dark movie even by 1980’s movie standards, which is saying a lot. It is a deeply symbolic movie with some really creepy and disturbing images.
It is based on Little Red Riding hood and was also based on a short story by Angela Carter from The Bloody Chamber anthology . The film came out in 1984 admits a lot of other werewolves movies. It was directed by Neil Jordan who was a writer/producer for Ondine
So how is this movie with all it’s weird creepiness?
Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Micha Bergese as Huntsman
The plot is very untraditional for most movies. The movie’s approach to the narrative is to have stories with story or what the director called “a Chinese Box Structure.” So it’s starts with an adolescent girl, Rosaleen sleeping is her locked bedroom. In her room there are many, many creepy dolls. She dreams that her sister is killed by wolves in a dark yet beautiful forest. She then stays with her Granny who tells her stories about how men, adulthood and sex are all evil and are products of the devil. Rosaleen doesn’t like these stories. Her Granny give her the the soft red knitted cloak.
Rosaleen also has to deal wit the advances of a boy in her village that clearly wants her but she is not as interested in him. On her way to her Granny’s house, Rosaleen meets a charming huntsman. He makes a bet with her that he can make it to her Granny’s house using his compass while going off the path before she can get there using the the path. If she wins she gets the compass and if she loses she has to give him a kiss. He beats her there and kills her Granny by smashing her head off which turns to be porcelain. When Rosaleen arrives at the house she isn’t deceived by the huntsman being a wolf and she tries to shots him. This causes him to scream in pain. This causes Rosaleen to empathize with the wolves and she comforts him with her own story. In the end Rosaleen turns into a wolf and runs off with the pact.
Rosaleen then wakes up from her dream to find wolves breaking in and she screams in terror.
Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with the wolf
Generally speaking with movie is weird, much weirder than my attempt at a summery makes it out to be. But to make this movie’s symbolism and theme simple, this movie is about how adulthood and sex are not evil or bad and one must let go of childhood. So often in traditional fairy tales, men and sex are pegged as evil or just dangerous but as Rosaleen’s mother said women can be beast too. In the end Rosaleen can’t return to her childhood or the village because she is something dangerous and has to live in the forest or adulthood.
Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Angela Lansbury as Granny
The characters in this movies are mute point. They don’t matter that much in terms being deep or complex. Rosaleen is the only one with a character arc as she learns that the dangerous wolves or men have feelings and emotions and becomes an adult. Rosaleen’s granny is interesting as she herself is actually a doll in Rosaleen room. She is innocent yet sinister but all her stories and advice are hollow like her head. The huntsmsn is intriguing too, charming yet devious but he does seems to like Rosaleen more than just as a snack.
Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen in the forest
The we have the technicals which give this movie all its weird, creepy and unsettling imagery. Most of the disturbing parts deal with the transformation of men to wolves. One guy literally tears his face off. It’s effective especially given the nightmare/dream concept. There are of crazy visuals, like Rosaleen’s dolls which I thought would give me nightmare. But nothing is bad, everything gives with movie a sense style and it a visual language. It’s a good example of a movie showing and not telling as it communicates its point.
Though it unclear why Rosaleen screamed at the end. Speaking of Rosaleen the acting is okay. It feels like an 80’s style of acting.
Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with a nest of eggs
The Company of Wolves
Now that 2016 Award Season is over, let’s look at some gowns that are reminiscent of Esmeralda costumes, or something that an Esmeralda could wear. I’m 100% positive these gowns are in no way inspired by Esmeralda, it’s all coincidental.
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon wearing Oscar de la Renta at 2016 Oscars
This gown is an Oscar de la Renta wore by Reese Witherspoon at the 2016 Oscars. This gown has a lot of commonalities to Disney Esmeralda’s costume. First off, the color, it’s a lovely rich shade of purple. The silhouette is very similar to Esmeralda though longer.
The exposed corset details with the vertical boning is similar Esmeralda’s corset especially with it being on the waist right below the bust. The volume at the bust also invokes Esmeralda’s peasant blouse.
It being strapless also helps, as Disney Esmeralda had exposed shoulders.
Saoirse Ronon
Saoirse Ronon wearing a custom Calvin Klein at 2016 Oscars
This gown is a custom Calvin Klein that Saoirse Ronon wore at the 2016 Oscars. It is very reminiscent of Esmeralda costume in Notre Dame de Paris, in its color, deep v-neck and the abstract spiral pattern. This pattern which is created with sequins would be perfect for Esmeralda’s Notre Dame de Paris costume more than some those floral patterns they get for the costume.
Zendaya
Zendaya wearing Marchesa at 2016 Golden Globes
This gown was designed by Marchesa and Zendaya wore it at the 2016 Golden Globes. I have made it clear I don’t care for Esmeralda wearing red but it is a go to color for her character so I can’t fight it. There is something about this gown that screams Esmeralda. It could be the tiers which is a very dancer type of silhouette which work for Esmeralda.
Zendaya in this gown looks very similar the the design of Esmeralda on the Notre Dame de Paris poster. She might be a good candidate for Esmeralda actually if they ever did Notre Dame de Paris as movie or in States again or a general musical.
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith wearing Versace at 2016 Golden Globes
This gown was design by Versace and Jade Pinkett Smith wore it at the 2016 Golden Globes. This gown seems to be to like a merger of Esmeralda’s two Notre Dame de Paris costumes. You have the color and slit of her first act costume with the cowl neckline and sleeve detail of her prisoner costume.
Rachel McAdams & Sophie Tuner
Rachel Mcadams wearing an August Getty Atelier dress at 2016 Oscars
Sophie Turner wearing Wearing custom Galvan at 2016 Oscars
These two gowns aren’t ones I would compare to Esmeralda’s Notre Dame de Paris costume, though the colors are on par her fist act costume but I wanted to note the slits on these two gowns, it how the slit on the NDdP costume should work. Not the ugly curved thing they do.
Tori Kelly
Tori Kelly wearing Gauri and Nanika at 2016 Grammy Awards
Also the Gauri and Nanika gown that Tori Kelly wore at the 2016 Grammy Awards was the perfect Esmeralda color. The gown itself is lovely though it is not really that reminiscent of Esmeralda.
Esmeralda with Pierre and masked Quasimodo
As I have said on the spectrum of Hunchback movies, The Secret of the Hunchback falls toward the bad side. It’s not the worst one but it’s far, far from the best.
What makes it not as bad as the Dingo version, which we’ll get to someday, or the Enchanted Tales version, which I try to forget about, is that this a Hunchback movie with trite moral but it makes sense with the kid friendly subject matter. It’s also has way better animation than the Dingo version but that isn’t a lot.
Quasimodo in Angel form
Don’t get me wrong, The Secret of the Hunchback is dumb, very dumb. It has the stupidest conclusion in a Hunchback movie ever. Quasimodo is a actual angel in disguise with his hunch hiding his wings. That is so stupid that I can’t even process that fully, even now. It’s like something a child wrote thinking they are deep.
The Secret of the Hunchback has stupid songs, bad animation and weird out place humor, which make it different from other cheap knock-off Disney versions but it’s still dumb.
Quasimodo is just being Quasi
Next Version is going more off the cuff as it’s recent. Try and guess… it shouldn’t be hard.
The Promise
Do you ever watch a movie and you don’t know what to think? I actually shrugged in confusion after I finished watching The Promise. The Promise is the English title for 2005 epic Chinese called Wú JÃ. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film.
I should note that I watched this in I guess the US version which is different from the original which is such BS but that is it.
Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng
Ok so the plot, such as it is, goes a little like this. There is a staving girl named Qingchen, who steals from the dead but a boy catching her and wants her to be his slave. She lies that she will but hits him and runs off. She then meets a Goddess who offers her beauty, riches and luxury but she she will never find everlasting love. She accepts this deal. The only way to break this fate is for Time to flow backwards, for Snow to fall in spring and for the dead to come back to life.
Flash-forward. General Guangming defeats a bunch of barbarians with slaves. One speedy slave catches his eye whose name is Kunlun. Kunlun loses his master in the battle so Guangming makes him his slave. Then King is in danger from an evil Duke names Wuhuan. As Guangming and Kunlun race to save the king they are attacked by some dude who wears a black feather cape, who is the Duke’s minion as well as super fast. Guangming gets injured so he has Kunlun puts on his armor to save the king. Guangming tells Kunlun that he will know the king because he will the only one unarmed.
However Kunlun kills the King has the king was armed and he mistake Qingcheng, king’s concubine as the King because she wasn’t armed. However Kunlun jumps off a waterfall and Qingcheng is taken by Wuhuan and put in a golden birdcage.
Kunlun survives and him and Guangming decide to save Qingcheng because apparently Guangming and Kunlun are both is love with her now, I guess. Qingcheng falls in love with Guangming by mistake because she think he was the one that saved her but it was Kunlun. So they live together for awhile despite Qingcheng’s fate of never having a lasting love.
Kunlun then learns from feather cape minion whose name is Snow Wolf, that he is from the Land of Snow. In the Land of Snow everyone can run SUPER fast but that didn’t help when Wuhuan came and killed everyone. Snow Wolf was scared of death so he opted to wear Wuhuan’s cape which keeps him alive.
Then Guangming gets captured by Wuhuan. He puts him on trail for killing the king but Kunlun confessed that he did it with Qingcheng saying that she had a hand it in. She then realizes that Kunlun saved her and not Guangming. Wuhuan sentences them all to death and tells Qingcheng her that was the boy she tricked and it taught him not to trust anyone. There is a fight which ends with Guangming and Wuhuan killing each other and Kunlun fatally wounded. He puts on Snow Wolf’s cape (who took off in another scene and died) which grants him immortality which breaks Qingcheng’s fate.
I just want to point out that the Netflix summary makes this movie seem way different. It makes it seem that Qingcheng has a more active role with a character arc but nope.
Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming
This movie must of undergone several rewrites because I think there is an interesting story here with some interesting ideas but at some point it got lost. The plot is the most disjointed thing I have seen it a very long time. In a way it’s the opposite issue I have with some movie, the show don’t tell. This movie is all show to the point where there is no emotion despite emotions being necessary to the story. I don’t care about any of these people and when you “I don’t care about a movie like this it means the love story is dumb and the fight scenes are tension-less dance numbers.
Nicholas Tse as Duke Wuhuan
All the characters are bland. They have no personalities except Wuhuan who is just generically evil. I don’t understand his motivation for his coup, I found his mistrust of people comically simple. A little girl didn’t want to be his slave and stole the bread he stole from her? What? I get this movie opted for that Fairy Tale simplicity but that is an excuse for weak filmmaking.
Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun &
Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming
Speaking of the filmmaking, same of the technical work is great. This movie is all style and negative substance. The cinematography is lovely. The costumes are all very cool. And the fights/action part are mostly appealing. My favorite was the one with the bird screen, too bad there was no tension to give that fight any drama. It’s a very visually pleasing to look at, maybe as a silent movie it would have functioned better.
However the CG effects were not that great, they boarded on silly. That could be because this movie is eleven years old and a lot the effects just didn’t age well. That would be forgivable if that story and character were interesting.
Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng
On a technical level The Promise
Also how did the super fast Snow people get capture by Wuhuan in the first place? That seems like it shouldn’t have been possible.
In light of the way the 2016 Oscars acting award nominations went and with the general whitewashing of roles in mainstream big budget Hollywood movies, Esmeralda is an interesting role to discuss as her book self and her film presence are at weird odds.
Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda
In the book Esmeralda is presented as a Romani, and without getting it into too much, the Romani people are Ethnically different from the rest of Europe specifically France. However Esmeralda’s backstory in the novel is that she was born Agnes to a French woman and raised by the Romani. This backstory is really only presented in two movies (three if you think the Dingo version count), those versions are the 1923 version and the 1999 Parody version albeit that version flips things around whereas she is born Esmeralda to Cubans and raised as Agnes by mean French people.
Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda, 1982 Hunchback of Notre Dame
Esmeralda in most movie versions of Hunchback is depicted as a full Romani, though the 1982 version there was a throw away line that questioned her background but it went no where, so it hardly matters.
Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame
This brings us back to the topic, as Hollywood whitewashes many roles it interesting to note that in Esmeralda’s case they take role of girl who despite having dark hair and eyes with tanned skin is for all accounts a white girl and instead makes the role one for a very specially ethnic minority and yet casts mostly white women. So far in movie versions only Gina Lollobrigida and Salma Hayek have looked the way the film versions theoretically want to depict the character.
Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda
While in my own naive little world I think casting should go to right person for the right part but it’s not that simple. A lot of roles are specific to someone’s looks and background. Hollywood however does of course forget that or ignores it and has a history of awarding parts that should go to people of minorities to white actors. Like the casting of Emma Stone in Aloha or Rooney Mara in Peter Pan or pretty much everyone in The Last Airbender or Scarlet Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie, heck Lucy was a Akira knock-off… I digress. The list of whitewashing practices in Hollywood is long.
And as this pertain to the Oscars, actors who fall into minority seldom get nominations and seldom win. Just for example Asian actors which Indian actors fall into, Only two Actors won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Yul Brynner (1956) and Ben Kingsley (1982). Kingsley also got a nominations in 2003. For Actress only Merle Oberon got a best actress nomination in 1935 and no one else since. For Best Supporting Actor, only Haing S Ngor has won in 1984 and only five others have been nominated, Sessue Hayakawa (1957), Mako (1966), Pat Morita (1984), Ben Kingsley (1991) and Ken Watanabe (2003). Oddly the same goes for Best Supporting Actoress with only one winner and five others nominated. The only Asian winner was Miyoshi Umeki in 1957. The five who were nominated were Meg Tilly (1985), Jennifer Tilly (1994), Shohreh Aghdashloo (2003), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Hailee Steinfeld (2010).
Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, 1997 Hunchback of Notre Dame
So how does this apply to Esmeralda? The Hunchback of Notre Dame as I have said before, could be one those movies made specifically to win awards. The role of Esmeralda could be deepen which has been done in the past like in 1939 version or even the Disney version. It could be made into one those Oscar bait roles with relative ease. If that did happen given the state of Hollywood I would prefer to see an Actress who fits into the Romani look more than being a purist to the book. Either an Indian actress or Hispanic actress could fit nicely, though ideally, a young Romani actress would be ideal.
Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda
Though given Hollywood’s warped sense of itself they probably would make Esmeralda a Romani, as is the traditional method to her character and cast a popular blonde actress.
Is there an actress you would like see play Esmeralda?