The Hunchblog of Notre Dame

24Feb 2014

What’s in a Name? Phoebus de Chateaupers

by jess

watercolor of Phoebus and Esmeralda

By the novel’s own admission, Phoebus’ name comes from the Greek God Phoebus Apollo. Apollo was the god of many things including light, prophecy, poetry, music and healing. While Apollo’s name roots are uncertain, Phoebus means light in Greek. Phoebus’ name reflects Esmeralda’s love the sun and brightness. Phoebus himself is a darker character than his bright name suggests as he likes to engage in deceit and debauchery.

As an added little bonus, Parnassius phoebus is a species Swallowtail butterflies found in Eurasia and North America.

Then their his surname de Chateaupers, This is a real surname but it’s meaning is near impossible to ascertain. The “de” is common in French Surnames, it means “of.” It is often given to high ranking families. Chateaupers came be broken down to Chateau meaning “castle” and “pers” which could mean person. So his name could mean person of the castle. Perhaps it reflects his family being stewards for the Chateau family or steward in a castle. After all Phoebus wasn’t of a high noble family which why he has to marry Fleur de Lys.

20Feb 2014

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure Review; Why canâ€™t they talk to the other animals like in the first film?

by jess

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure is by all counts a dumb movie but it has its moments of being entertaining, which surprised me. What brought it down was the general mean-spiritedness.

Patch and Thunderbolt

The plot goes, that in midst of moving to the farm, Patch is feeling less than unique. On moving day, Patch gets left behind and decides to see his idol, TV actor dog, Thunderbolt who is holding auditions. Thunderbolt is told by his sidekick, Lightning, that they mean to kill him off in the show, which is a lie.

Thunderbolt decides to perform good deeds in real life so he can keep his job. He enlists Patch’s help because Patch knows all the episodes. Then Cruella DeVille enters the picture and get captivated by an artist who paints spots. She commissions him to paint her a painting but isn’t happy so she decides to kidnap the Dalmatians again. Patch and Thunderbolt then have to save the day and Patch learns he is special.

Patch

Going into this movie, I thought it would be akin to Scamp’s adventure but it wasn’t. Patch learns a lesson that is different from the original movie. His lesson and growth is understandable, he’s puppy and has 98 siblings.

Puppies Driving

Speaking of the 98 other Puppies, they are just plain mean little things. The reason why is to get the audience on Patch’s side, if he is the underdog then we care about him. But they made the other puppies too mean. Jasper and Horace were mean too throwing Nanny down a well, that is sick.

Lars and his art

Then we have Cruella and the art subplot. I will say as someone who minored in art history, I loved this subplot. I thought it was hilarious. However, it’s a little more than stupid. Thy whole thing was a set-up for the puppies to hid against a canvas.

Cruella DeVille

Also I didn’t really like the two antagonist angle. First we have insane Cruella, who seems shoehorned in here. And then we have Lighting, Thunderbolt’s sidekick, who wants to be the star of the show. I will forgive it, as it does come together at the end but Cruella was shoehorned in.

Horace and Jasper grabbing Rolly

Stylistically, this movie is very different than the original but at least it not a rehash or copy of the first. However, they shamelessly reuse things from the first movie. They reuse the Twilight bark, the car chase and Pongo counting, the TV obsession, Cruella etc.

These things maybe be shameless but one thing they rehashed is wrong. Patch mentions that the spot in front of the TV is his spot but it was actually Lucky’s spot in the original.

Patch

Which makes me ask the question, why Patch as the star puppy when Lucky was focused on much more in the original? Think about it, Lucky was the first puppy we saw in the original, he is more obsessed with TV and he had more lines than Patch. Patch had his moments but they were fewer. Of course, all his moments involved Thunderbolt so maybe that was it.

Patch

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure isn’t all bad, it’s dumb and has some icky meanness but it’s fine as far as these sequels go. I dare say it was adequate. And It had PUPPIES!!!!!!!!

19Feb 2014

Frozen Review (Spoilers)

by jess

Frozen

Back in August 2013, I did a post mainly centered on Frozen and its lack of style when compared to the 2-D drawn movies. Frozen hit theaters on Thanksgiving 2013 to a lot of praise. But is that praise deserving or are people just blinded by the snow?

The answer, is yes, it is deserving of praise. Frozen despite its first trailer, which was bad, is a very an entertaining and engaging movie.

Anna

Let’s just get the style and the look of the movie out of the way. Yes, it looks like Tangled, hell Rapunzel and Flynn had cameos and Anna and Elsa look like Rapunzel. While it is annoying that the 3-D Disney movies have little variation in the female looks and not the men, I can justify this. Perhaps their royal families married and they are cousins or something, I would buy that. But please Disney try some new female looks the same face with freckles are getting old. Maybe go different place in this 3-D world, like Spain that would be fun.

Elsa

The characters, are all great especially Elsa. Elsa is no doubt the most complex character Disney has come with. I read that she started at the antagonist but the song Let it go forced them to rework her character and gave us the sister angle. She is so complex that she great to watch. The other characters are all good. I was surprised by Olaf. After that trailer I wanted to hate him but the voice actor, Josh Gad, made him work in a charming way. I adored Sven. Anna is a bit annoying at time but she didn’t bother me.

Anna, Olaf and Kristoff

If you read my other Frozen post you would get the impression that I’m down on 3-D Disney movies in favor of 2-D animation ones. That is a little true, Tangled was not enhanced by being in 3-D it could have been in 2-D easy by not Frozen. The snow and the ice looked beautiful in the 3-D rendering and that was the point. There should be some reason for the medium. It seemed like Tangled was the experiment and Frozen was the pay-off.

Elsa and Anna

I like how Disney is playing with their own tropes, Elsa telling Anna she can’t marry some she just met, Hans being the bad guy (he’s a bit like Gaston in that way) and true love being between sisters. It’s really refreshing and playful. Fun question, because Hans is the villain, does that make the romance song, Love is an open door, the villain song? Talk about playing with your tropes!

The Trolls

The movie is not without it’s problems, Hans was weak and dumb about political maneuvers, but the reveal was great, the deus ex machina ship at the end, the flow of the plot is clunky in places, it has a little bit of pan-scandinavian confusion and I found the troll weak. The clunky parts are forgivable and Disney has never been one for 100% cultural authenticity so that is forgivable too. The design of the Trolls were boring and franky they don’t look look like they belong to this movie. They could have more fun with the designs. The only good thing about them was Olaf’s reaction. It would have been amazing if they had been inspired by the Moomins but then again I love the Moomins, so bias. The trolls are small issue it just wish there was more too them then moss cover rocks.

Elsa

All in all Frozen was a great Disney movie. It had all the facets that make a Disney movie, memorable songs, characters and animation, and Let it Go had all these things. All the things Disney has been lacking recently . Could Frozen mark the next Golden Age? Only the next few movie will tell and hopefully they will be just as good as Frozen.

18Feb 2014

The 1997 Verion of Esmeralda; Sexy and Dull

by jess

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda,

I do not hate Salma Hayek, I loved her in Frida, and I think she is a decent to good actress. The problem with Hayek is she is often typecast as the feisty independent women and because of that it’s very hard to separate Hayek from her depiction of Esmeralda.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Edward Atterton as Gringoire

Esmeralda in the 1997 version is dull. She is nice, sexy, caring and likes her independence but there is not a lot to her. Generally, most Esmeraldas have little to work with other than being kind and beautiful.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda

Hayek’s Esmeralda does get a bit of social justice but it comes from guilt over Quasimodo getting punished because of her, which is a bit of an issue. In this version, Esmeralda is only briefly put off by Quasimodo’s looks and Quasimodo does not try to kidnap her, in fact he tries to help and Esmeralda know this. When Esmeralda tries to help Quasimodo by appealing to the king for his release, her giving him water is like a consolation to make it up to him. It’s not that she was moved by a whim. It lacks the sweetness that has in other versions where Esmeralda is clearly the one who the wrong was done to.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda

By all counts Hayek is a really good casting choice. Hayek has really good exotic look which for an Esmeralda who is a full-Romani is really good. She was on the upper edge of being a little too old to play Esmeralda but the film doesn’t really talk about her youth or naivety too much so it’s not a big issue.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda,

Really, she should have been the perfect Esmeralda. her performance is not her fault as she had little to work with. She has no arc and has nothing to do outside of being nice and dancing suggestively.

Next Time Quasimodo

Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo

17Feb 2014

Sochi and Notre Dame de Paris

by jess

I haven’t really been following the 2014 Winter Olympics BUT two (or three) Gold Medalists, Yuzuru Hanyu and Meryl Davis & Charlie have previously skated to Notre Dame de Paris music.

You can see their Notre Dame de Paris performances here

https://www.thehunchblog.com/2013/02/meryl-davis-charlie-white-ice-dance-to-notre-dame-de-paris/

https://www.thehunchblog.com/2012/12/yuzuru-hanyu-skating-to-notre-dame-de-paris/

17Feb 2014

What’s in a name? Claude Frollo

by jess

Lemud Illustration of Frollo

Claude Frollo seems to have a very tricky name to break down. Let’s start with the easy part, Claude.

Claude is a Latin name that means Lame, as in limp. This name could relate to Frollo’s crippled soul. In Book 4 Chapter 6, the local boys also said to Frollo and Quasimodo when they would pass by “Claudius cum claudo” meaning in Latin “Claude with the crippled.”

Then there is Frollo. Frollo is a mysterious surname. It doesn’t sound very French at all does it? Well, it’s not, in fact it’s not really a surname. Frollo has Roman roots but isn’t really Roman. The only evidence of Frollo aside from Hugo’s Frollo and Leone Frollo (an Italian Comic Stripe Creator) is in the Arthurian Legends.

According to the Legend, Arthur conquered Norway for with Brother-in-law, King Lot. On his was back he went through Denmark and to Gaul. Gaul was ruled by the Roman Emperor Leo and it was governed by Frollo. Arthur defeated the army and Frollo fled to Paris. Arthur besieged the city. Frollo knew the city couldn’t hold out a long siege, so he challenged Arthur to one-on-one combat for Gaul. Frollo managed to wound Arthur but was killed. The Legends claim that Frollo means in Old English “Killed by Arthur.” Which would mean he got the name after the fact and it would make it an Old English name.

But wait there’s more, according to the Vulgate Lancelot, a major source for the Arthurian Legend written in French, Frollo was an ally of King Claudas. Yet another connection to the name Claude.

13Feb 2014

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Review; Happy Eeyore will Haunt your Dreams

by jess

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year.

You know when you start to watch a movie and you know it’s going to be painful in the first few minutes? That was me with Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year. Even the title makes me cringe. This one is a double holiday movie, as we get Christmas and New Years. I give them a little credit, you don’t see new year’s in Disney movies but it’s boring and makes for a very long hour.

Pooh and Christopher Robin

So the plot or in this case the plots? This movie has like two dumb stories. First, Pooh and friends are having a Christmas party and then they tell the first story in a Flashback.

That story is Christopher Robin is writing a letter to Santa. He asks everyone what they want and sends the letter via airmail. No, literally he just throws the letter into wind. The next day, Piglet tells Pooh that Pooh forgot to ask for a gift, apparently all that hunny he for asked for the others in case they get guests didn’t count. So they find the letter and make some modifications but Pooh fails to throw the letter in the air. So Pooh tries to play Santa so that everyone gets their gifts which fails too.

So Pooh decides to go to give the letter directly to Santa. The others then realizes that they would rather have Pooh then gifts. Pooh returns having failed again and they are all happy. However Christopher Robin comes and gives out gifts and friends are awesome.

Pooh and Piglet

The second story is not a flashback. Christopher Robin tells Pooh about New Years and Resolutions. Pooh decides to they should have party at Rabbit’s house. Rabbit then gets annoyed with Tigger’s bouncing, Piglet’s fear, Eeyore’s gloom and Pooh’s hunny obsession. So Rabbit decides to move.

Pooh and the gang decide to change these traits but in turn the traits just shift around so Tigger is scared, Piglet bounces, Pooh is gloomy and Eeyore is creepy, I mean hunny obsessed. Rabbit decides to stay because friends are awesome.

Happy Eeyore

Both these stories have the same theme, Friends are awesome. Now I do not claim to be an expert on all thing Pooh but that is a stand-by theme. Friends=Good. Though the second story had the added bonus of the be-yourself theme . Which is another stand-by theme by Disney.

One could say that New Year approach was inventive as the tried to be different but that made them in the polar opposite so the annoying innate traits were not corrected but transferred. I didn’t have a problem with Tigger being scared or Piglet bouncing or Pooh being gloomy. But Eeyore as the cheerful insane Pooh was more than off putting it was down-right terrifying.

Eeyore on the Christmas Tree

When I started doing the sequel reviews, I said wasn’t going to discuss the animation as on the whole the animation is weak in general in the sequels. But the Pooh movies are not sequels, not exactly.

Winnie the Pooh is separate entity under the Mouse label. That being sound the animation was far and away much, much weaker than Pooh’s Grand Adventure. The colors are dull and the animation at times is a bit awkward.

Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Pooh

For me, as a not-quite-a-Pooh-fan there is not much to enjoy in Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year. The Plot(s) is weak and dumb, the characters even admit to the viewer they are annoying and the animation is week. All round, I found this dumb, dumb, dumb and I really disliked it.

11Feb 2014

The plot of the 1997 Hunchback

by jess

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda,

The 1997 version of The Hunchback is in someways is very faithful to the book but in more ways it diverges so much. Overall, it has a great mood that feels like the original book. It knows when to be bright and knows when to be somber. But in what ways does the plot massively diverge, oh let me count the ways.

Richard Harris as Frollo and the Printing Press

First, the big one, The Printing Press. The Printing Press was briefly discussed in the novel and was a major subplot in the 1939 version but the in 1997 version, it’s a big part of the plot, in fact it’s the first thing Frollo does. In the opening scene, Frollo commandeers a Printing Press and then find baby Quasimodo.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda,

The Printing Press is also a big part in Esmeralda’s trial. Since Phoebus is not in this, he can’t get stab instead Frollo is at odds with a minster who wants to legalizes the printing press. Frollo isn’t against knowledge, he is against keeping it from being easy because if it easy to attain it’s worthless. So Frollo is at odds with this minster and his obsession for Esmeralda. After his run in with minster and getting turned down by the King, Frollo seeks out Esmeralda and confesses his obsession to her. She runs off but drops her knife which Frollo then uses to kill the minister and Esmeralda is blamed.

Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo and Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, 1997 The Hunchback

Quasimodo also uses the old commandeer Printing Press to make a pamphlet to help free Esmeralda which he gives to Gringoire to distribute. On the some note Quasimodo in this version love learning and books.

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Edward as Gringoire, 1997 The Hunchback picture image

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Edward Atterton as Gringoire

Speaking of Gringoire and Esmeralda, unlike other versions where if the fall in love it’s over time usually at the point where Esmeralda gets in trouble. In this version it’s pretty quick. She kisses him the scene after they get married. Not a big change just worth a mention.

Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo and Richard Harris as Frollo

A big change that is worth mentioning is the attack on Notre Dame and and the climax. Much like the Disney movie the attack on Notre Dame occurs right after Quasimodo saves Esmeralda. Unlike the Disney movie it’s not at the end but like novel in the middle. So the climax is Quasimodo goes to the court of Miracles to give Gringoire the pamphlets and to get Djali for Esmeralda. He returns and finds Esmeralda gone. It turns out Frollo handed her back to executioner and she is going to be hanged. Frollo tells Quasimodo everything and as Esmeralda is about to be hanged the Court of Miracle show up and saves her. Quasimodo threaten to throw Frollo off Notre Dame until he confess before all of Paris that he is murder. As Frollo and Quasimodo walk off, Esmeralda runs into the Cathedral, Frollo in a rage tries to stab her but stabs Quasimodo by accident. In their fight they go over the edge of Notre Dame and Frollo dies. Quasimodo hangs on and Esmeralda and Gringoire save him from the ledge but dies of his wounds under his bells.

Richard Harris as Frollo hiring thugs

Another big change is Frollo doesn’t send Quasimodo to capture Esmeralda. Frollo hires some thugs and Quasimodo follows and tries to help but gets arrested.

A Gargoyle with molten Lead

I won’t pretend that these big changes are not weird. It was practically jarring to see the attack on Notre Dame scene in the middle of the story. It really loses the drama. And Quasimodo not trying to capture Frollo lacks a punch too. The version makes up for these it other areas but still it’s a weird.

Next time Esmeralda

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda

10Feb 2014

What’s in a name? La Esmeralda

by jess

19th century Illustration of Esmeralda

La Esmeralda’s name rather simply means Emerald in Spanish. Emerald in it of itself originated from the Greek smaragdos meaning “green gem.” In the book, Esmeralda’s name is an alias, she knows it’s not her real name but she thinks it’s pretty because of it’s uniqueness. The reason she is known as La Esmeralda in the book is because of a green silk bag she wears around her neck that has a green glass gem on it that looks like an emerald. This bag is were she keeps her protective talisman, her baby shoe. Esmeralda could also have a connection to The Emerald Tablet, which is a hermetic Alchemist text. Frollo practiced hermetic.

Esmeralda’s true given name is AgnÃ¨s. AgnÃ¨s means pure. Purity is an important facet of Esmeralda’s character as Phoebus is attracted to her innocence and Frollo is comforted by her purity. AgnÃ¨s also is associated with lambs. This because it was the emblem of Saint Agnes, who was young Roman virgin martyr. Lambs also the connotation for being sacrificial as well as being a tile for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John.

It is interesting to point out, that her green silk pouch, which her name Esmeralda comes from, protects her purity or her true name. The pouch also safeguards her only link to her true name, her baby shoe.

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