About Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996)
Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996) for ebay resellers. ----- The movie opens in 1482 Paris with Clopin (Paul Kandel), a gypsy puppeteer, telling a group of children the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame ("The Bells of Notre Dame"): One night, four gypsies attempted to enter Paris but were stopped by Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay), the Minister of Justice and de facto ruler of Paris. One gypsy woman who was carrying a bundle attempted to flee and Frollo pursued, thinking that she was carrying stolen goods. Chasing her to Notre Dame, Frollo snatches the bundle from her and kicks her, causing her to fall and hit her head against the stone steps of the cathedral. Frollo discovers that the bundle is a deformed baby and attempts to drown it in a well, but is stopped by the Archdeacon (David Ogden Stiers), who tells him to care for the child as repentance for killing an innocent woman. He agrees, on the condition that the child will live in the cathedral. Frollo names the baby Quasimodo, meaning "half-formed".
Twenty years later, Quasimodo (Tom Hulce) is shown to be the bellringer of Notre Dame. Frollo tells Quasimodo to never leave the bell tower because the people in the city will mistreat him because of his ugliness. Frollo has also lied about Quasimodo's mother, saying that he took Quasimodo in when his mother abandoned him. Nevertheless, after Frollo departs following a visit, Quasimodo dreams of spending a day out in the world ("Out There"). Quasimodo's grotesque friends (Hugo (Jason Alexander), Victor (Charles Kimbrough), and Laverne (Mary Wickes)) convince him to sneak out of the cathedral, given that it was the annual Feast of Fools and everyone is in costume.
Frollo and his new captain of the guard, Phoebus (Kevin Kline), arrive to oversee the festival as Quasimodo tries to keep himself from being seen ("Topsy Turvy"). When the time comes to crown the ugliest man at the festival as the "King of Fools", Esmeralda (Demi Moore), who has just performed for the crowd, pulls Quasimodo onto the stage, thinking that his face is a mask. When his face is shown to be real, the crowd is shocked, but Clopin hurries to calm them, and Quasimodo is crowned the King of Fools. He is initially met with applause, but Frollo's guards incite the crowd to turn on him, tying him down to a wooden turntable and pelting him with produce. Phoebus disapproves of the cruelty, and asks permission to put a stop to it, but Frollo holds him back, to teach Quasimodo a lesson for disobeying him. However, when she realizes what is going on, Esmeralda frees Quasimodo and accuses Frollo of cruelty for not having it stopped sooner. Frollo orders her arrest for insulting him, but Esmeralda uses illusory tricks to disappear, after which Frollo accuses her of witchcraft. After Quasimodo heads back to the cathedral, humiliated, Esmeralda and her goat Djali follow him, disguised together as an old man.
Recognizing her disguise from when he first saw her in the street, Phoebus pursues Esmerelda. She is initially aggressive towards him, even attacking him with a candlestick and forcing him to engage her in hand-to-hand combat before she realizes that he is honorable about the sanctity of the church and is not intending to arrest her. Frollo bursts in on them and attempts to have Esmerelda dragged out, but Phoebus saves her by saying that she claimed sanctuary. The archdeacon then commands Frollo and Phoebus to leave out of respect for the church. They leave, Frollo warning Esmeralda that she will be arrested if she leaves the cathedral. Esmeralda, though thinking herself unworthy to offer a prayer, prays for God to protect her people and the other outcasts ("God Help the Outcasts"). Quasimodo hears the song and she spots him, following him to the bell tower, where he becomes even more infatuated with her and helps her escape. In gratitude for his kindness, she gives him a necklace with a map of Paris, with points representing Notre Dame and the Court of Miracles, the gypsy hideout. With her on his mind, he realizes that she is the first one to show him true respect. ("Heaven's Light"). Meanwhile, Frollo is disturbed by his own lust for Esmeralda and fears eternal damnation as a consequence ("Hellfire").
The next day, Frollo leads a search for gypsies, burning down houses and buildings. Phoebus is disturbed by his actions, and when Frollo orders him to burn down a mill with people inside, refuses. When Frollo does it he dives into the mill to save the family. Frollo attempts to have him executed for insubordination, but Phoebus steals Frollo's horse and escapes. He is pursued and shot with an arrow as he is crossing a bridge, causing him to fall into the river below, but Esmerelda, who has been watching in disguise the whole time, dives in to save him when the coast is clear. After Quasimodo has just been convinced by the grotesques that Esmeralda is romantically interested in him ("A Guy Like You"), Esmeralda brings the injured Phoebus to the bell tower, and Quasimodo is heartbroken to see them declare love for one-another.
By now, Frollo suspects Quasimodo of helping Esmerelda. He returns to the cathedral just as she leaves, and Quasimodo hides Phoebus under a table. Frollo frightens Quasimodo into admitting the truth, then tells him of his plans to attack the Court of Miracles "at dawn with a thousand men." After Frollo leaves, Phoebus and Quasimodo decide to work together to warn the gypsies, after a brief quarrel about Esmerelda. They manage to find the Court of Miracles using the necklace Esmeralda gave to Quasimodo, but upon arriving they are captured by Clopin and his men. Mistaking them for spies, the gypsies sentence them to death by hanging ("The Court of Miracles"). They are saved by Esmeralda and they warn the gypsies of Frollo's plan, but Frollo and his soldiers arrive to arrest all of them; he had followed Quasimodo to the Court of Miracles.
The next day Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake in front of the cathedral. He offers Esmeralda a chance to live if she agrees to be his lover, but she is disgusted by his offer. Quasimodo is chained up in the bell tower, despondent, but as he hears Frollo's hypocritical speech about truth and justice and sees Frollo light the fire, his anger gets the better of him and he furiously breaks free from the chains. He rescues Esmeralda and carries her back to the cathedral, where he claims sanctuary. Frollo, however, orders his men to break into Notre Dame, while Phoebus escapes his prison carriage and incites the surrounding crowd to revolt against Frollo's tyranny. They free the gypsies and drive back the guards.
Quasimodo pours molten metal through the gargoyles from above (resembling an incident where the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims was attacked during World War I) to drive the guards back as the battle rages below, but Frollo manages to break into the cathedral, where he finds Quasimodo weeping over the unconscious Esmeralda, thinking she has died. Frollo attempts to stab Quasimodo, but Quasimodo overpowers Frollo, seizes the dagger and throws him to the floor. In his rage, Quasimodo snaps at Frollo and comes very close to killing him, but is distracted when Esmeralda wakes up. Frollo brandishes a sword, and chases them to the balconies, where he and Quasimodo begin to fight, with Quasimodo is unable to retaliate due to trying to protect Esmeralda from the deranged judge.
During the battle, Frollo reveals that Quasimodo's mother had actually died trying to save him, and that he intends to kill Quasimodo as he "should have done" twenty years ago. Frollo manages to use his cape to knock Quasimodo off the balcony, but Quasimodo grabs the cape and pulls Frollo with him, although he refrains from letting Frollo drop to his death. Esmeralda catches hold of Quasimodo's arm but is unable to pull him up. Frollo scrambles onto one of the inanimate gargoyles, and raises his sword in preparation to strike at Quasimodo and Esmeralda, declaring "and He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!", but the gargoyle spout he is holding onto comes to life, its eyes glowing orange, and it crumbles, sending Frollo falling into the molten metal below.
Quasimodo proves too much for Esmeralda and he slips from her grasp, falling towards the street below. However, Phoebus pulls him over a lower balcony just in time. There, the three heroes reunite and Quasimodo shows his acceptance of Esmeralda and Phoebus's relationship. The couple later emerges from the cathedral to a jubilant crowd, and Esmeralda leads Quasimodo out into the sunlight, where he is finally accepted by the citizens of Paris.
