1996's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is an underrated drama that focuses on the abuse of power and religious fanaticism that was common in The Hundred Year War and how they affected the less fortunate. Even better, the film delivered with its cast of complex characters that all carried their own weight in the story In this sequel, their concerns are all shifted to...... finding a date for the dance? While there are many sequels to Disney films, this seems to be the only one that doesn't even understand what made the first one great to begin with. What's even more confusing is the lack of any serious conflict that one would expect from The Middle Ages; especially when it was so well used the first time The worst thing about this sequel is that it ignores the fact that one of the most important points of the original is about Quasimodo learning to abandon Frollo's distorted teachings about the world, such as only caring for what he could get out of others instead of what he's supposed to give in return. The fact that Quasimodo is obsessed with finding a girlfriend should come off as a red flag, but it never does even when he immediately starts carving a figure of the girl who ran away from him after seeing him for the first time. Then when they do start dating, he tells her that there's more to her than her looks, but he never discloses what that is. It's like I can only assume he's saying anything he can to get her to stay and he's just lucky she's too naive to ask any follow up questions. The moral of the story is, never put all your hopes and dreams on the shoulders of one person, because both of you will inevitably get hurt and if you ever want a relationship to work, you both need to be on some understanding of what you need in life. Please don't let this movie tell you otherwise.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
(2002 Video)
An Atrocity that undermines the complexity of its predecessor
31 December 2018