The sequel that epic failed. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2
 

Now we all know that Disney is fixated with spewing out crappy sequels to their movies, Cinderella,.Aladdin, The little Mermaid....and the abominable let down that is the second Hunchback of Notre Dame film!


The first film was perfect, it was dark and the themes were deep enough for adults to enjoy and it remains my favorite Disney film. The animation was great, the score was fantastic and the characters were interesting. In the sequel the animation is distinctly less impressive the songs are bland and it reeks of half-assed lazy writing.


Let's examine the first two songs from the films...

The original opens with this...



The Latin chorus and that fantastic climax at the end give me chills every time. It's powerful and impressive like a lot of the songs in this film. And the visuals are stunning


The second film also opens with Clopin singing but I don't get any of the same epic feel, at all. It's not God-awful, just lack-luster and silly.



The animation is absolutely painful...



I think what disappointed me the most about this sequel is the villain, in movie one we get Judge Claude Frollo. He burns down an entire city just to find one single gypsy girl he wants to sleep with. He attempts to commit genocide by wiping out the gypsies, nearly drowns an infant for being ugly and that's just the tip of the iceberg, he thinks he's an agent of God and he uses his position with the church to carry out his crimes. He's also got a great song.



Again, impressive music and visuals


In movie two we get a vain narcissist named Sarousch who wants to steal a bell...

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__...x-Sarousch.jpg

we went from a dark twisted complex villain to a common thief. Who is not cool enough to have his own song like all the other respectable Disney villains. Talk about vain though, he makes Gaston look modest!

The characters are given almost no development in this film, at all! They feel so generic and empty and Clopin's role is so downplayed that he may as well not be in the sequel. In the first film he was a narrator and the leader of the gypsies. Now he's just sort of there.

I'm not going to get into the romance...it's typical shallow sequel romance. There's nothing memorable about it at all.

I think ultimately it wasn't so much that it was horrible (Well, ok, yeah I think it is horrible) but after the mature, dark themes of the original it's a big disappointment to have something so dumbed down and uninspiring.

Of all the bad sequels I've seen this was the most disappointing for me.

As a stand alone film it would be "Okay"...but you can't follow up a masterpiece with "Okay" so it seems much worse to me than it actually is.

Now it's your turn, did you actually like this? If so then why?
Do you hate it for reasons I didn't cover or completely different ones? Let me know.

Wow, I haven't seen the sequel, but I loved the original. It's a shame Disney decides to ruin things with sequels. Yes, ruin. You can't just pretend it didn't happen, because you'll always think of the sequel when the original movie ends. :(

I loved Hunchback of Notre Dame (the original) for all of the same reasons as you. I'm a huge fan of sidekick animals not talking, so I'm happy that Esmeralda's little goat didn't speak. Yeah, I know there are the gargoyles (admittedly, the weakest part of the film), but they're still pretty interesting. Why? Because you realize midpoint through the movie that they're figments of Quasimodo's imagination--whenever they're talking, it's not real.

I love all the music--Esmeralda's "God Help The Outcasts" is stunning, especially when she is walking by the candles and singing to herself. When she looks at a statue of the Virgin Mary and asks if she was just an outcast too, it just melts my heart (and I'm not Christian or anything--it's just a very poignant scene).

The humor is also great. Remember when Phoebus tried to corner Esmeralda in the church? Haha, she aimed that candle very low~ :D

Yes the humor is dumbed down for kiddies in film two and so are the themes. They played it safe the whole time.

Yeah.... about that, turns out Quasi's girlfriend in film two can see them too.

I liked it better when I thought they were just figments of his imagination. It gave him a little more depth as a character to have his isolation affect him like that. Film two killed that part for me.

Ouch, that sucks. I'll never watch the second one now. Xb

I'm so not gonna watch the second one, the first one is like my favorite disney movie. And I don't wanna ruin that. >.<

Yeah. I'd advise anyone who loves the first not to watch the second. It's heartbreaking how little effort was put into that movie.