Loosely based on Notre Dame de Paris, this film is really a fantasy about normality - what is beauty? what is truth? what is right? what is wrong?... and who really must decide on this? Richard Berry (Frollo)turns in an incredible performance as the guardian/parent of a severely deformed Quasimodo, whose real wish is not to be handsome but to have a cool sports bag. SHow this film to anyone who has a handicapped child in the family and they will soon be dissolving in laughter ... and in tears. The cruelty of the "normal" world is depicted by the Governor and his wife who at birth gave up ugly Quasimodo in exchange for beautiful Esmeralda. In the same vein handsome Phoebus is really just a vain skirt -chase trying to marry into power by courting the Governor's daughter. As Esmeralda finds out, "normal" people are physically beautiful, but their stupidity, greed, and ambition makes them repulsive, compared to the gentle Quasimodo. This is an upside-down world where the good are bad, the beautiful are ugly, and the ugly also are ugly but in the end does it matter? Add a touch of Thelma & Louise when Frollo and Quasimodo decide to leave Paris for a ride in a fantasy country which is mixture of France, Spain and Florida. Sprinkle with some references to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and you have a highly unusual, hilarious, movie.
