Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #34: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Last Week's: Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #33: Pocahontas (1995)

In the same vein as Pocahontas, Disney attempted a darker tone for its next feature film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Based on Victor Hugo's famed novel, the film had again assembled a high-calibre crew: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, directors of the beloved Beauty and the Beast, were helming the project; acclaimed producer Don Hahn was producing and Alan Menken returned for scoring duties. What set this film apart from the other animated films was that Disney dealt with themes of religion, virtue, lust and intolerance, among others, and the challenge was to make this film still suitable for all audiences. They didn't entirely succeeded on that front but I think that is a positive thing, because Hunchback appeals to an adult audience in a way few Disney films have.

Munir's Disney Retrospective - The Renaissance, Part 2 (1995-1999) Introduction

Last Week's: Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #32: The Lion King (1994)

After the roaring success of The Lion King, its successor had the uphill battle of surpassing or at least matching its unprecedented acclaim. Of course, that didn't happen and in the following years the films that were released were met with a more lukewarm response and decreasing revenue. That, however didn't mean that Disney Animation was going 'downhill' or that they had lost the magic but, as with any studio that's reached its peak, the only place to go was down. Another factor for this decline was the fact that, in this period of time, Pixar came into existence, forever changing the animation industry. Nonetheless, the second part of the Renaissance is filled with beautiful movies that, while not as good as its four big predecessors, still offer plenty of charm, superb animation, endearing characters and wonderful stories. The last part of the Renaissance may not have been as brilliant as its beginning, but it still remains a high point in the studio's history.

Tomorrow: Animated Classic #33 Review: Pocahontas (1995)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray Review - Pretty Nice Looking For a Hunchback

©Disney

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is available to own on Disney Blu-ray™ from 15th April 2013

Alongside Aladdin (the hi-def release of which, there still isn't a firm US release date for), three really rather good animated Disney films are coming to UK Blu-ray players on 15th April: Mulan, Brother Bear and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (and, yes, I did just call Brother Bear rather good). The latter three releases are already out Stateside, but Disney were kind enough to send me out advance review copies of the UK releases of the films, - check out our Aladdin Blu-ray review here - second on the agenda: Hunchback.

Upcoming UK Disney Blu-ray Details

©Disney

We in the UK often get a raw deal of things, Disney are a particularly nefarious culprit of giving us films late. One such area is that we get Disney Blu-rays at times completely independent to the US, sometimes this is good (we got Cinderella and Peter Pan early), but sometimes it isn't (we still haven't got the Finding Nemo Blu-ray, and the bonus features we get on our BD releases are always slim pickings). However, once in a while there's a ray of light in the dark, stormy night; for instance, we've got a succulent slew of Disney Blu-ray releases coming up in the next month.