Kirk Wise
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Finally, Luc Besson’s Dracula has gargoyles that look a lot like those from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And yes, I am referring to the Disney animated feature film from 1996.
Rather, it evokes the boldness of Disney's experimental areas in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis…
…something omnipresent in numerous Disney classics like Dumbo, Frozen, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame…
…defeated not just Walt Disney but also the well-oiled machine that the Disney studio became in the 1990s, when even Victor Hugo's grim novel of society and fate, The Hunchback of Notre Dame , was successfully crammed into the formula of a 90-minute animated Broadway-style musical.
A Cure for Wellness (2017)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Themes
If anything, Verbinski (working in an unencumbered R-rated register, from a darkly adult script by Justin Haythe) seems more indebted to classic Lon Chaney silents like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, early examples of body horror undergirded with deep psychological damage.
There’s a touch of early-era body horror here, taking cues from the classic Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but A Cure for Wellness is unabashedly R-rated.
One Battle After Another (2025)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Characters
I saw him as the American militant equivalent of Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame — a monstrous force of power, deceit, hypocrisy, and lustful racial fetishization that serves to enhance his authority.
Although better than its immediate predecessors, Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and its successor, Tarzan, its memory and legacy have never been protected by Disney the way that “The Big Four” (the fourth member being The Little Mermaid) have been.
The songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (the team behind Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame , Menken's much better writing partner Howard Ashman stubbornly remaining long-dead) are effective enough in the moment - and lead to the film's most transcendent scene, a Freed-style musical extravaganza in Central Park - but they're not all that memorable.
Speaking of excellence, the music is by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (the duo behind Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
The Call (2013)
Directed by Brad Anderson
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Characters
Beginning the film with an ominous psychotic determination, the unravelling imperfection of the situation results in his performance devolving into a bad impression of Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
An early song performed by Broadway diva Donna Murphy, "Mother Knows Best," calls to mind Frollo's lyrics in Disney's greatest achievement, The Hunchback of Notre Dame: "The world is cruel/the world is wicked/it's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city/I am your only friend…"
The Shape of Water (2017)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Yes, there's a quick aside here to "The Tingler," if you're observant; an even more fleeting one to the Lon Chaney "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." (And of course the central situation is from "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" - or, perhaps more accurately, the first sequel, "Revenge of the Creature."
Who'd have thought that Victor Hugo's sprawling epic The Hunchback of Notre Dame could be transformed into the story of a misunderstood teen, or that the Hercules legend could be purged of any reference to adultery, or that the tale of Pocahontas, involving a 27-year-old British captain and a 12-year-old Algonquin girl, could be the basis for a love story?
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Directed by Dean DeBlois
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Themes
Unlike more serious Disney fare (The Hunchback of Notre Dame anyone?)
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
Directed by Kelly Asbury
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Themes
Take a politically correct morality play about Evil White Imperialists versus Noble Oppressed Minorities Living in Harmony with Nature, dress it up as entertaining family fare with cute animal sidekicks for comic relief and catchy sing-along tunes, and you’ve got one of the cartoons of the late Disney renaissance period (Pocahontas; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Tarzan).
It's also the quickest way to avoid real feeling, which Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame didn't do, but Shrek does.
Hercules (1997)
Directed by Ron Clements
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Themes Visuals
(Release Date: August 12, 2014) Arriving a year after the underappreciated, somewhat somber "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," 1997's "Hercules" returned Disney to the fold of adventure comedyalbeit with a dark streak of its own.
Alan Menken composed some wonderful songs for "Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" "Aladdin," "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
The stripped-down, cartoon design across the film is not met by the animation itself, which remains as detailed and fluid as we might expect from Disney at its peak; rather surprisingly, the film cost just as much as The Hunchback of Notre Dame , despite looking to all appearances much, much less ambitious.
After "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" I feared that Disney was going to be mired in mediocrity for all time.
While "The Lion King," "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" strove to capture lifelike character movement and three-dimensional landscapes, "Hercules" has a generally flat look.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Directed by Gary Trousdale
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
That comes as something of a surprise considered that the film is helmed by Wise & Trousdale who previously collaborated on Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (who also collaborated on "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") enhance Tab Murphy's funny, barbed script with at times jaw-dropping computer animation--the scenes of the expedition's ship drifting into the ocean's depth and navigating past a monster lobster are an absolute treat.
While their Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame felt warm and genuine, Atlantis feels cold and calculated.
It was created by the team of producer Don Hahn and directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who made "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996).
Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," etc.) have axed what Disney does best: calypso crustaceans, wisecracking warthogs, singing teapots.
Tarzan (1999)
Directed by Chris Buck
influenced by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Visuals Themes Plot
The screenplay -- courtesy of screenwriters Tab Murphy ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame") and Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (collaborators on "The Lion King") -- satisfactorily keeps things moving at a good clip, and offers both laughs and some touching moments.
Gone was the tyranny of the planar background; gone also was the jarring CGI sheen found in the ballroom sequence of Beauty and the Beast , the "sanctuary!" scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame , or even the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King and the snowy assault of the Huns in Mulan .
The lyrics fall into the "I gotta be me but who am I" mode of The Lion King and Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan -- sample from "Strangers like Me": "Oh I just know there's something/Bigger out there."
That's why Ariel survives in The Little Mermaid , the bulk of Aladdin only vaguely resembles "A Thousand and One Nights," The Hunchback of Notre Dame completely eviscerated Victor Hugo's attacks on the Catholic Church, and Hercules conveniently ignored the sexual appetites of the gods of Olympus.
"Tarzan," like "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," represents another attempt by Disney to push the envelope of animation.