10 Animated Disney Films That Made Big Changes To The Source Material

5. The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame

Based Upon: 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' by Victor Hugo While it is understandable that Disney changed Quasimodo from being deaf with unintelligible speech, if nothing else imagine how different 'Out There' would be, there were some other pretty big changes. And not just talking gargoyles. In a rare turn for Disney, the villain was made darker and more despicable. Frollo and the archdeacon were one and the same in the book, making Frollo was a more sympathetic and compassionate character. Or at least he began that way. He took Quasimodo in when he found him abandoned and loves him as his family. His lust for Esmeralda causes his spiral into true villainy, as opposed to it being another part of it. One darker book moment has him attempt to rape Esmeralda in the clock tower. Phoebus was also very different in the book. He is a married, untrustworthy womaniser. His intentions for Esmeralda are purely physical, and it is this that causes Frollo's jealous attempt to kill him. Esmeralda's shallowness isn't much better. She is besotted with Phoebus while, despite showing compassion to him, she is too disgusted by Quasimodo to even let him kiss her hand. The ending is drastically different. Esmeralda is hanged for her final rejection of Frollo after he saved her from the King's men. In reaction Quasimodo kills Frollo by pushing him from Notre-Dame. He then lies with Esmeralda's corpse. Eighteen months later their two skeletons are found, Quasimodo had died from starvation. When attempting to separate the two, his remains turn to dust.