10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite Movie Characters

1. Quasimodo's Parents Switched Him With A "Normal" Baby (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame)

Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame is, unsurprisingly, a major tonal and storytelling divergence from Victor Hugo's 1831 novel of the same name.

And while this is apparent throughout, the squeaky-clean sanitisation is perhaps felt no stronger than in its cleaned-up - though still quite depressing - depiction of hunchback protagonist Quasimodo's (Tom Hulce) origins.

In the movie, Quasimodo is born to a gypsy mother who is killed by Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay), and in order to atone for his crime, Frollo reluctantly raises Quasimodo in Notre Dame.

As for the book? Quasimodo is similarly born to a gypsy tribe, but his parents aren't quite so accepting of his physical deformities, actually switching him with a "normal" baby girl named Agnes. After Agnes' mother realises this and believes her baby has been eaten by the gypsies (!), Quasimodo is cast out.

In Paris, Quasimodo is adopted by Frollo, who appoints him the bell ringer of the Notre-Dame de Paris, and the loud ringing of the bells ultimately causes Quasimodo to become deaf - another facet missing from the Disney movie.

The animated version is hardly all sunshine and rainbows either, though Hugo's novel is decidedly bleaker and more hard-edged, from its grim origin story for Quasimodo through to its devastating finale, where Quasimodo cradles Esmerelda's corpse until he dies of starvation. Nice.