Esmeralda - Tumblr Posts
“Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man”
psa:
the hunchback of notre dame was not and never should have been intended for children. it’s a complex story about love, lust, power dynamics and racism, and by watering it down into a G-RATED kids’ cartoon (with cute singing gargoyles!) we lost out on all the richness of it. esmeralda is just a pretty dancing girl. phoebus is a nice soldier. against this backdrop, “hellfire” is startlingly frightening and creepy. (because it’s adult!) quasimodo sees esmeralda as an angel, frollo sees her as the Devil incarnate, and there’s little else to bring us to a correct conclusion of her character. victor hugo would’ve been mortified. (also, the hypersexualization of a woman of color…)
that doesn’t apply as much to the disney stage musical. here, disney actually meant this for adults. here, you get sweeping orchestral music, a plethora of lyrically complex songs, a richly textured frollo, and even an emotional glimpse of jehan. it’s not without its faults: despite a little more character development, esmeralda is still a very adult sex symbol (hey! she was supposed to be 16!), and phoebus is rewritten as a heroic little himbo. and gringoire is still Not in the picture. but at least you get a better representation of what victor hugo actually intended.
the thing is, two-hour adaptations of massive novels are probably always going to fall short. but victor hugo chose to write SO in depth about lust, sin, misogyny, hypocrisy, death, racism, unrequited love, etc etc etc! there is so much in this book! and the thing is that i believe children are capable of understanding complex themes, and i believe that they should be exposed to rich media. age-appropriate, of course, and i don’t think that this is a story appropriate for young children — but even if disney was planning to cut out the frollo lust plotline (which they didn’t), at least represent women? and romani people? and racism? and unrequited love? in a way that’s both palatable and well-written. we don’t need to water things down for children to understand them. take mr. roger’s neighborhood! take star trek! take bluey! these are all shows that tackle hard themes in a kid-friendly way. more of this please!!!
and if it comes to a story like hunchback, where the big storyline is that a catholic priest is lusting after a young girl? do us a favor and don’t make it into a kid’s cartoon.
The only fool I see is YOU. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
"Show them the mercy They don't find on earth..."
you know, those smoke jets are really cool and i love that george developed them but i do miss esmeralda and floating joe :(
«but she will be mine, or she will burn!»
i downloaded a million procreate brushes and decided to try oil painting. i had a bunch of work to finish, but i just couldn't fucking resist. "the hunchback of notre dame" cracked me up again when i wasn't expecting it. you have no idea how much i love this cartoon, so i decided to dedicate this art to one of the most beautiful songs in this movie.
and now i'm off to finish the rest of wips…
Can’t draw but love you all very much (Still experiment with her look)
Heroines of my Childhood: Esmeralda
“What do they have against people who are different anyway?”
This moment in the deleted song In A Place of Miracles was robbed..
A lil something something with Quazimodo and Esmeralda
just rewatched the hunchback of notre dame and i think we all can agree that clopin is the sexiest man of all movie
phoebus, no offense ✋
sometimes i forget he isn't esmeralda's real father 😩
Esmeralda sketches/ wip I will color eventually
Wanted to draw a few of her other outfits
