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The Hunchback (1997 film)
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The Hunchback is a film based on Victor Hugo's novel Hunchback of Notre Dame. It stars Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo the hunchback. The film was made in 1997, the year after the more famous Disney version. It seems that the filmmakers were inspired by the Disney version, for the film has several notable similarities. For instance, the scene where Quasimodo saves Esmeralda was especially similar to the Disney version. The film is more true to the novel than the Disney film (e.g Phoebus is more of minor character in this film and the book but in the Disney version Phoebus played a much larger role). In The Disney version, Quasimodo is not deaf, however in this version he is deaf. This version also leaves much of the tragedy of the novel's ending intact. The hunchback's deformity was a more realistic looking deformity than the Anthony Hopkins and Charles Laughton version. The film for some reason changed Griengore into a public speaker instead of a poet. Another difference from the Disney version was that the Disney movie didn't even have Griengore. Clopin in the movie was a more silly clown-like person who was influenced by Disney's jester like Clopin. Phoebus was only in two scenes off the movie and his lust for Esmeralda was deleted, again an example of this film making him a non-important background character with only about three lines of dialogue.
Quasimodo has two eyes instead of one like in the novel.
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