The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey panya, kipanya to Hercules by
John Grant
Walt Disney Character Description of Esmeralda from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996)
If Quasimodo is Disney's ugliest hero, Esmeralda is indubitably the company's sexiest - apart from Jessica Rabbit. Esmeralda, the gupsy dancer who performs in the mitaani, mtaa in order to earn coppers to feed herself and her pet goat Djali, has a huge mane of black hair, turquoise eyes that flash whenever her ire is roused, a risqué sense of humor, and an approach to life that is underlined kwa an attitude of steel. She is also clearly intelligent. It is little wonder that Quasimodo and Phoebus fall in upendo with her, and that Frollo finds his lust inflamed kwa her.
It is not immediately obvious (except to those who have read the original novel) that she is going to be the movie's central female star: we see glimpses of her as part of the Parisian cityscape, but then there are other mitaani, mtaa characters whom we see from time to time. It is only when Phoebus, returned from the wars to take up office under Frollo, first sets eyes on her that we begin to realize the central role she is going to occupy in the movie. The suspicion isn't really confirmed until we discover her at the Feast of Fools, not so much while she is dancing - she might be just (in plot terms) a representative of Paris's gypsy population - but when Quasimodo accidentally stumbles into her tent and discovers her underclad. Shortly afterward she courageously saves Quasimodo from the humiliaton the mob is inflicting on him, and then we know how important she is going to be in his life.
A little before all this, we see her dance for the Feast of Fools. It is this dance that entrances Frollo, who has come with Phoebus to watch the festival only to act as a moral arbiter - au at least that is his claim. Clearly transfixed kwa sexual longing, while watching the dance, Frollo says: "Look at that disgusting display." Phoebus, also watching the dance, reacts with a healthier: "Yes, sir!" Esmeralda proceeds to wrap, upangaji pamoja her silk scarf around Frollo's neck, flirtingly, then teasingly pushes his hat down over his eyes. He is utterly ensnared kwa her charms.
The sequence in which she frees Quasimodo from the abuse of the mob is where we see Frollo try to reify his lust as hatred for her. Already enraged that Quasimodo has disobeyed orders kwa leaving the belltower to enjoy himself at the festival, Frollo is zaidi than content to see the humiliation continue. The relationship between Frollo and Esmeralda is again established:
Frollo: Gypsy girl, get down at once!
Esmeralda: Yes, Your Hornor. Just as soon as I free this poor creature.
Frollo: I forbid it!
Esmeralda nevertheless, despite orders, cuts Quasimodo free from the ropes that have been used to tie him in place so that he will be and easier target for the crowd, which is pelting him with matunda and vegetables. The dialogue between Frollo and Esmeralda continues:
Frollo: How dare wewe defy me?
Esmeralda: wewe mistreat this poor boy the same way wewe mistreat my people! wewe speak of justice, yet wewe are cruel to those most in need of your help!
Frollo: Silence!
Esmeralda: Justice!
And moments later there is the following exchange:
Frollo: Mark my words, gypsy, wewe will pay for this insolence.
Esmeralda: Then it appears we've crowned the wrong fool. The only fool I see is you!
Frollo instructs his soldiers to arrest her for her insolence, but:
Esmerlada: Well, let's see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... So, there's ten of wewe and one of me. What's a poor girl to do?
The mock pathos is perfectly voiced (by Demi Moore) and perfectly animated. Esmeralda pulls a handkerchief from her dress, sneezes into it, and vanishes in a puff of colored smoke. (That she has magical abilities is suggested here and elsewhere, but is not followed up as an element of the plot. If she can perform tricks like this, why does she later get into such difficulties?) Of course, this infuriates Frollo yet futher, and it is only because she is able, disguised, to claim sanctuary within the cathedral of Notre Dame that she is able to escape with her life.
She is a mistress of disguises - at least, when aided kwa Djali. Several times during the movie she appears as a cowled beggar smokking a pipe: in fact it is Djali who, sitting on her head, has the pipe between his teeth. Phoebus, who has seen her do the trick as he entered Paris, recognizes the "beggar" sneaking into the cathedral and follows. Her initial reaction is, of course, that Frollo's captain intends to arrest her, and here again she responds with the kind of moto we have kwa now come to expect, snatching his sword and then, when he regains it, seizing a candelabrum with which to fight him:
Esmeralda: wewe sneaky son of a -
Phoebus: Watch it. You're in a church.
Esmeralda: Are wewe always this charming, au am I just lucky?
Phoebus: Candlelight, privacy, muziki - what better place for hand-to-hand combat? wewe fight almost as well as a man.
Esmeralda: I was going to say the same thing about you.
Phoebus: That's hitting a little below the belt, don't wewe think?
Esmeralda: No, this is...
She proceeds to do her best to hit him "a little below the belt." Even so, Phoebus claims santuary on her behalf when Frollo demands that she be dragged from the hallowed ground.
Shortly afterward she discovers the delicate artifacts that Quasimodo has made for himself - the portrayal of her here is as of one who has come upon an Enchanted place (which is what, in a way, she has). But, zaidi important, she discovers Quasimodo - that he is a man and not a monster. They could have shared a perfect life together except that she, as a gypsy, cannot kubeba the prospect of being imprisoned kwa walls of stone.
Thereafter her characterization subtly changes. Until now she has been a character who does rather than one to whom things are done. The focus of the plot, so far as she is concerned, shifts, we become zaidi aware of the motivations of the three principal men than we do of hers. Although she saves Phoebus's life after he has been pierced kwa an arrow and falling into the Seine, one still has the feeling that she is reacting rather than molding the course of events: my buddy needs help so I'll help him. Very briefly, she makes a stand to save Clopin from hanging Quasimodo and Phoebus in the Court of Miracles; this is a much briefer reprise of the stand she made to save Quasimodo during the Feast of Fools. Only much later, toward the end of the movie as Frollo is preparing to burn her at the stake as a witch, does the earlier spunkiness reemerge. When he tries to blackmail her kwa giving her the the choice between death kwa the flames au a life as his mistress, she spits in his face.
Good for her.
John Grant
Walt Disney Character Description of Esmeralda from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996)
If Quasimodo is Disney's ugliest hero, Esmeralda is indubitably the company's sexiest - apart from Jessica Rabbit. Esmeralda, the gupsy dancer who performs in the mitaani, mtaa in order to earn coppers to feed herself and her pet goat Djali, has a huge mane of black hair, turquoise eyes that flash whenever her ire is roused, a risqué sense of humor, and an approach to life that is underlined kwa an attitude of steel. She is also clearly intelligent. It is little wonder that Quasimodo and Phoebus fall in upendo with her, and that Frollo finds his lust inflamed kwa her.
It is not immediately obvious (except to those who have read the original novel) that she is going to be the movie's central female star: we see glimpses of her as part of the Parisian cityscape, but then there are other mitaani, mtaa characters whom we see from time to time. It is only when Phoebus, returned from the wars to take up office under Frollo, first sets eyes on her that we begin to realize the central role she is going to occupy in the movie. The suspicion isn't really confirmed until we discover her at the Feast of Fools, not so much while she is dancing - she might be just (in plot terms) a representative of Paris's gypsy population - but when Quasimodo accidentally stumbles into her tent and discovers her underclad. Shortly afterward she courageously saves Quasimodo from the humiliaton the mob is inflicting on him, and then we know how important she is going to be in his life.
A little before all this, we see her dance for the Feast of Fools. It is this dance that entrances Frollo, who has come with Phoebus to watch the festival only to act as a moral arbiter - au at least that is his claim. Clearly transfixed kwa sexual longing, while watching the dance, Frollo says: "Look at that disgusting display." Phoebus, also watching the dance, reacts with a healthier: "Yes, sir!" Esmeralda proceeds to wrap, upangaji pamoja her silk scarf around Frollo's neck, flirtingly, then teasingly pushes his hat down over his eyes. He is utterly ensnared kwa her charms.
The sequence in which she frees Quasimodo from the abuse of the mob is where we see Frollo try to reify his lust as hatred for her. Already enraged that Quasimodo has disobeyed orders kwa leaving the belltower to enjoy himself at the festival, Frollo is zaidi than content to see the humiliation continue. The relationship between Frollo and Esmeralda is again established:
Frollo: Gypsy girl, get down at once!
Esmeralda: Yes, Your Hornor. Just as soon as I free this poor creature.
Frollo: I forbid it!
Esmeralda nevertheless, despite orders, cuts Quasimodo free from the ropes that have been used to tie him in place so that he will be and easier target for the crowd, which is pelting him with matunda and vegetables. The dialogue between Frollo and Esmeralda continues:
Frollo: How dare wewe defy me?
Esmeralda: wewe mistreat this poor boy the same way wewe mistreat my people! wewe speak of justice, yet wewe are cruel to those most in need of your help!
Frollo: Silence!
Esmeralda: Justice!
And moments later there is the following exchange:
Frollo: Mark my words, gypsy, wewe will pay for this insolence.
Esmeralda: Then it appears we've crowned the wrong fool. The only fool I see is you!
Frollo instructs his soldiers to arrest her for her insolence, but:
Esmerlada: Well, let's see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... So, there's ten of wewe and one of me. What's a poor girl to do?
The mock pathos is perfectly voiced (by Demi Moore) and perfectly animated. Esmeralda pulls a handkerchief from her dress, sneezes into it, and vanishes in a puff of colored smoke. (That she has magical abilities is suggested here and elsewhere, but is not followed up as an element of the plot. If she can perform tricks like this, why does she later get into such difficulties?) Of course, this infuriates Frollo yet futher, and it is only because she is able, disguised, to claim sanctuary within the cathedral of Notre Dame that she is able to escape with her life.
She is a mistress of disguises - at least, when aided kwa Djali. Several times during the movie she appears as a cowled beggar smokking a pipe: in fact it is Djali who, sitting on her head, has the pipe between his teeth. Phoebus, who has seen her do the trick as he entered Paris, recognizes the "beggar" sneaking into the cathedral and follows. Her initial reaction is, of course, that Frollo's captain intends to arrest her, and here again she responds with the kind of moto we have kwa now come to expect, snatching his sword and then, when he regains it, seizing a candelabrum with which to fight him:
Esmeralda: wewe sneaky son of a -
Phoebus: Watch it. You're in a church.
Esmeralda: Are wewe always this charming, au am I just lucky?
Phoebus: Candlelight, privacy, muziki - what better place for hand-to-hand combat? wewe fight almost as well as a man.
Esmeralda: I was going to say the same thing about you.
Phoebus: That's hitting a little below the belt, don't wewe think?
Esmeralda: No, this is...
She proceeds to do her best to hit him "a little below the belt." Even so, Phoebus claims santuary on her behalf when Frollo demands that she be dragged from the hallowed ground.
Shortly afterward she discovers the delicate artifacts that Quasimodo has made for himself - the portrayal of her here is as of one who has come upon an Enchanted place (which is what, in a way, she has). But, zaidi important, she discovers Quasimodo - that he is a man and not a monster. They could have shared a perfect life together except that she, as a gypsy, cannot kubeba the prospect of being imprisoned kwa walls of stone.
Thereafter her characterization subtly changes. Until now she has been a character who does rather than one to whom things are done. The focus of the plot, so far as she is concerned, shifts, we become zaidi aware of the motivations of the three principal men than we do of hers. Although she saves Phoebus's life after he has been pierced kwa an arrow and falling into the Seine, one still has the feeling that she is reacting rather than molding the course of events: my buddy needs help so I'll help him. Very briefly, she makes a stand to save Clopin from hanging Quasimodo and Phoebus in the Court of Miracles; this is a much briefer reprise of the stand she made to save Quasimodo during the Feast of Fools. Only much later, toward the end of the movie as Frollo is preparing to burn her at the stake as a witch, does the earlier spunkiness reemerge. When he tries to blackmail her kwa giving her the the choice between death kwa the flames au a life as his mistress, she spits in his face.
Good for her.