Favourite Movie - Disney December

Hello and welcome to a new series that I am doing on my blog - Disney December. I have decided that for every day in December I will be writing a Disney related post, which can be anything form my favourite characters to my experience having interviews with Disney. Hope you enjoy!

So the first day of Disney December requires me to talk about with my favourite Disney movie, which is a really difficult question to answer. I have so much love for all the Disney movies, whether they be the original animated classics, the Disney Pixar Movies, even the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since there are no specifications on a particular category that leaves me open to so many different movies.

If I was answering this question as a six year old child, it is very easy to see what my answer would be -  Sleeping Beauty.

Photo Credit: @Puzzels123

You may be wondering - why was this your favourite movie. Aurora herself is a very bland characters with less than 20 lines in the movie, the music is not great and its a fairly boring story. Although it does have one of the greatest villains of all time so you could see that as part of my argument.

I really liked Sleeping Beauty as a child because she had blonde hair and wore a pink dress - as you can see, even at the age of six I had a type. But seriously that is the only reason why Sleeping Beauty was my favourite movie. I would watch it endlessly on VHS (yes, that is how long ago this was) and had several Sleeping Beauty birthday cakes and dress up costumes in my lifetime. 

We didn't have movies like Tangled and Frozen when I was little okay, don't judge my life choices. 

There was one other Disney movie that was around when I was little though. One that is a very strong candidate to be my favourite Disney Movie of all time. My list consistently changes, but this particular movie is always near the top, which is why I am choosing to write about it today. My parents never let me watch is because of how controversial it was at it's time of release, I grew up only knowing the terrible sequel to the story, so I was shocked when I discovered that there was an actual good version of this story!

I am of course talking about The Hunchback of Notre Dame - because I obviously have an appreciation for anything adapted from a Victor Hugo Novel. 

Photo Credit: @MeikeSchneider

Watching this movie as an adult, I can see maybe why my parents did not want to show this to me as a child. I mean, the main conflict is caused because the antagonist got a boner over the main female character. But there is so much that children can learn from this movie.

The main character, Quasimodo, is not your typical conventional attractive leading man. He is - to put it bluntly - ugly. But he is kind hearted and will do anything for a person in need, which ultimately is more important than looks. Is this not the exact lessons that we should be teaching the younger generation? That how you are as a person is more important than how you look like? There is so much emphasis put on looking absolutely perfect and beautiful that people sometimes loose track of the more important things. 

Also, can we talk about Esmeralda - who is a non-white protagonist. She puts up a fight, she is independent and she does what she needs to to survive. She does not wait around for the men in her life to solve problems for her, she confronts problems head on, and even risks getting arrested when she stands up for Quasimodo. She is the Disney "Princess" that we all need to idolize. 

A huge thing that I love about this movie is that the main two protagonists are just friends. That's all there is, there's nothing romantic about their relationship. True, here is a moment where Quasimodo is upset that Esmeralda has chosen to be with Phoebus, but do you know what he does? He respects that and continues to help both Esmeralda and Phoebus in any way that he can. It is fantastic to not only show that a man and a woman can be just friends but also to respect people's wishes and not to force yourself onto someone if they do not feel the same way about you romantically. 

And then we come to Frollo. Oh Frollo! He is - in my opinion - the scariest Disney villain out there. He has no magical powers, he does not have any sidekicks (unless you count his guards) and he does not have a genie. It is just him, and his obsession with Esmeralda. He is Toxic Masculinity personified. What is so scary about him is that he believes he possesses Esmeralda and that if he can't have her nobody can. He even goes around Paris murdering innocent people and burning down half the city just to find her. Unlike Maleficent - who comes across as evil for the sake of being evil (which works in her favour) Frollo could be a real person, which is what makes him such a dark character. 

Not to mention the fantastic score of this movie, composed by Alan Menken!! The music in this movie just pulls everything together and presents us with an emotional, raw story!

It may not be perfect, but it is very close to being perfect. Although I may change my mind constantly about what my favourite Disney movie is, The Hunchback of Notre Dame will always hold a special place in my heart.