So, my partner pointed out to me that this drawing I did of Kitaro looked like Quasimodo. So naturally, when I was bored, I decided to watch the Disney adaption of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Well…
I have extremely mixed feelings about the Disney adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Love the music! Love the art! Exploring the behind the scenes of the film is a source of inspiration for me. However…
First of all, Disney as a cultural force and entity freaks me out. Second of all, I hate the writing, and I especially hate the ending. It just reeks of proper (white) (Protestant) American middle class values, like it’s supposed be some sort of life lessons to emulate thing. In doing so, it cuts off the work’s extremely Gothic, extremely Catholic beauty off at the knees. And it’s not like other adaptations of this story haven’t had happy endings where Quasimodo and Esmeralda get to live and Esmeralda is in no way forced to reciprocate Quasi’s feelings. They went out of their way to make this! Damn!! I hate this!!!
It feels less like Esmeralda being allowed to pursue her feelings and desires guilt-free, able to live her life without a seething stalker thwarting her every move, and more like, well, isn’t this the natural order of things? It’s only right that a beautiful girl doesn’t end up with someone so deformed and ugly!
And yet…!
I love Disney’s Quasimodo! I love, love, LOVE Disney’s Quasimodo! I would go on a spending spree for Disney’s Quasimodo! If only they would let me!
Where’s my goth-cute Hunchback of Notre Dame blankets? Where’s my high-quality, subtly branded Hunchback of Notre Dame leather goods, or at least decent quality canvas pouches and totes? Where’s my super soft life-size Quasimodo plush?? Come on, Disney!
But in all seriousness, he’s just so cute, you know? When he is exalted, then violently mobbed by the common folk, my heart wants to burst. When you see him painting his little figures of the villagers that populate his scaled model of the town, the pity it evokes stirs my spirit so much I scream! He is like a moé girl, or maybe Hello Kitty. Definitely a Disney princess.
Think about it– a locked up, isolated youth with a voice of honey and a heart of gold? Yes, Quasimodo is a Disney princess to me.
So far, I’ve checked out the 1986 animated film (it had its moments), The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (since I didn’t expect anything, I enjoyed it), and the 1923 live action adaptation with Lon Chaney. The 1923 version was quite eye opening, as I didn’t realize how many classic horror tropes came from that one performance! And not only was Lon Chaney’s Quasimodo a clear influence on the original Hakaba Kitaro design-wise, he was also obviously an inspiration for the Hulk, another character I really like. How wonderfully connected everything in the world is ♡
There’s a lot of adaptations left to check out, and the original book too, but ah…I’ll get to those when I get to those. It’s nice to save things for later!
Anyway, what makes Hunchback of Notre Dame as a story so intriguing is how timeless it is, and those themes shine through regardless of how it’s adapted. Religious insanity, the terror of angry mobs, shameless unrelenting racism, the dehumanization that comes from deviating from the norm, whether that comes from being considered really beautiful or really ugly…it’s not really different from what we have to deal with today, is it? In trying times like these, I find works from the past a comforting balm. Being able to connect with people from decades, even centuries ago makes me feel more rooted in this world, and gives me hope for the future.
What even is cute and beautiful anyway? It’s so nebulous and arbitrary and culturally dependent. Is it skinniness? Is it whiteness? Is it youth, wealth, vitality?
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t moved by any of these things — I’m an artist, and as such am primarily motivated by studying and reproducing aesthetics, after all — but to restrict beauty to what the white Western powers that be tells us it is does a disservice to us all. In a time where cultural attitudes are regressing to 2000s standards, I think it’s important to keep this question in mind: “Is this really what I find ugly, or is this just what people tell me to think?” You don’t have to want to have sex with every person you meet (I certainly don’t), just, when you knock down another person’s looks, it casts an unflattering spotlight onto your own.
That said, the answer to what is cute and beautiful is very simple — cuteness comes from pity, and beauty comes from terror.
Yes! As Daniel Harris elucidates in his essay “Cuteness”, a lot of what we consider cute comes from baby-ish features, such as big eyes, big heads, and unsteady wobbly bodies. When we are faced with vulnerable creatures unable to defend themselves, it inspires a desire to protect (and/or crush) them. We can then extend this to anything malformed, excessively trusting, and unable to take care of itself. This makes us feel pity, and all we can express is…cute! Cute!! Cute!!!
Similarly, beauty is conceived as something from beyond the plainness of everyday life, that strikes people dumb and unable to think clearly. In the face of attraction, it’s hard to act right, and there’s a tendency to either fawn over it to get its favor, try fight the hold it has over you, or try to flee from it entirely. In any other context, this would be perceived as terrifying, but in the presence of rare and unprecedentedly harmonious features, we attribute all goodness to it and call it beauty…
Furthermore, I think both cuteness and beauty share a common trait — grotesquerie. The grotesque implies exaggeration, perhaps something unnatural, or at the very least out of the ordinary. And what is aesthetics but the cultivation of the exaggerated and the unnatural? Humans are attracted to caricatures, it’s true. I like big pecs and boobs, muscles and makeup as much as anybody, but sometimes people just take things to ridiculous levels. That’s fine if that’s what you like, but if you feel like you have to, then, that’s not great.
Now, I can’t tell you what to find attractive, nor do I want to, I just want to say there is beauty in everyone and everything, and looks shouldn’t be the basis of how decent people are treated. There’s as many aesthetics as there are stars in the skies, and if you don’t like the one you’ve got, you can always cultivate another one, just as long as it doesn’t hurt you.
Thanks for hearing me out!
