Mandy Patinkin Could Have Been Quasimodo
By George Robbins
Disney has taken a lot of different stories over the years, including some pretty dark toned ones, and turned them into beloved children’s films that still hold up today. Often times, those films are adapted from stories that are not really made for children, but the Disney adaptations did a good job to make them watchable. They are films that have taught children of multiple generations at this point how they can be better people and what not to do in their lives. While these lessons often go over the heads of many, they are still there and Disney films, especially the animated ones, hold a large amount of nostalgia for most adults alive today. No matter what movie it just so happens to be, someone will have liked it for some reason or another.
One of those movies that kept its darker tones was the movie ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame‘ which is based on the novel of the same name. It is one of their films that isn’t necessarily recognized by many as one of their films at first due to the dark themes found all throughout the film. The movie is a shock to all those who see it because it is not what one would expect from an animated Disney film. Despite the shocking themes and content that are found scattered throughout the film, the film still maintained a G rating by the MPAA. No one really expected what they got when they first went to go see the movie.
For those unaware, the movie tells the story of the titular ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ a man named Quasimodo by his master Judge Claude Frollo. Frollo was responsible for the death of his mother who was a Romani gypsy who was trying to save her son’s life and, as penance, cares for him as if he was his own. Quasimodo falls in love with a gypsy named Esmeralda who later falls for the captain of the city guard. In the meantime, Frollo tries going after her himself as he is lusting for her which is definitely not what people would have expected from a Disney film. Everything comes to a head when Quasimodo triumphantly stops Frollo once and for all and he is then accepted by everyone despite his deformities.
The voice-acting work seen throughout the film is stupendous and cemented the characters as they are. Now, like many other classic Disney animated films, there are talks of a live-action version of the film coming to fruition in the future. Josh Gad has signed on to be the producer of the new film and he may even star in the film as well. While the original film may have had mixed success upon its initial release, it has since been well remembered by fans of both Disney and the movie itself. The performances are something that cannot really be forgotten by those who watched the movie and we can’t really see anyone else playing those characters.
That being said, there is a chance that we could have ended up with an entirely different voice actor who could have played the titular character. Quasimodo was voiced by Tom Hulce who portrayed the character as he was meant to be as a young man who just wants to be accepted by the public. However, it seems that actor Mandy Patinkin, who is most well known for his work in theater and his portrayal of character Inigo Montoya in ‘The Princess Bride,’ almost played the character. Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise recently revealed that he would have been Quasimodo if not for a disastrous audition to play the character. According to them, he brought his own piano accompanist to the audition because he had rearranged the song that composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz had written and eventually walked out of the verbal audition.