The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Frollo. His first venture into the city leads him to Esmeralda, a fearless Romani woman whose defiance of Frollo's tyranny draws her—and Quasimodo—into his dangerous obsession.

Disney's darkest animated feature of its era landed mostly well with critics, who admired its visual ambition, imposing choral score, and willingness to tackle themes of lust, prejudice, and outcasts — territory unusual for a studio children's film. The main fault line ran between those who felt the darkness was handled with genuine emotional weight and those, like Janet Maslin at the Times, who argued the feel-good reframing of Hugo's tragedy was a structural problem no amount of craft could paper over. French audiences, watching it amid a real immigration crisis, found it unexpectedly resonant in ways American critics hadn't anticipated.