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The Hunchback of Notre Dame II Movie Review

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II is a 2002 animated film from Disneytoon Studios. It acts as a fairly okay, but far from great sequel to the great original.

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“What are you doing here?

Just standing here looking pretty“

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‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ is one of Disney’s best movies, but it never needed a God damn sequel. We got one anyway in 2002 and we have to deal with it. Actually, to be honest, I found the sequel fine for what it is. It is harshly judged by many in my opinion.

Yes, giving Quasimodo a new girlfriend was a very lazy storytelling choice. The same goes for this thief who wants to steal one of the bells and Quasi gotta stop him. Yep, it’s lazy stuff and, needless to say, holding very low stakes.

Still though, the new girlfriend is an okay character with a strong feminist angle to her, and I found the relationship between the two very good, though far from great as anything with Esmeralda had been previously. Speaking of her, she is very forgettable here and the same goes for both Phoebus and the gargoyles unfortunately.

The best scenes in the film are the ones with Quasi and Madellaine in the church among the bells, those reminded me pleasantly of the first movie, but most of the rest of the movie is harshly done and far from exciting. That also goes for the villain. Yes, Sarousch is fun in his campiness and over-the-top Disney villain qualities, but again his goal is silly, and thus most of his villainous schemes are too dumb to be taken seriously.

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The worst thing about The Hunchback of Notre Dame II has to be its pacing, which is horrendous as is the rushed scenes near the end and far from satisfactory runtime, and of course the animation. The movie doesn’t look nearly as great as the original. Gone is the art of the original and its polished look. However, the songs are pretty fine for what they are as some are particularly entertaining and catchy, though far from great.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II has its fine moments, some good songs and a couple of good characters, but others are underutilized, the runtime is unsatisfactory, the pacing is horrendous and the animation is mostly very weak as is the overall storyline. It is low in stakes for sure, but at least a couple of scenes are very endearing and fun.