Anyone else agree about Frollo?


I think his character was quite fascinating. Though he's clearly a prudish, austere and devoutly Catholic man, he's also an obvious sexual sadist.

1)He excels and relishes in being an authority figure, to the point where he uses it to kill.
2)Not only does he command the Palace of Justice, but in one scene he gives expert advice on how to best torture a prisoner by whipping. In another, he hints that gypsies "don't do well behind stone walls", implying that he's been taking pleasure in watching them suffer inside the prison.
3)He has raised Quasimodo to address him as "master" and constantly grovel and beg for privileges.
4)When he grabs Esmeralda from behind, he holds her hands behind her back in a bound position, and in the time that he obviously has an erection, says he was imagining "a rope around that beautiful neck".

I think they crafted it pretty well. However, I don't get why people think it such a scandal for children to view the film, given that when I was seven years old I didn't pick up on any of these sexual details. All I could tell was that Frollo was the villain.

reply

I agree. When I was a kid I knew Frollo felt some sort of attraction for Esmerelda but I though he was angry about it because she was a gypsy, not because he was thinking sexual thoughts and was fearing that he would go to hell for that.

Most of the stuff parents object to in this film go over the kids heads.

reply

#4 has never occurred to me, though it makes sense in hindsight. I always assumed he was just thinking about sex in general, and the whole rope line was just a lie. I did notice his other sadistic tendencies before, though.

Welp, for me, he just became an even darker character than before! Still, I don't think he ever did any of those things outside of his own mind (and probably only after meeting Esmeralda), since the song Hellfire seems to imply that heavy sexual desires were brand new to him.

I too was oblivious to the details of Frollo's motives and temptations when I was young, save for the things which were shown plainly (like burning the mill, etc).

reply

Notice that when he first grabs her, he thrusts against her body several times, then later goes on to call her a witch who is filling him with impure thoughts.

As a child, though, I did appreciate the symbolism at the end, when he hangs onto the gargoyle that roars in his face and holds on as he falls into Hell.

reply

Frollo got crazier and more evil as the film went on. He looked almost demonic as he was raising his sword to slay Esmerelda near the end of the film. His eyes were yellow when he said "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!"

reply

My only contention is the part about the "stone walls" and Gypsies/Roma. While I guess its possible (if not inevitable) that he was torturing Gypsies in prison or outright killing them, I always thought that the line was a reference to a the Gypsies' spiritual beliefs (and I say that because she repeats the line later). I remember reading somewhere else that Gypsies/Roma have a spiritual fear of being contained in enclosed spaces (in Isabel Fonesca's Bury me Standing, I think), although I don't propose to be an expert on the subject.

reply

I believe that the creators of this movie have said that they consciously modeled Frollo's behavior on that of Amon Goeth in Schindler's List: an authority figure who is sworn to wipe out a certain race develops lustful feelings for a girl from that race, can't deal with the cognitive dissonance of it, and blames the girl for "causing" it.

reply

Frollo has been lying to Quasimodo since he took him in.

reply

I totally agree. and like you and others here, as a kid, I got that he thought Esmerelda was pretty and that he was the villain but that was it. All the sexual stuff went straight over my head.

This is my signature.

reply

he's got the serial killer potential, or at least someone who would pay prostitutes to engage in bdsm acts

--------------------------------------------

let's not go to camelot, it is a silly place

reply

The way he lusts after Esmerelda, he strikes me as the Glenn Quagmire of Disney villains.

Metallica + Iron Maiden + Black Sabbath + Judas Priest + Pantera + My Little Pony = LIFE

reply

I saw a good breakdown of his character where he was ranked #4 out of Disney's top 10 villains.:

"A religious man that follows his own hypocritical standards of morality, he sees sin and corruption in everything except himself. He seeks to rid the town of anyone who dares to oppose his authority, especially the gypsies, whom he holds a great deal of prejudice against. Since he sees himself as righteous, he justifies his own wicked deeds by believing that he is right and everyone else is wrong, thereby absolving himself of all sins. Out of fear for damnation instilled within him by the archdeacon for murdering a mother on holy ground, he reluctantly raises the woman's deformed child, giving him a cruel name and raising him to believe that he and the world are evil. He develops a deep infatuation for the gypsy Esmeralda, and desires to make her his own at all cost. He even attempts to burn an innocent family in their home, simply because they do not know where she is. When he finally catches Esmeralda, he offers her the option of becoming his woman, or public execution. Even though he views her as evil, and his own desire for her as evil, he decides he does not care and will face damnation, simply because man in weaker than the devil. He later even ignores the church's right of sanctuary, assaulting the archdeacon and attempting to kill within the church itself."

reply

It's all ruined by him being a judge, if he was a judge why was he singing as if he was a celibate priest?

reply

Obvious troll is obvious.

reply