Claude Frollo (Disney)

DisneyChar
name =Judge Claude Frollo


first appearance ="The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996)
created by =Victor Hugo
voiced by =Tony Jay (English)
Jean Piat (French)
Klausjürgen Wussow (German)
Constantino Romero (Spanish)
Eros Pagni (Italian)
Takeshi Kusaka (Japanese)
animated by =Kathy Zielinski
rivals =Quasimodo, Gypsies

Judge Claude Frollo is the central antagonist in Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", as adapted from Claude Frollo in Victor Hugo's novel "of the same name". His voice was provided by the late Tony Jay, who had been chosen for the role based on his brief appearance as Monsieur D'Arque in "Beauty and the Beast". Supervising animator Kathy Zielinski and her animation team were responsible for animating him.

Frollo is the minister of justice of Paris, France. He holds an insane hatred of the gypsy population, expressing a desire to terminate their entire race. In the film, Frollo murders Quasimodo's mother and reluctantly becomes his adoptive father, attempting to raise him to despise the gypsies. Frollo's life becomes complicated when Quasimodo falls in love with Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer whom Frollo believes to be an evil witch.

Frollo is often considered to be one of the most evil of all Disney villains despite his lack of powers such as Maleficent and Jafar have, rather using his own kind of power as a corrupted judge that can manipulate and seize control of whoever he despises.

Personality

This version of Frollo is significantly different from the character featured in Hugo's novel; in the film, Frollo is a self-righteous, manipulative and arrogant sociopath with virtually no regard for humanity, while Hugo presented the character as a far more sympathetic, complicated man. Another difference is that, given his lack of remorse and empathy, he will use and even step on anybody (Quasimodo, in particular) to achieve his goals. In the face of the character's alteration, his villainous qualities, which include racism, lust, religious bigotry and hypocrisy remained quite mature for a children's film.

Fictional biography

Claude Frollo resides in Paris, France, where he is employed as a Court Judge. A deeply religious man, Frollo uses his position to inflict great suffering upon the gypsy population, believing them to "live outside the natural order" and engage in "heathen" behavior. One night, a group of gypsies attempt to enter Paris, only to be stopped by Frollo and his soldiers. When one of the gypsy women attempts to flee, Frollo pursues and eventually kills her on the steps of Notre Dame, only to realize she was the mother of a hideously deformed infant child. Frollo attempts to murder the infant but is stopped by the Archdeacon, who convinces him that, in order to save his soul from eternal damnation, Frollo must raise the child as his own son.

Naming the child Quasimodo (which means "half-formed"), Frollo raises him within the towers of Notre Dame, attempting to "protect" him from the human world. For all Frollo's strict discipline and religious guidance, Quasimodo remains an optimistic, free-spirited child over the next twenty years. During this time, Frollo has continued to gain power within the city, imprisoning, torturing and killing gypsies while convincing the public of their "evil" behavior. Prior to attending the annual Festival of Fools, Frollo encounters Captain Phoebus, a well-meaning soldier who is assigned the task of locating the infamous Court of Miracles, which the gypsies have taken as their official hiding place.

While attending the festival, Frollo discovers a gypsy dancer named Esmeralda, who simultaneously attracts and disgusts Frollo with her beauty; shortly afterwards, Quasimodo is revealed to have fled the tower and joined the festivities, only to be crowned the King of Fools and publicly humiliated. As the townspeople mock Quasimodo, Frollo refuses to help and is disgusted when a defiant Esmeralda assists him instead. Esmeralda then ridicules and humiliates Frollo before escaping into Notre Dame, while a furious Frollo silently scolds Quasimodo.

Esmeralda claims sanctuary within the cathedral, although Frollo remains watchful of her behavior. That evening, Frollo is disturbed by his attraction for Esmeralda, believing a relationship with a gypsy will result in his eternal damnation (which he expresses in "Hellfire"). In this scene it becomes clear that Frollo is losing his mind as he struggles with his concepts of good and evil and his desire for Esmeralda. During the song he suffers from violent hallucinations, eventually passing out. Unbeknownst to Frollo, Quasimodo has allowed Esmeralda to escape the cathedral, and Frollo begins raiding villages in search of her.

Upon learning of Esmeralda's escape, Frollo is enraged and begins a ruthless campaign to "find the gypsy girl". He later attempts to murder an innocent family whom he suspects of collaborating with gypsies, but an appalled Phoebus intervenes and rescues them; Frollo declares Phoebus a traitor and attempts to execute him, but he is eventually rescued by Esmeralda.

Realizing Quasimodo assisted Esmeralda, Frollo convinces him that the Court of Miracles has been found and will eventually be attacked; a misled Quasimodo follows Phoebus to the Court where Frollo's army attacks and arrests the gypsies. Frollo then sentences her to execution while Quasimodo remains locked in the bell tower. She refuses to become Frollo's mistress and is prepared to burn to death, but Quasimodo escapes, rescues her and brings her to the cathedral. Frollo's men then attack Notre Dame, engaging in a violent battle against the townspeople and Quasimodo, who sends stones from the tower and eventually fills the street with molten lead.

After defying the Archdeacon and flinging him down a flight of stairs, Frollo attempts to murder Quasimodo (in a scene reminiscent of the shower scene from "Psycho"), ensuing in a violent struggle in which Quasimodo overpowers the deranged judge and informs him that for all the lies Frollo has told him, he knows that the only thing dark about the world is people like him. Esmeralda awakens, and Quasimodo rushes her to safety. Frollo chases him and Esmeralda onto a balcony overlooking the city, engaging in yet another fight with Quasimodo. He eventually confesses to Quasimodo that his mother did not abandon him and that he never saved his life but rather killed his mother, and was originally planning to kill Quasimodo as well, and that he was now going to carry out his true intentions, by throwing him over the edge of the balcony. Frollo slips and dangles momentarily for his life, but he is soon able to climb on a statue in perfect position to kill them. Frollo laughs maniacally and shouts "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into a fiery pit" but as he raises his sword the demonic gargoyle he is standing on crumbles beneath his feet. Frollo grabs onto another gargoyle and the figurehead appears come to life and snarls at him, glowing with fiery eyes. Whether the gargoyle actually came to life or if Frollo in his madness was hallucinating again is not explained. The gargoyle crumbles off the cathedral and sends a wailing Frollo to his fiery death below.

Animation team

Frollo was the first major solo character supervising animator assignment at Disney for Kathy Zielinski, who was responsible for bringing the villain to animated life (she had previously held the position at Kroyer Films on , and had done supervising animation at Disney on minor characters with the assistance of others). This was significant not only to her career, but also to Disney history: she was the first female animator at the company to be given such a prominent task. As supervising animator, Zielinski did the majority of Frollo's animation, as well as helming a team of fellow animators assigned to the character. Because of the use of multiple branches of Walt Disney Feature Animation, the production team coordinated their efforts between the main studio in Burbank, California and the Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris studio in Paris, France. Frollo's animation process was, like all Disney characters, broken down into three main jobs: the supervising animator (who establishes the look and behavior of the character, as well as overseeing the other animators), the animators (who each handled the key motions of individual scenes), and the clean-up / breakdown / in-between animators (who refined the rough drawings of the animators so as to match for consistency, as well as filling in the missing motions between the key frame poses). Zielinski and the majority of the animators worked at the Burbank studio, while much of the clean-up animation was done in Paris. Via this process, the Frollo Team was able to complete the assignment.

Incidentally, according to statements made at an event in his honor at the Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks, California on June 21, 2007, animator Andreas Deja said that the Frollo assignment was originally offered to him, but that he chose instead to go to the Paris studio to work on the Academy Award nominated short "Runaway Brain" due to having recently animated a number of villains (including Gaston in "Beauty and the Beast", Jafar in "Aladdin", and Scar in "The Lion King"). Despite his success with "Runaway Brain", Deja still seemed to regret having not taken the assignment.

The team is listed alphabetically, by position.

*Kathy Zielinski - Supervising Animator
*Travis Blaise - Animator
*Roger Chiasson - Animator
*Patrick Delage - Animator
*Steven Pierre Gordon - Animator
*Dominique Monfery - Animator
*Sergio Pablos - Animator
*William Recinos - Animator
*Chris Wahl - Animator
*June M. Fujimoto - Lead Key Clean-Up Animator
*Marco Allard - Key Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Lee Dunkman - Key Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Michael McKinney - Key Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Brett Newton - Key Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Jamie Kezlarian Bolio - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Scott Claus - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Maria Angela Iturriza - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Veronique Langdon - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Gizella Gregán Maros - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*David Recinos - Assistant Clean-Up Animator
*Kenneth M. Kinoshita - Breakdown Animator
*Cheryl Polakow-Knight - Breakdown Animator
*Mary Measures - Breakdown Animator
*Pierre Seurin - Breakdown Animator
*Jim Snider - Breakdown Animator
*Steve Lenze - Inbetween Animator

Other appearances

*Frollo appears in the Disney's Hollywood Studios nighttime show "Fantasmic" as one of the main villains called on by the Evil Queen to fight Mickey Mouse. He is destroyed along with the other villains in the show's conclusion.

*Frollo makes appearances at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the daily Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade.

*Frollo also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.

*He makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the "House of Mouse" special "House of Villains". At one time, he was sitting with the Mad Hatter, but he had no dialogue. He also appeared sitting near the two outraged guests, but still no dialogue.

*He is also a character in the Walt Disney World annual Halloween-themed fireworks show HalloWishes.

References

External links

* Frollo in the [http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/villains/frollo/frollo.html Disney Archives-Villains] .