Claude Frollo

Archdeacon Claude Frollo is a priest at Notre Dame, he is bright and compassionate he is not typical evil character bent on causing pain and suffering. He extends the same compassion to Quasimodo, who he tries to mold into a scholar by teaching him how to read and write.

Frollo's descent into black magic and madness through his failure to bring up Quasimodo. Quasimodo's deafness makes it virtually impossible to teach him anything. The hunchback thus becomes both a symbol of failure for Frollo as well as a powerful tool of vengeance to wreak his frustrations out on the world.

His obsessive lust for Esmeralda causes her to be executed and Quasimodo to be tortured. Frollo tries to make Esmeralda to love him, he only ends up causing her pain and his own madness.

## Adaptations

Victor Hugo's novel has been adapted to film on numerous occasions. In the 1923 silent film version, Claude Frollo is not the villain at all; instead, he is a good archdeacon, and the villain of the film is actually his younger brother Jehan. The 1939 sound film version also did the same, only it portrayed Claude as an archbishop and Jehan as a judge. This version of the story is said to be what most influenced the 1996 Disney adaptation, which had the same conditions aside from the name change: Claude is the judge rather than an archdeacon, the Archdeacon is a separate character entirely, and the character of Jehan is omitted. Many conclude that such changes were made to avoid a negative reaction from religious organizations.

## Disney version[edit]

 Created by
 Voiced by
Corey Burton (*Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance*)

### In *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*

An adaptation of the character, **Judge Claude Frollo** is the main antagonistin Disney's animated film version of *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1996). Frollo was animated by Kathy Zielinski and Dominique Monféry, and was voiced by Tony Jay, whom directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale chose for the role based on his brief appearance in their previous film, *Beauty and the Beast*(1991). Actor Tony Jay stated that he knew the part of Frollo especially from the 1939 film. Although he is technically based on Hugo's Frollo from the novel, Disney's Frollo is inspired by Cedric Hardwicke's Jean Frollo from the 1939 version of *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*. Like Hardwicke's Frollo, and unlike Hugo's, Disney's Frollo is a cold justice minister instead of an archdeacon, but like both versions, he is a cold-hearted man and is racist towards the gypsies because he sees them as "impure commoners". In the Disney film, however, he is genocidal towards them and wants nothing more than to wipe them out of Paris. Also, much like Hardwicke's Frollo, Disney's Frollo is depicted as the real ruler of Paris and effectively above every law in the city outside of the Cathedral. However, in the Disney version, he has his very own army of thugs who dress up as soldiers to enforce his will, and lacks much of the original character's compassion and deep emotion, becoming more of an evil villain than a tragic anti-hero. Regardless, as in the novel and 1939 film, he still has lustful feelings for Esmeralda, and plans to have her executed if she refuses to love him. In the Disney film, he is presented as a vindictive, coldly intelligent, and arrogant sadist. Also, a trifle like in the novel version but much like in the 1939 film version, Disney's Frollo has little to no compassion or understanding for anyone or anything except himself. Theopening song notes that he "longs to purge the world of vice and sin" and sees "corruption everywhere" except in himself. Frollo is also symbolic of religious hypocrisy, which was also an enduring theme in the novel. (According to the Archdeacon, "it would be unwise to arouse Frollo's anger further.") This film also omits Frollo's capacity for compassion present in Hugo's original novel, instead adding a selfish interpretation to his adoption of Quasimodo. However, very similar in both versions, Frollo is also perceived as a tragic figure, tormented by his maddening self-righteousness and narrow views. In the final verse of "Hellfire", he asks God to have mercy on both him and Esmeralda, implying that he ultimately knows that his actions are against God's will. He is also an animal lover, as shown by his fondness and concern towards his horse Snowball.

Frollo first appeared in the film, where he hired his guards to catch several gypsies illegally entering Paris. After having the gypsy men chained and taken away, Frollo chases a gypsy woman, believing her to be hiding a variety of stolen goods in her possession. She attempts to flee and Frollo pursues her to Notre Dame, where he takes the bundle of "stolen goods" off her, kicking her hard and causing her to fall and break her neck on the steps of Notre Dame. Frollo discovers that the "stolen goods" is absolutely nothing at all but just the woman's hideously deformed baby son. Believing the child to be an unholy demon, Frollo attempts to drown the infant in a well, but is similarly thwarted by the cathedral's Archdeacon, who accuses Frollo of the unlawful murder of an innocent woman on the steps of Notre Dame. He demands that Frollo *has to*raise the baby as his own son as penance; otherwise, he will be damned and will pay for his crimes if he ever kills the boy the same way he did to his mother before. Fearing for his own damnation, Frollo acquiesces, hoping to somehow use the child to further his own purposes. Naming the boy Quasimodo, Frollo decides to raise him within the towers of Notre Dame, attempting to "protect" him from the outside world and convincing him that he is a monster and will never be accepted by society. He also lies to him about his mother, claiming that she failed to abandon him when he was a baby (the same thing which actually happened in the novel).

Twenty years later, Frollo appoints a new Captain of the Guard, Phoebus, in the Palace of Justice since his last one was "a bit of a disappointment" to him. He has a tendency to clear the gypsies out of Paris with Phoebus' help and go to Heavenwhen he dies. While attending the annual Festival of Fools, Frollo discovers a Gypsy dancer named Esmeralda, who attracts him with her beauty. Shortly afterwards, he discovers that Quasimodo left the bell tower and joined the Festival and was crowned the King of Fools. Frollo does not help Quasimodo when he is being humiliated in public by the crowd in order to teach him a lesson for everyone to obey; in fact, he does not grant Phoebus' request to stop it, and it infuriates him to its peak when Esmeralda defiantly decides to assist Quasimodo instead. Esmeralda defies and ridicules Frollo, who orders her captured, just before she claims sanctuary within Notre Dame. Frollo later confronts Esmeralda, disturbing her by sniffing her hair inappropriately. He states that she is still a prisoner and that, as soon as she leaves, he would throw her in jail.

That evening in the Palace of Justice, Frollo is disturbed by his attraction to Esmeralda which he believes is turning him to sin and pleas the Virgin Mary to protect him from her "spell" and to "let [Esmeralda] taste the fires of Hell". Upon learning from one of his guards that Esmeralda has escaped the cathedral, this makes Frollo very angry that he begins a ruthless campaign to find her, which involves the besieging of numerous houses and the capture of gypsies, something of which Phoebus greatly does not approve. It is not until Frollo attempts to kill an innocent family whom he suspects of collaborating with gypsies, which finally causes Phoebus to disobey him and rescue the family; Frollo declares Phoebus a traitor and attempts to have him executed, but he is rescued by Esmeralda after being left for dead.

Realizing Quasimodo assisted Esmeralda, Frollo convinces him that the Court of Miracles has been found and will eventually be attacked at dawn with a thousand men. A misled Quasimodo accompanies Phoebus to the Court to warn Esmeralda, and Frollo and his army of thugs follow and arrest the gypsies. Frollo sees that Phoebus has survived and intends to "remedy it". Now that Phoebus and the gypsies are confined in their cages, Frollo orders his minions to chain Quasimodo up to the tower, and his executions of the gypsies are supposed to take place near the cathedral. The citizens of Paris angrily do not allow this and demand that the gypsies *had better* be released, but nonetheless the guards hold them back. Frollo has no choice but to start off sentencing Esmeralda to mortal execution, though he gives her a single chance to live by becoming his wife. She will not become Frollo's wife—by spitting in his face—and is supposedly prepared to burn at the stake to deathas a result, prompting Quasimodo to break free from his chains, rescue her after she passes out and loses her ability to speak, and bring her to the cathedral, declaring sanctuary, much to the citizens' delight. Losing what remains of his sanity, Frollo orders his soldiers to seize the cathedral by force, which then finally allows Phoebus to free himself and incite the citizens to fight back against Frollo's tyranny.

The citizens free the gypsies, and they both fight against Frollo's soldiers until Quasimodo pours molten copper from the cathedral into the streets, forcing everyone (including the soldiers) to scatter away. Despite the major impossibility of Quasimodo's efforts, Frollo gains entrance to the interior of the cathedral, deliberately disobeying the Archdeacon and flinging him down a flight of stairs. He attempts to kill Quasimodo, resulting in a violent struggle in which Quasimodo throws Frollo to the floor and openly rejects everything that Frollo raised him to believe, but when Esmeralda awakens, Quasimodo rushes her to safety. Frollo chases them onto a balcony overlooking the city, where he and Quasimodo begin to fight.

An enraged Frollo finally admits that he was responsible for the murder of Quasimodo's mother who had no success trying to save him. He declares that he will now kill Quasimodo himself as he "should have done" twenty years ago. Frollo subsequently uses his cape to knock Quasimodo off of the balcony, but Quasimodo manages to hold on and ends up pulling Frollo along with him (but is unwilling to let him fall). Frollo dangles momentarily for his life, but he succeeds in climbing on a gargoyle in perfect position to kill Esmeralda, who is attempting to save Quasimodo. Frollo raises his sword and maniacally quotes a faux Bible verse created for the film:

"*And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!*"

Ironically, the gargoyle that he is standing on starts to break apart and he falls, clinging on for dear life and dropping his sword. In his last moments, the face of the gargoyle comes to life and demonically roars at Frollo, terrifying him. The gargoyle breaks off completely from the balcony, sending a screaming Frollo falling to his death into the lake of molten copper created by Quasimodo, clearly meant to symbolize that his soul is now trapped in eternal damnation in Hell for his cruelty and tyranny. The remainder of Frollo's thugs are arrested, either jailed or allowed to join the Guard.

In the sequel *The Hunchback of Notre Dame II*, Frollo and his attitude towards gypsies are alluded to when Sarousch (a gypsy master criminal and the main antagonist of the sequel) reminds Madellaine that when he caught her stealing food from him when she was little, he took her in instead of handing her to the authorities. This implies that Sarousch was aware of Frollo's prejudice towards gypsies and deliberately avoided targeting Paris while Frollo was alive. He is also referenced when Clopin announces Esmeralda's dancing performance, and jokingly tells a young boy that she just "might steal your heart," using a puppet that looked a lot like Frollo, referencing Frollo's lust for Esmeralda. Also, when Madellaine (who was Sarousch's assistant until she fell in love with Quasimodo) tries to convince him to trust her into helping him stop Sarousch, Quasimodo coldly replies "I already made that mistake", possibly referring to how Frollo deceived Quasimodo for twenty years into loyalty to the former.

### Other appearances[edit]

* Frollo appears in the Disney's Hollywood Studios night-time show *Fantasmic!* as one of the main villains called on by theEvil Queen to fight Mickey Mouse. He is destroyed along with the other villains in the show's conclusion. Frollo made appearances at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the daily Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade. In 2009, the parade moved to the Walt Disney Studios park at Disneyland Resort Paris and it is uncertain if Frollo will appear in this version, renamed Stars'n'Cars. Frollo makes a brief cameo appearance during the night-time show Disney's *World of Color* atDisney California Adventure Park. "Hellfire", the song that Frollo sings in the feature film, is also heard in the show. Frollo also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.
* Frollo 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 who was annoying him and making fun of his bulbous hat, but he had no dialogue. He also appeared sitting near the two outraged guests, but still no dialogue.
* Frollo appears as a villain in *Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance*, along with a world based on the Disney movie called "**La Cité des Cloches**". He plays out the same role as in the movie, though he is one of the few Disney villains who does not serve as a boss battle due to the Wargoyle Dreameater which he believed to be of divine origins. While the Sora scenario had Frollo die in the same manner as the movie, the Riku scenario had him fall to his death as a consequence of an updraft called by Wargoyle. In the Riku scenario. He is voiced by Shouzou Sasaki in the Japaneseversion and by Corey Burton in the English version.
* Frollo leads a team of Disney villains in *The Kingdom Keepers IV: Power Play* in order to free their leaders, Maleficentand Chernabog.

### Reception

Despite the changes to Frollo's character, the Disney version has been universally acclaimed, and has often been called one of the greatest of all Disney villains, and often is considered one of, if not the darkest. Frollo's complex characterization and darker role in the story lead to many agreeing that if the rest of the film was darker like Frollo's role in the film, the film itself would have been substantially better in comparison.