| “ | This is an unholy demon, I'm sending it back to hell where it belongs. | „ |
| ~ Frollo trying to normalize infanticide. |
| “ | The time has come, gypsy, you stand upon the brink of the abyss, yet even now it is not too late, I can save you from the flames of this world and the next; choose me or the fire. | „ |
| ~ Frollo offering to spare Esmeralda’s life if she submits to him. |
Claude Frollo, also called by his title of Judge Claude Frollo, is the main antagonist of Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
He was voiced by the late Tony Jay.
His Qualities[]
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- Especially compared to other villains of the Disney animated canon, Frollo is surprisingly complex:
- He thinks of himself as a righteous, pious man, but when committing murder makes him fear for his immortal soul, he tries raising Quasimodo as a son to evade divine wrath.
- He becomes obsessed with Esmeralda, a Roma woman, despite his hatred for Roma people. This lust fills him with a great deal of internal conflict and mixed feelings. His song "Hellfire" examines his psyche and shows him being driven mad by his hatred mixed with lust.
- His hate/lust for Esmeralda makes him try to rationalize himself through psychologically projection, as is explored especially in "Hellfire."
- His hypocrisy makes him a deconstruction of fundamentalist villains. His persecution of "sinners" is how he copes with the fact that he is a grave sinner himself, as he projects his problems on others to convince himself that he is holy. It all shows that his motive isn't true fanaticism, unlike more simplified depictions of fanatics.
- Furthermore, Frollo was intended to be a tragic, three-dimensional character whose actions were understandable even if they weren't justified. This also makes him a very difficult character, because despite the fact that he is repeatedly portrayed for sympathy, and he demonstrates his inner insecurity, he still has the status of Pure Evil due to the fact that his actions were absolutely unforgivable (although if he had the status of Near Pure Evil, then he, most likely, it would belong to the category "Sympathetic").
- He is a smart manipulator who tricked Quasiomodo into revealing where the Court of Miracles was. He deceived Quasimodo into thinking that he already knew where the Court was and that he was going to attack it; this compelled Quasimodo to go to the Court of Miracles and warn the people there of the coming attack, when in truth, Frollo was secretly following him to figure out where it was. In fact, Frollo once mentioned that Quasimodo would be of use to him back when he was first adopted, which may suggest that he planned this years ahead of time.
- Frollo is far and away one of the most competent Disney villains, as everyone has been scared to death of him for several decades in a row, he has no issue accomplishing (partially) on-screen mass murder in his own hometown, he had no trouble going toe-to-toe with Quasimodo despite the far younger man showing superhuman strength sufficient to tear down beams and snap chains in two, and the fact that it took divine intervention to defeat him is extremely telling. It makes the old geezer come across as being almost invincible.
- He is surprisingly forgiving. The gargoyles said he'd be more likely to forgive Quasimodo than let him attend the festival, which he did. He also forgave him for helping Esmeralda escape, even if he psychotically thought she sexually seduced him to make said escape. "Forgiveness" is also a part of his religious alphabet.
- The voice acting by Tony Jay is incredible. He has a collected yet intimidating "cold ham" voice that reflects the character's nature. Plus, his song "Hellfire" is a great song from a musical standpoint.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- Ironically, he is loathsome for many of the same reasons why he's interesting. Frollo is defined by his pride, hatred, and lust, with these traits all leading to his fall. The focus of his character is primarily on how heinous, arrogant, hypocritical, and (most of all) nauseating he is. He views himself as "a righteous man" who faithfully and dutifully serves God under his name and is "justly proud" of his alleged virtues, but he still knows right from wrong. In fact, he even admits his base lusts are "turning him to sin" but merely opts to blame everyone except for himself for this, God included. All of this proves that Frollo is a complete self-serving hypocrite twisting God's words to justify war and his own tyranny over Paris, being willing to shut down any lingering feelings of goodness and concern for others to realize his extremely malevolent ambitions. Despite this hypocrisy making him much more complex, this also serves as a highly loathsome quality. In fact, he is detestable enough to be put down by divine intervention, with the platform he is standing upon lighting up red and snarling at him at the last second, despite that being impossible. Even beforehand, Quasimodo poured a small bucket of molten fluid and enormous vats came shooting out of the pipes like geysers, marking two instances of divine intervention being desperate to ensure Frollo never possibly wins happening in one night.
- Despite behaving in a highly stoic manner in the Palace of Justice to avoid being unprofessional, it's just an act as he is the absolute epitome of insanity.
- The only reason he was able to corrupt Quasimodo is because he'd raised him from infancy, and Phoebus was skeptical from the get-go about being tasked with kidnapping random fortune tellers only doing it to spare Frollo's warth.
- He is a xenophobic bigot who hates the Romani people. His primary plan is to carry out a genocidal extermination of all the Romani people of Paris out of his bigoted hatred. He accuses them of inflaming the primal instincts of humankind so they can be unruly and savage, when obviously the only one doing anything of the sort is Frollo himself.
- One of the worst things about Frollo is that he offered twenty pieces of silver to the Romani for Esmeralda's whereabouts, only to lock them up when they chose confinement over betraying one of their own for a huge sum of money, and she had recently sang "God Help the Outcasts" within earshot of several of his guards as a means to cope with him imprisoning her as soon as the Archdeacon tenderly suggested it. This completely disproves his reasoning for hating the Romani, but Frollo is far too malevolent to care.
- He tries to drown an innocent little baby only because he found him ugly, only relenting because the archdeacon stopped him.
- He has a creepy, obsessive, and perverse lust for Esmeralda and wants to make her a gerontophile just to satiate his own sex drive.
- He was horribly abusive to his adoptive son Quasimodo, even before they became outright enemies.
- He is unbelievably sadistic, especially in the final act.
- He has nothing better to do at night except sing to his fireplace, and it shows when Phoebus can tell he's feeling rather off in the morning.
- He is practically incapable of self-reflection, as the movie frequently highlights. Whatever vice he may have, he psychologically projects onto others that he can easily scapegoat to convince himself of his own righteousness. This is prominently displayed in "Hellfire," which has him sing "of my virtue I am justly proud" near the start, and which eventually has him blame God himself for allowing temptation to exist. In the film's final act, he also blames Quasimodo for setting Paris ablaze when it was literally Frollo himself who did that.
- The film's final act is effectively one giant villainous breakdown, going from a collected manipulator to a rage-driven madman over time. He indiscriminately sets Paris on fire just to search for Esmeralda, endangering countless lives in what is pretty much a tantrum, and eventually abandoning any pretenses of piety by attacking Notre Dame itself. All of this just to force Esmeralda to be with him sexually.
- Given his bigoted hatred of Romani people, combined with how he burned down Paris just to search for one girl, he is obviously extremely petty.
- His sense of humor and the few jokes he made were shown to be very cruel, dark and dry, this even prevents him from being considered Laughably Evil.
- Like Bill Sykes, Gaston LeGume, and especially King Runeard, three of his fellow Disney villains, Frollo stands out even more because of how realistic his monstrosity is. Men who look, think, behave, and sin just like Frollo will always exist in real life.
External Links[]
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Villains Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Pure Evil Wiki
[]
 Entertainingly Detestable
| ||
|
Animated Features Pixar Other Live-Action Features Star Wars Marvel Studios Animated Television Darkwing Duck Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Phineas and Ferb Gravity Falls Star vs. the Forces of Evil DuckTales (2017) Amphibia The Owl House Others Scripts Videogames Fanon See Also | ||