Throughout the majority of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Quasimodo's only friends are three gargoyles that come to life when Quasimodo is alone. In his article "'You're a Surprise from Every Angle': Disability, Identity, and Otherness in The Hunchback of Notre Dame," Martin Norden points out that "the gargoyles' explicit and implied messages are troubling, to say the least, and go a long way toward undercutting whatever sympathies the filmmakers had created for its disabled character" (168). After reading this, I decided to go back to the film and watch the gargoyles' song "A Guy Like You" once more.
When the song ended, I was amazed to realize that Norden is right. Although I had never paid much attention to it before, when describing how Esmerelda could possibly be in love with someone like Quasimodo, the gargoyles consistently reference Quasimodo's physical appearance. If the film was truly meant to represent deformity in an accepting light, the gargoyles should have been talking about Quasimodo's character and how he is a kindhearted person that Esmerelda would be lucky to have. Instead, they sing about how Quasi is shaped like a croissant and how it's hard to forget a face like his.
One of Victor's lyrics struck me in particular, when he sings about how Quasi deserves "extra credit because it's true you've [Quasi] got a certain something more". Normally, this statement wouldn't bother me. However, the way Victor delivers this lyric is troubling. In the song, the gargoyle slows down when singing the words "certain something more," implying that the "certain something more" that Quasi has is his deformed physical appearance. This throws this originally harmless lyric into an entirely new light. Now this line seems to promote the idea that the physically disabled deserve special treatment, which completely undermines the supposed message of the movie that all people should be treated equally. While it is understandable that characters such as Frollo and the villagers would focus mostly on Quasimodo's looks rather than his character for the majority of the film, it is ridiculous that Quasi's friends, who have probably known him for quite some time, are still unable to see past his outer layer. If Disney were truly attempting to encourage acceptance of those who are deformed, it should not have had the gargoyles focus so intently on that aspect of Quasi's character.
It's clever how you interpreted the "something more" as his physical appearance that results in the discrimination against him. But this arises the question of whether people who are "special" or "different" should be given extra care and attention or treated as the same as everyone else. Being treated equally could be good and bad since they would have to work ten times as hard as other people to achieve the same thing. But obviously, equality is something to strive for definitely and for Quasimodo equivalents in society today, people no longer outwardly ostracize others as extremely for being different or odd.
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