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This Pure Evil was Headlined on February, 2022. | ||
| NOTE: This page is only about the Disney theatrical version of Frollo as his original book version was not voted Pure Evil, and thus only this version's info and crimes should be put here. |
| “ | I’ll find her. I’ll find her if I have to burn down all of Paris! | „ |
| ~ Frollo on his obsession for Esmeralda. |
| “ | Frollo: I should have known you'd risk your life to save that gypsy witch, just as your own mother died trying to save you. Quasimodo: What? Frollo: Now, I'm going to do what I should’ve done 20 years ago! |
„ |
| ~ Frollo revealing the truth to Quasimodo about his mother's death, and attempts to kill him one last time. |
| “ | And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit! | „ |
| ~ Frollo's most famous quote, as well as his last words before his demise. |
Judge Claude Frollo, also simply known as Frollo, is the main antagonist of Disney's 34th full-length animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on Victor Hugo's 1831 Gothic novel of the same name.
He is the religious Minister of Justice in the city of Paris who uses his position to enrich himself and persecute those he considers inferior, especially the city's Romani population. He is the archenemy of Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Captain Phoebus, as well as the Archdeacon to a lesser extent.
He was voiced by the late Tony Jay, who also voiced Lord Dregg in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Megabyte in ReBoot, and Baron Mordo in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Although he views himself as "a righteous man" who faithfully and dutifully serves God under his name and is "justly proud" of his alleged virtues, it does not make him an extremist and he explicitly accuses the Romani people of normalizing unconstrained and primal behavior in general, proving he is not just delusional but extremely hypocritical. He even has the audacity to claim that Quasimodo left him with no choice but to torch his own home town.
- In fact, he even admits his base lusts are "turning him to sin" but merely opts to blame everyone except for himself for this, even accusing the divinity just for "in God's plan" allowing temptation to exist in the first place. 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.
- He devoted his life to a genocidal crusade against the Romani, persecuting them on account of their ethnicity and race, due to supremacist and racist beliefs that they are outside the order he wishes to impose.
- While hiring Captain Phoebus as his new captain of the guard, he openly announced that he spent the last 20 years rounding up and executing more Romani citizens. He also stated that the Romani citizens have a safe haven underneath the streets of Paris (known as the Court of Miracles), and that he intends to find the hideout and execute all of the Romani civilians living there.
- To that end, he spotted several ants crawling on a loose slab of the Palace of Justice, and used them as an example of how he handles the Romani population. Upon pulling out the loose slab (which reveals a large nest of ants), Frollo flips the slab upside down and shoves it back into place, crushing all of the ants to death and cementing the point of what he plans to do to the Romani population.
- While hiring Captain Phoebus as his new captain of the guard, he openly announced that he spent the last 20 years rounding up and executing more Romani citizens. He also stated that the Romani citizens have a safe haven underneath the streets of Paris (known as the Court of Miracles), and that he intends to find the hideout and execute all of the Romani civilians living there.
- While he has a few comedic moments, such as being interrupted during "Hellfire", claiming he had "trouble with the fireplace" after said song, he is still extremely serious in-story. Even when he is knocked down by his guards and humiliated during Esmeralda's escape, which appears to be an exception, he quickly subverts this by blaming Quasimodo.
- Although he never mistreated his horse Snowball, nothing indicates that he saw him as anything more than a means of transportation, and he only used him as he did with Quasimodo.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame[]
- He chased and then murdered Quasimodo's mother in the prologue merely under the suspicion that she was running off with stolen goods, even though she had no weapons and wasn't hurting anyone.
- Even worse, he killed her right on the steps of the Notre Dame cathedral, which was extremely blasphemous to his religion.
- Prior to killing Quasimodo's mother, he had two other Romani (one of them happening to be Quasimodo's father) and their boat captain arrested and taken to the Palace of Justice, most likely to have them executed.
- He was immediately disgusted by Quasimodo's appearance upon seeing him and attempted to drown him in a nearby well, only to be stopped by the Archdeacon, who reminded him that the eyes of Notre Dame are watching him.
- He adopted Quasimodo in order to make up for the sin of killing his mother, not out of any actual remorse, guilt or regret, but due to fear of God's wrath. He also claimed that the child would one day be useful to his schemes as another reason to raise him.
- Even then, he is a poor parent towards Quasimodo, isolating him for 20 years and psychologically abusing him into having poor self-esteem and believing he is a monster (which, poetically, is what Frollo called the baby Quasimodo when first seeing his face). During this time, Frollo also forced Quasimodo to address him as “master”, refused to save him from the crowd torturing him as punishment for disobedience, prevented Esmeralda from freeing Quasimodo, and attacked him the day after he helped Esmeralda escape the cathedral. It is implied that he abused Quasimodo physically as well, given his reactions to him appearing right in front of him.
- While he wasn't wrong that people would bully Quasimodo for his appearance, this still doesn't excuse his actions whatsoever.
- Even then, he is a poor parent towards Quasimodo, isolating him for 20 years and psychologically abusing him into having poor self-esteem and believing he is a monster (which, poetically, is what Frollo called the baby Quasimodo when first seeing his face). During this time, Frollo also forced Quasimodo to address him as “master”, refused to save him from the crowd torturing him as punishment for disobedience, prevented Esmeralda from freeing Quasimodo, and attacked him the day after he helped Esmeralda escape the cathedral. It is implied that he abused Quasimodo physically as well, given his reactions to him appearing right in front of him.
- He casually has a man (presumably his former captain of the guard) tortured (most likely to death, and presumably for his failure to hunt the Romani) with a whip, expressing clear sadism while Phoebus gets anxious.
- While he can be forgiving, it's purely pragmatic.
- He is misogynistic and also lustful towards Esmeralda. Upon seeing Esmeralda defend Quasimodo from the cruelty of the crowd, Frollo orders for her to be arrested, forcing Esmeralda to head over to the cathedral for sanctuary.
- Despite not being able to arrest Esmeralda, Frollo appears close behind her and grabs her wrist, saying that "gypsies don't do well inside stone walls" while sniffing her hair and sexually harassing her. He even sets several guards to secure the perimeter of the cathedral to ensure that Esmeralda would be arrested if she ever tries to leave the cathedral.
- During his song "Hellfire", he demands to either have Esmeralda burn in Hell or have her all to himself, with a smoke figure looking like Esmeralda appearing in front of him, which he grabs against his body.
- Despite not being able to arrest Esmeralda, Frollo appears close behind her and grabs her wrist, saying that "gypsies don't do well inside stone walls" while sniffing her hair and sexually harassing her. He even sets several guards to secure the perimeter of the cathedral to ensure that Esmeralda would be arrested if she ever tries to leave the cathedral.
- He directly attempts to burn an innocent family alive, after lying to them and pretending to put them on house arrest, simply because he falsely concludes they are traitors on the flabby grounds that they've given shelter to Romani travelers in the past. While the family survives, he still ends up burning down their house.
- He burns a majority of Paris during his massive search for Esmeralda, possibly imprisoning and/or killing many innocents. While capturing many Romani citizens (including children) during the search for Esmeralda, he offers them payment in silver coins in exchange for Esmeralda's whereabouts, only for the captured Romani to silently refuse his offer; this prompts Frollo to have them arrested for treason and locked up in custody.
- He's not shown to care for his horse, Snowball, beyond seeing him as a means of transportation; although he never outwardly acts hostile towards the horse given his apathetic-towards-life and sadistic actions, he very likely doesn't care about Snowball at all and seeks to simply use him like Quasimodo. Not abusing him is obviously out of pragmatism.
- While he takes a liking to Captain Phoebus at first, he refers to him as an insolent coward for refusing to commit murder and attempts to have Phoebus promptly executed for rescuing a family from his wrath; he orders his soldiers to let Phoebus drown in the Seine River after one of them pierced Phoebus' chest with an arrow. He later promotes the Brutish Guard to fill in as the new captain of the guard in Phoebus' absence while continuing his search for Esmeralda (who saved Phoebus and tended his wounds), burning more of Paris and sending people into panic.
- While confronting Quasimodo for letting Esmeralda escape, he goes on a tirade irrationally blaming Quasimodo for Paris' ravaged state. He even wrecked Quasimodo's sets and burned out a little doll that Quasimodo created bearing the resemblance of Esmeralda.
- Before leaving, Frollo tricks Quasimodo into leading him to the Court of Miracles by falsely claiming that he knows where the hideout is and that he will attack the hideout with a thousand men.
- Worried for Esmeralda's safety, Quasimodo reaches to the actual Court of Miracles with Phoebus, where they warn the Romani of Frollo's intentions, only for Frollo and his soldiers to trap them all. Frollo also rubs the salt into this by sarcastically thanking Quasimodo for being of "great use" to him, which leaves Quasimodo extremely shattered after realizing that he was tricked.
- Upon succeeding in tracking down the Court of Miracles and rounding up Esmeralda and the entire Romani population, Frollo openly vows to have them all executed in the public square; he even plans to have Phoebus subjected to the same fate in order to remedy his miracle of reviving from the dead.
- He then orders two of his guards to transport a demoralized Quasimodo back to the bell tower and have him chained to ensure that he will never interfere again.
- While preparing for Esmeralda's execution, Frollo callously refuses the townspeople's pleas to release Esmeralda, and he even orders two of his soldiers to prevent the Archdeacon from stopping him doing the execution.
- He attempts to have Esmeralda by forcing her into a double bind between submitting to him or burning alive due to his own insatiable lust for her. Upon her refusal of his offer by spitting onto his face, he attempts to burn Esmeralda at the stake.
- He furiously attacks and defiles the Notre Dame cathedral by ordering his soldiers to take over the cathedral after Quasimodo frees himself and saves Esmeralda from being burned.
- This motivates Phoebus to free himself and rally the townspeople to free the rest of the Romani people from captivity and help defend the cathedral by fighting back against Frollo's soldiers.
- Though Quasimodo pours molten copper around the cathedral to prevent Frollo's soldiers from breaking in, Frollo manages to break into the cathedral himself, and he defies the Archdeacon by violently flinging him down the stairs when the latter vows to have him reported to the French monarchy and arrested for his crimes.
- He locks up the door leading to the bell tower to ensure that the Archdeacon won't interfere.
- Upon confronting Quasimodo weeping over a seemingly dead Esmeralda, he pretends to assert his guilt by claiming that it was his "duty" to kill Esmeralda despite everyone loudly demanding that she was innocent, all in an attempt to stab Quasimodo with a dagger as punishment for defying him. Fortunately, Quasimodo plays wise to this and furiously disarms Frollo while ranting out all the horrible actions that Frollo has done.
- In the same scene, he begs for Quasimodo to listen to him, only for Quasimodo to interrupt him and lament about how he had lied to him over the years. If Quasimodo hadn't interrupted him, he likely would have went on and tried to manipulate him again.
- Upon Quasimodo escaping with a recuperating Esmeralda, Frollo attempts to kill them both with his sword, causing damage to the cathedral's balcony. He even spitefully confessed that he murdered Quasimodo's mother when she tried to protect him as a baby.
- Abandoning whatever concern he had for Quasimodo, Frollo uses his cape in an attempt to throw Quasimodo off the cathedral and into the molten copper; however, Quasimodo managed to grab hold of the cathedral balcony while pulling on the cape, dragging Frollo and leaving him dangled.
- Even when Quasimodo refuses to let go of the cape while holding for dear life, Frollo manages to swing himself back onto a gargoyle, intending to strike down Esmeralda (who is trying to help Quasimodo back up onto the balcony) with his sword while referring to himself as an incarnation of God, only for the gargoyle to break because of his weight (Frollo hallucinating the gargoyle coming to life and growling at him), sending Frollo to his well-deserved death in the molten copper below.
- While his death of falling off the cathedral into the molten copper and being damned to Hell is very brutal, especially for a G-rated Disney film, in essence a film made for children, he more than deserves it for his atrocious crimes that he committed throughout the story and beforehand.
- Right before his death, he paraphrases a scripture in the Bible that says that God will smite the wicked, but is actually referring to himself, viewing himself as not just godlike but as God himself, an absolute blasphemy that seals his fate.
Trivia[]
- According to his voice actor Tony Jay, Frollo wasn't meant to be seen as Pure Evil by audiences, as he said in an interview that both he and the filmmakers wanted to make Frollo into a fully-fleshed, three-dimensional and even tragic character whose actions were understandable but not excusable, and it even shows somewhat with the "Hellfire" song as he takes self-righteous pride in his "virtues" while also initially expressing shame in his sexual frustrations rather than just being cruel for the sake of cruelty like most other Disney villains.
- However, in the final product, Frollo turned out to be a racist and perverted zealot, blaming everyone else for his own shortcomings while committing numerous atrocities, not to mention that his shame becomes nullified when he tries to burn Esmeralda alive, so he still qualifies. He was, however, still deemed complex by several as he didn't see himself as a villain unlike most Disney villains and had hints of hating some of his own aspects, but he slowly drops it over the course of the film and turns down all redemption chances offered to him, with Esmeralda's attempted execution and his assault on the Notre Dame Cathedral serving as the final nail in the coffin.
- Frollo's movie counterpart is the only version of Frollo to qualify as Pure Evil, due to:
- The original Victor Hugo novel Frollo willingly adopted Quasimodo out of genuine mercy after his parents abandoned him as a baby. His care is also sincere towards his foster son until Esmeralda comes in, leading Frollo's lust and obsession over her to begin his slow descent into insanity and villainy. In addition of that, he was more tolerant towards the Romani.
- The musical adaptation version of Frollo genuinely cares for his brother Jehan, doesn't kill Quasimodo's mother, and willingly chose to raise Quasimodo himself to atone for Jehan's sins. He also stops the crowd from bullying Quasimodo, burned down a brothel rather than a house full of Romani, and doesn't want to kill Quasimodo over Esmeralda, even offering him the chance to return to the things that used to be.
- The producers of the movie have directly stated that Disney's version of Frollo was based off another Pure Evil villain, that being Amon Goeth's depiction in Schindler's List.
- Frollo is the moral opposite of Quasimodo, Esmeralda and even his soldier Captain Pheobus, as he is Pure Evil whilst the three of them are all Pure Good.
- To further highlight his inherently corrupt nature, in his final moments, the breaking gargoyle on the Notre Dame looks at Frollo with a menacing stare, which even terrifies Frollo himself, symbolizing his irredeemability despite his religious devotion.
External Links[]
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Villains Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Disney Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Judge Claude Frollo on the Wikipedia
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 Pure Evils
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