CINEMA: A GRAND CARTOON CATHEDRAL

DISNEY'S HUNCHBACK SETS ALL MEDIEVAL PARIS AGLOW

They could keep making zippy comedies, Xeroxing successes like Aladdin for a predictable billion-dollar gross in the theatrical and video markets. But the artists at Disney's animation unit--it should be called the ambition unit--have bigger eyes. They figure that where they go, into melodrama or political sagas, the audience will follow. With The Hunchback of Notre Dame, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (who made Beauty and the Beast) have splashed the broody emotions of Victor Hugo's epic novel with a bold, dazzling palette. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas) have written the largest, most imposing score yet for an animated...

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