Release date(s) November 11, 1996 Developer Media Station, Inc. | Initial release date 11 November 1996 Mode Single-player video game | |
 | ||
Genre(s) Point-and-click adventure, interactive storybook Series Disney's Animated Storybook Platforms Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems Publishers Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Interactive Similar Disney's Animated Storybook games, Disney Interactive Studios games, Adventure games | ||
Disney's Animated Storybook: The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the fifth entry in the Disney's Animated Storybook point-and-click adventure interactive storybook PC game series, based on theatrical and home video releases. The game is based on the 1996 Walt Disney Animation Studios film of the same name, featuring the adventure of reclusive and disfigured Quasimodo and his escape from the evil Claude Frollo, and is part of the product line within Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame franchise. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was developed by Media Station and published by Disney Interactive, who released it on November 11, 1996. The game received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
Contents
Conception
The vision of Marc Teren, VP of entertainment for Disney Interactive, was to create games with a "true and fair representation of the original property", and aim to capitalise as "ancillary products to successful theatrical and home video releases". To achieve this, Teren helped ensure the games were animated by Disney animators. From December 1994 to February 1995, the company had hired 50 new employees. Children's Business suggests the series came into fruition because in the contemporary entertainment market, it was "customary now for entertainment companies to release CD-ROMs to support a film or TV show".
Development
Disney and Media Station collaborated to create more than 12,000 frames of digital animation for each game, as well as 300 music and vocal clips. Digital music and sound effects were composed, orchestrated, arranged, edited, mixed and synchronized at Media Station. The games had hundreds of clickable hotspots that produced animated gags, as well as many mind-challenging interactive games. The voice cast sometimes consisted of actors from the films reprising their roles; for instance Kevin Kline, Demi Moore, Jason Alexander and Tom Hulce reprised their roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. meanwhile, at other times voice soundalikes were used.
Plot and gameplay
The game follows the plot of the 1996 Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame closely, and features six separate activities that can be played throughout the story, which is narrated by the fictional entertainer Clopin Trouillefou. The game contains the characters featured in Victor Hugo's original novel such as Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus, as well as characters created specifically for the Disney film such as the gargoyles Hugo, Victor and Laverne.
Commercial performance
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was among the top-10-selling children's animated CD-ROM titles for 1997.
Critical reception
The game received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
Lisa Karen Savignano of AllGame gave The Hunchback of Notre Dame a rating of two-and-a-half out of five stars. When comparing the Hunchback and Dalmatians Storybooks (which were released around the same time in 1997), a writer from the Sun-Sentinel said "the Hunchback's tale is deeper, more lustrously animated and gives kids more to do than Dalmatian", ultimatey giving the game a rating of two stars out of five. A reviewer from Technology & Learning described the two games as "appealing" and "beautifully rendered". Joseph Szadkowski of The Washington Times thought that The Hunchback of Notre Dame video game was a product line extension that served as an example of how Disney was "cram[ming] the movie...down the throats of unsuspecting consumers", although he said the graphics were "amazing".