The Secret of the Bell
2002-02-06
N/A
68 min
Now that Frollo is gone, Quasimodo rings the bell with the help of his new friend and Esmeralda's and Phoebus' little son, Zephyr. But when Quasi stops by a traveling circus owned by evil magician Sarousch, he falls for Madellaine, Sarouch's assistant.
A much, much more family friendly tale from the world of Quasimodo.
<em>'The Hunchback of Notre Dame II'</em> isn't necessarily anything terrible, I don't dislike it, but it kinda lets itself down with a tamer plot, poorer music/score and less interesting key characters.
The animation certainly takes a nosedive, with all the onscreen talent looking a little worse for wear. Tom Hulce remains solid as the main man, while Jennifer Love Hewitt is at least a big name to attach to the film; her role, Madellaine, is very underdeveloped. Michael McKean is, of course, notable too, but sadly his Sarousch is a very basic villain.
This film's plot is what lets it down, as they create an incredibly unimaginative story regarding a bell called La Fidèle. If that wasn't enough, the main plot point surrounding the bell is a total cop-out.
At least they only made the run time 68 minutes, which avoided me getting the drag feeling; any longer then I'd be rating way less. It's not good at all, but there are numerous other Disney animated sequels that are worse.
