Quasimodo

In Disney's 1996 animated film adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo is a very different character than in the novel. He was voiced by Tom Hulce and animated by James Baxter. Unlike in the novel, Quasimodo has two eyes, with his left one only partially covered. He is not deaf, and is capable of fluent speech. He has three anthropomorphic gargoyle friends named Victor, Hugo, and Laverne.

In the beginning of the film, a gypsy mother tries to bring the hunchbacked infant into Notre Dame with her for sanctuary, but the bigoted Judge Claude Frollo chases and inadvertently kills her. Frollo attempts to drown the baby in a nearby well upon seeing his deformity, but the church's Archdeacon stops him and demands that he atone for his crime by raising the child as his son. Frollo, fearing God's wrath, reluctantly agrees, and adopts the child in the hope that he will be useful to him one day. Frollo cruelly names the child Quasimodo, which in the film is Latin for "half-formed." Over the years he raises Quasimodo with cruelty, forbidding him to leave the tower and teaching him that the world is a wicked, sinful place, and that the Parisian people will reject him due to his deformity. He also lies to Quasimodo about his mother, telling him she abandoned him as a baby and that anybody else would have drowned him had Frollo not stepped in and adopted him. Quasimodo nevertheless grows up to be a kind-hearted young man who yearns to join the outside world.

Quasimodo sneaks out of the cathedral during the Festival of Fools, where he is crowned the "King of Fools" and meets Esmeralda, with whom he falls in love. Two of Frollo's guards ruin the moment where they throw tomatoes at him and bind him to a wheel to torment him. Then everyone joins in. Frollo refuses to help as punishment for his disobedience. Esmeralda takes pity on him and frees him after Phoebus failed to get Frollo to intervene. After Esmeralda escapes, Frollo confronts Quasimodo who apologizes and returns to the bell tower. He later befriends and helps her flee from Frollo's men in gratitude.

Frollo eventually locates the Gypsies and Esmeralda's lover Captain Phoebus at the Court of Miracles. He sentences Esmeralda to death, and has Quasimodo chained up in the bell tower. Quasimodo breaks free, however, and rescues Esmeralda from execution. Phoebus breaks free from his cage and rallies the citizens of Paris against Frollo's tyranny. From the bell tower, Quasimodo and the gargoyles watch the citizens fighting Frollo's army. They pour molten lead onto the streets, thus preventing Frollo and his soldiers from breaking in. However, Frollo successfully manages to enter the cathedral. He tries to kill Quasimodo, who is mourning Esmeralda, believing her to be dead. The two struggle briefly until Quasimodo throws Frollo to the floor and denounces him, finally seeing him for what he is. Esmeralda awakens and Quasimodo rushes her to safety. He then fights the wrathful Frollo, who taunts him with the truth about his mother. Both fall from the balcony, but Phoebus catches Quasimodo and pulls him to safety, while Frollo falls to his death.

Quasimodo is finally accepted into society by the citizens of Paris as they celebrate Frollo's death and the liberation of the city.

In Disney's 2002 direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Quasimodo (again voiced by Hulce) reappears as the protagonist. He remains a bell-ringer, still living in Notre Dame with the gargoyles. This time, he is able to move around Paris freely. He finds love in a beautiful circus performer named Madellaine (voiced by Jennifer Love Hewitt), who ultimately reveals that she is aware that the gargoyles are alive. His love for Madellaine is briefly strained when he learns she was actually working on behalf of a criminal mastermind named Sarousch who plans to steal a particularly valuable bell, La Fidele, from Notre Dame. Madellaine's true feelings for Quasimodo overcome her loyalty to Sarousch, however, and she aids Quasimodo in bringing Sarousch to justice. Quasimodo forgives Madellaine and the two pledge their love to each other.

• Quasimodo also made some occasional appearances on the Disney Channel series, House of Mouse. At one point, Jiminy Cricket, when giving advice to the guests, consoles him by saying that some people find someone special and some people do not, poking fun at the fact that Quasimodo and Esmeralda did not fall in love at the end of the original film.
• Quasimodo is a very rare meetable character at the Disney Parks and Resorts.
• A German musical stage show Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1999) derived from the Disney movie, restores some of the darker elements of the original novel lost in the film: Esmeralda dies from smoke inhalation at the end, Frollo is revealed to have once been a priest in his past (akin to the novel, where he was an archdeacon), and Frollo dies because Quasimodo throws him from the roof rather than falling by accident.
• Quasimodo appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance voiced by Ari Rubin. He appears as a supporting character in a world based on the film called "La Cité des Cloches" and plays out a more or less the same role as in the film.
• In 2014 at the La Jolla Playhouse, Disney premiered a new adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Like the 1999 German Adaptation, the new adaptation was based on movie but it restored some of the themes, characters, and ending of Hugo's original book. It later transferred to PaperMill Playhouse in 2015, but was denied to transfer to a theater on Broadway. The musical also establishes Quasimodo as Frollo's nephew, as his father was Frollo's brother who abandoned the church when he fell in love with a gypsy, only for Quasimodo's mother to die giving birth to him and his father dying of plague shortly after bringing his son to Frollo for protection.

• Quasimodo appears in Hotel Transylvania, voiced by Jon Lovitz. He is the master chef at the titular hotel who puts up with Count Dracula's changing taste buds and has a desire to make a dish out of humans. Quasimodo owns a pet rat named Esmeralda who can sniff out humans and tends to abuse one of the gargoyle waiters. When Quasimodo manages to successfully capture Jonathan, Count Dracula uses his abilities to magically freeze Quasimodo. The abused gargoyle then takes the opportunity to put Quasimodo's finger up his nose. Esmeralda later brought Quasimodo's petrified body to the party where the Fly translates his frozen language that revealed that Jonathan is a human. Around the end of the movie, Quasimodo is still frozen as Wayne and Wanda's children are constantly licking him.
• Although Quasimodo doesn't appear in Hotel Transylvania 2, he does appear in the video game adaptation where he has reformed.
• Quasimodo appears in Hotel Transylvania: The Series (which takes place four years before the events of the first movie) voiced by Scott McCord.

The Muppets have done spoofs of Quasimodo and his story:

• In episode 509 of The Muppet Show, Mulch played the hunchback during the song "For Me and My Goyle," accompanied by his gargoyle bride.
• The Muppet Babies episode "The House That Muppets Built" featured Baby Gonzo as "Quasigonzo".
• In Muppets Tonight, a "Muppet Classic Theater" sketch called "The Hunchbear of Notre Dame" (based on Victor Hugo's novel) featured Bobo the Bear as "Quasibobo." The sketch comes to a halt where Bobo discovers that Andie MacDowell was cast as a cathedral bell for this sketch instead of a southern belle. Bobo then goes to have a word with the Muppets Tonight writers about this mix-up.
• The Muppet Parodies 1998 Calendar shows Kermit the Frog playing Quasimodo in The Lunchbox of Notre Dame. The lunchbox itself is an homage to the Muppets' parody of Jean-Honoré Fragonard's "The Swing," which was first featured in The Miss Piggy Calendar 1980.

• Quasimodo appears in Mad Monster Party? with his vocal effects provided by Allen Swift.
• Quasimodo appears as a playable character in Shrek SuperSlam voiced by Nolan North. He is also an opponent in the story mode where he moves next door to their swamp. He plays his bells at 4:00 AM when Shrek and Fiona are trying to sleep. When he won't give up playing his bells, this results in Shrek and Fiona fighting him.
• Quasimodo appears in an episode of The Beatles cartoon series titled "When I Get Home", in which the Beatles meet him in Notre Dame while exploring the cathedral's interior during their visit in France.
• Quasimodo appears as a playable character in the 1983 video game Hunchback, which is based on Victor Hugo's novel. In this video game, he saves Esmeralda.
• Quasimodo appears as The Hunchback in the Notre Dame level of TimeSplitters 2's story mode as a supporting character and additionally as a playable character in arcade mode.
• Quasimodo appears in the introduction of Van Helsing's character in the 2004 Van Helsing movie.

• The Big Bad Beetleborgs episode "Hunchback of Hillhurst" featured a parody of the character named Quincy Modo (performed by Brian Tahash and voiced by Dave Mallow). He was a former fullback for a college football team at the University of Notre Dame until he suffered from amnesia after hitting his head on the goal post and took up residence in Hillhurst Mansion's bell tower.
• The Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "The Hunchback of Nowhere" featured a hunchback (also a parody of Quasimodo) who lives in Nowhere. In this episode, he stays temporarily in Courage's house and displays a liking of bells (used as a reference for Quasimodo ringing the bells).
• The What's New Scooby Doo? episode "Ready to Scare" featured a parody of the character named Sonny Les Matines (voiced by James Arnold Taylor), a pun on the "Sonnez les matines" line from the popular French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques" that was used as a reference for Quasimodo ringing the bells. The reference is further alluded to when Shaggy calls him "The Lunchback of Notre Dame".
• The TV series Casper's Scare School featured a parody of the character named Quasi, who is a hunchbacked ogre monster.