Aurora Hunchback model - did it ever bother you...?

[ChrisW]

This is something that I've thought about from time to time. I love the Aurora monster kits, and right up there is their portrayal of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". While not a very good likeness of Chaney Sr. as Quasimodo (if it was even intended to be), it captured a heartrending moment in the movie where the poor soul was hurt, humiliated and begging for water. And I guess that's my point. Did it ever bother you that the kit portrays a handicapped person being tortured? I'm not getting into political discussion, or calling the PC police to ban the kit. I was just wondering, did you ever look at it that way?

[Mike Scott]

While not a very good likeness of Chaney Sr. as Quasimodo

It was Chaney. It was Anthony Quinn from the 1957 remake. Quinn threatened to sue, so they painted over the original so it didn't look like him, but still wasn't Chaney.
http://www.popform.se/glowdark/boxes/long/hunchback1.html

[ChrisW]

It was Chaney. It was Anthony Quinn from the 1957 remake. Quinn threatened to sue, so they painted over the original so it didn't look like him, but still wasn't Chaney.
http://www.popform.se/glowdark/boxes/long/hunchback1.html

Mike, yep, familiar with the controversy about the box art, I was referring to the kit itself, and which iconic image Aurora chose to immortalize.

[Scatter]

Mike, yep, familiar with the controversy about the box art, I was referring to the kit itself, and which iconic image Aurora chose to immortalize.

Well,that image best captures the crux of the film, no?? A movie such as this could NEVER be made today I'm afraid, because of the PC Patrol. And before anyone bemoans my insensitivity to the disabled, I have a 14 year old disabled daughter whom I adore. Why can't the actual cruelty which is sometimes directed toward them (which I have seen directed at my own baby more than once) be portrayed?? Not as simply a gratuitous filmmaking mechanism, but as a means of enlightenment?

Who did not feel the pangs of outrage and sympathy when viewing Quasimodo's treatment and his yearning for love unattainable?? Or John Merrick's abuses and unfulfilled yearning in "The Elephant Man"??

We learn empathy well through such visceral portrayals, and here is where filmmaking can be used to uplift and teach and cause the sort of introspection that creates better human beings.

[Mike Scott]

Mike, yep, familiar with the controversy about the box art, I was referring to the kit itself,

The kit looks like the box art, to me, though not enough like Quinn to get sued over.

[raycastile]

The model looks more like Chaney than Quinn, though I don't think it's intended to be any particular actor. 

As a kid, I never thought of Quasimodo as a "handicapped" person.  He was a monster, just like Frankenstein and Dracula.  He was a "good" monster, like Frankie.  Dracula was a "bad" monster.

I subconsciously understood the monsters represented flawed humans.  Flawed physically, mentally, spiritually.  Just like we are all flawed.  They represented us, as we really are.  In comparison, larger-than-life fantasy heroes like Superman represent who we could be, or aspire to be.  But children don't analyze it like that.  They understand it intuitively.  Adults pick it apart, trying to relearn what they already know.

Capturing Quasimodo in his supreme moment of anguish is the best way to convey what the character is about.  A child sees it and immediately gets the point.  They can't articulate it or analyze it, but they understand it.  They get it.

Today, Quasimodo tied to the whipping platform is the most iconic image of the character.  But I think that is largely due to the Aurora kit and box artwork.  I'm not sure if that was the character's signature image prior to the 1960s.  It was the scene dramatized in Man of a Thousand Faces, so that probably helped etch it in people's minds.

[mike c]

Well,that image best captures the crux of the film, no?? A movie such as this could NEVER be made today I'm afraid, because of the PC Patrol. And before anyone bemoans my insensitivity to the disabled, I have a 14 year old disabled daughter whom I adore. Why can't the actual cruelty which is sometimes directed toward them (which I have seen directed at my own baby more than once) be portrayed?? Not as simply a gratuitous filmmaking mechanism, but as a means of enlightenment?

Who did not feel the pangs of outrage and sympathy when viewing Quasimodo's treatment and his yearning for love unattainable?? Or John Merrick's abuses and unfulfilled yearning in "The Elephant Man"??

We learn empathy well through such visceral portrayals, and here is where filmmaking can be used to uplift and teach and cause the sort of introspection that creates better human beings.

Hear, hear! That's why this kit never bothered me, even as a little kid. It can be sad, heck yes, but that's not a bother; it's life.

Mike C.

[Unknown Primate]

Heck, I always thought, " Man, they better hope Quasimodo doesn't bust out of these chains and tear them to pieces... even though they deserve it! "   He was one righteous monster in my eyes!

[Mike Scott]

The model looks more like Chaney than Quinn

Judge fer yerselves, I guess?

[Tom Smith Monsternut]

I have never seen the 1957 remake. How is it ?

[Scatter]

Quinn,undoubtedly.

[raycastile]

The hair and nose look like Quinn, sort of, not really, but everything else looks like Chaney.  Especially the right eye and cheekbones.  Those are Chaney.

[ChrisW]

A little background info -  a few years ago someone on the Hobbytalk Board posted a question about a kit that unfairly represented a group that suffered from prejudice (or something to that effect). Looking at the kits I had to believe he was referring to the Hunchback. Well, it turns out he was talking about the Witch, and its stereotypical representation of witches and wiccans! Scatter, my bro-in-law is disabled and he and my wife have helped me be more aware of the needs and rights of the disabled.
Ray, I think your answer is the essence of why we need, and empathise with the monsters we love so.
I still don't look at the Witch differently, tho...

[raycastile]

I love witches.  But they don't love me.

[Scatter]

I like to dress my wife up as a witch.....does that count??