By: Andrew Nickerson

Throughout history, many great names have risen/fallen regarding military tactics/strategy, the latter mostly due to technological innovations and changing philosophies. Yet, one name has remained prominent regardless of such: Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War. His incredible text not only famously reduces tactics/strategy to laymen’s principles, but bears an entirely unique goal: winning. Moreover, his principles have proven so effective critics and students alike have all reached the same conclusion: follow his wisdom, and you’ll win; ignore him, and you’ll lose. Even more incredibly, those principles have proven universally applicable, with everyone from athletes to businessmen to politicians known to have used his words to win.

            Yet, one realm remains curiously untapped: pop culture plotlines. If his wisdom is universally applicable, why not here too? To demonstrate this, we’ll look at one of the most sinister prequels in Disney history: the opening of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More specifically, we’ll look at it through the following Sun Tzu principles: morality, leadership, preparation, foreknowledge, targeting weakness, recklessness, cowardice, delicacy of honor (DOH), seizing an opening, and underestimation.

            The film begins with a group of gypsies slipping under the docks near Notre Dame Cathedral in Renaissance-era Paris. However, they soon find they’ve fatally violated one of Sun Tzu’s Five Essential Victory Factors, preparation[i], along one of his Five Fatal Failings of Leadership, recklessness[ii], and the principle never underestimate an opponent[iii], when they fall into a sinister trap and are arrested. This snare, admittedly a hefty use of prep and the principles, “what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men is foreknowledge”[iv] and if an opening comes to seize victory, take it[v], is the work of Claude Frollo (Frollo from now on), one of Disney’s most evil villains. A judge and clergyman, he hates gypsies because they’re not what he calls “normal”; worse, he feels compelled to cleanse the world of sin. This despicable attitude is a frightening violation of two more Essential Victory Factors, morality and good leadership[vi], along with two more Fatal Failings, cowardice and delicacy of honor[vii] (DOH from now on).

            Tragedy now strikes when one gypsy tries to shield her baby from the guards, at which point Frollo, further violating those same principles, claims she’s no doubt holding “stolen goods” and orders her bundle seized. However, now he violates underestimation, for the woman, in a desperate use of morality, seizing an opening, and the leadership principle “there are some…commands that must not be obeyed,”[viii] breaks free and runs. Frollo promptly chases her, their path ultimately leading back to Notre Dame, where the woman desperately pounds on the door, begging for sanctuary. It’s a fatal violation of recklessness and underestimation, for Frollo catches up and, in the ensuing struggle, kicks the woman, causing her to fall, strike her head, and die. Just then, the baby cries, making Frollo check the bundle, only to gasp when he finds the child is horribly deformed. It leads to an even more horrifying act: in a demonic violation of morality, leadership, cowardice, and DOH, he heads to a nearby well, intending to kill the baby.

Thankfully, sanity finally intervenes in the form of Notre Dame’s Archdeacon (Arch from now on), who’s been alerted by the mother’s frantic pleas. In an incredible showing of morality and the leadership caveat “know when to fight”[ix], he orders Frollo to stop. The latter’s response is so disgusting it bears repeating in full: “This is an unholy evil demon. I’m sending it back to hell where it belongs.” It’s a filthy violation of morality, leadership, cowardice, and DOH, but Arch bravely calls him on it, pointing out the innocent mother he’s just murdered. Of course, Frollo violates those same principles again, claiming “I am guiltless; she ran, I pursued”, only to have Arch counter with morality and leadership again by calling him on that too, saying he’s adding the child’s blood to his guilt. When Frollo balks a second time, Arch’s response is magnificent: “You can lie to yourself and your minions, you can claim you haven’t a qualm. But you never can run from or hide what you’ve done from the eyes, the very eyes of Notre Dame.” It’s a reference to the faces adorning the cathedral’s roof, a dynamite use of morality, leadership, and the principle, “Avoid what is strong and only attack what is weak”[x], for it sends a stiff message: regardless of your personal beliefs, in God’s eyes, you’re a murderer.

This finally breaks through Frollo’s thick head, and he ultimately realizes he must atone or face damnation. Conceding defeat, he inquires how, to which Arch, in a great use of morality, leadership, and seizing an opening, tells him he must raise the baby as his own. Sadly, Frollo’s demonic cruelty promptly resurfaces for, in a stunning violation of morality, leadership, cowardice, and DOH, he has Arch keep the baby locked away in the one place in Notre Dame where no one can see him—the bell tower. Worse, he violates those same principles again by claiming the baby could be of use to him, and then a third time by giving the baby a stunningly cruel name: Quasimodo, meaning half-formed. Yet, as this spineless coward will soon learn, this baby will be of use…as well as what destroys him.

This was a shocking beginning to what’ll soon become one of the most disturbing tales in Disney animation history. But, as we all saw, Sun Tzu’s wisdom was there the whole time, laying the foundation for a cruel tyrant’s downfall. Frollo never learns from these mistakes, and soon makes far worse ones, ensuring his literal fall from grace…which all goes back to before: listen to Sun Tzu, and you’ll win; ignore him, and you’ll lose.

[i] Lionel Giles, The Art of War (New York, NY; Fall River Press, 2011), 3.

[ii] Giles, The Art of War, 28.

[iii] Giles, The Art of War, 33.

[iv] Giles, The Art of War, 50.

[v] Giles, The Art of War, 46.

[vi] Giles, The Art of War, 3.

[vii] Giles, The Art of War, 28.

[viii] Giles, The Art of War, 27.

[ix] Giles, The Art of War, 11.

[x] Giles, The Art of War, 21.

                                                                                               Bibliography

Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Translated by Lionel Giles. New York: Fall River Press, 2011.

Trousdale, Gary, and Wise, Kirk, directors. Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996; Walt Disney Pictures, 2014. 91 min. Blu-Ray.

[i] Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (1996).