Disney Plus Dream Job: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Introduction

Faculty, residents, and students at my university are participating in the Disney Plus Dream Job and watching 30 Disney films in 30 days. Course directors successfully incorporated the 30 films (and shows) into our preexisting curriculum that teaches psychiatry to future physicians through film and other aspects of popular culture. Today's blog marks the final day of the Dream Job with Disney and Reviews.org. Since we got a late start posting on Views Through the Psychiatrist’s Lens, I will continue to publish daily blogs into January (25 total). Today's blog, #16 of 25 will be The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

Synopsis

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) is an animated musical produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo of the same name. The plot centers around Quasimodo, a “deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his struggle to gain acceptance into society" (1).

At the time of this posting, the film holds a rating of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb and a Tomatometer rating of 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

How it relates to the field of psychiatry

Given the morphology of the eponymous “hunchback” and the date of viewing (albeit a belated post), there is a psychiatric theme shared with Friday the 13th, a 1980 film written by Victor Miller about a group of teenagers who are murdered one-by-one while attempting to reopen an abandoned campsite. What can the protagonist from Disney’s darkest animated film possibly have in common with Miller’s classic slasher? An analysis of the 1980 horror movie reveals our answer (2).

[This post contains spoilers.] Filmed in Blairstown, New Jersey, Friday the 13th begins in the summer of 1957 with two camp counselors being murdered by an unseen assailant after they sneak away to a cabin to “party.” The film then jumps to present day and chronicles the ill-fated attempt of a group of counselors to reopen Camp Crystal Lake. Friday the 13th introduces the "über-slasher," Jason Voorhees, an imposing giant who dons a goalie mask and wields a machete. Despite his reputation, avid horror fans “should know that Jason’s mother, Mrs. Voorhees, was the original killer (3),” with Pamela Voorhees revealing herself in the movie’s penultimate scene when she discloses that her son, Jason, drowned in Crystal Lake years before because camp counselors were drinking and having sex instead of watching him.

The Substance-Related Disorders section in the DSM-5 includes Substance-Induced Disorders, including substance intoxication, substance withdrawal, substance-induced neuropsychiatric syndromes (e.g., Alcohol-Induced Mood Disorder), and other syndromes caused by the ingestion of a substance (e.g., fetal alcohol syndrome, overdose, etc.). Friday the 13th serves two major teaching points of the Substance-Induced Disorders and Syndromes: 1) the introduction of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) through plot summary; and 2) reviewing the stereotypic facies of children afflicted with FAS.

For example, the motive behind the mass murders at Camp Crystal Lake serves as a metaphor for FAS. Just as FAS results from the teratogenic effects of alcohol in utero, the creation of the abominable Jason Voorhees is the direct result of alcohol’s influence on camp counselors, who were partying instead of supervising the 11-year-old boy swimming in Crystal Lake.

Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame reintroduces Quasimodo, who is described as “a deformed bell-ringer.” His facies is loosely associated with Jason Voorhees, who, on this date (belated), prompts the discussion of FAS. This is not to say that either fictional charter is afflicted with FAS per se. More importantly, the description of the (old-timey) goalie mask serves to review the stereotypical facies that may result from exposure to alcohol in utero.