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Minister Frollo learned years ago to respect the sanctity of the church.
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~ The Archdeacon
The Archdeacon is the overarching protagonist of the Disney's 34th full-length animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
As his title implies, he is the archdeacon from the titular Notre Dame who was responsible for making Judge Claude Frollo raise Quasimodo to make Frollo repent from his act of killing Quasi's biological mother. He is the father figure of Esmeralda and arch-rival of the judge himself.
In the prologue, The Archdeacon has dark grey hair and black eyebrows. He wears white, grey and red clothing, a red hooded robe, brown sandals, a gold ring and wears a gold necklace with a Christian cross-shaped charm on it.
After the 20 year time skip, The Archdeacon now has white hair and eyebrows. He wears the same white, grey and red clothing, sandals and his necklace, but now wears a red skullcap.
Personality
The Archdeacon is a pious and kind-hearted man who is willing to offer sanctuary to those who arrive at Notre Dame's cathedral. He is shown to be the polar opposite of Judge Claude Frollo. Unlike Frollo, who represents how religion can corrupt a man into performing evil deeds in God's name, the Archdeacon represents the positive aspects of religion, such as helping people, providing shelter, sanctuary, and salvation, as well as atoning for one's wrongdoings. He is shown to be kind and cordial to whoever he meets, including the Gypsy performer, Esmeralda. He comforted the woman when she expressed her outrage over how Frollo allowed a crowd of people to torture and humiliate Quasimodo, telling her that she can't right all the wrongs in the world by herself. He then encouraged her to seek help from someone in the cathedral (it is unclear whether that someone was God or Quasimodo, though he could have been referring to them both).
Notably, the Archdeacon is the only person who is shown to have any authority over Frollo. After witnessing the latter kill an innocent Gypsy mother and about to drown her baby for his deformity, the Archdeacon admonished Frollo and pointed that he had committed his evil deeds in the eyes of the Lord himself through the many statues of Notre Dame, something that shook Frollo to his core. While clearly angry at Frollo for what he did, the Archdeacon told him to raise the baby Quasimodo as his own in order to repent. This implies that the Archdeacon cared enough about Frollo to want him to atone. Sadly, even after being given this chance, Frollo's evil nature remained intact and he never showed any true intention of changing his ways. He would continue persecuting the Gypsies for the next twenty years and only saw Quasimodo as a tool for him to control and manipulate rather than an actual son.
The Archdeacon is shown standing up to Frollo's acts of persecuting the Gypsies, warning the Judge that he would not harm Esmeralda while she was in the church, reminding the Judge of the lesson he was taught twenty years ago. He also intended to protest against Esmeralda's burning at the bonfire until he was stopped by Frollo's guards. When Frollo launched a siege against Notre Dame, the Archdeacon once again tried to stop him, but Frollo, fed up with his interference, threw him aside in order to deal with Quasimodo once and for all. When the battle finally ended, the Archdeacon was shown to have survived and was happy upon seeing Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus emerge from Notre Dame.
Being a true man of God, the Archdeacon showed his willingness to allow people to atone for their sins, even the most wicked of men, such as that of Judge Claude Frollo. While the Archdeacon failed in changing Frollo for the better, he is still ultimately the reason why Quasimodo survived, allowing the bell ringer of Notre Dame to live on and eventually find friends, acceptance, and love.
Role in the film
He first appears near the end of the movie's prologue, condemning Frollo for his cold-blooded murder of an innocent gypsy woman on the steps of Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as his attempting to murder the woman's deformed baby son. Though Frollo refuses to accept responsibility for his crimes, the Archdeacon points out that if he doesn't repent, God will punish him (which foreshadows at the end of the film). Considering this for a brief moment, Frollo agrees to listen to the Archdeacon, who tells him to care for the baby he was about to murder and raise him as if he were his own son, which Frollo reluctantly accepts. The Archdeacon leaves to give the woman a proper burial. Frollo names the baby Quasimodo.
The Archdeacon appears twenty years later defending Esmeralda from Frollo's wrath when she seeks sanctuary in the cathedral. Esmeralda expresses disgust with Frollo and also the callousness of the crowd that was tormenting a now adult Quasimodo at the Festival of Fools earlier. The Archdeacon points out that Esmeralda can't right all of the wrongs in the world by herself, but nevertheless urges her to seek inspiration from God.
The Archdeacon appears briefly singing a hymn, before Frollo sings "Hellfire". He later appears coming out of Notre Dame to protest against Frollo's execution of Esmeralda, only to be stopped by Frollo's soldiers.
The Archdeacon's final scene is in the climax, where he attempts to dissuade a now completely unhinged Frollo from assaulting Notre Dame, only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears as Frollo pushes him down the stairs and locks the door behind him to stop the Archdeacon from interfering with his goal to kill Quasimodo. However Frollo falls to his death into the molten lead below, when the gargoyle which he was standing on while trying to kill Quasimodo and Esmeralda breaks off completely, not long it comes to life and furiously roars thunderously at him thus foreshadowing the Archdeacon's words about God will punish him as it finally had enough of Frollo and his wicked crimes.
The Archdeacon smiling in victory last appears briefly when Esmeralda and Phoebus emerge from the cathedral after Frollo's death.
Differences from the novel
In the original book, Claude Frollo was a troubled archdeacon. In this version, Frollo was converted into a completely evil judge and the archdeacon takes all of his good qualities. This was likely done to avoid controversy.
Gallery
The Archdeacon stops Frollo from drowning Quasimodo
The Archdeacon condemns Frollo for killing Quasimodo's mother
The Archdeacon telling Frollo that in order to atone for his sins, he must raise Quasimodo
The Archdeacon with Esmeralda
The Archdeacon stopped from protesting against Esmeralda's execution by Frollo's soldiers
"Frollo, have you gone MAD?!" Archdeacon outraged as he tries to stop Frollo from assaulting the cathedral.
Frollo turns against the Archdeacon when he tries to stop him going after Quasimodo, calling him an "Old Fool" and stating that Quasimodo and himself have "unfinished business to attend to"
Trivia
After Quasimodo had saved Esmeralda from burning at the stake, it can almost definitely be assumed that the Archdeacon most likely went up there straight away, off-screen, and privately kept an eye over Esmeralda as she lay down while Quasimodo was preparing to defend the cathedral from the upcoming attack, only considering on how he is seen confronting Frollo while coming down the stairs as Frollo breaks in.
In the film's 2002 sequel The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, a different Archdeacon is seen briefly exclaiming the theft of La Fidele, one of Notre Dame's bells. Unlike the first film's Archdeacon, this one has a thinner build. This could mean that at some point in between the two films, the first Archdeacon either died or retired and was replaced by the second one. Though it could also potentially mean, however, that at some point between the two films, the Archdeacon himself had both, lost weight and given himself a new hair dew as well as trimmed his eyebrows, only considering how the one in the sequel appears to have the same eye shape, the same nose (only narrower), the same ears, and the same chin (only thinner), but with the sideburns gone and the eyebrows not appearing as bushy. Although that latter part could potentially be only because it was hard for the artist to draw them that way from such a distance. Furthermore, the archdeacon in the sequel is voiced by Jim Cummings in place of David Ogden Stiers (who was still alive when the sequel itself came out), although Laverne's voice actress in the sequel is Jane Withers in place of Mary Wickes (who died during the production of the first film). Henceforth they could potentially actually be the same person.
Although the Archdeacon was the one who originally saved Quasi's life, the two are never seen together onscreen. Though it is possible they may have interacted offscreen and also defend him from any parishioners if they attempt to scold him if he comes down the cathedral's nave.
After Esmeralda sing "God Help the Outcasts", with Quasimodo getting scolded by a green robed parishioner for coming in the cathedral's nave mistakenly thinking that he was going to causing trouble in the cathedral's nave which he retreats back to the bell tower with Esmeralda and Djali now both hostile to the green robed parishioner following him, The Archdeacon most likely reprimanded the green robed parishioner and asking him to leave the cathedral immediately for scolding and scaring Quasimodo away as he was tortured back at the festival.
In a hint of irony, David Ogden Stiers previously played Governor John Ratcliffe in Disney's Pocahontas, who, much like Frollo, is a xenophobic authoritarian figure.
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