The protagonist, Quasimoto, and the antagonist, Frollo, are portrayed quite differently in the musical and Disney's cartoon version. At first glance, both seem to reflect their character from the play, in the cartoon, but there are small key differences that actually change the story. In the play, Frollo is portrayed as a very religious figure. In the beginning, his intentions could be seen as good. He ends up taking in Quasimoto, saving him from being an orphan in Paris. However, he keeps him locked away at the top of Notre Dame because of his ugly appearance. This probably isn't the best thing to do, but never the less, it is better than being an orphan. Frollo ultimately made the decision to take Quasimoto in, but here is how Disney made this different. In the Disney version, when Frollo found Quasi, he tried to throw him down a well, but the priest saw this and stopped him. The priest reminded him that God was watching him and would know what he tried to do. So Frollo took Quasimoto in out of fear of being damned to hell. This makes Frollo seem evil right from the beginning.There is one other difference at the very end of the story that changes the way the characters are portrayed. In the musical Frollo is looking for the Gypsy, Esmeralda, for a number of reasons. Frollo never liked Gypsies from the beginning, but Esmeralda was so beautiful that Frollo developed a lust for her. Frollo told her that he could pardon her crimes of being a Gypsy suspected of sorcery and witchcraft if she stayed in Notre Dame and "became his". Esmeralda refuses and runs away. Frollo desire for her clashes with his religious values so he ends up catching her and burns her in a pyre. Quasimoto rescues her and takes her to Notre Dame and claims "sanctuary". Sanctuary is a law that states that anyone is safe within the walls of Notre Dame. Frollo ignores this and orders the soldiers to break into Notre Dame. This is taken as a big deal to the people of Paris because it is like he has "declared war on Notre Dame herself" This is where differences occur in each version.
In the musical, even though Quasimoto rescued Esmeralda from the fire, she still ended up dying because she was burning for a few minutes before Quasi rescued her. Frollo finds them in the bell tower of Notre Dame and he is relieved that Esmeralda is dead. He says things like "we are safe from her now" to Quasimoto. Quasimoto doesn't take this well because Esmeralda was his one true friend. Quasimoto then takes Frollo and throws him off the edge, killing him. This comes as a shock because, throughout the whole movie, Quasimoto is portrayed as a misunderstood loving character. In the Disney version, Esmeralda doesn't end up dying. Frollo finds them at the top of the tower and threatens to kill both Quasimoto and Esmeralda (in the musical her never threatens to kill Quasimoto). When the three of them are fighting, Quasimoto actually has a chance to kill Frollo but he doesn't. Instead, one of the gargoyles Frollo was standing on comes to life and breaks off, causing Frollo to fall to his death, so it was really Notre Dame that killed him because he violated Sanctuary. In the musical, Quasimoto is portrayed to be more evil for killing Frollo, and Frollo is seen to be better for fitting the "Lawful evil" character. Disney made Quasimoto seem better than he actually was by keeping his kind nature all the way to the end, and the made Frollo worse than in the original by portraying him as evil from the beginning. However, Quasimoto is still the "good" hero, in both versions, and Frollo is still the conflicted villain in both versions. Disney just makes the line between good character and evil character more vivid.
Image source: https://www.mtishows.com/the-hunchback-of-notre-dame
