| My Birthday Memoir |
 |
| �What do they have against people who are different, anyway?�
Only eleven words, expressing a question that wasn�t in any way new or innovative. Yet for the twelve-year-old girl seated in that dark movie theater, those words meant everything. Much like the characters in the movie, that girl was an outcast. She wasn�t deformed, poor, or a fugitive from the law, but an adolescent being shunned by her peers - one of those preteens that, for one reason or another, seemed to strongly attract people looking for someone to put down by pointing out all the ways she was different. Her heart went out to the gypsy woman who had just expressed so bluntly the question that she had been asking her entire life. HoND couldn�t have come out at a more appropriate time for me. During the difficult time of adolescence, when most people�s goal is to be the same as everyone else for fear of ridicule, this movie about accepting our differences spoke to my heart, inspiring me to assert my individuality against the adversity I faced. But obviously, the stage I was going through at the time isn�t the only reason for my obsession that�s lasted ten years. The very first time I saw HoND was without doubt one of the most satisfying moviegoing experiences I have ever had. I marveled at the drawings. I connected myself with the characters as if they were friends. My heart soared during Out There. I smiled during God Help the Outcasts. I reacted with satisfying shock to Hellfire. I held my breath when Esmeralda seemed to be dead. My heart beat rapidly during the climax. Then when the little girl came up to Quasimodo at the end, I simply can�t describe it. For the first time in my twelve years, I had an idea of what it might be like to be in love. From a nostalgic point of view, HoND was also released during one of the best summers of my life. In fact, it dominated that summer, since we saw it a grand total of ten times in the theater. HoND makes me think about many things from my childhood that are now long gone. It makes me think of the old Toys R Us store from my childhood, now long closed down. When a new Disney film came out, it would dedicate an entire section of the store to that movie's merchandice. HoND was the last movie to have its own section. HoND's section was inside a Gypsy-style tent, which gave it an authentic atmosphere. In turn this makes me think of shopping trips with my dad. It makes me think of my youngest brother Jaeson, before he lost his innocence. He was five when the movie came out, and he loved Laverne's last line Don't you ever migrate?? . For a long time, he would shout that line out in the theater at the end of the movie (we saw it ten times in the theater, ya know), soooo cute. Now he's an obnoxious teenager, long past that stage. It makes me think of how we used to take annual vacations to Pennsylvainia (my mom's home state) before my father died. During our 1996 trip, we saw HoND for the seventh or eighth time at a gigantic mall over there, one that had a huge Disney Store (this was before the short-lived Disney Store at my local mall opened). We waited in a loooong line to get to the movie, and the sound in the theater was terrible. Afterwards, we went to a Toys R Us over there, where Jaeson learned how to ride a two-wheeled bike. It makes me think of the old second-run movie theater downtown, also closed down now, where we saw HoND the last two times. It was it's own building, not merely a section of a mall, which gave a real event feel when we went there. Mom always complained that it smelled bad, but I never noticed a smell, except for the dusty smell of the carpeted floor and the buttery smell of fresh popcorn. Every individual screen there had a personality - in one, the seats rocked back and forth, in another, there was a curtain over the screen, in another, there were mini-balconies, etc. It makes me think of my dad, since it was one of his favorite Disney movies. One time, a few months before he died, he was going on a business trip, so we let him pick the movie the night before he left, and he picked HoND. We had an unofficial camp out in the living room - we spread out our sleeping bags on the floor and brought a big bowl of homemade popcorn into the living room for easy snacking. I remember that being one of the best times we had watching it. It even makes me think of a dance seminar I took that summer that I thoroughly enjoyed. It ended with us performing an act in a dance gala concert that starred guest dancers from the International Ballet Theater. It was the first (and last) concert of that prestige that I had ever performed in. The reason why HoND makes me think of it is because we performed a tarantella for the concert. With tambourines. Of course, tambourines reminded me of Esmeralda, so I was so thrilled to be performing a dance like what she did. A few years later, my home got hooked up to something called the internet. The first time I used a search engine, I typed out - you guessed it - �hunchback� and I discovered a precious treasure: others like me. I found fansites by other people who shared my everlasting love of this wonderful movie. I devoured these sites, discovering that the internet was a wonderful place to show your love for something, to write beautiful dedications, draw pictures of your favorite characters, and yes, write stories starring the characters you�ve loved for so long. Soon I was fortunate enough to call some of these fellow HoND fans my friends. Eventually, I was inspired to try my hand at making my own site (which of course, is the place you are right now). HoND even helped me discover my vocation to be a writer, since my first major writing projects were HoND fanfics, and through writing them, I found that I was getting very positive feedback and I was much enjoying the process of writing. Throughout these ten years, HoND has always been with me. Even when I obsessed with other things, even when my interests were diverted elsewhere, I always came back to HoND. It�s like an old friend that will forever be there when I need it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOND!!! Back to Birthday Memoirs Back to Index |