Great Disney Villains: Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

"Judge Claude Frollo longed to purge the world of vice and sin," explains Clopin in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame in his opening story The Bells of Notre Dame, "and he saw corruption everywhere except within." He then proceeds to "tell the tale of a man and a monster", telling of a gypsy family who attempted to sneak into Paris, but ended up walking into a trap laid by Claude Frollo himself, the minister of Paris. After one of the guards attempts to take the gypsy mother's child - which Frollo misidentifies as stolen goods - she runs, and is pursued on horseback by the judge himself.

As she stands on the door to Notre Dame, slamming against it pleading for sanctuary, Frollo rides up and takes the child from her, in the process killing her. When he opens the satchel, he finds in it a baby which he refers to as an "unholy demon", which he intends to "Send back to Hell" by dropping it down a well. Moments before he drops the baby to its watery grave, the Arch Deacon of Notre Dame cries for him to stop, and in one of the most powerful scenes of the movie, he clutches the dead gypsy in his arms and condemns Frollo.

"See there the innocent blood you have spilled on the steps of Notre Dame," he accuses, looking between the dead gypsy and Frollo.

"I am guiltless, she ran, I pursued," Frollo responds dismissively.

"Now you'd add this child's blood to your guild, on the steps of Notre Dame," the Arch Deacon continues, his voice quaking and near tears. At this point Frollo appears to be growing aggravated by the clergyman's insistence.

"My conscience is clear!" he exclaims, but the priest would have none of that, and doesn't even wait for Frollo to finish before continuing.