Rigoletto (film)

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Rigoletto is a 1993 musical fantasy/drama produced for Feature Films for Families and described by Debbie James as "kind of a cross between Beauty and the Beast and The Man Without a Face, but with biblical themes" [1]. It has also compared to The Phantom of the Opera.

The film, set in Depression-era America, depicts a young girl, Bonnie (Ivey Lloyd), who enjoys singing and gets lessons from the "monster" Ribaldi (Joseph Paur). The townspeople suspect Ribaldi of foreclosing on mortgages all over town, but he is actually helping people with medical problems. Bonnie learns the lesson that true beauty is inside one's heart.

The movie was written and directed by Leo D. Paur, who formerly worked as a writer on animated series such as The Transformers. There are several points analogous in the movie and the Verdi opera of the same name: there is a beautiful daughter, there is fighting with words, and there is a "curse", but the movie is otherwise unrelated.

Josh Richard Goodwin played a minor role in the film, as Tommy, the son of the pig farmer.

The most memorable songs from the movie include: Let Me In, The Curse, April Child, and The Melody Within. April Child was written by Chance Thomas, and the other three by Michael McLean.