------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Hunchback of Notre Dame Music: Alan Menken Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz Premiere: 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (As the Walt Disney Pictures logo fades off the screen, the chorus heard in the background mixes with the bells of Notre Dame cathedral ringing. A long zoom in through the city until we reach the Clopin singing to a group of children watching his puppet show.) Clopin: MORNING IN PARIS, THE CITY AWAKES TO THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME THE FISHERMAN FISHES, THE BAKERMAN BAKES TO THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME TO THE BIG BELLS AS LOUD AS THE THUNDER TO THE LITTLE BELLS SOFT AS A PSALM AND SOME SAY THE SOUL OF THE CITY'S THE TOLL OF THE BELLS THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME Listen, they're beautiful, no? So many colours of sounds, so many changing moods. Because, you know, they don't ring all by themselves. Puppet: They don't?!? Clopin: No, silly boy. Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell ringer. Who is this creature? Puppet: Who? Clopin: What is he? Puppet: What? Clopin: How did he come to be there? Puppet: How? Clopin: Hush! Puppet: Ohhh... Clopin: And Clopin will tell you. It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster! (A wipe to a dark night. A band of gypsies quietly proceeding down the Seine, hoping to avoid detection. A baby in the woman's arms begins to cry.) Clopin: DARK WAS THE NIGHT WHEN OUR TALE WAS BEGUN ON THE DOCKS NEAR NOTRE DAME Gypsy 1: Shut it up, will you! Gypsy 2: We'll be spotted! Gypsy Mother: Hush, little one! Clopin: FOUR FRIGHTENED GYPSIES SLID SILENTLY UNDER THE DOCKS NEAR NOTRE DAME Boatman: Four gilders for safe passage into Paris. Clopin: BUT A TRAP HAD BEEN LAID FOR THE GYPSIES AND THEY GAZED UP IN FEAR AND ALARM AT A FIGURE WHOSE CLUTCHES WERE IRON AS MUCH AS THE BELLS Gypsy: Judge Claude Frollo! Clopin: THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO LONGED TO PURGE THE WORLD OF VICE AND SIN AND HE SAW CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE EXCEPT WITHIN. Frollo: Bring these gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice. Guard: (To mother) You there! What are you hiding!?! Frollo: Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her. Clopin: She ran! (As the gypsy mother tries to escape with her baby, Judge Frollo gives chase on horseback. She reaches the doors of Notre Dame and pounds on them.) Gypsy Mother: Sanctuary! Please give us sanctuary! (Frollo finally catches up to her on the steps of the cathedral. He rips the still covered bundle from her arms, and kicks her, sending her crashing to the cement steps, where she is knocked unconscious. The baby begins to cry.) Frollo: A baby? (Frollo uncovers the baby's head, seeing the deformed infant.) Frollo: A monster! (He looks around, searching for a way to dispose of the creature. He sees a well, and rides over to it. He is about to drop the baby down the well when a voice (a lightning flash between Clopin and the Archdeacon) shouts out.) Archdeacon: Stop! Clopin: Cried the archdeacon. Frollo: This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs! Archdeacon: SEE THERE THE INNOCENT BLOOD YOU HAVE SPILT ON THE STEPS OF NOTRE DAME. Frollo: I am guiltless--she ran, I pursued. Archdeacon: NOW YOU WOULD ADD THIS CHILD'S BLOOD TO YOUR GUILT ON THE STEPS OF NOTRE DAME. Clopin: My conscience is clear! Archdeacon: YOU CAN LIE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR MINIONS YOU CAN CLAIM THAT YOU HAVEN'T A QUALM BUT YOU NEVER CAN RUN FROM, NOR HIDE WHAT YOU'VE DONE FROM THE EYES THE VERY EYES OF NOTRE DAME! Clopin: AND FOR ONE TIME IN HIS LIFE OF POWER AND CONTROL FROLLO FELT A TWINGE OF FEAR FOR HIS IMMORTAL SOUL Frollo: What must I do? Archdeacon: Care for the child, raise it as your own. Frollo: What? I'm to be saddled with this misshapen-- (He pauses as a thought creeps across his face.) Frollo: Very well. Let him live with you, in your church. Archdeacon: Live here? But where? Frollo: Anywhere. JUST SO HE'S KEPT LOCKED AWAY WHERE NO ONE ELSE CAN SEE. The bell tower, perhaps. And who knows--our Lord works in mysterious ways. EVEN THIS FOUL CREATURE MAY YET PROVE ONE DAY TO BE OF USE TO ME. Clopin: And Frollo gave the child a cruel name. A name that means half-formed... Quasimodo! NOW HERE IS A RIDDLE TO GUESS IF YOU CAN SING THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME. WHO IS THE MONSTER AND WHO IS THE MAN? SING THE BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS OF NOTRE DAME! (We have wiped from watching Clopin's puppet show to the actual bells ringing in the tower, and the back of this mysterious Quasimodo ringing them. As we end on a beautiful shot of the bells ringing, and the word Dame is sung with the cymbal crash, the title "THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME" appears on screen. We fly down to an exterior with the frozen forms of Victor and Hugo, with a bird's nest in his mouth, on the balcony. As Quasimodo comes out, the bird awakens.) Quasimodo: Good morning! (The bird squeaks its approval.) Quasimodo: Will today be the day? Are you ready to fly? (The bird squeaks its disapproval.) Quasimodo: You sure? Good day to try. Why, if I picked a day to fly, oh, this would be it! The Festival of Fools! It will be fun--the jugglers, and music, and dancing... (The bird, who had been resting in Quasi's hand, has begun to flap its wings. Quasi slowly removes his hands until the bird is hovering in place. He chuckles and shows his hands to the bird, who finally realises that it is flying. It squeaks an approval, then a question, as a flock of birds fly by.) Quasimodo: Go on! Nobody wants to be cooped up here forever! (The bird flies off to join the flock. As soon as it's gone, Hugo, and later, Victor, come to life. Hugo spits out the nest.) Hugo: Oh, man! I thought he'd never leave! I'll be spittin' feathers for a week! Victor: Well that's what you get for sleeping with your mouth open. Hugo: (Sarcastic chuckle) Heh, heh, heh...go scare a nun! Hey, Quasi! What's goin' on out there? A fight? A flogging? Victor: A festival! Hugo: You mean the Feast of Fools!?! Quasimodo: Uh huh! Hugo: All right, all right! Pour the wine and cut the cheese! (Hugo makes farting noises in his armpit.) Victor: It is a treat to watch the colourful pageantry of the simple peasantfolk. Hugo: Boy, nothin' like balcony seats for watching the ol' F.O.F. Quasimodo: (Dejected) Yeah, watching. (Quasi turns and leaves, obviously sad.) Hugo: Hey, look--a mime. (Hugo hocks up a phlegm in his throat, and is about to spit, when Victor covers his mouth. Hugo is forced to swallow his prize. They proceed inside to Quasimodo. Laverne catches up to them.) Hugo: Hey, hey, what gives? Victor: Aren't you going to watch the festival with us? Hugo: I don't get it. Victor: Perhaps he's sick! Laverne: Impossible. If 20 years of listening to you two hasn't made him sick by now, nothing will. Victor: But watching the Festival of Fools has always been the highlight of the year for Quasimodo. Laverne: What good is watching the party if you never get to go hear it? (Birds have begun to roost on Laverne. She waves them away.) Get away from me, go on, you bunch of buzzards! He's not made of stone, like us. (Laverne goes to Quasi, who is at his table with a model of the city and small toys painted like townspeople.) Laverne: Quasi, what's wrong? You wanna tell ol' Laverne all about it? Quasimodo: I...I just don't feel like watching the festival, that's all. Laverne: Well, did you ever think about going there instead? Victor: Sure! Quasimodo: I'd never fit in down there. I'm not...normal. Laverne: Oh, Quasi, Quasi, Quasi. (She pauses as the birds have returned to perch on her again.) (To birds:) Do you mind? I'm would like to have a moment with the boy, if it's all right with you! Hugo: (To Quasi:) Hey, quit beating around the bell tower. Whadda we gotta do? Paint you a fresco? Victor: As your friends and guardians, we insist you attend the festival. Quasimodo: Me?!? (Enter Hugo, with a figurine of a Pope, from Quasi's tabletop scene.) Hugo: No, the Pope. Of course, you! (Victor shoves the Pope figurine in Quasi's mouth.) Victor: It would be a veritable pope-pourri of educational experience. (Hugo pulls the figurine out of Quasi's mouth.) Hugo: Wine, women and song! Victor: You can learn to identify various regional cheeses! Hugo: ...
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