Hellfire (song)
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| "Hellfire" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Tony Jay from the album The Hunchback of Notre Dame: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack | |
| Released | 1996 |
| Recorded | 1996 |
| Label | Walt Disney Records |
"Hellfire" is a song from Disney's 1996 animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The song is sung by the film's antagonist, Judge Claude Frollo, who is voiced by the late Tony Jay. It begins in Bb major, before turning to its relative minor G. It soon modulates briefly into C minor, then F major, has an spoken intersection where the bass lies on A, dominant of D minor, the key which the song finally ends in.
The song was intended to contrast the song "Heaven's Light", which was sung by Quasimodo moments earlier, expressing his feelings of love for Esmeralda, while "Hellfire" focuses on Frollo's internal conflict between his feelings of lust and his conscience and hate for the gypsies. The song is considered to be one of the darkest in any Disney film, depicting both Hell and lust, two subjects that are generally considered inappropriate for children. This song and sequence prompted the ratings board to consider a PG rating for the film. In its defense, Disney claimed that its adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was meant to play as much to adult audiences as to children. The studio attempted to produce an animated film with an audience broader than only children, the main target audience of Disney animated features. In a review of the soundtrack to the film, Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com stated that "the darkest depths of The Hunchback of Notre Dame exist in 'Hellfire,' one of the most stunning visual and aural combinations in animation history. The song is so overwhelmingly compelling in an evil sense that it alone was worth the cost of admission."[1]
The song contains parts of the Confiteor, a Latin prayer of confession used by the Roman Catholic Church. This prayer begins directly after "Heaven's Light" and serves as the introduction to "Hellfire". It also provides counterpoint material throughout the song, whose ending also contains the Kyrie eleison.
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[edit] Visual sequence
The beginning of the song starts with the Archdeacon swinging the incense-filled thurible, as he and his altar servers walk through Notre Dame, chanting the beginning of the Confiteor. The camera pans upwards to the famous "rose window", and flies through it and over Paris, revealing that all the lights in the city are going out as people are turning in for the night. The only light that remains is the light in the Palace of Justice, where Frollo gazes out at Notre Dame from his window, pleading with the Virgin Mary to save him from temptation. Frollo then calmly walks to the fireplace, singing about how he lusts for Esmeralda. During this, a fire apparition of Esmeralda dances provocatively in the flames.
Through the second verse, Frollo draws away from the fireplace, revealing a piece of silk that Esmeralda had used to tease him earlier in the film. Frollo sings about how he lusts for her and resents her for it. He accuses her of turning him to sin and denies his own culpability as red-hooded figures rise from the floor, chanting 'Mea culpa' ("my fault"). Frollo runs through the chamber, with the cloaked figures standing on either side of him. He desperately pleads with them for forgiveness, claiming that Esmeralda had cast a spell on him and tempted him. The hooded figures turn into flames, enveloping Frollo as they return to the fireplace as if dragging him down into Hell (foreshadowing his fate).
Frollo continues singing, pleading to Mary to rescue him from Esmeralda's voluptous temptations that would lead to his eternal damnation. He holds out the scarf and clenches it angrily, stating that Esmeralda must choose him or die. The fire apparition of Esmeralda re-appears, but her provocative dancing is replaced by her shriek-filled writhing as she is burned at the stake. A smoke apparition of Esmeralda then emerges from the fireplace (pictured above), and as it embraces Frollo passionately, there is a knock at the door. The apparition disappears as a guard enters, telling Frollo that Esmeralda had escaped from the Cathedral of Notre Dame where Frollo had "imprisoned" her. Frollo vows to find her, even if it means burning Paris to the ground. The guard leaves, and Frollo continues singing, telling Esmeralda that he will give her an ultimatum: she must choose him or be burned on the stake. Frollo throws Esmeralda's scarf into the fireplace, symbolically burning her as well.
In the final verse, Frollo backs up against the wall, asking God to have mercy on both him and Esmeralda. As he sings, shadowy figures holding crucifixes emerge from the light of the fireplace and fly past Frollo. Frollo drops to his knees, saying that Esmeralda will be his or burn. Finishing the song, Frollo passes out and falls face down on the floor in the shape of a crucifix as the fire goes out.
[edit] Production
The creators of Disney's adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame stated that they felt that the "Hellfire" scene was important in portraying Frollo as he was in Victor Hugo's original novel. They hoped that this sequence would be one of the greatest animated sequences ever produced. Frollo was animated by Kathy Zielinski, working from a visual storyboard and supported by a special effects team. According to the film's director, Kirk Wise, Frollo's song "Hellfire" needed a visual sequence more meaningful and powerful than past Disney animated features, akin to the memorable Fantasia sequence "The Night on Bald Mountain", which depicted the devil Chernabog rallying his demons for a single night. In the audio commentary on The Hunchback of Notre Dame DVD, Wise described his fear that he would have to plea with Disney's CEOs, Roy Disney and Michael Eisner, to let them do the sequence. The two CEOs ended up loving the idea, and no plea was needed.[2]
Wise also indicated that he and the effects director Chris Jenkins wanted the fire apparition sequence to be strictly G-rated. Thus, they went through every frame to ensure that Esmeralda's figure was fully clothed at all times,[2] despite her provocative dancing. The commentary also revealed that the producers referred to the sequence with the red-hooded monks as "Mr. Frollo's Wild Ride".
[edit] References
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This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (August 2011) |
- ^ http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/hunchback.html
- ^ a b DVD Audio Commentary, The Hunchback of Notre Dame "Hellfire Scene"
