THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

DISNEY'S
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

(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.)