Frollo's Adopted Daughter

The Bells Of Notre Dame

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"

Clopin: "Listen, they're beautiful, no? So many colors 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!"

A tiny hand tapped the baby's head.

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"

Chorus: "Kyrie Eleison!" (Lord, have mercy!)

Clopin: JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO LONGED TO PURGE THE WORLD OF VICE AND SIN

Chorus: "Kyrie Eleison!" (Lord, have mercy!)

Clopin: 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 and toddler, Judge Frollo gives chase on horseback. She reaches the doors of Notre Dame and pounds on them.

Chorus: "Dies iræ, dies illa (Day of wrath, that day)

Solvet sæclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)

Teste David cum sibylla (As prophesied by David and the sibyl)

Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)

Quando Judex est venturus" (When the Judge is come)

Gypsy Mother: "Sanctuary!!! Please give us sanctuary!!!!" (her last words)

Chorus: "Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)

Quando Judex est venturus (When the Judge is come)

Dies iræ" (Day of wrath)

Frollo finally catches up to her on the steps of the cathedral. He rips the still-covered bundle from her arms, and kicks her in the face, sending her crashing to the cement steps, where she dies. The baby begins to cry.

Frollo: "A baby?" Frollo uncovers the baby's head, seeing the deformed infant.

Frollo: "A monster!"

Frollo sees a small hand move towards the baby's head and a hush. Frollo uncovers the baby more seeing a toddler hugging the baby. Short wavy black hair framing its face with soft brown eyes. It wore a bright pink ribbon in its hair and a soft pink dress.

Frollo: "An angel."

Frollo separates the toddler and the baby causing the elder to cry. He places the toddler in front of him making sure they don't fall. The toddler looks at the woman.

Toddler: "Mama!"

The young child reaches toward its mother.

Chorus: "Solvet sæclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)

Dies iræ, dies illa" (Day of wrath, that day)

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 (Narration): "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."

Frollo: "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!"

Chorus: "Kyrie Eleison!" (Lord, have mercy!)

Clopin (Narration): "AND FOR ONE TIME IN HIS LIFE OF POWER AND CONTROL

Chorus: "Kyrie Eleison!" (Lord, have mercy!)

Clopin (Narration): FROLLO FELT A TWINGE OF FEAR FOR HIS IMMORTAL SOUL

Frollo: "What must I do?" 

Archdeacon: "Care for the children, raise them 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. But 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."

Archdeacon: "What of the girl?"

Frollo: "I'll allow her to visit him."

Clopin (Narration): And Frollo gave the child a cruel name. A name that means half-formed... Quasimodo!

Clopin: "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 the screen.