Hellfire: The Greatest DARKEST Masterpiece in Disney History

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]This might be the greatest, darkest masterpiece in Disney history. And it's going to start out not the way you expect. Take a listen to this.

[00:00:25]Oh, that is so beautiful. Right. So, we get this big this big B flat major with the add nine chord right at the beginning. This huge supposed to almost sound like a like a like the chime of bells as we're seeing, right? And then and the next thing we hear is the organ come in on a four chord. 51. Listen to that again >> right here. Ready >> with the chime of the bell?

[00:01:00]>> Oh, it's so beautiful.

[00:01:13]>> Even that was gorgeous.

[00:01:30]Right? So already you're going, "How is this the darkest masterpiece Disney ever wrote?" Because that's beautiful. And as Claude Froolo starts to sing, it's going to stay beautiful. This, I think, is the just part of the genius of this piece. If you don't know who I am, hi, I'm Charles. I created the better piano system because I feel like so much of what learning the piano has always been sucks. Most people don't quit the piano because they're not capable of learning it. They quit because the whole process feels overwhelming and just unfun. You sit down excited to make music and within 5 minutes you're buried in scales and exercises and music theory and a whole bunch of stuff that just makes you feel like you're back in school again. So, I built a system specifically to solve that problem. The first thing you're going to do is actually play the piano.

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[00:03:46]>> Maria, you know I am a righteous man. Of my virtue, I am justly proud.

[00:03:56]Okay. So, we start off uh repeating a very similar version of what we heard in the intro there.

[00:04:16]Very very positive. The harmony starts out major and really soft. It's almost hopeful. And we for a brief moment we get this impression that maybe Claude Froolo is going to start to do some inward reflection. Well, that quickly changes when we start to see what it is that Froolo is actually asking about.

[00:04:32]It's like we get this hint of an inward reflection and then he reminds us no.

[00:04:36]He's not making any progress on himself.

[00:04:38]The first thing he says is, you know, I am a righteous man and of my virtue I am justly proud. What an insane thing to say. And it's precisely that reason that we're going to start to see the music shift a little bit. Listen to this once more.

[00:04:55]>> You know I am a righteous man. Of my virtue I am justly proud.

[00:05:04]>> Already we've changed key.

[00:05:06]>> You know I'm so much purer than the common vulgar weak lentious crowd.

[00:05:13]>> Okay. We've stayed major so far. We're not We're not getting super dark just yet, but you'll notice what just happened. He changed his key.

[00:05:32]Very cool writing there by Alan Min. Of course, it's why we're talking about this. But again, if we look at what he says, you know, I'm so much purer than the common vulgar, weak, lentious crowd.

[00:05:44]What a word choice there by Steven Schwarz. And you know what's interesting? Yes, it starts off soft a little bit. Starts off major, but it does have a twinge of what? Kind of a heroic feel to it. And I think that that's exactly indicative of Froolo's delusion of who he is to himself.

[00:06:00]>> Then tell me, >> now we've gone.

[00:06:03]>> I see her dancing there. Why her sporing eyes still scorch my soul?

[00:06:11]Ah, and now we're staying minor and he's getting into what he's really after me out of all control.

[00:06:24]>> Like fire the organ.

[00:06:29]This fire in my skin desire is turning me to Wow, that took a turn. The whole thing took a turn, which makes complete sense, right? Because like I said, we get this twinge of it's almost like the music reflects Claude Froolo's opinion and view of himself in the beginning. It's this sweet thing. He's praying to Mary.

[00:07:00]It's this sweet thing of of him, you know, asking asking Mary for for for guidance and for protection, but very quickly it takes a dark turn because we we understand who he actually is, what he's actually asking for. And boy, does the harmony and the music reflect this.

[00:07:14]We have to look at this because it is just woo, right? We go from we started in B flat major and then we jumped up a major third to D major.

[00:07:27]H love that. Okay. So now now we're in G minor.

[00:07:45]That is so sick right there. G minor.

[00:07:48]And we end on the five, right? But the way we get there, we go from the one to the four, five, and then we go up to that flat 6 down the trionee, which doesn't sound like a trionee in that context, right? But it is. I mean, it's it's E flat to A, right?

[00:08:16]back to our five.

[00:08:19]And then we're gonna set this big five up and we're going to go back to And that sets us up for the big that chord right there is so cool. This whole section which is I guess it's the chorus, right?

[00:08:57]Wow. Okay, we go G minor. So, we're on the home base and then we're going to walk down.

[00:09:04]You know, this is written as D minor over G. I wonder if it's F over G in reality. Huh. Well, they are relatives of each other, so maybe it doesn't matter. from G minor down a whole step to F down another whole step to E flat and then we get this sick setup on the four chord C major keeping the G as the pedal tone in the bass that is such a cool turnaround to get us back to uh actually you know it's going to set us up for is a key change oh that's what's going on right here that's why we get a B flat to the C before going to the next key which is D minor. Okay, duh. Think about this. So if we go, this is so genius. Why is Alan Min such a genius? So we're holding the the G pedal. Okay, we're holding the G pedal, but then we go B flat. We walk up whole step up to C and another whole step resolves us into D minor into the new key.

[00:10:10]It's literally a flat 6 flat 7 one into the minor key. It's just we're holding the pedal tone underneath it.

[00:10:20]Same thing. Now it's written Okay, this this one is written in the way that I was suggesting the first one might be written in. It's just obviously in the new key, but they did this one exactly how I thought the other one was.

[00:10:33]It walks from D minor down to C down to B flat.

[00:10:39]And then we're in to the next section.

[00:10:44]And this whole time, what's he doing?

[00:10:46]He's blaming Esmeraldo. He's blaming somebody else for his shortcomings. I mean, it's just this is such a beautifully written, so in such an in-depth story. The layering is so deep.

[00:10:59]The concept of the story itself is thousands of years old. I mean, if you think back, if you're a Christian, you might know this, but um if you're not, there's a really cool story that's almost exactly the same as Claude Froolo. It's like it's Luke 18, and it talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector, right? The Pharisee, this is exactly the Claude Froolo character. He thanks God for not making him like the others, like the tax collectors. Like that, what does he say here? He says, uh, I'm not like the the vulgar, weak, lentious crowd. It's the exact same thing. But the tax collector says, I I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me. And the end of that passage is very simple. It says, "The exalted will be humbled and the humbled will be exalted." Claude Froolo is literally the walking example of this exact thing. It's like he is obsessed with himself and his own righteousness and he thinks he's above everybody else.

[00:11:46]And so when it comes to the things he struggles with, he immediately puts that on somebody else. I'm not like the crowd. I'm better than that. I'm I'm of my virtue. I am justly proud. I mean, how many different different things?

[00:11:58]Pride. All the while, the harmony is building and building and building to these insanely powerful dark moments like >> It's not my fault.

[00:12:15]>> It's not my fault.

[00:12:16]>> Not to blame me. It is the gypsy girl, the witch WHO SENT THIS FLAME.

[00:12:21]>> DID YOU HEAR THAT INNER VOICE movement right there? Listen to the chromatic dissent. Right. to blame me. It is the gypsy girl, the witch WHO SET DISPLAY.

[00:12:30]>> OH MAN. IT'S JUST ANOTHER example of the constant descent into madness that Claude Furlo is going through right here.

[00:12:36]>> It's not my fault.

[00:12:37]>> It's not my fault.

[00:12:38]>> God's plan. He made the devil so much.

[00:12:49]Don't let the siren spell >> notice right here. Okay, this is so sick. We go back to majority.

[00:13:02]Don't let the siren cast her spell.

[00:13:05]Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone destroy.

[00:13:14]>> The fact that we went to this big F major section here and we just have this again. It's like he's trying to fight back into this this no no. I am the hero. No, no, it's not my fault. I'm I'm the righteous one. I'm holier than thou, which is kind of the whole point of CL's character, right? And for a moment, we get this darkness. We get this this collapse into, you know, he realizes that there's something wrong, but he just so instantly puts it on something else. He blames somebody other than himself. And here it's like he's finally convincing himself like, "No, this isn't this is not me." And we get this big major theme.

[00:14:08]Oh, that is such a huge huge chord right there. It's the one chord in this section. F major over the five, right?

[00:14:15]And we get >> D minor. We drop down and see and let her taste the world or else let her be mine and my >> Oh man. And these are the sections that make people go LIKE THIS IS A kids movie. What?

[00:14:36]>> Minister Fuller, the gypsy has escaped.

[00:14:39]What? She's nowhere in the cathedral.

[00:14:41]She's gone. But how?

[00:14:45]Never mind. Get out, you idiot. I'll find her. I'll find her if I have to.

[00:14:51]>> That section right there, a lot of people have talked about this. There's a lot of breakdowns of The Hunchback overall as a film, but this section is so interesting because it's like he's obsessed. He's caught in his own madness and he's standing in front of the hellfire. And at the very other end, the door opens, the light shines in, and a faceless messenger says, "Hey, that problem you're complaining about, guess what? It's gone."

[00:15:16]Almost like his prayer is being answered. But what does he do?

[00:15:18]>> Mind, get out, you idiot. I'll find her and I'll find her if I >> He ignores it. He ignores it completely.

[00:15:25]His problem is solved for him. And he just he just says no. Not even not even ignores it, but says, "You idiot."

[00:15:33]It's just wow. I mean, you want to talk about brilliant character writing. It's no surprise that Claude Flo is thought of as one of the greatest villains in Disney history. It's just incredible.

[00:15:42]But he goes on >> to burn down all of Paris.

[00:15:46]Hell, fire dark.

[00:15:49]>> What another thing I want to point out too is in the orchestration, we get so much of this. So, right here we're D minor and there's a lot of this trill on the fifth to the flat 6 going on. And this is this happens all over the place in the uh da da da. Yeah, those are the notes.

[00:16:09]So, all the while we get this I just think it's it's such an incredible tension builder, you know? It really helps to steer into the incredible tension that's going now.

[00:16:29]It's your turn.

[00:16:33]That chord right there is insane. And you almost might have missed it if you weren't paying attention, but listen to this. Fire.

[00:16:43]Dark fire. Now chips. It's your turn.

[00:16:51]B flat major add nine. This is the chord that started the whole thing off. Go back to the beginning. Listen to that.

[00:17:03]It's the exact same thing. And the add nine. The way that it's voiced in the orchestra. I don't know. That cord just it for some REASON IT HAD SO much power coming in there.

[00:17:13]>> Now gypsy, it's your turn.

[00:17:17]Choose me or your fire.

[00:17:22]Be mine or you will burn.

[00:17:29]God have mercy on God have mercy on her.

[00:17:34]Nuts. But then as he backs up to the wall, shadows close in he says on me.

[00:17:47]>> Oh, but he turns around. HE SAYS HE SAYS, "GOD HAVE MERCY ON ME." But actually, you know what? Forget that.

[00:18:14]Woo. And that last chord before the final ending was that same B flat. Same B flat. One of the greatest, darkest, Disney masterpieces of all time. Man, Allan Min is a genius. Anyways, let me know what else you want me to break down in the comments down below because these are so much fun to do.