In 1993, while working on the songs for
Pocahontas (1995),
Alan Menken and
Stephen Schwartz decided to collaborate again on
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Each of them were drawn to the story's emotional complexity and central themes. On his online journal, Schwartz cited "the underlying themes — the idea of social outcasts and the worth of people being different than what society sees on the surface — and the struggle of Quasimodo to break free of the psychological dominance of Frollo." The first piece of music Menken composed was the melody for "Out There"—Quasimodo's opening statement of longing for the world beyond his tower—which he played for Schwartz at their first working session over dinner. The melody was completed, though Schwartz asked for one change to the chorus refrain and otherwise accepted it as written. During one session, Patinkin brought his own accompanist to rearrange the song "Out There" to his own interpretation. Hulce noticed, "As I was about a third-way of the way throughout the song, I noticed they all had their heads down, staring at the floor—it looked like they were having a little memorial service. I thought, 'Oh dear, they're horribly embarassed for me. Hulce later recognized the team were actually glancing at the
storyboard sketches drawn for the scene and trying to figure out if they were hearing matched with the storyboards. The production team had a practice of listening to voice auditions with their eyes closed, focusing solely on whether the voice felt native to the character drawing before them. Hulce's session was so spontaneous—particularly in a quiet scene involving a baby bird—that his rehearsal recording was used as the final take. "It was the least overworked and the most spontaneous, and felt emotionally real to us," Wise stated. Early into the initial recordings, Hulce provided the voice of Quasimodo with a vaguely British accent as he had been raised by Frollo. However, this approach did not work and Hulce considered he might have to leave the role. ==Synopsis==