I was so excited that this finally came out of the vault. I’ve always wanted to hear this.

Upon first listening to this album, I was a little mixed at first. On the one hand, I'm glad to see the unreleased score for Hunchback finally getting a public release for the first time since the movie came out, but at the same time, I feel like it suffers from a few flaws. First off, the score piece for when Frollo falls to his demise during the final showdown on the Bell Tower is absent here. Secondly, the demo for "A Guy Like You" is duplicated twice. If you're going to have a demo for a song that's basically the same, I would suggest including the only copy of the demo that you want to use and call it a day. Other than that, I'd say this is a nice reissue of Hunchback's score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. If I were you, I'd go ahead and pick this up along with the first release of the soundtrack on CD. Go Menken and Schwartz!

The most sophisticated animated musical from Disney during their house renaissance is perfect for the Legacy Collection. There is so much material from which to select; the original songs, the choral score so fittingly based in part on the Latin Mass, the later stage material in English and German, everything is amazing. I do wish the song “Wie aus Stein” had been included. It was performed with stunning emotion by Drew Sarich for the Berlin production. But that is a small complaint for an album honoring the animated masterpiece. Still worth 5 stars and more.

It’s always exciting to see a new Legacy Collection album, with remastered songs and never before released score. I’d been hoping that Hunchback of Notre would receive the Legacy Collection treatment one day, and finally here it is…. It’s almost perfect. Almost… because there’s one MAJOR PROBLEM. What happened to the final part of “And He Shall Smite the Wicked”? Literally one of the best parts of the score, and it’s been cut! This is a mistake, right Disney? Because surely you didn’t decide to leave it out on purpose, right?