The Black Hole

1979
LP: Buena Vista 5008

  1. Overture
  2. Main Title
  3. The Door Opens
  4. Zero Gravity
  5. Six Robots
  6. Durant is Dead
  7. Start the Countdown
  8. Laser
  9. Into the Hole
  10. End Title

cover art for The Black Hole

The Movie

After Star Wars made so much money that California threatened to collapse into the ocean under the weight of it all, everyone got in line to try to cash in on the Science Fantasy market. Disney's attempt was The Black Hole, which looked promising until they brought out the cutesy robot and "Into the Hole" took on a whole different meaning.

This is just a bad movie--I don't know how else to say it. They took a decent basic premise: the crew of a space ship finds a "lost" ship that's orbiting a black hole. The master of the ship is preparing to enter it and see what's on the other side; and they cutsied it up until it became unwatchable. You have to wonder what goes on the head of people--their target audience was preteens and teens. I remember being that age, and I know people who currently are--and none of them can stand cute.

So what could have been another Forbidden Planet ended up being a big budget Buck Rogers (the NBC version), which also tanked. Good riddence.

The Music

Good stuff, though not exactly the kind of music I would play on a rainy afternoon.

Release Notes

For reasons I don't understand, this score got an LP release but never was released on CD. Disney is very good about milking their assets (even The Aristocats got a CD release), so I don't know why this one never made it. My guess is that either Disney doesn't own the copyright or the masters are lost--either is a good bet (Moonraker's masters are lost--and that was a hit movie).

Because it was never commercially released on CD, look for bootlegs either alone or coupled with other soundtracks. Most are sourced from the LP but some may come from the DVD. Buyer beware.

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