The Black Hole

1979
LP: Buena Vista 5008
CD (expanded): Disney/Intrada D001383402
CD (standard): bootlegs

Track Listing for the standard editions

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

Track Listing for the expanded edition

1. Overture
2. Main Title
3. That's It
4. Clower Look
5. Zero Gravity
6. Cygnus Floating
7. The Door Opens
8. Pretty Busy
9. Six Robots
10. Can You Speak?
11. Poor Creatures
12. Ready to Embark
13. Start the Countdown
14. Durant is Dead
15. Laser
16. Kate's O.K.
17. Hot and Heavy
18. Meteorites
19. Raging Inferno
20. Hotter and Heavier
21. Bob and V.I.N.C.E.N.T.
22. Into the Hole
23. End Title
24. In, Through . . . and Beyond!

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. I've seen it twice; once around the time it came out when I was a teen, and again when I was probably in my early 30s when I had forgotten it. I wanted to like it so much, and I was terribly let down both times. 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. But they cutsied it up until it became unwatchable. You have to wonder what goes on the heads 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

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

Release Notes

The album came out at the time of the film's release and was easy to obtain. But the OST never got a CD release for reasons I have never understood, as Disney has always been keen on exploiting their properties. The result was a lot of bootleg editions of varying quality, including one where it was paired with Born Free, which also went a very long time without an official CD release.

Intrada released a remastered and expanded edition in 2011; according to Discogs.com, it's under the Walt Disney Records and Intrada label, same catalog number. It appears to be expensive (over $100) now (as of 2022). Hopefully Disney's avarice will prevail and they'll re-release it.