For those looking to be writers themselves or improve their own writing. This is for you. I'll be describing what a particular scene does right and what it does wrong. Today I'll be using a scene that does both and has a counterpart that is more successful.
The Peter Jackson The Hobbit trilogy had many scenes cut or trimmed for a variety of reasons in the theatrical release. The song "Down in Goblin Town" was one such scene. It was released in the Extended Edition of Unexpected Journey.
The scene does many good things well. It's a bad song written to be comedic. It does that by making the characters exaggerate how bad they find it. The song sounds like slightly out of tune instruments were played by tipsy musicians and sung by someone going hoarse. While bad, they do manage to keep it from being unlistenable. However the reaction of the dwarven party is like they were forced to listen to nails on glass or something similar. At one point the dwarven party said "That's not a song, it's an abomination," and at another they are covering their ears while grimacing.
Some of the other things the scene does well. It shows the eccentric personality of the Goblin King by him just randomly bursting into song and dance. It shows how he treats his people extremely poorly and everyone with random cruelty, by stabbing a goblin with his scepter and using them as a step stool for his throne. It shows how uncoordinated he is when his subjects have to keep him from falling over at points.
For all that though, it does 1 thing bad and is not something that can be overlooked. It breaks the pacing and changes the tone of the rest of the scene. The song takes place as the dwarven party is being transported to the Goblin King. This is supposed to be a scary or nervous scene. The heroes are captured by an enemy and surrounded. Having a silly song breaks the tension and brings the plot to a screeching halt. There isn't enough done afterwards to bring back that tension.
Now a later scene in the same movie that does everything that Down in Goblin Town does well but not the bad. Is the scene just before Gandalf shows up to rescue the Dwarven party. The Goblin King is singing about how he plans to have the Dwarves tortured. All while the things that were taken from the Dwarves are searched. When they find that Thorin has Orcrist. The Goblin King hastily retreats and cowers away from it. All whilst ordering his people to kill the Dwarves.
Everything I just described about that scene just enhanced the tension. It's a comedically bad song about harming the heroes, it shows who the Goblin King is, and it helps build the tension.
