Goblets they carved there for themselves,
And harps of gold where no man delves.
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by Man or Elves. – J.R.R. Tolkien
Show of hands: how many saw this one coming? It was inevitable, really. Though I’m not obsessed with them like some people, I do like a good musical now and again (and I include rock operas and revues in that classification). However, I tend to be pretty particular; I don’t care for songs that seem shoehorned in, or that throw off the pacing or tone. Furthermore, I’m far more forgiving of dramatic inadequacies than I am of musical ones; since the very idea of people bursting spontaneously into song and crowds of strangers performing perfectly-choreographed dances together is completely absurd in the first place I’m willing to suspend my disbelief much more than usual, but too many uninteresting numbers kills it for me. Keep that in mind when looking over this list, which I’ve illustrated (like last month) with embedded videos; in each case I tried to choose what I considered the most representative musical number rather than the best, though in some cases I was constrained by the poor variety and/or quality of available selections. These are listed alphabetically by title, with a short list of three honorable mentions thereafter.
1) Aladdin (1992) The first of the revived Disney studio’s films to employ intentional anachronism, and the only one to do it well. I chose this song rather than the marvelous “Friend Like Me” because I just love the dancing and the use of counterpoint, especially the three girls on the balcony (starting at 1:45).
2) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) I have no idea why so many film critics dislike this wonderful movie, why they praise the Sherman Brothers’ work with Disney but pan it here, and why they insist on obsessing about minutiae like Dick Van Dyke’s lack of an English accent (see comment about absurdity of musicals above). In fact, this musical number plays with the convention in that Van Dyke’s character, who is not part of the song-and-dance troupe but merely using it to hide from a pursuer, is totally out of sync with the others.
3) The Hobbit (1977) When this first appeared on television I strongly disliked the heavily stylized animation, but it grew on me over the years and now barely misses being on the list of my favorite movies. I’ve actually read some ignoramuses complaining about the lyrics to the songs, not realizing that they’re all straight from Tolkien’s text. I’m especially fond of John Huston’s recitation of the ballad of the Coming of Smaug, starting at exactly 5:00. And because it was available, I decided to include the whole soundtrack.
4) Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) This has been among my favorites since the first time I heard it in 8th grade; I’ve already mentioned it a number of times in a number of places on this blog, so we’ll just leave it at that.
5) Man of La Mancha (1972) The fact that the lead female character is a whore has nothing to do with its place on this list, though I fully admit it helped to get my attention the first time I heard the album in my early teens (which actually predated my seeing the movie by several years). I picked it out of a budget record bin for “The Impossible Dream”, a song I still love but have chosen not to feature today in favor of the less-overexposed “Dulcinea”.
6) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) What can I say? The subject matter would’ve predisposed me to like it even if it hadn’t had such an infectious libretto, catchy tunes and fun characters. This one is a regular at our house every autumn.
7) 1776 (1972) Another one I’ve loved since high school, and as you can probably guess we watch it every July 4th; though it takes dramatic license with some of the details, it still adheres more closely to the facts than is typical for Hollywood. I would’ve preferred to feature “But Mr. Adams”, but there was no available movie clip for it so this one will do (sorry for the poor picture).
8) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) I know Roald Dahl didn’t like this adaptation of his book, but I do; in fact there’s very little about it I don’t like from the sets to the casting to Wonka’s weird, quotation-heavy dialog. This is a perfect introductory clip not merely because it’s a great song, but because it presents virtually the whole cast to Wonka’s world and demonstrates a bit of his eccentric style as well.
9) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Most Americans of my generation or thereabouts will remember that for many years this movie was played annually on broadcast television, but I’ve never grown tired of it. One of the true greats.
10) Yellow Submarine (1968) I first saw this on television as a child and was absolutely blown away; though I knew and liked several Beatles songs already, I can probably trace my real love for the group to that viewing (which also affected my drawing style for months). I love animation, and I love the Beatles, so naturally this is on the list. Of the available clips, I thought the theatrical trailer gives the best feel for the show.
Honorable Mentions
Musically, these three are up there with the others, but in each case the rest of the film outside the songs doesn’t quite measure up.
1) All That Jazz (1979) Great songs and fantastic choreography by director Bob Fosse make this semi-autobiographical picture watchable, but the story is slow, repetitive and ultimately a bit depressing. But the musical numbers…well, judge for yourself:
Fun fact: Paula Abdul’s video for “Cold Hearted” was intentionally patterned after this one; it was obvious to me the first time I saw it and I’m sure it will be to you as well.
2) Godspell (1973) The only thing that keeps this one out of the top 10 is that I have to be in the right frame of mind for it; the fact that all the songs are based on sayings, parables and incidents from the Gospel of Matthew is not so much the issue as the fact that I have to be in a sort of nostalgic mood to watch early ‘70s hippie-flavored stuff. I really wanted to share “Turn Back, O Man” with you since that was the number I did in our little CYO production when I was 15, but alas that one’s only available in poorly-recorded stage videos. This was my second choice, though, and you may recognize the setting of the finale.
3) Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1975) What I said for Godpell is also true here; it’s a sequence of vignettes which were visually very avant-garde and unusual at the time, but seven years later could easily have been shown as music videos. Jacques Brel’s music, however, I can listen to almost any time; I linked a couple of examples in “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody”.
Love Cabaret and Sweet Charity but prefer stage versions.
Dean Clark
You and I share “Wizzard of Oz” and “Yellow Submarine” as favorites.
I used to get ribbed a lot on the cruiser I was on because I had a copy of “Oz” and used to play it occasionally. It was kind of considered “semi-gay” for a guy as old as I am to be watching it. We were just talking about this movie a few days ago at work and someone told me that you if you started Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” at the beginning of “Oz” when the MGM lion roars – it pretty much works for about half of the movie. I haven’t tried this though.
Yellow Submarine was my first introduction to the Beatles. I was blown away by it too and also liked the cameo of all four Beatles at the end when they said … “One! Two! Three! Foooor!”
There was a Beatles cartoon in the mid-sixties that the Beatles hated, so when Yellow Submarine was proposed they thought it would be just as bad and only agree to it as an easy way to complete their movie contract. When they saw how good it was they wished they had provided the voices, and so filmed that epilogue in order to make up for it.
I didn’t know that, but I was under ten years old when I saw that epilogue and remember thinking that I really liked those guys.
And yeah, if I remember correctly – I believe Paul and George goofed on the voices in Anthology.
Paul’s voice in Yellow Submarine was by Geoffrey Hughes, who later played Onslow on Keeping Up Appearances. I was shocked when I found that out, because the voices are so different. Even Onslow’s Scouse accent is different from Paul’s.
I first saw Yellow Submarine when it was first shown on TV at the beginning of the ’70s. I was extremely young at the time and I had never heard of the Beatles, but my Mom told me who they were. For years, I only remembered bits and pieces, such as the Frankenstein/John scene and the Sea of Holes, but I always remembered that I loved it. For some years after that, the only Beatle songs I knew were Yellow Submarine (which I already knew from Sesame Street) and Nowhere Man, which stuck in my head more clearly than anything else in the film.
I finally got to see it again on TV when I was in High School, and I was stunned to learn how weird it actually was. But I still loved it. (By that time, of course, I was really into the Beatles, and I knew pretty much all of their songs.)
Re: the Hobbit. Have you heard the recording of Tolkein singing his own songs? Apparently,while he was writing, some friends gave him a recorder to record some passages. He really gets into the singing, finishing one little ditty with a dry chuckle. He sounds exactly like you’d think he would. One of the many things the Peter Jackson movies got right was keeping some of the songs, which I think adds a layer of verisimilitude. Before television and digital sound, people used to sing!
Wizard of Oz is, indeed, underrated. I bought it recently for my 5 y/o and she loved it. And I rediscovered it as well. Hamilton was such a great villain, probably because she was such a nice lady in real life.
I was surprised that “South Park” didn’t make your list. 😉
The first thing i thought of when i saw the heading of this post was Stage shows. You mention the “suspension of belief” in your post, I find it much harder to suspend belief for musicals on “screen”… probably something that stems from going to theater as a young adult on Broadway. I have a good friend that can not got to theater because he is not able to suspend his belief, he thinks people running around on stage is ridiculous and misses the special effect of movies… To bad for him.
Anyway, my favorite musical of all time and one everyone should see (But not in Vegas!!!) is the Phantom of the Opera. I have seen Phantom countless times in countless locations and it just always strikes a nerve. It’s such a good love story and, more then any film or stage show that i have ever seen, has you rooting for the killer / bad guy / villain (whatever you want to call him) at the end. The last seen of the show is as emotional as any life experience i have ever experienced (but please don’t see it in Vegas!!).
With that being said, I do enjoy some screen musicals. Of the ones you mentioned above, I like Aladdin, Jesus Christ super star (great stage musical also), Willy Wonka, and (of course) the Wizard of OZ. I’m also partial to the Music Man, from childhood, and I was pleasantly surprised with the Phantom, though it was not as god as the musical…
Anthony Stachowitz
http://www.escortstings.com
I’m not really fan of musicals, but I do like ‘Wizard of Oz’. Also ‘Singing in the Rain’, and of the new ones I found ‘Enchanted’ sort of charming, meaning I might watch it second time some day. Only one I own as dvd is ‘Singing in the Rain’.
I’m not too much of a fan of musicals either and most of the ones I do like wouldn’t make Maggie’s list because they are too brainless! LOL!
My favorite musical actually was a box office bomb called “Streets Of Fire”. And the only reason I liked it was because it had a very young Diane Lane in it – and I have ALWAYS had a BURNING INFERNO for Diane Lane!
I actually have a screenplay that I’m writing and it’s based around Diane Lane and myself escaping from slavery together and fighting the Roman Empire – with some time travel and alternate timeline / history thrown in (and of course a lot of sex 😉 ). It came from a “wet dream” – which is where most of my inspiration comes from!
A HOT red dress and it’s very low cut in the back – and no, she doesn’t have a “tramp stamp” but I’m almost certain she isn’t wearing a bra!
I have watched and enjoyed Streets of Fire; you do realize the song you posted is by Jim Steinman, right? 😉
You must stuff facts into your bra because there is no way a human mind can hold everything YOURS appears to! 😀
No – I didn’t realize that. Since I don’t have a bra – I use Wikipedia and yes, you are correct. Then again, I already knew you would be and only checked to figure out who in the hell Jim Steinman was. While I was on that page – I found out that a woman named Holly Sherwood is also singing somewhere in this song – and she started her career with doing covers of GODSPELL songs – and GODSPELL is on your list of favorites. So now we’re somewhere between 1 and 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon! 😛
Steinman’s style is very distinctive; once you know it, you can’t miss a song by him. 🙂
The first time I heard this song was when I saw the video on TV. My brother soon said, ‘That’s a Jim Steinman song.’
I remember that one. Actually I may even have the soundtrack LP somewhere, it just that I haven’t had a record player for long time. Should probably buy one, I still have all my old records.
I like “One Jump Ahead” more than “Prince Ali”.
I’m not sure if I’d call “Annie Get Your Gun” a favorite of mine. Because I was in a high school production of it, I have bits of some of the songs eternally stuck in my head.
My favorite musical of the ones you’ve listed is Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve always loved the music it has. I still remember going to the theater to watch it when I was a kid. I now have it on DVD and watch it occasionally.
As far as the Beatles goes, who doesn’t like them? I remember hearing them on the cheap transistor radio I had back when they were still together. I’ve long since bought most of their albums.
Fans of Maggie will like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which is about courtesans in ancient Rome. Play is wonderful but the movie stinks.
Dean Clark
OFF TOPIC:
A newer version of Total Recall hits the theaters next week. I don’t know, unless it has a kick-ass prostitute in it like last time, if it’s worth spending the money on.
There is a character named Melina in it. But what’s her profession in this rendition?
For out of the mainstream musicals, I’ve always liked “The Slipper and The Rose” by the Sherman Brothers. It is apparently available in its entirety on youtube and for years it was impossible to get anything but the cutup broadcast version of it.
“Protocolligorically Correct”, “A Bride Finding Ball”, and “What a Comforting Thing to Know” are all very funny; the King is played by Michael Horden (who played the head of MI-5 in “Where Eagles Dare”) as a slightly befuddled monarch whose advice to his son on marriage was, “Do as I did, when I took your mother. I closed my eyes and thought of Euphrania,” – mirroring and inverting, of course, the apocryphal advice given to newly-wed Victorian women that they “Lie back and think of England.”
My older sister, who has a Masters degree in Dance and was a international silver level dance instructor says that the choreography is the best she has seen in a period piece, partly because they were allowed to take some liberties in style.
The cinematography is stunning.
I assume Dick Van Dyke decided against trying an English accent after his infamous attempt in Mary Poppins. (I’m surprised that one’s not on your list. I really love it.)
One fun discovery that came from seeing part of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I was older was the presence of Benny Hill.
I went through a period as a kid where I HATED The Wizard Of Oz. That came after I read the book, and then most of the sequels (the library was missing a few). I thought the movie seemed dumbed down and bowdlerised.
I eventually grew out of that, though. Just because it’s a different take on the story doesn’t mean it can’t be great on its own.
(One problem, though, is because it is so loved, it may prevent any studio from ever attempting a new adaptation that sticks closely to the book.)
Aladdin
I find Jasmine the second hottest of the modern Disney princesses. First place goes to Ariel. Thanks to Rule 34 I can see them together. REALLY together. 🙂
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Watched it every year when I was a wee kid, but I must have fallen asleep every year or something, because when I watched it again recently I didn’t remember a blinking thing about anything after CCBB sprouted wings. I remembered THAT, but nothing after.
The Hobbit
Pretty good, actually. What has it got in its pocketses, gollum gollum? It’ll be interesting to see what comes of the live-action version supposedly out later this year. And next.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Haven’t seen it. Maybe I should, though. I’ve heard some of the music, and it’s dam… blessed good.
Man of La Mancha
Haven’t seen it either. I think I will, though. Dulcinea is a BABE! and I’ve always had a soft spot for the old knight.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s good, really good, and the visuals are as engaging as the music. It isn’t one of my favorites, though. The story just doesn’t grab me.
1776
Not only have I never seen this, I’d never heard of it. I’ll keep it in mind.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Oh yeah. I even wrote my own Oompa Loompa song about sex ed. There’s little or nothing NOT to love about this film.
The Wizard of Oz
This has to be the cutest song about homicide I’ve ever heard in my life. 😉 But really, everything I just said about Wonka applied to this. Except the Oompa Loompa sex ed thing, of course.
Yellow Submarine
This contains some of my favorite Beatles songs, and my very LEAST favorite. But then, I have issues. I really enjoy the look of this thing, and have commented that owning the DVD could probably save somebody a fortune in acid.
Godspell
I rather like it, but then I have a thing for hippies. The others I haven’t seen.
Aladdin is awesome… saw it as a wee teenager one night when we went to see something else… but someone in our group got carded for the R rated flick we were going to see. *horrors* So, we went to see Aladdin instead and laughed ourselves silly.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – it was interesting as I recall… but even as a kid I thought the book was better. This is odd, cuz I like well done musicals…
Jesus Christ Superstar… I saw the touring production… it was different.
Nightmare before Xmas was very neat, but I haven’t seen it since it came out.
The Wizard of Oz gave me very creepy and incredibly vivid hallucinations once when I had a fever as a child, I haven’t watched it since. 😀
Yellow Submarine!? Really? Even as a kid I couldn’t watch that one!
I saw Godspell done as local production at a church… I recall it being interesting… or maybe it was just the brunette lead with the pipes…
Some you should check out:
Gigi / not perfect, but it is cute!
An American in Paris
Blue Skies – no plot, but lots of great numbers! Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire!
Beauty and the Beast – Disney – I’m a sucker for this movie… ‘be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test… ‘ first thing we played on the new big fancy tv…
Paint Your Wagon – a western musical! Very funny! A woman winds up with two husbands… a whole town collapses! Lee Marvin playing a badly singing drunk! It is EPIC. Clint Eastwood is in it too…
Phantom of the Opera, live in a production is fun, but I’ve never seen any part of a movie that came close to ‘getting it right’.
Somebody should make a musical about the space program. Apollo or early Shuttle era. Should include at least one three-man song-and-dance aboard Skylab (none of the other space stations have had the necessary volume).
I still think it’s a good idea. Get Tom Hanks involved.
I’m partial to Mama Mia! myself. Disney does seem to do great musicals too.
Fantasia anyone?