Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Top 5, Bottom 5: Musicals

It's hard to believe I haven't already done one of these for my favorite musical movies, but it appears I haven't. So here's the list, out of 214 movie musicals and 1956 total movies I've ranked on Flickchart.

Top 5:
1. Moulin Rouge! (2001, #3). I absolutely love what this movie does visually during the musical numbers. It takes the primary emotion of the music, gives it visual representation, and amps it up to like 10,000. Highlights: "Your Song" and "El Tango de Roxanne."
2. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008, #5). The movie that made me fall in love with both Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris. These songs are not only musically interesting, they're very lyrically complex. The musical commentary is nearly as good as the original feature.
3. Beauty and the Beast (1991, #6). My favorite Disney flick and my favorite fairy tale. Great musical numbers in this one as well, from cheerful flashy numbers like "Be Our Guest" to the super dark ominous sound of "The Mob Song."
4. Singin' in the Rain (1952, #7). This is a near-perfect movie. In fact, aside from the lengthy and mostly-uninteresting "Broadway Melody" number at the end, I'd argue this pretty much is a perfect movie. So much happiness in all the songs and dances!
5. This Is Spinal Tap (1984, #10). The first one that probably most people don't think of as a musical. It's a spectacularly funny movie with lots of subtle humor that keeps creeping up on me. It might be a little high on my list these days, but I still really enjoy it.

Bottom 5:
1. The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978, #1951). Oh, man, this is a painful one. Let's not even think about this one again.
2. 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003, #1919). I don't even remember there being songs in this one, so clearly they weren't terribly interesting or important.
3. Tarzan II (2005, #1915). Or in this one. I don't remember this movie at all, just that I thought it was extremely stupid.
4. Frosty Returns (1992, #1907). Oh, wait, I think this one did have like one song. I really like the original Frosty the Snowman cartoon, but this one is dumb and awful and ridiculous.
5. Oklahoma! (1955, #1890). I figured this one would show up. It's easily my least favorite stage musical of all time. I hate everything about it - the annoying but forever catchy songs, the obnoxious characters, and the dialogue and plot development that makes no sense from beginning to end. Ugh.

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