The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

3 days ago

Originally Posted by MovieFan1988

@iluv2viddyfilms - You know there's another animated musical that we forgot to mention that might make top 20 as well, Aladdin.

That's true, it could. I just don't think it's quite as popular today, 30 years later as its contemporaries like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King or even The Little Mermaid, so it will likely show up but I don't see it placing in the top 20, especially since The Little Mermaid showed up so early on this list. In order of "popularity" of the big four Disney renaissance musicals, I'd put them at 1. The Lion King, 2. The Little Mermaid, 3. Beauty and the Beast and 4. Aladdin. I don't really count Pocahontas because by that point people might have been getting Disney musical fatigue and also it didn't get near the critical or audience adoration that The Lion King received. What's interesting is looking at total number of ratings the films get on IMDB and The Lion King has nearly three times as many as any of those other four films I named.

I really think for a lot of people, when doing their lists, they'll likely go over the top 5 or 10 with a fine tooth comb and then start using "filler" picks down the list or remember Disney musicals they loved as a kid and because it meets the criteria then included it on their list. I'm not saying that in any derogatory way toward the contributors of this countdown, but more as a de-facto how we tend to operate when making lists. For instance in my 22nd pick it was a film that I hadn't seen in years that I "remembered it existed" and also that I liked it a lot and thinking how my list couldn't feel quite complete without a Bugsby Berkley musical, so I threw in 42nd Street. By the way, I just watched it again the other night and 42nd Street IS wonderful. But, what I am saying or at least trying to articulate is that in similar fashion to how I felt I need to include a film like 42nd Street, I imagine there are a lot of people who maybe felt they had to included a handful of favorite Disney musicals or couldn't think of a film they liked a lot better, so they just kind of fell into place.

An example is the Disney musical Unthawed, which had seven votes which is one fewer vote than A Star is Born (2018) received, yet it showed up 20 or more films prior so it didn't do nearly as well on the countdown as A Star is Born (2018) despite having one more vote, so likely the people who did vote for it, had it fairly far down their ballot.

Again, I got a dog in the fight when it comes to my animated musical film pick, but I don't know if it has chance in Hell... or Heaven for that matter, to make the countdown at this point, unless two or three people voted for it in their top 10 which IS possible.

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Last edited by iluv2viddyfilms; 3 days ago at 09:15 AM.

cricket

Registered User

3 days ago

Originally Posted by PHOENIX74

44. Oliver! (1968) - I do believe the first time I saw Oliver! was when my whole class went on a school excursion to the cinema to see a re-release - always delirious fun to be at the movies with all my school friends. If my memory isn't playing tricks, the whole projector and equipment broke down close to the end, and I had to wait until it was on television to see the final 5 minutes or so. Since then, I've probably seen Oliver! around 10 times, with the mix of absolutely terrific songs, great big bravura choreographed period dance sequences and classic Dickens story unbeatable as far as movies with rewatch appeal go. I still really love Oliver! to this day, even if as a teenager I was practically shamed by my peers for having it on video - there's nothing less cool and/or bad when you're a teen in the 80s, but these days I can proudly say that I'm a fan. I haven't really sat down and watched it in forever, but every time I see some of it on TV I stop for a few moments and watch. It's very well made. It was on my ballot, at lucky #13.

43. A Star is Born (2018) - I didn't catch this at the movies, but I did watch it shortly after it came out. It was good, I liked it, and I gave it 7/10 - writing on Letterboxd : "Slick, and Lady Gaga proves that she's full of surprises and very capable performing this kind of role. I'd say this version of A Star is Born doesn't disgrace itself, but I'd rank it below the 1954 version." Obviously MoFo doesn't agree with me as far as that goes, but I'm fine with it turning up around here. I've probably got it somewhere on DVD. Not on my ballot though.

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Seen : 37/58
I'd never even heard of : 10/58
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 11/58
Films from my list : 7

#44 - My #13 - Oliver! (1968)
#47 - My #14 - Hair (1979)
#59 - My #5 - Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
#60 - My #23 - Annie (1982)
#72 - My #22 - Yellow Submarine (1968)
#92 - My #8 - Tommy (1975)
One-pointer - My #25 - Shock Treatment (1981)

I screwed up the A Star is Born films on my ballot, so I happen to agree with you. It all started when I also tried to vote for the 30's version having forgotten it wasn't a musical.

Little Ash

he/him

3 days ago

Haven't seen the recent A Star is Born nor Oliver!
I just know the latter for clips of, "Please, sir, can I have some more?" And also for winning the Oscar BP for the year 2001 came out, for which 2001 wasn't even nominated. So one of those, "sight-unseen, Did the Oscars ever get it right?" years.

honeykid

MoFo Whisperer

3 days ago

Seen some of Oliver! but I don't think I've ever sat down to watch it? Maybe one wet Sunday afternoon or something. I know some of the songs, but I've no time for it.

I saw The Muppet Movie in my teens, I think? I've already talked about the Muppets, so you'll know that I didn't enjoy it.

Not seen any of the others.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

MovieMeditation

Friendo.

3 days ago

I really like A Star is Born but I didn�t consider it for my list.

Haven�t seen Oliver.

3 days ago

7lists89points

An American in Paris

Director

Vincente Minnelli, 1951

Starring

Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Gu�tary

3 days ago

7lists93points

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Director

Alan Parker, 1982

Starring

Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, Eleanor David

John W Constantine

Alias: John Utah

3 days ago

Classical.

Hallucinogen.

Allaby

I love musicals!

3 days ago

I liked An American in Paris, but didn't consider it for my ballot. I haven't seen Pink Floyd- The Wall.

Seen:58/60

Thursday Next

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

3 days ago

I only saw The Wall a couple of days ago and it's a controversial pick - it's more of an extended music video than a musical in that very, very little of the singing is actually on-screen. But the people have spoken so here it is. That aside, I thought there was a lot to admire about it but also some things about it I really didn't appreciate.

An American in Paris is a lot of very good dancing holding up a dubious storyline.

MovieMeditation

Friendo.

3 days ago

An American in Paris was okay as far as I remember, but it has disappeared from my memory almost completely.

Haven�t seen The Wall.

Miss Vicky

MoFo's Resident Bitch

3 days ago

I�ve never seen either of these movies, though I certainly heard Pink Floyd�s album The Wall plenty of times when I was growing up.

Seen: 27/60

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KeyserCorleone

Registered User

3 days ago

I remember how excited I was to see the movie version of my favorite Pink Floyd song, Hey You, only to find it wasn't there. That pissed me off, partially because it's one of their biggest songs and had no reason to be cut. The surrealist stuff was pretty cool, but it's more of an art gallery than a movie.

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capital "T"

3 days ago

No votes for me but I did enjoy this one thought the editing and placement of the last big musical number was odd...

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

An American in Paris (1951)

This felt overly long with it's big ballet style musical number running 18 minutes placed at the very end of the film, right after the film's emotionally gut wrenching peak...Gene Kelly's character is in love with a young Parisian woman (Leslie Caron) who's engaged to another man. That musical number which in and of itself is a spectacular triumph, needed to come at the emotional high point with the pair realizing that they both love each other. It all comes down to choices in the editing room and I think it was the wrong choice not to insert that big number in the midway point of the film.

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capital "T"

2 days ago

Also no votes for me as I only had musical-musicals on my ballot, still a great movie and I'm happy to see it make the countdown, I guarantee it's better than the Disney stuff what is yet to come

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)

"A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone."

This took me back...straight back to the early 1980s and the album release of Pink Floyd's opus, The Wall. It was odd how the movie immobilized me, I scarcely moved a muscle for the duration...But why? Was it the movie? Was it the images? No...it was the music. It was the songs that I've heard a hundred times before that made me remember what was...and what isn't, anymore.

The Wall, I know what this story is about, it's about all the hurt we feel from the day we first enter into this world and it's about the injustices we suffer. Each one of those painful instances is a brick that we must carry. And when we have a cart load of bricks, we build a wall to layer ourselves away.

Most of us have our own personal walls and I can see them too in others. I can see them in averted glances. I can see them in the defensiveness and deflections that people put up as barriers. I can even see walls through the blocks of text that appear on discussion boards where a pseudo world of connection without any real connection exist. We all have our walls.

Maybe that's why Pink Floyd's album The Wall has remained my favorite work of music.

I remember the first time I heard the The Wall. I was in high school and I had a car, a cool one too, I had drove over to my friends house to pick him up for school. Just as we were about to leave, a neighborhood kid came over, who for all the world looked like a young Pete Townsend...He was like this rocker kid who was really into music. He pulls this cassette out of his pocket like it was a switch blade and says, 'man, you guys got to check this out.' ...We had like 20 minutes to get to school but the house was empty as the parents were gone. So we kicked back and said screw school and listened to The Wall twice through on the big stereo with the volume cranked on high. I don't know why but I can remember that morning like it was yesterday and yet it was decades ago.

So flash back to now, and I watched The Wall for the first time in like 35 years. I had went to the theater when the movie first came out and had seen it a couple more times in my youth during the 1980s. I always thought it was special. After all these years the music still resonated with me and I did enjoy watching it, but my youthful viewpoint had changed about the film. I set and watched all the credits role by on the screen at the end of the film and I never usually do that...it was like years slipping through my hands.

iluv2viddyfilms

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

2 days ago

An American in Paris is #41?

#41?!?!

Wow. Just wow.

OK, that'll take some unpacking.

I didn't figure it would make the top 10, but figured it would be a shoe-in for at least the top 25. I'll have to gather my thoughts and write more later.

In the meantime, for those who haven't seen American in Paris, which from the fact that only seven people voted for it I imagine that's a high number, here's part of the ballet dream sequence, or what I could find of it on youtube. Which, by the way, of the big four ballet dream sequences in Gene Kelly musicals: On the Town, The Pirate, An American in Paris, and Singin' in the Rain, I think the best of them is from An American in Paris...

Number 41 huh? OK.

iluv2viddyfilms

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

2 days ago

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

No votes for me but I did enjoy this one thought the editing and placement of the last big musical number was odd...

That was the ballet sequence I posted, well of what I could find of it in youtube. It runs for 15 minutes or just over I think.

I would argue the placement of that is perfect within the story of the film and the Gene Kelly's and Leslie Caron's characters' relationship in that film and the dilemma at the end and in that exact moment the disappointment and absolutely heartbreak that Kelly's character is facing where he has no other option but to retreat into his mind and dream/fantasy sequence where everything plays out.

Not only do I think it's a perfect moment in the film and a brilliant way to end the film, which of course La La Land paid open homage to, but the American in Paris ballet sequence taken within the context of the entire film and everything building up to that point, is not only one of the single greatest 15 minutes in musicals, but it's one of the greatest 15 minutes in all of film. Period.

iluv2viddyfilms

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

2 days ago

Also in AFI's list of top musicals, which for some unknown reason to me, only included a top 25 instead of their top 100, An American in Paris was listed at number nine. And for years and years among cinephiles I think there was debate over which was THE Gene Kelly musical and of course it went back and forth between An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain.

https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-of-musicals/

John W Constantine

Alias: John Utah

2 days ago

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

I�ve never seen either of these movies, though I certainly heard Pink Floyd�s album The Wall plenty of times when I was growing up.

Seen: 27/60

I don't know if it all works but it's definitely an interesting experience.

seanc