The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Was absolutely shocked at how much I enjoyed Yankee Doodle Dandy first watch. Shocked enough to put it at 24.

I was not expecting That Thing You Do this high, if it all. Wanted to give it some recognition, because I have thought it was delightful since that first theater watch. It’s delightful despite the playing over and over of one song. It’s funny. It’s the reason I am cooI like Liv Tyler, Steven Zahn, and Tom Everett Scott. Even though it’s entirely possible I don’t actually like any of them. It’s also the one movie I broke my rule for, because it’s probably not really a musical. I had it at 10.

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More later, but Yankee Doodle Dandy was number 13 on my list and I absolutely love it. It was the first film I watched a couple years ago when I subscribed to the Criterion Channel and prior to that it had been an old favorite.

Yes, it's got the America rah rah rauh MURICA! thing going for it, but who cares. I think it's solid filmmaking and storytelling and wonderful music.

It was one of, what I consider, to be the three big propaganda pictures of 1942 as we were getting into WWII. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Sergeant York, and Casablanca. Each one very different from each other, but each one equally great and each one is an A+ film in my mind.

I would also add To Be or Not to Be by Ernst Lubitsch into that category, but really his film is in a realm and league of its own. And no propaganda is NOT inherently bad by definition. The form and style CAN be used to good ends. Now who determines good ends... sure that's a discussion worth having, but I think history and the facts of the time indicate that America did have a role to play in an increasingly "shrinking" and global world at the time and even if we didn't have a huge military interest in the war in Europe, we certainly had an economic interest, but that's a whole different discussion.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is great filmmaking! Glad to see it up on the list.

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Watched That Thing You Do! for the first time not so long ago and loved it. An instant addition to multiple favorite lists. Had it @ # 9.

SEEN 26/70
BALLOT 5/25



25. Anastasia (1997)
19. Purple Rain (1984)
17. Moana (2016)
12. The Jungle Book (1967)
09. That Thing You Do! (1996)

Have watched 21 of 70 with 8 so far on my ballot. You would think with as many times as Meet Me in St. Louis has been on in my house I would have watched it but no dice. That and The Harvey Girls.

That Thing You Do
Yankee Doodle Dandy (#7)
Fantasia
Phantom of the Paradise
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Wall
The Muppet Movie
Alice in Wonderland (#20)
Inside Llewyn Davis (#8)
Corpse Bride (#24)
The Jungle Book
Duck Soup
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Yellow Submarine
Purple Rain (my #9)
White Christmas
The Burden
Gigi (#17)
Tommy (#15)
Amadeus
Cinderella (#5)

Amount of today’s reveal seen: neither.

I'm pretty meh on Yankee Doodle Dandy (and I'm not the only one, it seems). That Thing You Do is a lot of fun but I didn't vote for it.

I watched Yankee Doodle Dandy for the 40's countdown. I don't remember it well but I gave it a good rating. What I do remember was being impressed with Cagney's talent with previously only knowing him from gangster films.

I've not seen That Thing You Do.

5. Charlotte's Web (#79)
7. Stingray Sam (#46)
10. The Lure (#51)
11. Yankee Doodle Dandy (#32)
14. A Star is Born 2018 (#43)
15. Sing Street (#40)
17. Calamity Jane (#84)
20. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#66)
21. A Star is Born 1954 (#67)
23. Pink Floyd - The Wall (#41)
24. The Young Girls of Rochefort (#36)
25. 42nd Street (#76)

I've seen both and liked them fine, but neither was in contention for my ballot.

Seen 68/70

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a classic that I've watched since I was a preteen. Even at that early age, I was watching Cagney gangster films all the time, my Dad and brother having introduced me to them. Then my Dad suggested I watch YDD for Cagney's dancing, and I did and was transfixed. I enjoyed it for the performances, the music and songs, the family story, but mostly for Cagney. This was the first time I'd seen him dance and he blew me away. Of course, he was a self-taught hoofer, not doing "normal" dancing like in most musicals, but that made it all the more charming. I'd not seen him in the other few films where he'd hoofed, so this was a great primer. It was my #9

I like That Thing You Do! very much and it perfectly captures a much more innocent era of young adults in a band, with only one hit, straining to go beyond it and not making much headway. The performances all are fine, but my favorite is Tom Everett Scott as the band's drummer and the one who really loves music other than rock and roll, and gets to meet one of his heroes along the way. Tom Hanks also does great as the band's manager and he does a fine real-life job directing this movie. Didn't vote for it, but it's one of those movies that, if flipping through channels I see it on, I'm staying put!

So far:
#1. On the Town #93 (list proper)
#6. Easter Parade #78 (list proper)
#8. Meet Me in St. Louis #33 (list proper)
#9 Yankee Doodle Dandy #32 (list proper)
#10. Gigi #85 (list proper)
#12. Calamity Jane #84 (list proper)
#14. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #71 (list proper)
#18. The Muppet Movie #45 (list proper)
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer)

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That's really interesting to me since Rocky Horror is literally Frankenstein. In an old English castle. With an actual "Monster" and Mad Scientist.
When I think of the most quintessential Halloween movies for adults, I think of RHPS as like Top 3. I cannot imagine an October without it.

I'm fine with that. Look, I love the movie, absolutely love it. I just always, every single time I watch it, feel so let down by the songs. Hell, whatever Phoenix's big song that she sings that supposed to be such a big deal that Swan killed a guy for it (or thought he did) and had to find just the right person to sing it and that Winslow kills someone else for singing and all that... I mean, it's gotta be one of the biggest let-downs in a musical I can think of. It's a complete non-thing. I don't think there's a hook anywhere in the song. Every single song on the RHPS soundtrack and most of the ones from Hedwig are much better.
That's just hard for me to get over. It doesn't ruin the movie for me but it does make the movie all about the movie and almost not at all about the music. Which makes it a tough sell as a Great Musical.
Except for "Life At Last", which rocks. But is still actually not even as good as "Sword Of Damocles" from Rocky Horror and that song didn't even make that movie's soundtrack.

Just fantastic. Blows 80% of all musical songs away.

Yeah, agreed.

Like I said, I think that the music in Phantom serves more as part of the narrative/characterization than it does as music (does that make sense?), but it does a very good job in that way.

Meet Me In St. Louis was my No.15. Great musical and heart-warming and moving.

I have never seen Les Miserables because I found the stage production drab, and dreary, and depressing, and exhausting. Which, I understand, is what it was going for but it's not for me so I'm not going to sit through the movie.

Yankee Doodle Dandy was my No.19 on the strength of its songs and its dancing and its nostalgia. And maybe I just really like seeing Cagney play sincere rather than menacing.

I absolutely love That Thing You Do and have seen it maybe a dozen times... but it comes back to what people see as musicals because I can't even wrap my head around the idea that anyone thinks it is a musical. Oh well.

Yes that very much makes sense to me and I actually completely agree with you. Except that I wish it just did a better job.

Agreed. If this music hit harder as music, it would be an all-timer for me.

100.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is pretty good, but it didn't make my ballot.

I've never heard of That Thing You Do.

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32. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - I'm aiming to see all the big musicals of the mid-20th Century, so this one is in my sights - but I'm not yearning to see it because with that title it sounds both silly and jingoistic. I'm not an American, so if an American filmmaker is aiming for patriotism it simply goes straight through me doing nothing. "I'm a Yankee doodle dandy!"? Dude. Get a hold of yourself - you've had enough to drink already and you're not making any sense.

31. That Thing You Do (1996) - I've always steered clear of this film because I thought it wasn't meant to be very good - but by it's placing in this countdown perhaps I should reconsider that vague verdict. I mean, it wasn't a movie I was particularly averse to seeing, it's just that I've never heard anyone praising it - I'm about to read the various comments here and will be very interested in what's said about it.

So - seen neither.

Seen 44/70

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Seen Yankee Doodle Dandy. The songs were memorable, but otherwise it was kinda meh.


I've never seen That Thing You Do. I've heard about it, but I didn't expect it to even make the top 100, let alone this high.