The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Another twofer today for me.

Beauty and the Beast was my #12 while Umbrellas of Cherbourg was my #3.

While the animation is beautiful, I've never been a fan of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Plus I've always favored animated movies about animals over ones about people. I've seen the movie several times in both childhood and adulthood and it just isn't my kind of movie.

I watched The Umbrellas for Cherbourg for this countdown. I thought it was beautiful but boring and I hated the singing.

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Beauty and the Beast was my #10.

On an afterthought, I should probably have had it higher. Either way, I’m very surprised it didn’t crack the top ten…

One of Disney’s best for sure. And it’s one of those that had a better balance between the fun and goofy with the more serious and dramatic. Great songs, stunning visuals and a good story. One of my favorites of the classics.

I have seen Umbrellas of Cherbourg and thought it was beautiful but didn’t care to much for it otherwise.

My predictions for top 10

1. The Wizard of Oz - This deserves the #1 spot imo.
2. Singin in the Rain - This will be either 1 or 2, I would love to see The Lion King take the #2 spot.
3. Grease
4. West Side Story
5. The Lion King
6. The Sound of Music
7. Mary Poppins
8. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
9. Cabaret
10. Footloose or My Fair Lady

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Not sure why, but I don’t see Willie Wonka making the top ten.

Which seems more likely, that Willy Wonka is in the top ten or that a movie as popular and with as much nostalgic value as it has failed to get more points than a made for TV version of Cinderella?

Yes! So glad that The Umbrellas of Cherbourg made it! It was my #15. It's a movie that when I watched it, it resonated with me like very few movies ever have.

I wrote this:

That photo breaks my heart, so many scenes did...and if you've watched this and don't know what I mean, then there's nothing else I can say about this wonderful film that will reach you.

Jacques Demy effortlessly combines the classic French 'Cinéma de Qualité' with French New wave realism to create one unique film, with all the dialogue being sung. But that's mainly of interest to film scholars.

What counts to me is that this is one of the most heartfelt, emotionally honest films dealing with young love that I've ever seen. And let me tell ya folks, Citizen Rules was once young and while I wasn't shipped off to war in Algiers, a lot of this story rang so true for me. Been there and experienced it...When you're young and in love for the first time, it's like us against the world and nothing in the universe can stop that love, say for one thing...time...And I've always had one saying that rings true, 'time kills all deals'.

Catherine Deneuve-Genevičve is very special here. Either you get her emotional fragility and exuberance over her love, or you don't. And yet the story is crafted so wonderfully sincere that it's easy to see how her one true love, Guy (Nino Castelnuovo), can in the end shift gears and still find happiness with another. And yes he ended up where he needed to be, and Genevičve lands where time took her to. Oh and the gas station scene, powerful stuff! So metered and so real and yes I've experienced that too.

I haven't seen the animated Beauty and the Beast but have watched La Belle et la Bęte (1946). Have never watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. 1 for 10 with these last few with only The Blues Brothers to show for it. But that was my #2 pick. Have only watched 25 of 90, which is embarassing (but understandable).

1. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
2. The Blues Brothers
3. Odds on favorite
4. Likely
5. Cinderella (1965)
6. Nah
7. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
9. Purple Rain (1984)
10. No dice
11. Maybe
12. Probably
13. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
14. No room for a second entry from these guys
15. Tommy (1975)
16. No chance
17. Gigi (1958)
18. There's a good chance this one will show up
19. Snowball's chance in hell
20. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
21. Probably no room for a second entry from these guys
22. No chance
23. Ditto
24. Corpse Bride (2005)
25. No way

I never seen and not interested in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I have watched the French film, La Belle et la Bęte (1946) and thought it was really good.

I saw Umbrellas for the countdown but it didn't quite make my ballot. It's a cute story, but nothing about it graces the artistic prowess of the director's wife, Agnes Varda.

Beauty and the Beast is my number 1 Disney movie and my number 3 on the ballot. It took the revival of Disney tyraditions a step furether than The Little Mermaid with higher quality music and a much more interesting prince / girl / villain dynamic.

Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful film with great characters and fantastic songs, but I didn't have room on my ballot for it. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is excellent and was my number 10.

Seen: 88/90

Beauty and the Beast was #12 on the MoFo Top 100 Animated Films and #97 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1990s. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was #36 on both the MoFo Top 100 of the 1960s and the MoFo Top 100 Foreign Films.

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Do you think Fosse's All That Jazz made #17 on the list, but his much more widely known and widely seen, Cabaret missed the countdown altogether?

I’ll be furious if Cabaret is not in the top ten

I watched Umbrellas of Cherbourg via jiraffejustin for a movie swap or something. I put it on and said haha wtf they are singing the dialogue, you got me good jiraffe. I thought it was a joke, but then quickly I was completely entranced by it. It could vie for my top spot if nostalgia wasn't a thing.

I didn't like Beauty and the Beast but that 40's film is fantastic.

1. The Blues Brothers (#19)
3. Umbrellas of Cherbourg (#11)
5. Charlotte's Web (#79)
7. Stingray Sam (#46)
9. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (#15)
10. The Lure (#51)
11. Yankee Doodle Dandy (#32)
13. Dancer in the Dark (#20)
14. A Star is Born 2018 (#43)
15. Sing Street (#40)
16. Once (#25)
17. Calamity Jane (#84)
20. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#66)
21. A Star is Born 1954 (#67)
22. La La Land (#13)
23. Pink Floyd - The Wall (#41)
24. The Young Girls of Rochefort (#36)
25. 42nd Street (#76)

I damn near came soooo close to voting for Beauty and the Beast. I think it's Disney's absolute best musical and though I would need to do a hard close look at a list of every Disney film, it could be Disney's best film period.

The messaging is fine without it being too preachy or anything, but still staying true to human characteristics and tendencies and it's just true to life if you breakdown the psychology of it and the archetypes. Each character has something of a psychosis or huge flaw.

Belle's father is withdrawn in his work and basically completely aloof and a man out of time and step with society.

Belle herself refuses to conform to society, albeit in a different way than her father, and she's idealistic in her shunning of traditional female roles, I guess maybe you could say a feminist of that Middle Ages France setting, or as close as one could get. What's truly great about her character, despite also having "bad boy" syndrome is that the film doesn't either condemn or glorify any of this AND if you really read into Beauty and the Beast and explore its heavy themes, she's every bit as "tamed" and "civilized" as the Beast is albeit in a different way. Where the beast learns manners, patience, love, understanding, temperance and forgiveness, Belle learns acceptance, conformity to institutions that aren't necessarily inherently bad, prudence over her arrogance, humility, gratitude, and love.

The other characters are just treasure troves of hilarity, entertainment, and just plain dynamic with distinct personalities too. The Candlestick... Lumiere (sp?) I think is a complete trickster and coy when he needs to be and rebellious otherwise. The Clock... Codsworth maybe... is a HUGE pushover and a "yes man" and an utter coward and unfortunately we see so many people like him in middle management in real life. Mrs. Potts or Angela Lansbury's character is just so delightful and kind and warm and motherly and she's worth the price of admission alone and probably gives the best voice acting performance in the entire film.

There's just so much to it all. Perhaps my favorite character just in terms of looking at him from an archetypal point of view and his neurosis is Gaston who is beyond vain and narcissistic. The Gaston song is deliciously wonderful in just how out of touch Gaston is and to play the main villain for over the top comedy is something truly meme worthy and satirical. It reminds me of the old The Onion joke article declaring Kim Jong Un "the world's sexiest man" and how Kim Jong Un is his unbridled and so out of touch arrogance ran with it and published it in North Korean media as a legit thing. Actually in this screwed and messed up post internet social media world of everyone and their dog whoring themselves out on the interwebs... a world of OF, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and a gazillion other apps to degrade and diminish the human race that has turned massive amounts of the population into self idolizing zombies or consumer zombies of self idolization (near 2/3 of the male population 30 years old and under is single and we wonder why), the character of Gaston resonates so much and was, sadly, decades ahead of its time, now that we have outlets and platforms for the ego and the whoring out of the worship of self. Yeah the Gaston character is so great because he was a sign of things to come in a society of millions and millions of people who could never love anyone else even half as much as they love themselves.



So yeah, the characters, story, writing, the themes, the message, the archetypes, animation, music, voice acting, etc of Beauty and the Beast is all so wonderful. If I didn't make a rule for myself about only including one animated film, Beauty and the Beast would definitely be on there.

And Umbrellas of Cherbourg... more later but it is amazing and brilliant and was my number eight pick. It's an A+ film.

Also me wonders will the Triplets of Belleville make this list? Or does it qualify? I'm surprised it hasn't shown up if it did qualify and it's another animated film that could have easily made my list.

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Don't worry. You won't be furious. It WILL make the top 10 and SHOULD make the top 10.

It'll be interesting to see which of these eleven movies didn't make the list at all. My money is on Footloose. No offense to it, but it does seem like the weakest of the group.


Beauty and the Beast was my number 3! The animation and beauty of the songs is unparalleled... which makes me a little sad it didn't rank higher than the Lion King.


Yes, The story has some Stockholm syndrome elements, but it's a classic fairy tale. You have to give it some leeway.


I've never seen Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I'm not even sure if I've ever heard of it.