My Favourite Musical Films

Everyone needs to have those feel-good films to watch and for me, musicals are no exception. Sometimes I just need to watch something where I can sing along if I want to.

I love Disney movies for their music, but what about other musicals? There are so many that I enjoy that they always put a smile on my face, here are my current favourites.

The Sound of Music

Everyone loves this classic and I never get tired of it. I love Maria’s free-spirited personality as she brings music and happiness back into the Von-Trapp family.

This movie also inspired me to visit Salzburg one day and at summer camp we put on a play of the film. It was more focused on the musical numbers rather than the entire story but I got to play one of the nuns and some of Maria’s parts. I can still sing the song the nuns sing about the latter efficiently!

The Music Man

I watched this one in music class once and I absolutely loved it, especially Shirley Jones, she has such a beautiful voice. It’s really hard to pick a favourite song from this one, but what I never understood was why everyone kept correcting that girl with “may I” when she asked for something.

I guess it was considered more polite in that era to use that word! Nonetheless this is such a feel-good musical and I’m so glad I recently re-discovered it!

Grease

Another classic I saw before high school, not only do I love the music but it also has some comedy in it too like when Danny tries to take up sports, especially baseball!

My favourite part of the movie is the school dance as I liked some of the dresses the girls were wearing, but I was pissed when Cha-Cha took over as Danny’s partner and he didn’t try to stop her as he was original with Sandy.

I also never agreed with Sandy changing her look and attitude but who knows, maybe there was more to it than just to impress Danny. Anyway, I never get tired of this one.

The Greatest Showman

This musical has some of the best performances I’ve ever seen and the songs are so memorable that even after watching it once, you already love it.

I feel like the critics were unfairly brutal towards this movie with what they said about it reducing the potential quality that could have been presented in P.T. Barnum’s story. But, who cares, we the audience love it nonetheless. While everyone appears to be mesmerized by This Is Me, I prefer Rewrite The Stars.

Dreamgirls

Inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes, I love the catchy tunes in this film and while everyone seems to watch it for Beyonce, I watch it for Jennifer Hudson.

I can conclude that Curtis was an asshole in this movie for leaving Effie for Deena and when the former tried to rebuild her career with her first solo single, he paid radio stations to air a disco cover of it instead by Deena and the Dreams.

Then again, it’s not just about Effie’s fall from grace but I also feel like this movie also presents frequent challenges artists face in the music industry and how it has fallen to being about what sells, can you dance to it, sexuality, etc. rather than about music as an art, self-expression and storytelling.

Those are my current favourite musicals that I could watch over and over again. If I had listed all the ones I liked from Disney, this list would have been much longer!

👽Emily