Your Thoughts on Musicals

Hey, it's just the singing part I can't stand. I love more modern animated movies, particularly most of the offerings from Pixar.

There are some animated musicals that I do really like though. Nightmare Before Christmas is great and, to a lesser extent, so is Corpse Bride, but in those movies I overlook the singing in favor of the style. Another animated musical I'll watch is Charlotte's Web, though really I only like it for Templeton. Even as a child I never really cared much about the fate of the pig or the spider. I just like the rat. I even like his song at the fair.

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At boarding school we didn't have musicals...thank God

Did you like Sweeney Todd?

Hated it.

^ This. Singing parts were awful. I loved the bits where they were not singing though, could have been an excellent Tim Burton film without the singing for me. Wish he had done a straight non musical film with it.


Wash your mouth out! Mamma Mia is a classic.

Exactly. I love Tim Burton. I love Johnny Depp. I thought the costumes were great. The sets were great. The story was good. But the singing...





And there'd be like a whole two lines of dialogue between songs too.
Horrible.

I pity anyone who can't enjoy a good musical...

I agree with Yoda, though. There's a certain magic to a good musical that is truly unique but otherwise it falls flat.

Little Shop of Horrors remake is one of my faves,

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

I love Steve Martin in that movie.

I'll echo that; I love Little Shop. Saw it a dozen times growing up.

I don't like it. The ending is messed up.

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It reminds me of a toilet paper on the trees
- Paula

The musical is probably my least favourite genre of film.

When they're good I really enjoy them, but when they're bad I lose patience far quicker than I do for any other type of bad film. If I feel like a song and dance number is there to pad out a plot I see red, I can't stand it when dancers roll around on screen while some tit warbles on about love or hurt for 5 minutes (or 5 hours, I can never tell...), especially if I feel they can say whatever it is they're supposed to say a lot quicker.

RRRRRRGHH!

I love Disney though. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast... transport me back to the 90's baby, I don't like this cynical decade!

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"When I was younger, I always wanted to be somebody. Now that I'm older, I realise I should've been more specific."

I'm very particular on musical's. I'm not sure what makes one good or bad (probably my taste in music). I either love them wholeheartedly or loathe them. I am not a grease or even a rocky horror fan (outrageous I know) but I did love both Blue's Brothers... I am a fan of most disney movies but I would say for the most part the songs are the weakest part of those movies and while I understand they help with engaging emotion sometiems i feel when I hear the music start to play, just disappointed because i know its going to be three minutes of just filler.

I guess Naisy is right, the songs are key; if the music in a musical doesn't do it for you, then it's probably D.O.A.

But I don't necessarily adore every song in every musical I like. I guess how tolerable the songs you don't enjoy are, proportional to the rest, is what really makes the difference. Musical taste may be more subjective than film taste in general, hence the stronger hit-or-miss quality for musicals...

That version leaves out whole characters so the merits of that one don't effect whatever merits the upcoming one will have.

I loved Mamma Mia! Felt a bit let down by Singin' in The Rain.

I think it would help to be musicaly inclined in order to really appreciate musicals.
I am not a good performer but I do have a good ear so I can appreciate stuff like Singing In The Rain, West Side Story and Chicago.
Having said that, I must admit I would usually rather watch a good war movie or crime story.

I think that musicals are a versatile genre. Nowadays the jukebox musical/film adaptation musical is a bit too prevalent.

Yes, a bad musical can be really bad, but that's because we expect a bigger pay off with musicals. Not only do we want everything we'd want in a non-singing film, we want great music, great singing, etc.

As for Sweeney Todd, the Michael Ball soundtrack is very good. Stephen Sondheim describes the musical as an opera and the voices in the film aren't strong enough. Saying that, Johnny Depp has a good try.

I'm not a big fan of musicals, but Beauty and the Beast, and Phantom of the Opera were good live. Although a comedy, have a look at Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog!

well, love some of them...lol

I like plenty of musicals without caring for the music. Moulin Rouge, just about any Busby Berkeley musical, even Singin' in the Rain; I don't have any desire to listen to that music on its own.