How do you cure a hangover? How do you cheer yourself up when you’re stuck inside with only a glum feeling to keep you company on a miserable grey Saturday? How do you get your groove back? Why, watch an animated musical of course!
You might scoff at the idea of a grown man sitting down gleefully to watch an animated musical. “They’re for kids!” you might exclaim and while you’re half right, you’re also half wrong. They’re usually aimed at kids, sure. But who takes kids to the theatre to see them?
That’s right, their parents, who are usually adults. That’s why the greatest children’s movies aren’t children’s movies at all. They’re for everyone. They’re colourful, feel-good and have kids screaming with glee at the sheer silliness, but they’re laced with meaning, subtext and double-entendre to sate the adults. Hell, the odd one or two animated musicals are aimed entirely at adults and come complete with potty-mouthed humour and crass sexual content.
However you feel about the animated musical, the fact remains that you’ve most definitely been exposed to them over the many years you’ve been on the earth. And I’d be willing to bet that you’ve caught yourself humming some of the ditties within even after you’ve finished watching the films themselves.
Animated musical numbers tend to be some of the catchiest, most memorable musical numbers of all. We remember the joy they brought us as children, or as adults the joy they brought to our own children, and we tend to find that they the right animated musical stakes a special claim on our hearts.
So without further ado why not be my guest as I explore a whole new world of animated musical numbers? But be warned, some of the featured entries contain bad language and might not be suitable for children.
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8 Comments
Some great choices. My favourite would have to be ‘Prince Ali’ from Aladdin, which was the first film I ever saw in a cinema and is my favourite Disney film.
I also think that Tangled came pretty close to reaching the greatness of the golden era of Disney, and the song ‘When Will My Life Begin’ is one of my favourite bits of that film.
the very fact that the writer of this article decided to include south park songs(TWO, not just one..) next to disney classics, automatically revokes him any credibility. south park is in its own category, disney in another.
Well, the category was animated film musicals and I’m sorry but I was under the impression South Park: Bigger, Longer Uncut was an animated film musical. Am I wrong? The article didn’t mention anything about this being a Disney exclusive list.
I always liked Be Prepared from The Lion King and the opening number from The Emperors New Groove
Needs more Jungle Book.
The South Park inclusions indicate that this list isn’t restricted to Disney – so why nothing from “Yellow Submarine”? I mean, it’s *clearly* the animated musical with by far the best soundtrack! And although some of the tunes in that film are accompanied by fairly static animation (e.g. the “Eleanor Rigby” scene, though it’s an appropriate approach given the song’s subject matter), others feature some extremely imaginative animation – the “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” scene is probably the most impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXp6-9cnH-g
The South Park inclusions indicate that this list isn’t restricted to Disney – so why nothing from “Yellow Submarine”? I mean, it’s *clearly* the animated musical with by far the best soundtrack! And although some of the tunes in that film are accompanied by fairly static animation (e.g. the “Eleanor Rigby” scene, though it’s an appropriate approach given the song’s subject matter), others feature some extremely imaginative animation – the “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” scene is probably the most impressive.
It’s a short song, but I always loved Robin Williams song in Ferngully.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4FDzI9Y5t8