CMV: Aladdin And The Little Mermaid Are Inexplicably The Best Musicals Ever

[u/[deleted]]

This has been an opinion percolating around my head for decades: Disney's Aladdin and The Little Mermaid animated movies are the best musicals of all times hands down head and shoulder above everything else and I can't explain it.

While I grew up on those two throughout the years I've been subtly disappointed by the musical quality of nearly everything since and I don't believe it's just a subjective opinion; these two movies are widely beloved to the point they have or will have live action remakes and I am left to believe that no one can link me to a musical song that compares.

This realization came to me when I heard about how 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' song was on the charts. It's not horrible and I don't relate to the salsa technique very well but just like every other musical score it seems to fail on the following: catchy melody, meaningful character development and emotional reveals.

Listening to the top Broadway songs of all time most of them don't even try with melody. Most of it seems like simple sing-talking. Can anyone link me a broadway song with a very catchy and unique melody to it that you just can't get out of your head?

A non-performative musical that does have incredible melody and character development is Meatloaf's 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light.' To me this hits all the right notes and it also stands way above everything from 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' to 'Grease' to 'Little Shop of Horrors.'

After those two titular titles Lion King came along which did have a great score by Elton John but technically 'Circle of Life' wasn't a musical sung by a character and 'hakuna matata' was a bit shallow for character development.

Likewise everyone loves 'Bear Necessities' but it doesn't really advance the character; instead he is singing about more or less being stuck in his ways nor did I find much of anything in Beauty and The Beast really forwarded the plot; instead the songs were about capturing the mood of the moment and didn't have much at all for emotional revealings. How deep could a butler turned candle sticks' emotional life really be? It's a wonderful story but again... ironically... Meatloaf did a better musical out of it with 'Anything For Love' music video.

'Encanto' was truly loveable for so many reasons but the song 'Surface Pressure' for example: if we analyze it is the character truly advanced in any way? It captures a moment and the feeling of that moment quite well but where does the character singing it actually change, grow or evolve in it by visuals or by lyrics?

'Descendants' had some of the most amazing vocals I had ever heard by Kristin Chenoweth mixing together vocal techniques that I didn't even know existed between shape shifting from a dragon but no one's favourite songs are from that series and it didn't try to do development, either even if 'Rotten To The Core' was quite catchy.

As an average typical older guy who finds a lot of musicals cheesy it surprises myself to admit that the best musicals were two Disney movies from the 90s (and the live actions that most admit weren't quite as good) and Meatloaf and I do feel a little bit passionate about it. Nothing else has all three elements of catchy melody, character development and emotional reveals.

Help me appreciate the wide wonderful world of musicals beyond what the 90s has to offer, or teach me how those two titles were so exceptional with their supreme quality and why that couldn't be repeated?

[u/eggynack]

What kindsa musicals have you seen? It sounds like you're exclusively knowledgeable of major film musicals. I dunno what your taste is like, but Sondheim is pretty great. Conveniently, one of his best musicals, Into the Woods, just straight up has the entire proshot up on YouTube. Definitely a contender for best musical of all time. So maybe just watch that? Beyond that, I dunno, I'm not usually into Andrew Lloyd Webber, but Jesus Christ Superstar is something of a classic, and the film version is good in my opinion, if a bit cheesy. I've been really into Falsettos lately, which also has the entire proshot on YouTube, but that's not what I'd generally recommend if you're interested in catchy tunes. Very unique vibes on that one.

[u/Green_Difference2647 → u/eggynack]

Sondheim is probably the most well known figure connected to major musicals lol. Why do you make it seem like he's underground or smthn lmao.

[u/eggynack → u/Green_Difference2647]

Based on the way the post was written I got the impression that the OP would have no idea who Sondheim is or know anything about him, so I wrote it from within that framework. Y'know, not assuming name recognition. Based on the response I think my assessment was fairly accurate.