Wrapping up my Month O' Musicals: poll results and final thoughts

The musical polls are closed and the results are in! (I didn't vote on these myself, but will share my picks below.)

What's your favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?
The Sound of Music wins with 43% of the votes. South Pacific comes in second, with Oklahoma!, State Fair, and The King and I tied not far behind. No big surprises here about the winner; The Sound of Music came in 4th on AFI's 100 musicals list, the highest rated of any Rodgers and Hammerstein movie.

While this popular movie gets a lot of love, there also seems to be a small group of people that really hate it. While I don't know that I feel that strongly about it, I'm more on the disliking side of the argument. Confession: I've never even seen the whole thing. I've seen different parts of it when it's been on TV, but somehow have never been inspired to watch the movie from start to finish. (Sorry, Sound of Music lovers!)

My vote in this category: Oklahoma!

Favorite Astaire/Rogers film?
Swing Time comes out on top with 41% of the votes, followed by Top Hat, then Shall We Dance, then Roberta and Carefree (tied). While I haven't yet seen every one of the Astaire/Rogers pairings, (I know, for shame!) I happen to like Shall We Dance quite a bit. But since no one voted for The Barkleys of Broadway, I want to give that one a little love. It gets my uncounted vote.

Your favorite Gene Kelly musical?
The winner here is the movie that topped AFI's 100 musical list: Singin' in the Rain, with 53% of the votes. The distant second, with 15% picking it, is On the Town. Third place is crowded, with For Me and My Gal, Anchors Away, An American in Paris, and Brigadoon each getting the same amount of votes.

While I would agree that Singin' in the Rain is the best Gene Kelly musical, the vote for my favorite is An American in Paris. With 's wonderful Gershwin music, acerbic Oscar Levant, and captivating end ballet, it's not just my favorite Gene Kelly musical, but my favorite musical ever.

Favorite Disney animated musical?
This was the least agreed upon in the polls. The Little Mermaid just barely edged out the competition, followed by Aladdin, and then a three-way-tie with Mulan, Pocahontas, and Beauty and the Beast. There were also a couple votes for "other". What did I miss? Peter Pan? Lilo and Stitch?

I'm surprised that the older Disney films didn't get any votes. I really love the charm of the older style animation before everything was so slickly done with computers. Maybe I should have made an old-style animated Disney movie poll and a newer animated Disney movie poll. My older favorites include Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians.

As for the newer choices, I was a bit surprised that no one picked The Lion King, even though I find it pretty mean and depressing. (I did enjoy the Broadway version of the story better, mostly due to the cool costumes.) My personal pick for newer favorite would have to be Aladdin.

Final Thoughts:
When I first had the idea to focus on musicals for a month, I wondered if I could come up with enough to talk about. Then I began to make a list and realized there were more movie musicals I'd already seen and enjoyed than I could ever post about in one month, let alone the musicals I had yet to see. As it was, I highlighted 17 different musicals this month. I definitely leaned more toward my favorites, probably because those were the ones I have the strongest opinions about and that I most wanted to revisit. Not as well represented: newer musicals, Disney musicals, and new-to-me musicals. I could very easily do another whole Month O' Musicals, or perhaps I'll just continue to feature one musical each month.

Before the month ends, there is one more movie I'd like to put in a plug for: That's Entertainment! With various musical stars introducing some outstanding musical moments, it's much more enjoyable than any movie of clip after clip has any right to be. While it only looks at MGM musicals, true to the title it is very entertaining and might give you ideas for more musicals to check out.

Farewell, Month O' Musicals. It's been fun. Thanks for helping me get through a cold January. Now I'm ready to move on to something without any song and dance numbers. Like documentaries.

I'll be back soon with some big changes coming in February!

A musical interlude of pretend babies

Much of the movie The Band Wagon is a series of loosely related clips, but the following is my favorite, and has been for a long time. When I was in middle school, I shared this song with two girls who either liked it or me enough to learn all the lyrics and sing the different parts with me as we walked around the schoolyard. For a time, we even called ourselves "The Triplets". (Those were some cool girls.)

Here's Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan as the battling babes:



And while I'm thinking of "children" in musical movies, I have to mention The Muppets Take Manhattan scene where Miss Piggy imagines what it would have been like if she and Kermit had known each other when they were younger. The song "I'm Gonna Always Love You" features baby Piggy explaining all the things she will do when she grows up (singing, flying a plane, neurosurgery) without losing her love for Kermit. This scene, which inspired the Muppet Babies cartoon, has got to be one of the cutest moments in movie musical history.

Month O' Musicals: Shall We Dance

(No, not the Richard Gere movie.)

Vital Stats:
Year: 1937
Director: Mark Sandrich
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
Choreographer: Hermes Pan, Harry Losee
Music & Lyrics: George & Ira Gershwin

Summary:
Does it really matter? It's an Astaire/Rogers movie! If you must know, the plot revolves around two dancers and the problems that arise from the rumor that they are married.

Memorable Moments:
Fred singing "They Can't Take That Away From Me", the roller-skating dance in the park to "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", and the dance with all the girls masked to look like Ginger.


What I love about it:
I have a soft spot for Gershwin music and especially like the "impromptu" dance the fabulous pair do to "They All Laughed". (I also think the little dog in the movie is pretty cute.)