Strange Questions Raised by Musicals

Musicals are weird.
Yes, singing and dancing are normal parts of day-to-day life, but what is truly baffling is how you - yes, you, you amazing description reader and, no doubt, liker of this video and subscriber of this channel - always find a way to rationalize whatever fantastical song number you witness as a mere fantasy or dramatization or anything else that makes sense in the real life world, as if movies were required to be realistic to be enjoyable.
Let’s take a look at “The Greatest Showman”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Mamma Mia!”, “Mulan” (the good one, of course), “La La Land”, “High School Musical” (what, why not?), "Chicago" and many more and check the mind-blowing questions you get when you start thinking too much about grown-ups singing about their feelings.
In this video essay, we can also enjoy some amazing fits by Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. They got all that jazz and Zazz, whatever that is.
00:00 High School Musical
01:20 Musicals
02:54 Diegesis
03:48 Chicago
04:51 Singin' in the Rain
05:59 The Wizard of Oz
06:53 Mamma Mia!
07:18 What is going on? (Cyrano's terrible choreography interlude)
07:45 La La Land
07:57 The Greatest Showman
09:38 Musical montages
12:13 Why musicals are phenomenal
Copyright free photos from Unsplash
Copyright free music from Bensound
“Scheming Weasel” by Kevin McLeod

[@perolavhavik2585]

Years ago I was a guest at a wedding. The bridge and groom were members of the three best student choirs in the city, and as a result the wedding felt like musical. When we arrived at the after-party pretty girls dressed in pink overalls were sitting on the rafters singing and drinking champagne. Later when the bridge was going to the toilet she was stopped by five men in tuxes who got down on their knees and started serenading her. I swear it happened and I was completely sober the whole time!

[@deborahrose8621]

I bet there's a lot more stories where those two came from. That's how you p!an a wedding.

[@njt002]

I think musicals are just examples of what life would be like if we were all gay.

[@foljs5858]

So all musicals are set in San Francisco?

[@IDontWantThisStupidHandle]

As a gay man, I agree -- this is my daily life. xD

[@IDontWantThisStupidHandle]

@@foljs5858 Dear God, No! SanFran is a Hell Hole.

[@SofaKingShit]

Jeffery Dahmer was gay. Not saying he didn't like musicals though.

[@Glorious97-fj6cg]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@goatpie882]

I used to have these questions when I was a inquisitive and curious child, now I just don’t care because musicals are the greatest thing ever and I no longer question them Can you believe that some “theater kids” say The Greatest Showman is bad? :O I can’t

[@beatrixpoley9100]

I love musicals! 🎵I can’t express enough how much it means to me that you you would list all the movies shown🎶

[@orenzeshani]

I love this channel not only because it is really cool, but also because it teaches so much about storytelling in general and not just about cinema

[@johnnzboy]

This is genuinely brilliant. The musical montage! I was giggling if not chortling and occasionally guffawing the whole way through. The perfect find when stoned at the end of the day ;) Hats off to you for your impressively broad knowledge of movie musicals/operas/etc and knowing le scène juste to illustrate your insightful points - looks like High School Musical was a gateway drug to the real shit :) I'm glad I'm not the only person to have pondered some of these weighty matters. Bravo, your videos are exceptionally entertaining.

[@jerryschramm4399]

Thanks for being a fan of "The Greatest Showman". Terrific movie, great choreography, wonderful songs, a strong sense of inclusion of those who are different from the norm- it is a wonder. Now, why didn't the bearded lady shave? Because then she wouldn't be the bearded lady. Sometimes, as Nick (William Hurt) says in "The Big Chill, you just have to let art.... flow. Some movies are not meant to be overthought or overanalyzed, but simply enjoyed for their innate wonderfulness.

[@AGirlofYesterday]

Thanks for raising every question humanity always had about musicals but was afraid to ask. I've never seen anyone dissect the genre in this way before, and I loved it! One thing though: the reason Cosmo comes up with the convoluted time-travel-dream scenario in Singin' in the Rain is so they can add "modern dance numbers" and "still use the costume stuff" they already shot taking place in the French Revolution. I don't think it has anything to do with explaining why the characters will sing and dance in the musical.

[@imdiyu]

The greatest mistake we commit when we think of movies as a surrogate reality. It is not. Just because moving images resemble reality, they are not a parallel reality. Movies are just movies, just like music is just music, but what effect they have on us, that is what important here. That's why we take movies seriously, they reflect about reality, while being unreal at all times. We don't ask what is real about music, we simply feel it. Movies at their best are when they are elevated to the level of music, and become pure art.

[@MonsterKidCory]

That's... That's actually really insightful. Thanks!

[@imdiyu]

@@MonsterKidCory I was paraphrasing Andrei Tarkovsky actually. 🥂

[@MonsterKidCory]

@@imdiyu well dang!

[@Freer07]

This inspired me and make me cry, for tangentially philosophical and spiritual contemplation. Thank you for being an incidental vehicle for higher appreciation and vision of life.

[@tripencrypt]

My personal favorite musical would be, In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Of which, the plot was reused in You've Got Mail (1998). The film starred Van Johnson and Judy Garland. At three years old, it was also Liza Minelli's first film appearance.

[@zorglubmagnus455]

Thanks for the reference. It's also The Shop Around the Corner.

[@ccmp7]

I have to think the performances aren’t really happening. Specially when it takes place in a movie that portraits the “real world”. When it’s going on in an animated or a fantasy movie I really don’t think much about it! 😬 Oh, my ultimate favorite musical is La la land! 🥰💔

[@themenjivar]

This is the most insightful and entertaining film analysis channel out there. Glad the algorithm finally brought me here.

[@jayallman]

It's funny that "The Music Man" isn't a musical you visually quote, because that's probably the musical that comes closest to explaining how to interpret musical numbers. Singing, it tells us, is just "sustained talking." And the story shows (and is about) how singing, as the heightened expression of ordinary thought, emotion, persuasion, etc., just can't help busting out of us.

[@KentMLewis]

This channel is MASSIVELY UNDERVIEWED! what up youtube?

[@sungame21]

I love your accent as much as your genius editing. it is all music to my ears.

[@OmriRose]

Your channel is fantastic. This video is hilarious and brilliant. Also... musicals rock and are highly underappreciated.

[@abloshow91]

The sound: a superhero epic where the villain tries to end the singing and bring the characters into the real (songless) world and the hero The Sound is a superhero with a booming voice.

[@maybelore]

Honestly I think the best book adaptations are musicals because you can see and hear what the characters are thinking and feeling. And man can music make you feel stuff! In fact if a book has a musical adaptation I like to listen to it as I read the book

[@fredscallietsoundman9701]

They should have made Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon a musical. Either that one or Commando.

[@MK-je7kz]

There's an exception: Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Everything is sung

[@truefilm6991]

Meticulously analyzing and explaining the unexplainable is always great fun, especially when done this well. Spoiler ahead: the conclusion in the end is always: "aww, f*** it!".

[@JamsODonnell100]

The Blues Brothers. Totally a musical, yet manages to get away with pretending not to be!!!

[@ehabmahdi]

I only open KZbin to watch your videos man. Great stuff

[@KingfisherTalkingPictures]

I grew up loving musicals, and I love them more each day. We need more MGM-style class and wildness.

[@MonsterKidCory]

Two points... 1) My wife, classically-trained singer and afficionado of musicals, sings all the damn time about everything. 2) The only relevant Oscar is Best Sound Editing. It's the de facto Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and War Film category. "Real" movies get the "real" awards, genre movies get technical awards.

[@johnbrill7909]

Nice to see a clip of "Pirates of Penzance" in there. :)

[@LukeRanieri]

I loved seeing your love for musicals on display! I’m an aficionado myself, and I appreciate your take on the genre.

[@kentjensen4504]

You presume that everyone has responded like youd id. I'm sure many do, but personally I always accepted the musical scenes as part of the reality in the musical. Same with opera.

[@cube2fox]

Musicals could occasionally include joking references to them singing previously. Would be both funny and a nice way if acknowledging that the singing is supposed to be dietetic.

[@marcoklaue]

I was waiting the whole video for a breakdown on the tradition of musicals... being the heirs of the opera... and you briefly mention opera at 13:20, but it would be great to get more into it... the level of artifice and suspension of disbelief that was an integral part of drama for centuries or even millennia? Don't musicals go further back than "conventional" theater? Like, weren't the early dramas (Sophocles, etc.) musicals?

[@pelicanpineapple309]

another umbrellas of cherbourg from me

[@krulidn]

Montages are about the only musical technique I can stand. To me it gives me the idea that the character has a song stuck in their head and this song is like the soundtrack of their summer or training regimen etc. So we are treated with different scenes from their summer or training etc. that are cut give us a continuous song.

[@Zed-fq3lj]

Ah Mulan montage😍, best song!

[@marcdraco2189]

You'd journey to the centre of the Earth to get Rebecca Ferguson. After he work on MI whatever, I'd be following you!

[@tanmaygemini]

Indian moviegoers: I am four parallel universes ahead of you

[@claduke]

TLDW (JK, your videos rock man) Chad Musical vs. virgin drama

[@ciroguerra-lara6747]

All that jazz

[@velocitor3792]

If musical numbers didn't happen in the universe of the story, then what DID happen in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg?

[@Scipio488]

This is what happens when engineers try to read poetry. Musicals are not designed or intended to be taken literally. Musicals aren't "silly"; it's the attempt to interpret them literally that is silly. Moviewise understands but... so many people do not.

[@ginoongboyong]

Yeah! I love every song in "The Greatest Showman"!

[@OceanbornAngel]

I really despise the character assassination in the Greatest Showman of the opera singer, who was a real person by the way. She was NOT the villain that movie portrays her to be. If anything it's PT Barnum who was the villain.

[@Azrael__]

I haven't watched a musical or a Bollywood movie in a while, but I do know that I had a lot less discomfort watching musical moments in Bollywood movies than when watching Hollywood musicals.

[@bcdside]

Honest question: why? Why are Bollywood musicals better than those from Hollywood? I’m not arguing with you here; I’m genuinely curious. I haven’t seen many Bollywood musicals, and I’d like to know some good ones - in your opinion - and why they best the Hollywood product.

[@Scipio488]

@@bcdside "Azrael" did NOT say "Bollywood musical are better than those from Hollywood". They said that the musical moments in Bollywood musical stuck out less awkwardly. That could simply be because, say, Hollywood is depicting your own, or a familiar culture, where you know that "Musical moments' would seem weird, wheres Bollywood is already set in a "different world" where you have fewer expectations for what is normal.

[@svetlanagutic3449]

Vincent Minellis musicals, Mouline Rouge, Greese, Mamma Mia

[@bradbee9874]

Mulan wasn't the best but damn by todays standards its a damn masterpiece.

[@exapplerrelppaxe7952]

I'm sure they had plenty of chances to have singers come out on the stage and sing songs to each other and dance. But no. Theatrical and cinematic producers got greedy. They were like "WE can combine music and story so that you get the best of both without detracting from either." They made their beds.

[@brianbuch1]

How many of those dismissive critics attend the opera? That's where I go for hyper-realism. :)

[@marieparker3822]

Musicals: love 'em!

[@pninnabokov3734]

If musicals dispensed with musical numbers I might be able to stomach them. Otherwise, it's not for mi, a name I call myself, fa, a long, long way to run, so, a needle pulling thread... 😉

[@mrpix3l_colorist]

He forgot the greatest musical movie ever. Tenacious D and the pick of destiny.

[@zetectic7968]

Back in the mists of time during my childhood I was traumatised by South Pacific: from Mitzi Gaynor washing that man out of her hair, Rosanno Brazzi with his Some Enchanted Evening (it wasn't for me), the young male lead singing Younger than Springtime & last but not least the fat woman belting out Bali Hi. I can't recall if it was before or after that another nail in the coffin was Westside Story that gave me a hatred of Leonard Bernstein & George Chakeris. The maudlin "Maria", the only good song is America. In the subsequent years I have come around a little but I never seek out a musical to watch. These are some that I have enjoyed regardless of merit be that music, lyrics or plot: 7 Bride for 7 Brothers, Paint your wagon (except Clint Eastwood singing I talk to the trees), The Producers & the Rocky Horror Picture Show, oh I almost forgot the Sound of Music for family memories (excepting Chris. Plummer who couldn't sing)

[@horaciomillan4181]

I’m so sorry I discovered you just recently! By the way, have you seen the musical in Star Trek Strange New Worlds? I would love to know your analysis of it.

[@Saturn2888]

What is Jerry, from Tom and Jerry, doing in a musical?

[@thatoneguy871]

Well, my rule of thumb is if it's a kids movie... I allow it

[@Moviewise]

Lucky kids, watching singing daily without contemplating the existential implications of the act

[@maybelore]

I'm kind of like a kid when it comes to watching musicals, I'll watch them over and over again, they never seem to get old.

[@acriticwithoutacause8983]

I liked Pennies from heaven

[@Selrisitai]

What's the movie at 14:02 with the girl in the blue dress and the flower in her mouth?

[@Moviewise]

Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)

[@richardrose2606]

One word answer: Opera

[@conradbaker]

i actually find anime musical adaptations more fun than live stage adaptations. anime already suspends disbelief so why not suspend it even more by adding songs and putting on stage?

[@burtingtune]

Dear Mr. Moviewise, you´re over thinking this: musicals are meant to be stupid. Also, the idea of watching The Greatest Showman, makes me feel unwell.

[@srksii]

"Strange Questions Raised by Musicals" Why people watch it!