Hi guys it's me Santi,
One thing you should know about me is that I love musicals. In musical films, the plot of the story progresses through songs performed by the characters in the movie. Songs can either give depth to a character or move the story along. It's a really creative and entertaining way to tell a story, and combines the best of two different styles of storytelling, films and stage musicals!
One thing you should know about me is that I love musicals. In musical films, the plot of the story progresses through songs performed by the characters in the movie. Songs can either give depth to a character or move the story along. It's a really creative and entertaining way to tell a story, and combines the best of two different styles of storytelling, films and stage musicals!
Musical movies definitely have a target audience, as there are many people who do not like musicals, the main critique being that the songs can pull people out of the story (This is a valid critique if the musical aspects of the movie are done incorrectly). The genre typically targets females and an age range of 18-40 years old, however many musicals can also target families, such as the musicals created by Disney, like "The Little Mermaid" and its remake, or "The Lion King" and its remake, or "Moana" and its upcoming remake! (That was quick). A third demographic that musical movies can target is theatre enthusiasts, those who want their favorite stage musical to be adapted into a movie. Many musical movie adaptations of stage musicals have been done throughout the past decade, such as "In the Heights," "West Side Story," or "Wicked."
Another critique of musical films is something that they all usually have in common: not being realistic. Usually, these movies follow a main character who wants something, who has a dream or an aspiration that they want to reach, and the big musical numbers are seen as part of normal life to the characters, so the inherent nature of a musical film is not realistic. The cast in these films also tends to be rather large, with characters showcasing many different performing abilities. The themes are also more classic, such as "follow your dreams."
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| Many animated musical movies tend to follow the same theme of wanting something. |
When it comes to production techniques in musical films, there's specific things they need to do to make it work. The cinematography has to be done in a certain way to show both the quiet parts and the big dance numbers. They use wide shots during the dance sequences so you can see everything that's happening, which is done so that you want to see all the dancers and what they're doing, similar to how you would see a stage production. To enhance the effect, sometimes big cranes or drones are used to move around through a scene (An INCREDIBLE example of this is the opening number from "La La Land, which was also one really long master shot).
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| Still from "Another Day of Sun" |
The sound design in musical movies is actually pretty complicated, even though people don't really think about it. Most of the songs aren't actually recorded while they're filming, instead, the actors record them in a studio first, and then they lip-sync to match their singing when they're filming, similar to karaoke. This might seem kind of fake (if done incorrectly), but they have to do it this way because getting good sound while people are dancing and moving around would otherwise be very difficult. Some directors try to do it differently though, like in "Wicked" where they had the actors actually sing while filming, which is done to make the actors feel "further connected to the words [they're] saying."
The way musicals look in terms of design and color grading is usually very specific too. The costumes and sets are usually bright and vibrant, both to capture attention and to give a "larger than life" feeling. If you look at movies like "Matilda (2022)," The dim and colorless scene then turns into a very bright and vibrant musical number during the musical number "Bruce." 
The lighting is important too and changes during songs to make different feelings happen. Again, in "Matilda (2022)," the lighting once Matilda heads outside becomes more colorful and unrealistic, similar to how Matilda is feeling while singing "Naughty."
The lighting is important too and changes during songs to make different feelings happen. Again, in "Matilda (2022)," the lighting once Matilda heads outside becomes more colorful and unrealistic, similar to how Matilda is feeling while singing "Naughty."
Marketing these films is done in specific ways that are different from regular movies. The trailers always show parts of the biggest songs, because that's what they think will make people want to see it. Many movies even release trailers specifically meant to showcase the songs of the movie, such as in "Wicked," "Mean Girls," and "Matilda (2022)," A lot of times they'll release the soundtrack before the movie even comes out, which can work really well as it can excite people if they like the songs. They also show a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff with the cast practicing dancing or recording songs, which makes sense since they want people to see how much work it took to make ("Wicked" has released various featurettes of this, but there are too many to embed here, so here's just one).
Musical movies usually come out during holiday seasons, and there's actually a reason for this. The studios know that's when families want to go see movies together, and musicals are usually good for that. These movies also tend to stay in theaters longer than regular movies because some people like to see them multiple times. Once they go on streaming, they also do pretty well, as those who enjoyed the soundtrack would want to rewatch the movie to sing along, or they might listen to the soundtrack on music platforms, which benefits the studio.
To show how musical movies can sometimes vary in style, I chose to analyze "La La Land (2016)," and "Matilda (2022)."
Starting with La La Land, this movie is basically what you think of when someone says "modern musical" (even though it's trying really hard to feel like an old musical at the same time). The whole movie uses color in a really specific way, showing Emma Stone's character in a blue dress, surrounded by cool lighting, all throughout the first few scenes of her with her friends or after the party while she's walking down the streets, until eventually the film changes to warm tones as she enters the restaurant and meets Ryan Gosling's character.
The movie follows a lot of usual musical movie things, like having characters who want to be performers and showing how hard it is to make it in Hollywood, but it does something different with the ending that not everyone was expecting (Which I will not say here for spoiler reasons). They also were able to mix new-style music with old-style musical elements, which helped make it feel both modern and classic at the same time.
Matilda is a really different kind of musical movie (which is based on a stage musical that was based on the book that already had a non-musical movie). This movie is an example of a musical film trying to target families, but it's not your typical kids' musical.
The songs in this movie do a really good job of showing what the characters are thinking, especially Matilda's songs where she talks about all the stories she reads and how she feels about her life ("Naughty"). The movie has a dark but comedic feeling to it, which makes sense since it's about a little girl dealing with overly exaggerated mean adults, as a child would see them in their head.
The film was also stylized to look exaggerated and cartoonish (again, as a child would see it), while also keeping a sense of realism. The choreography is really creative too, especially in scenes like "Revolting Children" where they have all the kids do choreographed dance moves shown through wide shots, as talked about previously.
Other great movie musicals include "Tick, Tick... BOOM! (2021)," "Hairspray (2007)," "Wonka (2023)," and "Into the Woods (2015)."
Until next time, Santi :)
To show how musical movies can sometimes vary in style, I chose to analyze "La La Land (2016)," and "Matilda (2022)."
Starting with La La Land, this movie is basically what you think of when someone says "modern musical" (even though it's trying really hard to feel like an old musical at the same time). The whole movie uses color in a really specific way, showing Emma Stone's character in a blue dress, surrounded by cool lighting, all throughout the first few scenes of her with her friends or after the party while she's walking down the streets, until eventually the film changes to warm tones as she enters the restaurant and meets Ryan Gosling's character.
Matilda is a really different kind of musical movie (which is based on a stage musical that was based on the book that already had a non-musical movie). This movie is an example of a musical film trying to target families, but it's not your typical kids' musical.
The songs in this movie do a really good job of showing what the characters are thinking, especially Matilda's songs where she talks about all the stories she reads and how she feels about her life ("Naughty"). The movie has a dark but comedic feeling to it, which makes sense since it's about a little girl dealing with overly exaggerated mean adults, as a child would see them in their head.
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| Miss Trunchbull, the film's antagonist |
The film was also stylized to look exaggerated and cartoonish (again, as a child would see it), while also keeping a sense of realism. The choreography is really creative too, especially in scenes like "Revolting Children" where they have all the kids do choreographed dance moves shown through wide shots, as talked about previously.
Other great movie musicals include "Tick, Tick... BOOM! (2021)," "Hairspray (2007)," "Wonka (2023)," and "Into the Woods (2015)."
Until next time, Santi :)
