The Ultimate Movie Musicals Bracket - Round One, Day Three

Waving through a window...

We’re now into the third day of the first round of the Ultimate Movie Musicals Bracket and if there’s an overriding theme to today’s matchups, it’s that we have a fair deal of more modern, or less traditional, musicals from which to choose. But I won’t knock tradition too much, especially since that watchword will crop up with at least one of today’s titles.

Let’s start the vote!

(4) The Muppet Movie vs. (61) Dear Evan Hansen: Obviously it’s The Muppet Movie. It’s The Muppet Movie both because the 1979 film is perfect, and because its competition is the truly execrable Dear Evan Hansen. (I saw a touring production of the stage show before watching the film, and while the show is absolutely better — it helps when you’re not staring up close on a big screen at an actor who is clearly too old to play a high-school student — it’s still not as good as its reputation initially implied.) I don’t know that I have to explain why any further.

Vote for the Muppets.

The Muppet Movie

Dear Evan Hansen

(29) La La Land vs. (36) Anchors Aweigh: If we were judging based solely on clips alone, I would give this to Anchors Aweigh, because there’s no dance sequence with an animated mouse in La La Land. But here’s the thing. As much as I could not stand Damian Chazelle’s last film Babylon (and boy does it ever suck), I do think La La Land is brilliantly conceived and still very enjoyable. So La La Land gets my vote for now. What do you think?

La La Land

Anchors Aweigh

(13) Fiddler on the Roof vs. (52) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: I can’t explain why this is the case, but I’ve never seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. No real reason why I avoided it as a kid (my understanding is that it’s generally on the same level, at least in terms of type of storytelling, as Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks). I just never got around to it. And also, I played Tevye in a summer-camp production of Fiddler on the Roof, so…yeah, I’m voting for tradition today. (AKA Fiddler.)

Fiddler on the Roof

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

(20) Phantom of the Paradise vs. (45) Annette: Two very weird, very singular films go head to head here. Phantom of the Paradise may take some of its cues (a little bit, at least) from The Phantom of the Opera, but any one section of the Brian de Palma film is quite clearly unique beyond any reference point or source material. It’s a weird movie. And so is Annette, as you might expect considering the talent involved, the Sparks Brothers, and even the clip below. I will lean towards the past, and vote for Phantom of the Paradise. How about you?

Phantom of the Paradise

Annette