The Ultimate Movie Musicals Bracket - Round One, Day Seven
Ballllllll-zac.
Good morning, friends, and I hope you’re doing well. Before we dive into today’s set of matchups in the first round of the Ultimate Movie Musicals Bracket, a brief reminder to you that each Monday, if you’re a paid subscriber, you get a separate essay from me in your inbox. (If you’re a free subscriber, you just get the preview email.) Today, I’m diving deep into the making of a very popular film indeed, Frozen II. Specifically, I wrote about the six-part documentary series Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen II.
Out of the Disney Vault: Into the Unknown -- The Making of Frozen II
As I watched — for the first time in forever and also the first time, period — the six-part documentary series Into the Unknown — The Making of Frozen II, I could not stop thinking about an entirely different film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. It’s not that the docuseries is unfocused. It’s that the context established by the docuseries sent me back to a night in the middle of May of 2012 in Tempe, Arizona. On that night, my wife and I were in an audience of a couple hundred people watching a rough, work-in-progress test screening of
Now that your weekly encouragement is out of the way, let’s dive into today’s vote!
![Dreamgirls - Official® Trailer [HD] - YouTube](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IccE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F702380ef-acc7-4265-9215-ef0140fb56e2_1280x720.jpeg "Dreamgirls - Official® Trailer [HD] - YouTube")
(3) The Music Man vs. (62) The Phantom of the Opera: I will be honest and tell you that The Music Man is one of my two all-time favorite stage musicals. And in this case, that translates to my love of the 1962 film from director Morton Da Costa. I’ve seen Phantom on stage, and it can work in that venue. It really, truly, did not work on film, in part because it’s just a little too creaky, and in part because as much as Gerard Butler has a certain type of skillset as an actor, this ain’t it.
It’s gotta be the River City Boys’ Band.
The Music Man
The Phantom of the Opera
(30) Dreamgirls vs. (35) Victor/Victoria: On one hand, I am loathe to vote against Julie Andrews, and I do enjoy Victor/Victoria. But I was, and remain, surprisingly impressed with the 2006 adaptation of Dreamgirls to the point where it will easily claim my vote today. I don’t know that I was expecting to be bowled over in theaters, but I certainly was. (I have little doubt it’s vastly surpassed by the stage show, to be fair.) Sorry, Julie. You’re in the second round anyway!
Dreamgirls
Victor/Victoria
(14) Pennies from Heaven vs. (51) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Pennies from Heaven is a hell of a leap forward for Steve Martin, who followed up his first starring role in The Jerk with this pretty bleak blend of 30s-era musicals and Depression-era suffering. If you haven’t seen the film, you are missing out on some remarkable, dark, and clever material. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas does have Dolly Parton, but…I mean, just watch Christopher Walken in the clip below. C’mon. Vote for the pennies.
Pennies from Heaven
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(19) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg vs. (46) Yentl: It’s true, today I am introducing a series of female icons and then knocking them down. Or, I’m just choosing to vote for something aside from them. Yes, that is my way of saying that while Barbra Streisand is an icon and Yentl one of her better films, I am also voting for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which blends the swooning romanticism of classic movie musicals with darker undertones very effectively. That Jacques Demy—hell of a filmmaker.
How do you vote?
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Yentl
Pennies From Heaven is very good but Best Little Whorehouse is pure joy from start to finish. The former may have Walken but the latter has Charles Durning:
https://youtu.be/AALREbJZEZk?si=latakePGZleiTjuP
I’m okay with not voting for Babs today because Funny Girl is up later (but it’s not an easy matchup there, either).
This bracket is tough! Most of the films here have at least something that makes them memorable or important. Maybe it’s just the emotional sweep of musicals in general.