Entertainment
The 25 Best Movie Musicals of the 21st Century, Ranked
Movies and musicals take our normal, ho-hum human experiences and turn them into ginormous explosions of emotion. On their own, these forms provide catharsis, but when you combine them? Buckle your culture-lovin’ seatbelts, baby. Movie musicals have been around since the very beginning of film history, which begins with the borrowing of devices and talent from the creators of stage musicals. With the ability to finesse and craft set pieces you simply could not in a real-life time-and-space theatrical setting, movie musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg became the symbols of filmic creativity, ingenuity, prestige, and good old-fashioned popcorn fun.
But as we’ve made our way into this 21st century, beginning with the year 2000, the movie musical has become something of an exception rather than a rule of cinematic expectations and impulses. In other words, when a contemporary movie musical comes out, it “means something.” These are the 25 best movie musicals of the 21st century, celebrating the glory of music, dance, and losing oneself in the magic of cinema.
25
‘The Greatest Showman’ (2017)
The one requirement for The Greatest Showman is to simply accept that it is not (nor does it really attempt to be) a truthful account of P.T. Barnum’s life, which is oddly fitting given its main character. Instead, The Greatest Showman constantly shoots for uplift and joy with a terrific litany of songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul constructed with some really artful and impressive direction from Michael Gracey, making his feature debut.
You also have a terrific cast leaning into this version of Barnum’s story, with Hugh Jackman perfectly endearing as the sweet-if-misguided showman. Like any good musical, these songs are bound to get stuck in your head, but you’re not going to mind when you’re fist-pumping to “This Is Me” for the 400th time. —Matt Goldberg
24
‘Pitch Perfect’ (2012)
The 21st century has been dominated by pop music, and in that way, 2012’s Pitch Perfect may be one of the musicals that best encapsulates the dominating musical taste of an era. Directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon, the film started as a witty twist on the boon of competitive a capella groups but, somewhere along the way, morphed into a sharp college comedy packed with killer renditions of pop songs.
Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick and scene-stealer Rebel Wilson lead an effortlessly charming cast that’s heavy on both vocal and comedic talent. The sequels fell far short of the same kind of magic that made Pitch Perfect a hit, but the first film still stands as a tremendously watchable and catchy good time. —Adam Chitwood
23
‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ (2010)
There’s some confusion about what exactly qualifies a film as a “musical.” It feels like the correct answer is somewhere along the lines of “any film featuring non-diegetic musical numbers performed by the characters to explain their motivations and advance the narrative,” but that definition would exclude movies like Sing. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the 2016 comedy from The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer), isn’t a musical in the classic sense, but it is 100% a comedy about music, featuring roughly a dozen hilarious original songs by narcissistic fictional megastar Connor4Real (Samberg).
The film follows Connor as he embarks on a massive tour to promote the release of his hotly anticipated sophomore album. In addition to being a razor-sharp satire of pop music superstars and the superficial lifestyle of social media influencers, the songs are legitimate bops, and many of them are performed in elaborate stage numbers that are both funny as hell and quite impressive. It also features a number of fun cameos from the music industry, including standout bits involving Adam Levine, Seal, and Justin Timberlake. —Tom Reimann
22
‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000)
Dancer in the Dark, like many of Lars von Trier’s movies, can feel overly, even unfairly punitive. Björk‘s leading character is a poor factory worker with an eye condition and a desire to stop her son from suffering what she has as a result of vile circumstances and, more tellingly, vile human nature. Her suffering happens in unsparing, grimly constructed detail; one of von Trier’s more smeary Dogme 95 works shot on gnarly DV tape.
But if you stare amid this path toward human annihilation, you will find a ton of beauty, escape, and one of the wildest usages of the musical form. When the banal evils of Björk’s life become too much to bear, she subsumes herself into a musical fantasy world. Suddenly, the colors brighten, the cameras become more intentionally composed, and the world turns into a song-and-dance fantasia where things dip their toes into the pool of “making sense.” This dichotomy in styles, in truth versus fantasy, makes for a gripping, gritty watch, a film that retains a blunt power of efficacy in all kinds of emotional directions. —Gregory Lawrence
21
‘Frozen’ (2013)
Frozen is clearly one of Disney’s most popular and most successful films in the 21st century, but it’s also one of their best. The movie feels like an adaptation of a Broadway musical, even though it’s really a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel create real magic with their voices in service of a familiar but unexpectedly fresh take on sisterhood.
The songs drive the story, and songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez expertly weave a tale of rejection, familial love, and acceptance throughout this phenomenal soundtrack. “Let It Go” was a years-long earworm for a reason, but the childlike wonder of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and the silly hilarity of “In Summer” solidify this as one of the best musicals and musical soundtracks of the 21st century. —Adam Chitwood
20
‘Happy Feet’ (2006)
George Miller‘s odd, dark, and often fun animated look at the lives of singing and dancing penguins belongs on this list if for no other reason than this: when the film was screened for Prince to get his approval to use his song “Kiss,” he ended up liking it so much that he wrote an original song for it. The concept of a movie musical is baked into the core DNA of Happy Feet, as we learn an important fact about penguins previously unknown to the human world — when adult penguins are trying to find their perfect mates, they sing their “heartsongs” to find out what songs might be compatible.
The mash-ups of pop/rock favorites like “Boogie Wonderland,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Somebody to Love,” “I Wish,” and more are very solid, with the added bonus of the great voice cast lending their vocal talents. While some slight emotional scarring may occur after viewing (those seals were scary), Miller remains a master of the slightly disturbing but ultimately charming family film. —Liz Shannon Miller
19
‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ (2018)
There are classic sequels that are regarded as vast improvements over their predecessors. Then, there’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which takes the Godfather Part II approach of being both a sequel and a prequel to the first film. The first film was cute and charming, basically feeling like a group of great actors just going on vacation to Greece and doing an epic week of drinking, dancing, and karaoke singing while someone brought a camera along. However, Here We Go Again actually feels like a proper movie.
The story has some nuance to it, the characters have depth and arcs to them, and the actors actually look like they’re trying. And even if you lose one Meryl Streep, you win Lily James, Andy Garcia, and freaking Cher — and Cher makes everything better. This is as close as you get to a contemporary take on a classic Hollywood musical-turned-summer blockbuster. The musical numbers actually move the story along through visual storytelling while the choreography is shot like classic MGM musicals, and there are some visually impressive camera movements and editing tricks done to merge timelines and story threads. —Rafael Motamayor
18
‘Moana’ (2016)
With a resume of beloved Disney animated musical classics that includes The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, writers/directors Ron Clements and John Musker hit the mark again with 2016’s Moana. This time with a musical assist from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, who co-wrote the film’s songs alongside Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina. The result is a charming, catchy-as-hell reinvention of the Disney princess narrative.
Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) isn’t your average fairytale princess ready to risk it all for love; she’s the future leader of her people, an ambitious, clever, and athletic hero chosen by the ocean for a mythic adventure that brings her face-to-face with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). The mythology and magic that made Clements and Musker’s previous films such favorites are on full display, but Moana‘s not-so-secret weapon is the enchanting soundtrack, a fusion of traditional music and belting Broadway numbers. —Haleigh Foutch
17
‘The Muppets’ (2011)
2011’s The Muppets gives fans of these felt-constructed mischief-makers (and Kermit, who’s just trying to hold the mischief together) everything they’d want in a musical comedy version while charting identities of their own. The Muppets, featuring star and co-writer Jason Segel, is full of heart, its standout songs being tearjerkers like “Pictures in My Head” and Oscar-winner “Man or Muppet.”
A successful reinvention of a classic and beloved formula, The Muppets gives a broad, clean overview of what the titular characters can provide. Moreover, this charming and contagious musical makes audiences keenly aware of the prodigious talents of director James Bobin and songwriter Bret McKenzie. —Gregory Lawrence
16
‘Wicked’ (2024)
The massively popular musical Wicked took its sweet time to get to the silver screen, but the wait was worth it — for the most part, anyway. Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba, the notorious green witch who forms an unexpected bond with the pink-obsessed Galinda (Ariana Grande) and discovers dangerous secrets about her land and the mysterious wizard who rules it.
Although suitably larger-than-life, Wicked is also surprisingly stale and lacking in the whimsy and charm of its stage source material. The grey, washed-up cinematography fails to convey the magic of Oz, so it’s up to the lead actresses to sell the fantasy aspect of the story. Luckily, Erivo and Grande rise to the challenge, doing justice to these iconic characters and ultimately making Wicked a worthwhile offering with irresistible songs and a few jaw-dropping sequences. —David Caballero
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