Animated Musical

"Some day, my prince will come,
Some day, we'll meet again,
And away to his castle we'll go,
To be happy forever I know..."

— Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the original Trope Maker

One of the more well-known tropes associated with Western Animation, which like so many others was made and codified by Walt Disney.^note Mainly as an extension of his previous Silly Symphonies shorts, which were made to advertise music and thus featured at least one song tying into each short.

During the 20th century, certain animated films tended to double as designated musicals in which, at certain points in the storyline, the characters would sing musical numbers that resonated with the overall theme of the moment. The heroes would mostly sing confidence/Power of Friendship-friendly numbers while the villains pretty much sung about how superior they were for their disrespect for the greater good. Did we mention there were also some love songs in there, too?

Due to musicals in general falling out of fashion in the late 1960s, the whole concept pretty much went Dead Horse Trope until it was revitalized in the 1990s by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (previously best known for Little Shop of Horrors), with the juggernauts of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Notable that they were more like stage musicals than previous entries in the Disney Animated Canon, with more songs more integrated into the plots. All three were also later adapted into Broadway stage musicals.

Compare and contrast Musical Episode.

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Examples:

Disney (in chronological order)

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Pinocchio
• Dumbo
• Saludos Amigos
• The Three Caballeros
• Make Mine Music
• Fun and Fancy Free
• Melody Time
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
• Cinderella
• Alice in Wonderland
• Peter Pan
• Lady and the Tramp
  • Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
• Sleeping Beauty
• The Sword in the Stone
• The Jungle Book (1967)
  • The Jungle Book 2
• The Aristocats
• Robin Hood (1973)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  • Winnie the Pooh (2011)
• The Rescuers (with one exception, the characters do not sing the songs)
• The Fox and the Hound (although most of characters do not sing the songs)
  • The Fox and the Hound 2 (which revolves around the characters encountering a musical band)
• The Great Mouse Detective (despite only having two songs)
• Oliver & Company
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
  • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
  • The Little Mermaid III: Ariel's Beginning
• Beauty and the Beast
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
  • Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World
• Aladdin
  • Aladdin: The Return of Jafar
  • Aladdin and the King of Thieves
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The Lion King (1994)
  • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
• A Goofy Movie
• Pocahontas
  • Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
• James and the Giant Peach
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Hercules
• Mulan
  • Mulan II
• Home on the Range
• Phineas and Ferb (rare TV series example)
  • Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension
  • Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe
• The Princess and the Frog
• Tangled
  • Tangled: The Series
• Sofia the First
  • Elena of Avalor
• Frozen
  • Frozen II
• Moana
• Coco (at first, it seems like the rare example of Pixar doing a musical, except all of the singing occurs In-Universe)
• Encanto
• Wish (2023)

Don Bluth (and sequels based on his films)

• A Troll in Central Park
• All Dogs Go to Heaven
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven 2
  • All Dogs Go To Heaven: The Series had at least one song per-episode.
  • An All Dogs Christmas Carol
• An American Tail
  • An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
  • An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island
• Anastasia
  • Bartok the Magnificent

• Every Direct to Video sequel to The Land Before Time, despite the original not being one:
  • The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure
  • The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving
  • The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists
  • The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island
  • The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock
  • The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire
  • The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze
  • The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water
  • The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration
  • The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses
  • The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers
  • The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends
  • The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave

• The Pebble and the Penguin
• Rock-A-Doodle
• The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue. Another musical sequel to a non-musical Bluth film.
• Thumbelina

DreamWorks

• The Prince of Egypt
  • Joseph: King of Dreams
• The Road to El Dorado
• The Shrek films both avert this and play it straight. Most of the time, the songs there are just play in the background like a normal film. However, once or twice the characters play it straight and break into song themselves, usually when they're parodying Disney.
• The Trolls films (while it has some original songs, it is for the most part, a Jukebox Musical)
  • Trolls
  • Trolls: World Tour
  • Trolls Band Together

Golden Films

• Aladdin (Golden Films)
• Anastasia
• Atlantis
• Beauty and the Beast I
• Beauty and the Beast II
• Camelot
• The Christmas Elves
• Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone
• The Emperor's Treasure
• The Great Easter Egg Hunt
• Gulliver's Travels
• Hercules
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• The Jungle Book
• The Jungle King
• The Legend of Su-Ling
• Little Angels
• Miracle in Toyland
• The Night Before Christmas
• Noah's Ark
• Pocahontas
• Princess Castle
• Peter Rabbit (or Reggie Rabbit, as they call it)
• The Prince and the Pauper
• The Red Shoes
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Misfit Toys
• The Secret Treasure Of Machu Picchu
• Sinbad
• Sleeping Beauty
• Snow White (I)
• Snow White (II)
• A Tale of Egypt
• Tarzan of the Apes
• Tom Thumb Meets Thumbelina
• Treasure Island
• The Wizard of Oz

UAV Entertainment

• The Amazing Feats of Young Hercules
• Moses: Egypt's Great Prince
• The Secret of Anastasia
• The Secret of the Hunchback
• The Secret of Mulan
• Snow White and the Magic Mirror
• Young Pocahontas

Jetlag Productions

• Cinderella (Jetlag Productions)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jetlag Animation)

Other Examples

• The 3 Little Pigs: The Movie
• A Monster in Paris
• The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
• The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina
• Animaniacs
  • Wakko's Wish
• Arlo the Alligator Boy
• Asterix and Cleopatra.
• Babar the movie
• Babes in Toyland

• Both Balto sequels, Balto II: Wolf Quest and Balto III: Wings of Change, though you might not notice it. According to an interview, Universal Pictures animated studios had a quota of three songs per movie in order to compete with Disney (which explains why most The Land Before Time sequels are also musicals). The Balto sequel writers did everything to stick it to the executives: in Wolf Quest, two of the songs are on the same scene and are similar enough to effectively be just one song (the first even being short to boot), so they're effectively a single song, ergo reducing the amount of songs to two. In Wings of Change the first song is just an atmospheric piece singing over the intro, filling the quota but the last two numbers are very distinct and the animators clearly had more fun with them.
• Several Barbie movies are this. Some of the most notable examples include Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper and Barbie as the Island Princess

• The BFG
• Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala
• The Bob's Burgers Movie
• The Book of Life
• The Brave Little Toaster
  • The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
  • The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue
• Plenty from Care Bears:
  • The TV specials: The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine
  • The Care Bears Movie
  • Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation
  • The Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland
  • Care Bears Nutcracker Suite
• Cats Don't Dance
• Centaurworld
• The Animated Adaptation of Charlotte's Web
  • Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure
• Corpse Bride
• David Copperfield (1993)
• Dot and the Kangaroo
• Eight Crazy Nights
• Famous Fred
• The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
• Felix the Cat: The Movie which is notable since its soundtrack is often held up as the famously awful movie's only saving grace.
• Ferngully The Last Rainforest
  • FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue
• Freddie as F.R.O.7
• Gallavants
• Gay Purr-ee which had Judy Garland making her only appearance in animation as the voice of the lead.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee
• Globehunters: An Around The World In 80 Days Adventure
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
• Gulliver's Travels
• Happily Ever After
• The Happy Cricket
• Happy Feet and its sequel were both Jukebox Musicals.
  • Happy Feet 2
• The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
• Heidi's Song
• Help! I'm a Fish
• Hercules and Xena – The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus
• The Hobbit
• Hoodwinked!
  • Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
• Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
• Jem is a rare television series example, since every episode has three songs in it.
• Jetsons: The Movie
• Jingle Bells (Hyperion Pictures)
• Katy La Oruga
• The King and I
• The Last Unicorn
• Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
• The Legend of the Titanic
• The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
• Lion of Oz
• The Lorax (1972)
• The Lorax (2012)
• Both Madeline: Lost in Paris and My Fair Madeline, in addition to the CINAR-produced specials.
• The Magic Voyage
• Mavka: The Forest Song
• Monster Mash (2000)
• Mumfie's Quest which may hold the record for the most songs in an animated musical with thirteen of them.
• Plenty from My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)
    • The TV special: My Little Pony: The End of Flutter Valley
  • My Little Pony (G3)
    • A Very Minty Christmas
    • The Princess Promenade
    • The Runaway Rainbow
    • Twinkle Wish Adventure
  • The Equestria Girls film series:
    • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
    • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks
    • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games
    • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree
  • My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) (the movie adaptation of Friendship is Magic)
  • My Little Pony: A New Generation
• The Nutcracker Prince
• O Christmas Tree (Hyperion Pictures)
• Once Upon a Forest with Michael Crawford singing one of the songs no less!
• The Animated Adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Animated Adaptation of Pippi Longstocking
• The Polar Express
• Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw was an odd example that was halfway between a straight example and a Jukebox Musical. The lyrics were original, but were set to the music of classic fifties rock songs like "Let's Go To The Hop" and "Duke of Earl."
• The Princess and the Goblin
• The Princess and the Pea
• Quest for Camelot
• Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
• The Rankin Bass Christmas specials.
• The Return of the King
• Rio
  • Rio 2
• Rock and Rule
• Rock Odyssey
• Rover Dangerfield
• The Rugrats Movie
  • Rugrats Go Wild!
• Scooby Goes Hollywood
• Shinbone Alley
• Sing (a Jukebox Musical)
  • Sing 2
• The Snow Queen (1995)
  • The Snow Queen's Revenge
• South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
• The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie
• Steven Universe
  • Steven Universe: The Movie
• Both the Christmas and Easter specials of The Story Keepers.
• Strange Magic is one of the Jukebox Musical variety.
• The Suicide Shop
• The Swan Princess
  • The Swan Princess II: Escape from Castle Mountain
  • The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom
  • The Swan Princess Christmas
  • The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale
• Team America: World Police
• The butchered version of The Thief and the Cobbler had musical numbers added against the creator's wishes.
• The Kindly Lion (Yasashii Lion)
• Thomas & Friends: The Great Race
  • Journey Beyond Sodor
• Titanic: The Legend Goes On
• Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie
• The 2000 Animated Adaptation of Tom Sawyer.
• The Tune
• The Water Babies (1978) has songs in its animated parts.
• We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Hyperion Pictures)
• We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
• The Witch Boy
• Yellow Submarine

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