Revival musical with best music

[D82]

I've thought of creating this thread several times because I find it hard to decide which revival musical has the best music and I was curious to know your opinions. You can rank the music in general, the songs and score separately or just one of the two.

[Farerb]

In my opinion Moana has the best soundtrack. What makes a good musical soundtrack is that the songs enhance the story, they progress the plot or develop characters. The songs in Moana are emotionally evolving throughout the film (no awkward troll song while a main character is literally dying).

What Frozen's soundtrack has going is Let it Go. The rest vary between good (For the First Time in Forever) and really bad (Fixer Upper). In addition it also has the "let's stop the plot and sing" songs like Tangled (In Summer and Fixer Upper again). Plus does anybody really consider Raindeers are Better Than People a song?

Tangled's soundtrack is unremarkable in my opinion and pales in comparison to Menken's earlier work.

I don't really have an opinion on The Princess and the Frog's soundtrack.

So my ranking is:
1. Moana
2. Frozen
3. Tangled
4. The Princess and the Frog

[thedisneyspirit]

I really like a lot Pooh's and Frozen's soundtrack, despite it all. The instrumentation is grand and some of the lyrics can be pretty funny and clever, at times.

Moana I'm half and half. I do like the songs, but I don't feel they will change the Disney musical format anytime soon, like TLM or BATB did in their heyday. They just work within the film and that's it. The film just seems kinda robotic in that they do everything "nicely", but there's no flaws present.

Tangled and PATF last, though I admire PATF for trying to tackle a new genre of music for Disney films. Tangled, I feel you can cut the songs from the movie and nothing would change.

I'm still more into the music of the 90s, maybe I'm just a nostalgia baby.

[DisneyFan09]

I know that I'm probably repeating myself, but here it goes.

I thought The Princess and the Frog had the best soundtrack. Though I never went gaga for it, it was still superior to it's followers. Tangled had a couple of good songs, while not living up to the truly great Disney music. Frozen had at least a couple of great songs, but the score itself was just meh. Moana on the other hand, had a couple of good songs and had at least a score that was a little better, but still not truly great.

[Disney's Divinity]

1. Frozen ~ The only real disappointments with this soundtrack are no ending reprise and Jonathan Groff being wasted. "Fixer Upper" doesn't bother me as much as others, but it doesn't stand up well next to the rest of the soundtrack.
2. Moana
3. Tangled ~ I think this could have easily been number 2 if the film had different directors. They clearly didn't want the movie to be a musical. "Mother Knows Best" is still one of the best songs of the revival though.
4. The Princess and the Frog ~ I don't like most of it, and I feel like some songs I like more for the vocalists than anything. "Down in New Orleans" is the only genuinely great song, imo. Anika Noni Rose is the best singer of all 4 films though. A real shame she didn't get a better soundtrack to work with. Same with Keith David.

Out of curiosity, I ranked songs I liked from the revival just to align with what I thought above:
1. "For the First Time in Forever"
2. "Let It Go"
3. "Down in New Orleans"
4. "For the First Time in Forever (reprise)"
5. "Mother Knows Best"
6. "Down in New Orleans (ending reprise)"
7. "I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)"
8. "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"
9. "How Far I'll Go"
10. "Love Is an Open Door"
11. "Almost There"
12. "Shiny"
13. "Where You Are"
14. "Friends On the Other Side"
15. "We Know the Way"

Only one Tangled song. Maybe I do prefer TP&TF's soundtrack to it? I didn't include the End Credits songs, but I do love Alessia Cara's, Ne-Yo's, and Grace Potter's songs, too.

[JeanGreyForever]

Frozen is my favorite out of this list. There are some genuine classics in the soundtrack and the only clunker is Fixer-Upper, which I find to be offensive on so many levels.

Moana's soundtrack is fine, but I find it to be acoustically inferior to Frozen. Most of the songs feel like they've tried way too hard to replicate the success of Alan Menken (which makes sense since Lin-Manuel Miranda is a huge Menken fan). For example, Where You Are comes across as a retread of Belle, while How Far I'll Go feels like a generic "I Want" song. It does culminate into the amazing I Am Moana. However, I do like the overall soundtrack even if it wasn't as great as Frozen's for me.

Tangled was a real waste of Alan Menken. I find the songs from Barbie as Rapunzel to be more memorable than anything from here although that might be nostalgia talking. I really don't care for the 60s rock influences in a fairy tale film, but maybe that's just me. The best songs are probably the reprises since they feel the most Disneyesque or Broadway influenced, not constrained by the directors' choices to limit this film as a musical.

TPATF I don't really count as a Revival film, but if I'm talking about it, I'd say that it probably has the weakest soundtrack overall. There's not really one song from this film that is considered a classic except maybe Friends on the Other Side which is the last great Disney Villain song for the last great Disney Villain. Interestingly enough, my favorite song probably has to be the intro song when Anika Noni Rose sings a small bit from Down in New Orleans. It's a beautiful lullaby which I wish she could have sang to her sister in an earlier draft of the film because it suits her voice so well, unlike Almost There.

[D82]

TPATF I don't really count as a Revival film, but if I'm talking about it, I'd say that it probably has the weakest soundtrack overall.

I forgot there isn't a consensus about where the Revival begins. Personally, I think it begins with Tangled, as, if I remember correctly, you also do. Maybe I should've titled the thread "Lasseter-era musicals" instead of "Revival musicals".

[JeanGreyForever]

TPATF I don't really count as a Revival film, but if I'm talking about it, I'd say that it probably has the weakest soundtrack overall.

I forgot there isn't a consensus about where the Revival begins. Personally, I think it begins with Tangled, as, if I remember correctly, you also do. Maybe I should've titled the thread "Lasseter-era musicals" instead of "Revival musicals".

Yes, that's how I view it as well. I don't think most people are too nitpicky on the thread's title unlike me lol.

[Disney Duster]

1. Frozen - The soaring, powerful ballad of "Let It Go" is the clear most people's favorite and best song of all of the Revival, and the soaring, pretty ballad for "For the First Time in Forever" is not too far behind in how good it is. Sure the rest of the songs aren't as good but I feel these two make up for it and the worst song, "Fixer-Upper", is at least not as bad to me as "Shiny". And who cares if "Reindeers Are Better Than People" isn't a long song? It's not a bad song.

2. Moana - The soaring, powerful ballads for the main character are the next best after "Let It Go", and then there is the strong, pulsing "We Know the Way". Only let down for me is "Shiny".

3. Tangled - None of the music is bad, but unfortunately none of it is really that good either. I agree "Mother Knows Best" and it's reprise are the best thing to come from it.

4. The Princess and the Frog - Egads, the only thing half good to me is "Friends On the Other Side".

[Mooky]

This is an unpopular opinion, but I'm in agreement with DisneyFan09 here -- I liked the music of The Princess and the Frog the best out of the five movies. The only bad song is "Gonna Take You There", and I'm iffy on "When We're Human", but the rest of the songs range from good to great. I know Randy Newman is not everyone's cup of tea (he's not mine either, so I'm pretty surprised myself at how much I liked this soundtrack), but I think he did a great job with the music, particularly it being setting-appropriate. My favorites are "Ma Belle Evangeline", "Friends on the Other Side" and "Almost There", but I also love the energy and rhythm of "Down in New Orleans" and "Dig a Little Deeper". As for the score, the obvious standouts are "Ray Laid Low" and "Tiana's Bad Dream". I also really like the end credits song by Ne-Yo, it's wonderful.

The next one would probably be Tangled. While I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole movie, I've grown to appreciate its soundtrack, mostly because of "Healing Incantation" and "Kingdom Dance" (probably the best instrumental piece in a Disney film since "Mulan's Decision"). I also like "When Will My Life Begin". The rest of the songs and score are meh, with only "Mother Knows Best (Reprise)" being enjoyable. I still stand by what I said before about "I See the Light" being bland and overly schmaltzy, and I don't understand why fans like it that much.

I only like two songs from Frozen, "Let It Go" (obviously) and "Love Is an Open Door". The rest are pretty meh and score pieces haven't made any lasting impression on me.

Moana, ehh... I only care for "How Far I'll Go", and Alessia Cara version on top of that (as auto-tuned as it may be). I do somewhat like "I Am Moana" too and "You're Welcome" is... amusing, I guess? As in Frozen's case, there was nothing truly memorable about the score.

I'm not big on Winnie the Pooh in general, and I remember absolutely nothing about its music.

[Farerb]

Upon rewatching The Princess and the Frog today, I thought Down in New Orleans and Almost There were actually nice, the rest didn't impress me.

[D82]

How would you rank "This Wish" compared to other "I Want" songs from the Revival/current Disney era? (I know it's debatable whether we're still in the Disney Revival or not, but until critics or animation historians decide on it, I guess we can still call it that way).

Here's the list of songs. Please, correct me if I excluded some title or added any which is not an "I Want" song, as I'm not a musical theater expert.

"Almost There" (The Princess and the Frog)
"When Will My Life Begin" (Tangled)
"For the First Time in Forever" (Frozen)
"How Far I'll Go" (Moana)
"A Place Called Slaughter Race" (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
"Into the Unknown" (Frozen II)
"Waiting on a Miracle" (Encanto)
"This Wish" (Wish)

[Farerb]

1. "How Far I'll Go" (Moana)
2. "Into the Unknown" (Frozen II)
3. "Almost There" (The Princess and the Frog)
4. "When Will My Life Begin" (Tangled)
5. "For the First Time in Forever" (Frozen)
6. "Waiting on a Miracle" (Encanto)
7. "This Wish" (Wish)
8. "A Place Called Slaughter Race" (Ralph Breaks the Internet)

[Musical Master]

I really like the soundtracks to Frozen, Moana and Encanto, they're pretty equal when it comes to the music. As for the "I Want" songs, I think I'll rank them like this:

1. "For the First Time in Forever"
2. "How Far I'll Go"
3. "This Wish"
4. "Into the Unknown"
5. "Waiting on a Miracle"
6. "Almost There"
7. "When Will My Life Begin?"
8. "A Place Called Slaughter Race"

[The Disneynerd]

The best soundtrack is easily Frozen for me. The score, Let it go, First time in forever + reprise all combined... , Tangled coming next: Now to the I want songs:

1. Into the Unknown
2. How far Ill go
3. For the first time in forever
4. Almost there
5. When will my life begin
6. Waiting on a miracle
7. A place called slaughter race
8. This Wish

[Disney's Divinity]

"For the First Time in Forever"
"Into the Unknown"
"Almost There"
"How Far I'll Go"
"When Will My Life Begin"
"Waiting on a Miracle"
"A Place Called Slaughter Race"

I don't feel right ranking without seeing the film, but right now I'd put it around the same level as "Waiting on a Miracle" and "When Will My Life Begin." The verses are really nice, but the chorus is just okay.