Movie musicals: you either love them or hate them, but at the end of the day, Hollywood is always gonna keep cranking them out.
In particular, Watch With Us absolutely cannot wait for Wicked: For Good to hit theaters next month, but it got us thinking about our favorite musicals from other eras of cinema history.
So, the Watch With Us team put our heads together and came up with a ranked list of the seven best musicals of the 1990s, and it’s got everything: Broadway adaptations, animated films, puppets and auteur directors.
Check out the list below, and find out where you can watch each film.
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7. ‘Newsies’ (1992)
Homeless newsboy Jack “Cowboy” Kelly (Christian Bale) lives in New York City and befriends two recruits to the newsboy profession: brothers Les (Luke Edwards) and David Jacobs (David Moscow). However, publisher Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) makes it more difficult for newsboys to earn money, resulting in a labor strike. As the highly publicized battle prolongs, a journalist (Bill Pullman) whose sympathies lie with the boys gives them some PR tips.
Newsies didn’t do so hot with the critics and audiences upon its theatrical premiere, but after its release on home video, it managed to gain a passionate cult following. This was to the extent that the musical film was adapted into a stage production on Broadway, which ended up garnering eight Tony nominations and taking home one for Best Original Score.
Stream Newsies now on Disney+.
6. ‘Evita’ (1996)
Based on the life of Argentinian cultural icon Eva Perón (Madonna), this film charts Perón’s rise from her childhood of poverty to becoming an influential actress and Argentina’s First Lady as the wife of President Juan Perón (Jonathan Pryce). Following the death of her father, Perón travels from her town of Junín to Buenos Aires, where she enters a series of relationships with powerful men while working as a model, actress and radio personality. Eventually, she meets Juan and becomes a figure of both admiration and criticism in Argentina.
Evita is based on the 1976 concept album by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, which became a stage musical in 1978. This film adaptation received praise in particular for the performance from Madonna as Perón, which earned the pop star a Golden Globe for Best Actress — Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. It also received praise — from Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel in particular — for its characters, production design and musical numbers.
5. ‘Hercules’ (1997)
Disney takes on the myths of Greek gods and turns them into an entertaining romp with fantastic voice performances and unforgettable songs. In Hercules, the titular demigod (Tate Donovan) was stolen from Zeus (Rip Torn) as a baby by Hades (James Woods) and raised on Earth by mortals. When he discovers his true identity as a teenager, he must prove himself worthy of his place on Mount Olympus and defeat meddlesome Hades and his minions.
Funny, constantly entertaining and with a unique animation style, Hercules is arguably one of the better of the ’90s Disney animated films. While featuring a hilarious voice performance from Danny DeVito as Phil the Satyr, who trains Hercules to reach his potential, it is Woods’ performance as Hades that is truly iconic, with critics praising the actors’ verbal expressiveness.
Stream Hercules now on Disney+.
4. ‘Topsy-Turvy’ (1999)
This music period drama charts the real-life partnership between lyricist W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and composer Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner), specifically the 15 months between 1884 and 1885, leading to the premiere of their famous comic opera, The Mikado. Topsy-Turvy illustrates the two legendary creative geniuses’ many conflicts, highlighting The Mikado as the turning point in their collaboration that led to more Savoy operas from the two of them.
Featuring a soundtrack of fantastic operatic tunes, Topsy-Turvy was highly praised by critics back in 1999 for its meticulous attention to period details, earning it two Oscar nominations for design. Visually lush, extravagant and wryly funny, the film combines music with biographical drama to create a wildly entertaining account of two artists hashing it out to find complementary success.
Stream Topsy-Turvy now on HBO Max.
3. ‘Muppet Treasure Island’ (1996)
Our favorite fuzzy friends get together for this family-friendly take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, Treasure Island. The Muppets take to the seas in search of buried treasure alongside their human friend Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop), who has been given a mysterious treasure map by a dying sailor. Jim and his Muppet pals seek the booty while dealing with a mutinous cook (Tim Curry) who also wishes to get his hands on it.
With fantastic gags and well-staged, well-written musical numbers, Muppet Treasure Island is an entertaining and energetic take on the Stevenson classic. The film does a great job at seamlessly blending Muppet and human action, and while it is a children-focused film, it’s got plenty of charm, wit and humor that will go over the heads of kids and amuse the adults.
Stream Muppet Treasure Island now on Disney+.
2. ‘Cry-Baby’ (1990)
From the eccentric mind of John Waters comes this 1950s-set teen musical in which worlds collide to earth-shattering effect. Johnny Depp stars as juvenile delinquent Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker of the motorcycle-riding “drapes,” who falls in love with the sweet, all-American Allison (Amy Locane) of the “squares” in Baltimore, Maryland. Their coupling ripples outward, disturbing the social fabric of their society and everyone in it.
While Cry-Baby performed poorly at the box office, it went on to become a cult hit that served as the basis for a Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical. With Waters’ singular sense of humor and oddball aesthetics, he creates an unforgettable ode to youth rebellion pictures like Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One, as well as the subversion of norms that Waters is famous for. Wonderfully camp and filled with infectious musical numbers, Cry-Baby is a true cinema staple of the 1990s.
Rent Cry-Baby now on Amazon Prime Video.
1.’The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)
Halloweentown’s revered Pumpkin King Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon) is tired of scaring people in the name of Halloween, seeking something new from his same-old, same-old routine. When Jack accidentally travels into the world of Christmastown, he discovers Santa Claus, elves, Christmas trees and presents galore. Jack tries to bring the spirit of Christmas back to his world to decidedly mixed results, and chaos ensues.
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Producer Tim Burton and director Henry Selick’s classic stop-motion animated musical features stone-cold classic songs like “This is Halloween,” “What’s This?” and “Oogie Boogie’s Song” that will permanently lodge themselves into your brain. With ghoulish visual sensibilities to delight all horror and Halloween fans, it was also a smash with critics who fawned over the animation, story, characters and music. It is often considered one of the best animated films of all time, and who are we to argue with that?
Watch The Nightmare Before Christmas now on Disney+.
To be considered “the best,” these films and series can be visually engaging, intellectually stimulating or simply just fun to watch, but the one trait they must have is that they are all, in some way, entertaining. We then check which platform they are streaming on and how you can access them as a subscriber. No algorithm nonsense or paid endorsements here — our recommendations are based purely on our love and interest for the films and shows we love.
