Animated Musical

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One of the more well-known tropes associated with Western Animation, which was made and codified by Walt Disney. 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 macho 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 Ashman and Menken (previously best known for Little Shop of Horrors), with the juggernauts of The Little Mermaid, 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.

Examples of Animated Musical include:

• The majority of Disney films, which makes sense because they're both the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier.
  • The Princess and the Frog and Tangled would both count as a revival of this trope.
  • The Black Cauldron on the other hand, was the first Disney animated film not to be a musical.
• An American Tail
• Anastasia
• The original animated version of Asterix and Cleopatra, besides a lot of music, has three songs, which noticeable enough are not of the mentioned standards. The first revolves around Cleopatra taking a bath (in milk, no less), the second is Obelix dreaming about wild pigs and other good food, and the third involves the bad guys making a poisoned cake.
• Cats Don't Dance
• The Animated Adaptation of Charlotte's Web.
• The Fleischer Studios version of Gulliver's Travels.
• Happy Feet, which features singing penguins, even though the main character cannot sing at all (he tap-dances instead).
• Jem is a rare television series example, since every episode has three songs in it.
• Joseph: King of Dreams
• The Warner Bros version of The King and I.
• Every The Land Before Time sequel.
• Both "Madeline: Lost in Paris" and "My Fair Madeline", in addition to the Cinar-produced specials.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas, which also probably has the most songs of the trope — a whopping 10 when most Animated Musicals have five or six.
• The Animated Adaptation of Pippi Longstocking.
• The Prince of Egypt
• The Rankin Bass Christmas specials.
• Quest for Camelot
• The Swan Princess
• Thumbelina
• The animated version of Titanic.
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie, which is apparantly about Tom and Jerry mysteriously gaining the ability to talk and sing.
• The Brave Little Toaster. Sing along with a bunch of singing cars as they get crushed to death one by one!