1. The Sound Of Music (1965)
The new Dreamgirls is a fine example of one kind of classic musical—all blast, bombast, and dazzle, suitable for bowling people over while they're actually in the theater. But will they walk out humming the songs? Probably not, because most of those songs require Beyoncé's melismatic range or Jennifer Hudson's deep, throaty voice to pull off, and the average audience member just doesn't have the professional pipes needed to play along. Sing-along-style musicals generally require catchy numbers with a more limited range—most famously, like The Sound Of Music, which is so easy to join in with that Sound Of Music sing-alongs, with special lyrics-inclusive prints of the film, are still a regular touring event. Granted, some of the lyrics get a little abstruse (what are the youngsters getting their first singing lesson music from "Do-Re-Mi" supposed to make of "The Lonely Goatherd"'s reference to "men in the midst of a table d'hôte"?), and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is an opera-level challenge, but virtually the entire rest of the film is one big, friendly communal chorus.
2. Mary Poppins (1964)
Julie Andrews movies could easily dominate this list if we didn't cut her off, but it wouldn't be fair to leave out her other currently touring sing-along movie, especially in light of classics like "Chim-Chim-Cheree," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and "A Spoonful Of Sugar." Mary Poppins has as many unmemorable clunkers as sing-along classics (anyone remember the words to "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank"?) but the best of the lot—including the very basic "Feed The Birds"—more than compensate.
3. Charlotte's Web (1973)
The original animated Charlotte's Web isn't as song-intensive as most musicals, but the songs that are there are catchy and do a lot with a limited musical range—particularly Charlotte's sweet lullaby "Mother Earth And Father Time" and her rousing encouragement "Chin Up." And Fern's ode to pig ownership, "There Must Be Something More," is a sentimental love song for any occasion. Really, they're all winners. Musicals like this help explain why, for so long, songs were an obligatory feature of kids' movies.
4. Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)
Before lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken moved on to making Disney movies memorable again, they wrote the songs for the stage-musical version of Roger Corman's Little Shop Of Horrors. It managed the film-to-play-to-film cycle before The Producers, and it's easier and more fun to sing, particularly on over-the-top goofs like "Skid Row" and "Suddenly, Seymour," which seem to be satirizing classical musicals and channeling them at the same time. It's harder to pull off triumphant Levi Stubbs numbers like "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" and "Suppertime," but the songs are so much fun that it's worth the effort.
5. The Little Mermaid (1989)
Speaking of Ashman and Menken, they had a run of success (and arguably, temporarily rescued the entire concept of the Disney animated feature) with The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, and Aladdin, but of the three, the former is the most compulsively singable. "Under The Sea" and "Kiss The Girl" are just plain infectious, and even "Part Of Your World"—the big, important number where the showy, octave-spanning bombast normally comes in—is manageable. It's harder to keep up with "Poor Unfortunate Souls," with its gravelly tone and busy lyrics, but few Disney songs are more enjoyable when it comes to getting your villain on.
6. Grease (1978)
Grease is another musical with a bunch of endless clunkers—"Greased Lightning" in particular goes on about an hour too long—but with compensations in the form of theater-rockers that seem actively designed as singalongs—particularly "Summer Nights," with its gender-split call-and-response, and "You're The One That I Want." (No, the hand-jive thing isn't obligatory.) "Beauty-School Dropout" and "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee," while in no way plot-crucial, are also giddy fun.
7. The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Classics like "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "We're Off To See The Wizard" meet amateur-singer-friendly songs like "If I Only Had A Brain" and "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead." Also, you totally get to do obnoxious Munchkin voices during the Lullabye League and Lollipop Guild verses of the Munchkinland medley.
8. The Muppet Movie (1979)
Did they ever figure out why there are so many songs about rainbows, and what's on the other side? For "Rainbow Connection" alone, The Muppet Movie would make this list, but really, all the songs Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher wrote for this film are friendly, good-natured, and memorable in that Muppety sort of way. "I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along" even makes misogyny adorable.
9. Godspell (1973)
Considerably more fun to sing than to actually watch, unless you're into archeological excavations of bad '70s clothing styles, Godspell is full of super-simple earworm compositions for kids—like "Day By Day" and "Prepare Ye," which are just the same lines over and over—with the occasional busy vaudeville rouser like "All For The Best" worked in. Possibly Stephen Schwartz thought the best way to win souls for Christ was to get them humming helplessly about Him.
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