You can't stop the beat!

"Sing, sing a song

sing out loud, sing out strong

sing of good things, not bad

sing of happy, not sad

sing, sing a song

make it simple

to last your whole life long

don't worry if it's not good enough

for anyone else to hear

just sing, sing a song"

- Perry Como

As a parent of a toddler, you watch a LOT of movies. Over and over and over again. Thankfully, kids movies are actually pretty good these days. But today I popped in a VHS for Luke (and yes, we do still own a VCR). We dug deep in the box of cinema relics and went vintage. Luke watched Beauty and the Beast for the very first time. From the moment the movie started I was hooked. I would venture to say that I was more in to it than he was. I started singing and I could not stop. I knew every word to every song, even after all these years. And this sing-along opened a flood gate of memories for me.

When I was in elementary school, my cousins and sister and I would put on plays in our garage for my parents. There was a curtain, costumes and even an intermission. But the main focus of the evening was always the music. We would sing (and act out) Disney movies. But when I say "sing" I really mean "lip sync" to the soundtrack CD. It was still pretty awesome.

Years later, I remember attending a college weekend at UMHB with my bestie, Sara, during our senior year of high school. It was our first solo trip without the parents and we were feeling pretty cool in our independence. I think we even stopped and got convenience store cappuccinos just to solidify our maturity. But what I also remember is that we were jamming out in the car, to the Lion King soundtrack (and maybe even some Little Mermaid).

You see, I love to sing. It brings immense joy to my heart to express myself through song. I am not, however, a song writer. It pains me to sit and think about lyrics and hooks and verses and all that jazz. Believe me, I've tried. My passion lies more in the music. I enjoy finding a song that completely expresses my mood and thing singing it as loud as I can. Or dancing to it.

For this reason, I absolutely adore musicals. Chicago blew my mind. I enjoyed it so much that I literally high kicked out of the theater (it's true, there were witnesses). I say all of this because I think it is sad that animated musicals have gone the way of the dodo bird. While kid's movies today are funnier than they used to be, they lack some of that musical magic. Music is so expressive and joyous and moving that I do not understand why the decision was made to stop the music. It was a very stupid decision.

I have one last memory to share with you readers before I end my soapbox on another pointless topic. In 2004, I went to Las Vegas with 3 of my girl friends. It was an absolutely amazing trip. There were plenty of sights to see and things to do, but what made the trip for me was all of the singing that we did. I brought a video camera and we videoed ourselves on a consistent basis during the trip. One of the things we did was spontaneous song. We all did it. The camera would start rolling and one of us would make up a song about what we were doing or where we were going. It was completely unscripted and very silly. I remember vividly a song about Treasure Island, a song about the Bellagio fountains and a song about Ziegfried and Roy's tigers. But my favorite part was the day we rode the tram to the Palms hotel and casino. The four of us sat in the back seat. The bus was pretty crowded and the faint sound of music was playing over the speakers. I asked the driver to turn it up and he kindly obliged. "My Girl" was playing on the radio and without hesitation I started singing along, quite loudly. Pretty soon my friends joined in and then when it got to the chorus I shouted,"everybody". And you would not believe this but over half the bus started singing the chorus to that song. People were clapping and singing along and it was one of the best moments of my life. When the bus stopped and the song was over, the whole bus cheered. It was a magical moment. Scratch that, it was a musical moment. For that tram ride, and during that trip, I got a small taste of what it would be like to live in a musical. And I have to say that it suited me just fine.

So Disney,
bring back the musical. Let animation be fun again.

Thank you.