Movies That Weren't Supposed To Be Musicals

The musical movie literally goes back as far as the modern movie industry itself, as the very first movie with synchronized sound — called then a "talkie" — was "The Jazz Singer," a musical starring singer and actor Al Jolson. A landmark film, it kicked off not just sound movies, but musicals as well, and they've never stopped entertaining audiences in the intervening century.

The musical arguably had its heyday in the 1950s and '60s with a string of greats, many adapted from Broadway favorites like "The Sound of Music," "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story." Musicals have crossed every storytelling genre, from serious dramas to lighthearted comedies, including kids' films and cartoons. Animation has been where the musical has thrived for decades, with family-friendly cartoon films using musical numbers to punctuate their lively adventures.

But not all musicals started out that way. Every so often, a movie changes in its development process, and the director or studio decides it needs a little singing and dancing to liven things up. Some of these movies have gone on to become all-time classics, and it's hard to think of them without their iconic songs. But believe it or not, we've found 12 movies that weren't always supposed to be musicals.

In the 1950s there was no bigger musician in the world than Elvis Presley, arguably the world's first rock 'n' roll star, who would go on to be crowned king of the emerging genre. As is so often the case with mega music stars, taking the handsome and charismatic rocker to the big screen must have seemed like the next logical step, and that's exactly where Elvis went.

Landing the same year as his first studio album, "Elvis Presley," was his acting debut, "Love Me Tender." But while the film starred the future American icon, making the film a musical wasn't always the intention. With Presley not even being top-billed in the film, the movie was only supposed to have one song from the King, according to the book "Elvis For Dummies." But thanks to his rising popularity, producers wanted to attract his growing throngs of fans and boost his role in the film, so adding several more songs seemed like the perfect way to do it.

Unfortunately, this also meant compromising the integrity of the film, as Presley's contemporary rock style didn't quite fit the Civil War period in which the movie was set. Swaying his hips and crooning to a fast beat weren't exactly in line with the somber romantic drama or the era, but that hardly mattered to Elvis fans. The title track "Love Me Tender," however, lined up nicely and was released as a single, reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.

Some of the best and most beloved musicals of all time are often and understandably known for their iconic songs. This is certainly true of Walt Disney's 1991 animated classic "Beauty and the Beast," which just would not be the same without such memorable musical numbers as "Be Our Guest." The song showcases the surprising singing talents of television stars Jerry Orbach ("Law & Order") and Angela Lansbury ("Murder She Wrote"). But if it had been up to the film's original director Richard Purdum, it would have been a very different movie, and would not have featured any songs at all.

In a look back at what almost was by HuffPost in 2016, it's revealed that the original idea for the film was a much darker — and more faithful — adaptation of the original 18th-century fairy tale that the movie is based on. In addition to eyeing Woody Allen for the role of LeFou, the story would have been much more serious and was never intended to include any musical numbers. Thankfully, Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who'd had overwhelming success turning "The Little Mermaid" into a rousing musical in 1989, fired Purdum and overhauled "Beauty and the Beast" to be a fantasy musical, hiring new directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise as replacements. He then turned to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman — who'd both worked on "The Little Mermaid" — to pen a number of songs, and the rest is history. 

Traveling back in time to the 1960s, we have "The Happiest Millionaire," another Disney musical, this time of the live-action variety. It starred Fred MacMurray, one of the biggest Disney stars of the day, who'd appeared in both "The Absent-Minded Professor" and "The Shaggy Dog." Though not well-received by critics, it's been a favorite of audiences for decades, but like every other entry on this list, it wasn't always destined to be a musical. 

Following the overwhelming success of "Mary Poppins" in 1964, however, Disney wondered if they could elevate another musical film to big bucks at the box office. They searched around their projects in development and found "The Happiest Millionaire," which they believed could be just the ticket. Famed brothers and veteran song scribes Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman — who had done music for "Mary Poppins" — were brought in forthwith, and the film was quickly granted a whole host of singing and dancing scenes to complement its flight of fancy.

A period piece set at the turn of the 20th century, "The Happiest Millionaire" centered on an eccentric socialite and his many wild antics. In spite of their best efforts though, the film never did become the follow-up hit to "Mary Poppins" that the studio had hoped.

At this point, maybe Disney should stop denying the inevitable and just start out with every movie planned to be a musical. Because yet another Disney musical classic, "The Lion King," was originally developed with no intention of including its now-iconic music sequences like "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." And what would the movie have been without the singing and dancing of "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" and "Hakuna Matata"? Well, if it had been up to the writers of the first few drafts, it actually would have been more like an animated "National Geographic" special.

In fact, when Disney approached composer Hans Zimmer about scoring the film, he was promised that "The Lion King" wouldn't be a musical, something he had no interest in being a part of. "I said I don't want to do a musical, I hate musicals," Zimmer told the Associated Press in 2019. "And they said, we'll guarantee you this will not become a musical ever." Insert smash cut.

As the movie took shape, it slowly morphed into just that, thanks to incoming director Roger Allers and Disney head honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg. Lyricist Tim Rice was assigned the task of filling out the song list, and after an aborted attempt at hiring ABBA (via Polygon), the job finally fell to British icon Elton John. Ultimately, both John and Zimmer would win Academy Awards for their music on "The Lion King."

"Moondance," a little-seen indie romance from writer, director, producer, and star Cooper Flannigan, debuted in 2020. The little-known Chicagoland filmmaker took the bold and rare step of making a low-budget musical. "Moondance" is the story of a would-be composer (Flannigan) suffering from a serious case of writer's block who finds his muse in a dancer named Abby (Carolyn Pampalone Rabbers). But if you think that just because it's a low-budget indie film, it didn't have a complicated development, think again, as Flannigan never meant for it to be a musical when he initially dreamt it up.

"It wasn't originally a musical, it was just a fun movie," Flannigan told the Spokes podcast. "The experience of writing it was kind of an exercise, and every time I'd come to a problem in the script, [I'd think] 'What's the most outrageous way I can solve this problem?'" As you can imagine, when one particular problem arose, Flannigan had a stroke of genius: "a giant dream sequence musical number."

Though Flannigan had studied musicals in film school, it was never anything that had particularly interested him, and he had never worked on one professionally. Yet here he was, finding himself putting together a song for his next project. "Within a couple of months, the whole movie had turned into a musical."

"Smallfoot" is a star-studded CG-animated musical from 2018 that features Channing Tatum, Zendaya, James Corden, and Danny Devito. It tells the story of a boy named Percy (Corden) who befriends a fabled Himalayan yeti (Tatum). But the shoe is on the other foot for Percy, as the Yeti have all believed that humans were little more than myths. A big hit with critics and at the box office, if it comes as a surprise to learn it wasn't originally a musical, know that the fact that it became one was even more unexpected for the cast, who had no idea they'd be singing when they signed on.

"We had cast most of it, and as we were looking at it with [Warner Bros.]," director Karey Kirkpatrick said. "We started talking about what really elevates animated movies. And music can elevate things emotionally, satirically, dramatically in a way that sometimes a scene can't. And particularly in animation." Transforming "Smallfoot" into a musical must have always been a consideration for Kirkpatrick, who previously helped write the music-heavy animated films "James and the Giant Peach" and "The Smurfs 2." He also co-wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Something Rotten!" with his brother, Wayne, in addition to co-writing the book, so it wasn't hard to make the call to convert "Smallfoot" to a singing, dancing adventure.

"It was a shock to me," Tatum told Yahoo during a Facebook Live interview. Tatum seemed at least a little miffed, having also been swindled into singing once before for the Coen brothers' film "Hail Caesar," telling Yahoo, "They got me the same exact way."