Scrooge (Michael Caine) getting a gift from Beaker
There is something altogether perplexing that the Muppet version of Charles Dickson’s “The Christmas Carol” is regarded as the best film adaptation of the novel.
However if you take into account that The Muppets excel at blending heart-felt moments with artistry, innovation, and silliness then it’s not surprising. There also a clear reverence for the source material that is clear in making Gonzo the narrator that is refreshing as well as Michale Caine’s depiction of the crotchety, old miser turned upbeat generous gent bout town and his inspired acting choice of playing it completely dramatic against The Muppets.
All the pieces of this adaption work well, even the pretty darn historical accurate costumes.
But this post is a ranking of the songs from The Muppet Christmas Carol. The songs on the whole are very good and there is no single song that stands out as weak or bad. They are all really good.
But which song is the best?
That is subjective opinion. This ranking is my own opinion and your own may very well differ.
First issue, What is an “I want” song? Because it’s not a clear as a villain song. There seems to be a few guidelines like the protagonist or secondary protagonist sings about wanting something. Some of rankings I sampled listed songs that I wouldn’t personally consider an “I Want” songs but they do so they were counted. Like “Let it Go” do you think it counts? Also Love as a want, or is that a love song?
For this survey, I analyzed 30 different lists ranking Disney “I want” songs there is a big however though. I couldn’t find 30 lists of dedicated “I Want” songs. So generic ranking of Disney songs were used only considering songs that “fit” into the “I want” type. So if a song I personally don’t consider an “I Want” was ranked on one of those dedicated “I Want” list it was counted for this survey for those generic ranking of Disney songs. So for example if “Let it Go” was on a ranked list that that solely “I Want” list it was in the consideration pool. And let’s say, on a generic best Disney songs list it ranked 15th overall but was the third “I want” song from the top, it would ranked third for the sample.
Also reprises are tricky. One song I counted with the its reprise. Also there a bias towards older songs because of ages of some of these lists. This really impacts two songs.
Also I DID NOT add my own personal rankings to this list. What I did do was weighted mean. So if a song appeared on all 30 lists at 9th ranking it won’t rank as high as one that was on 80% but was consistency ranked in the top three. I also considered how many times a song ranked in each position. Again, I’m not a statistician, I just like doing these more objective lists and will mostly likely do more.
There was also a very clear winner early on which appeared on but two lists and was ranked #1 eighteen times. Try and Guess if you can. (Seriously, for real life, it’s not that hard)
So which of the Disney “I want” song made the cut? Did “Out There” make it? Is this just a list of Frozen songs*?
Without further Adieu, Here is the Statically Definitive Ranking of the Ten Best Disney I Want songs
Here’s the aged old question, Is Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a Halloween Movie or a Christmas Movie? I’d say it’s both! It’s a Holiday movie, watch it whenever you want.
So because it’s Halloween, The Spooky Season, as well as being 32th anniversary of the movie’s release, I’m going to rank the songs in order of personal preference.
On the whole I think the soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas is pretty solid and there is not one song that stands-out as being weaker than the rest but this ranking is based solely on my own taste and you can agree or disagree. Also as far as the movie goes I neither love it nor hate, I’m ambivalent about it.
Also I will reveal my favorite non-named citizen of Halloweentown as a bonus
