Best Sing-a-Long Movies to Watch With Family & Friends

There are a lot of celebrations around this time of year, along with the regular string of birthdays the Winter holidays gives us a lot of opportunities to get together with family and friends. The more musically inclined of us know one of the best parties you can throw is a good old-fashioned movie sing-a-long, getting on the beers, grabbing your snacks and drunkenly belting along to musical movies. However, choosing the right film is a little more tricky than one would think.

While there are myriad musical movies, both original and adapted from the stage, it’s best to choose a film that is easy for people with varying skill levels to sing, we’re not all Idina Menzel, after all. So, with the knowledge that I’ve likely missed a lot of contenders, here are ten recommendations of films that are a little lower on plot but high on good tunes and good times.

RELATED: The 10 Merriest Musical Numbers In Christmas Movies

Mamma Mia (2008)

This film really split audiences when it was first released, many disregarding it as a stupid chick-flick and being especially unkind to Pierce Brosnan who wasn’t the best singer. Time has been kind to Mamma Mia, however, with many looking back on the film over a decade later with fondness.

The story is cute and at times incredibly heartfelt as we watch Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) find her true family in a beautiful Greek hotel, and it’s filled with the greatest hits of one of the greatest pop bands of all time: ABBA. You can trust that you can belt most of these songs, know them off by heart, and sing them well within range. This is a great film to sing along to with friends and family alike, it’s cute, harmless, funny, and filled with classic songs from the Swedish superstars.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

This film is a little less than family friendly, but it’s also one of the greatest cult musicals of all time. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and its rabid fan-base is on the foundation of watch-a-longs. Going to a cinema with your fellow Rocky Horror fans, having moments of call-and-response, and of course doing The Time Warp as you watch career best performances by Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Meat Loaf.

While you may not have a cinema to throw rice and toilet paper in, you can have all the fun of a shadow cast at home with your theater geek friends. This film is a crazy ride from start to finish, one of the invigorating musical movies of the 1970s that revitalized the genre, and while similar movies such as Cabaret and Jesus Christ Superstar are also winners, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has the perfect balance of catchy, easily singable tunes and irreverent comedy.

Mulan (1998)

It was incredibly difficult to choose only one Disney film for this list, the studio is responsible for some of the greatest animated musicals of all time, enough to clog the list ten times over. Mulan is my personal recommendation for deceptively simple reasons, first of all the songs are in a very easy and even diverse singing range, as good as Frozen is, many of us couldn’t make it through “Let It Go” without pulling our vocal cords. It also has the most fun and action packed story, rather than one that’s more dramatic or emotional, with a lot of comedic moments in between.

Even when not comparing it to other Disney musicals, Mulan has “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” accompanying one of the most invigorating on-screen training montages, along with the high drama of “Reflection,” the goofy comedy of “A Girl Worth Fighting For,” this film doesn’t stall for a single moment.

Grease (1978)

This is a film that is so obvious it’s not even worth mentioning, but you can’t have a list of sing-a-long films without the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John lead sensation. It’s a high school love story in a heavily romanticized version of the 1950s which rides a wave of nostalgia straight into the sun. The plot hardly matters in this film, and if you look too much into it, you start to poke some serious holes in it, but that doesn’t make Grease any less fun.

The song and dance sequences practically carry this movie, with songs that broke past their own cinematic barriers to become hits in their own right, the words to “Summer Nights” and “You’re The One That I Want” are burned into the brains of many. Grab your friends, turn your brains off, and just have a good time with this one.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

A nerdy florist (Rick Moranis) with a crush on his coworker (Ellen Greene), purchases a plant (Levi Stubbs) that hungers for human flesh, grows rapidly, and aims to take over the world. This film is high cult silliness, filled with incredible puppetry, evil dentists played by Steve Martin, and a soundtrack full of some of the best work of the legendary Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

This really is the perfect crossroad for your horror and musical-loving friends, an opportunity for all shades of geekdom to come together for a wildly good time on Skid Row, no matter which ending you decide to watch.

West Side Story (1961)

Even if you’re not a fan of musicals, you cannot deny the greatness of Jerome Robbin’s and Robert Wise’s 1961 adaptation of this high octane, incredibly entertaining musical. Based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, it’s a tale we all know too well at this point. Even 60 years later, West Side Story makes this well trodden ground feel fresh and new.

Much of this is owed to the soundtrack, created by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, responsible in their own right for some of the greatest musicals of all time, but together they made something truly legendary. Definitely a sing-a-long for those more musically inclined, but even if you’re not, this film is too good to be disregarded.

Hairspray (2007)

It’s really saying something when a movie is the best out of an era where very good ones were coming out, and the 2000s saw a massive resurgence of interest for musical movies and theatre adaptations. Adapted from the stage musical, which was in turn adapted from the John Waters film of the same name, Hairspray tackles racial intergration in 1960s Baltimore. While in concept this seems like it could get pretty dour, Hairspray instead is campy and fun while not taking away from the lessons they’re looking to teach.

I am absolutely guilty of having all the parts of Without Love being played by myself alone in my room, it has one of the best villain songs in “(The Legend Of) Miss Baltimore Crabs,” and a great finale in “You Can’t Stop The Beat.” This movie has all you need for a fun sing-a-long night, as long as you have your dancing shoes on.

The Muppet Movie (1979)

While we’re all talking about another Muppet film this time of the year, especially with its 30th Anniversary this year, and while The Muppet Christmas Carol is absolutely a contender for this list, you never forget your first. It follows Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) on his quest to find a place in Hollywood for him and his muppet friends, featuring a lot of celebrity cameos such as the aforementioned Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, and Orson Welles. Because who doesn’t want to sing along with The Muppets?

The music was done by Paul Williams, who would return to write music for The Muppet Christmas Carol, and along with Kenneth Ascher they made songs that are still legendary to this day. “Rainbow Connection” alone is worthy of high praise, but this film is full of catchy, blissful 70s music, along with the same muppet creativity and humor you’ve come to expect.

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

You can’t have a list of Sing-A-Long movies without at least one from Hollywood’s Golden Age, and this is by far the most iconic of Gene Kelly’s song and dance sensation. Set during the shaky transition from silent cinema to talkies, film production and finding love in Hollywood. Even if you don’t feel like singing “Moses” or “Good Morning,” you can sit back and watch the incredible dance sequences and have just as good of a time.

This is one that’s good for the whole family, harmless, wholesome and deeply romantic. We all know the title song, and how much it gives you the warm and fuzzies every time you hear it, but every tune will plant ear-worms into your brain and leave you humming long after the movie is over.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

This one you definitely shouldn’t watch with your grandparents, that can be said for most anything Trey Parker and Matt Stone have created unless your grandparents are super chill. The Book of Mormon was certainly not the first musical venture by the duo, creating Team America: World Police, and before that the film for their hit TV show which is both a middle finger to the censors and a love letter to musicals.

This film is about as wild, gross, and raunchy as one can expect from South Park, tackling the themes of censorship and parental supervision through, what else, catchy musical numbers. A war on Canada, a trip to Hell, and a bunch of curse word laced songs that shows us why South Park has endured as long as it has. Knock back a couple beers with your friends, try to follow the lyrics to “Kyle’s Mom’s a Big Fat B*tch,” and laugh along to one of the best movies adapted from an animated series.