History Main / MusicalWorldHypotheses

*** The first, "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind", is the VillainSong. It is a bit harder to determine. One thing is sure, it is not an Inner Monologue or the character speaking instead of singing: he mentions being singing, accompanies himself with a harp at one point, and the song is even interrupted and then resumes with Professor Ratigan telling his chorus of {{Mooks}} "And now, as you were singing..." It ''could'' still be diegetic: the song itself - a rather elaborate, off-the-cuff number - works within the context of the story because Professor Ratigan is just the sort of egotistical weirdo who would randomly stage a Broadway-style song and dance routine about how awesome he is. However, the books seem to answer to him in song as a natural thing, even though it's clear ''they'' couldn't have possibly practiced. And the harp mentioned earlier is also the only instrument seen at all. The orchestral background music's origin remains unknown.

* ''Fanfic/LightOfTheMoon'': When Rapunzel sings to herself about leaving the tower for the first time, Flynn seems confused as to why she's singing. Varian simply comments that
she does it a lot.

* Flavor 2, '''The All In Their Heads Hypothesis''': There is no singing; the songs are an artistic rendering of [[FantasySequence the characters' fantasies]], with the format of song in a way serving to distinguish between what really happens and what is only in the characters' heads, much like a [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] [[ThinkingOutLoud soliloquy.]] Naturally, this means that no characters are aware of what goes on in another character's song: there may be duets, but then they are {{Distant|Duet}} {{Counterpoint Duet}}s where the two characters do not know of one another's participation. This makes the musical more palatable for some, since there is obviously no literal singing involved in-universe. TiredAfterTheSong contradicts this because there's no way you can tire yourself out by imagining singing.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'': It's unclear for most of the songs, but "Kiss the Girl" is Diegetic, since Sebastian deliberately wrote the song to attempt to get Eric into a romantic mood.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'': While Creator/MauriceChevalier's title song is likely just to set the mood, "Scales and Arpeggios" and "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" are Diegetic, since the former is sung for a singing lesson, and the latter has its singers explicitly be musicians. "Thomas O'Malley Cat" is likely AlternateUniverse as an EstablishingCharacterMoment, since O'Malley isn't shown to musically inclined otherwise.

*** "Be Our Guest" is Alternate Universe-- Lumiere is explicitly singing, and Cogsworth tells him to stop.
*** "Gaston" is definitely a real conversation, but it's unknown if it's Alternate Universe or Adaptation. Same with the mob song.
*** "Something There" is explicitly All in Their Heads with Belle and Beast, since they're not even moving their lips; they're explicitly just thinking. The servants are speaking out loud, though this could be Alternate Universe or Adaptation.

** ''{{WesternAnimation/Pocahontas}}'' falls right under the 'Adaptation' label. "Colors of the Wind" notably is a representation of Pocahontas showing John Smith how great nature is, "Mine Mine Mine" is the settlers digging for gold and "If I Never Knew You" is really a conversation between John and Pocahontas.
** ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' is a mix of Diegetic, Adaptation, and AlternateUniverse. For the diegetic part, "Stand Out" and "[=I2I=]" are InUniverse pop songs, while "Lester's Possum Park" occurs during a show. "After Today" and "Nobody Else But You" happen with no explanation and may very well be mere representations of the singers' feelings and thoughts. "On the Open Road" is probably AlternateUniverse as Goofy starts singing it after noticing a beat in his car, explicitly tells Max to "sing along," and is heard humming it in the film's ending.

** ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh2011'': "Everything is Honey" is explicitly All in His Head, since Pooh is explicitly shown to be either hallucinating or dreaming. The Backson song is a real conversation, but it's unknown if it was sung in-universe or just spoken. The, "It's [name], it's [name], [name] wins the honey pot" song is Diegetic-- it's a song made up to congratulate the winner of a competition, and Eeyore sings the song to himself, meaning that he's aware it's a song.
** ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'', for the most part, falls into the Adaptation format. Anna clearly did spend many years asking Elsa to come out and play during "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and did argue with her about returning to Arendelle and the eternal winter she'd caused in the reprise of "For the First Time in Forever", even if there was no actual occurrence of singing in either case. Anna's duet with Hans, "Love Is An Open Door", probably would be this too, since the song involved Hans charming Anna into falling for him and presumably in actuality was done without singing. For "Fixer Upper," the trolls clearly prepared Anna and Kristoff for a wedding, and "In Summer" may really be Olaf simply discussing his fantasy for summer. The original "For the First Time in Forever" could be All In Their Heads as well: none of the servants take notice of Anna moving some of the salad plates, nor does anyone pay any attention to Anna singing as she travels down the railing of the bridge to the castle against the arriving guests. For Elsa's solo in that song, it could be argued that all of her lines, except for "Tell the guards to open up the gates!" are an internal monologue instead.
*** "Reindeer(s) Are Better than People", however, is clearly diegetic, as Anna explicitly comments on the song after it is done and the way it is presented implies that Kristoff sings this every night. Meanwhile, it's unknown how "Frozen Heart" fits, but it most likely fits as diegetic, as the singers are clearly sawing to the beat of the music and, as demonstrated by ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', it's perfectly normal to sing while working. ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'' implies that the iconic "Let It Go" is diegetic too. While it at first seems to be All in Elsa's Head because she's all by herself at the time, meaning that it's probably an inner monologue, the sequel has a scene of her [[OldShame cringing]] at a flashback of herself singing that song, implying that she ''did'' sing it in real time and come up with the lyrics on the fly. That said, perhaps she was cringing at having run away and built a castle rather than the actual song.
** The sequel, ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'', also mostly fits into the "Adaptation" bill. It's assumed that "Some Things Never Change" is merely the characters' thoughts on their current lives, "Into the Unknown" is Elsa's desires to seek out the origins of the voice (plus, there's a scene during the song in which Elsa throws open the windows and belts loudly into the air, and if she really was singing, all the Arendellians would have been woken up by the ruckus)[[note]]As loud as she is, the kingdom is far enough away from the castle to make it not an issue, and everyone ''does'' seem to get to their doors awfully quickly when her ice crystals clatter to the ground[[/note]], "When I Am Older" is Olaf's attempts to stay sane despite being surrounded by the elemental spirits, "Lost in the Woods" is Kristoff's fantasy showing his opinion of his romance with Anna, "Show Yourself" is Elsa's elation in finally finding Ahtohallan, and "The Next Right Thing" is Anna finding the courage inside herself. The voice Elsa keeps hearing, however, is diegetic, as is "All is Found", the lullaby Queen Iduna sings.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' acts as a Musical Universe, but unlike most Disney films it indulges in LampshadeHanging about it. Maui continues humming "You're Welcome" to himself even after the song is over (and later brings back the tune for a MadnessMantra of sorts), and "Shiny" is explicitly done "in song form" with Tamatoa asking the heroes if they liked it afterward. Maui also comments at one point that if Moana breaks into song, he's going to throw up. "We Know The Way", on the other hand, could be All in Moana's Head as she's given a spirit vision of her ancestors; but then again, it's a Musical Universe so her ancestors might well have actually sung that. Likewise, "How Far I'll Go" may or may not be All In Her Head giving voice to her internal struggle, since she only sings to herself and nobody else takes notice. The only one that ''can't'' be justified by the Musical Universe is "Where You Are", as it's an AgeProgressionSong and therefore an Adaptation.
** ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'' takes the Adaptation Hypothesis when Vanellope sings about her feelings and desire to stay with the Slaughter Race characters. The trope is also [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Vanellope learns about all the things that come with it, including mood lighting and background music among other things.

*** "The Family Madrigal" is either Musical Universe or Diegetic where the song is actually happening. When Mirabel tries to end it before she gets to an embarrassing bit, the camera cuts to a previously-unseen band who keeps the music going and urges her to continue, forcing her to scramble to improvise.

*** "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum" is also unknown, since while Doc really is explaining to the other dwarfs how to wash, it could have just been a conversation in-universe. The noises the dwarfs were making (which, despite the title, sound more like "brrr") were real, but they weren't sung, even during the number.

*** "Whistle While You Work" is Alternate Universe, since Snow White improvised a song to [[MusicalChores entertain herself while cleaning up]].

** ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'': While the intro song is unknown, "Scales and Arpeggios" and "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" are Diegetic, since the former was sung for a singing lesson, and the latter has its singers explicitly be musicians.