A Million Dreams – Analysis
A million dreams for the posts we’re gonna make. It was different to type this one out because it being a montage, there were so many visual elements to get hold of. You really learn a lot about the character (pasts, beliefs, goals) and journey through their childhood in just the span of a song. Nothing will ever measure to Up’s Married Life, but this one I really like the strong moments of action and dialogue in between.
One line I especially love is from Charity’s father, “Sooner or later she will get tired of your life of having nothing, and she will keep running back home.” So many levels on that one.
Lyric Analysis
I close my eyes and I can see
Paradox; and word effect that, the rules of the real world are blinding and binding, whereas dreamworld is colourful and liberating
A world that’s waiting up for me
Does this make him sound entitled, or visionary?
That I call my own
Hinting at Barnum’s overambition, but also eventually re-finding his place in his family
Through the dark, through the door
Are we exiting from a dark, locked tower into the bright world—or, are we entering a home?
Later on, Barnum escorts his family through the doors of their childhood mansion—his dream.
Through where no one’s been before
But it feels like home
Video: Barnum is promising Charity a mansion home, but Charity just sees a home that might just so happen to be a mansion or an apartment
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind
“When the sharpest words want to cut me down”~
I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy
So Barnum embraces his title, ‘Prince of Humbug’
We can live in a world that we design
If reality is flawed, then we can “rewrite the stars”~
Video: Barnum extends his hand to Charity—from out of the shrouded bush—to join his world
First time the word “we” is used: Barnum invites Charity to break the bonds of both their castes together with him—and later extends that invitation to even more people in the next song!
‘Cause every night I lie in bed
Much later, Barnum “tells lies” in the presence of his home/bed; getting his dreams, albeit selfish ones
The brightest colours fill my head
Bright colours are a nice imagery for dreams—but, the dreams are still an imagination, as the mansion that they’re in now is still dark
A million dreams are keeping me awake
You can’t dream when you’re awake, yet day-dreaming keeps you from going back to sleep
-> When you dream, you’re not dead in your sleep
Dreams make you restless—it necessitates your attention and reaction
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
Important line here. Won’t say why. See below.
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
There’s a house we can build
- Build/Nurture/Choice over Inherit/Nature/Caste
- I grew up with a fridge magnet that reads: “Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home”
- Barnum is building both his family and his circus (and his career)
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
Barnum fills his circus with crazy outlandish people…
The special things I compile
…but they’re all special, as Barnum personally recruits, inspires, moulds and encourages them
Each one there to make you smile
But it was always for her. At least, it’s supposed to be.
On a rainy day
Just as a house keeps you dry, a home keeps you accepted for you are—even when the roof leaks, a home will keep you laughing and smiling
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say we’ve lost our minds
Now that Charity has partaken in his deal, she’s being called crazy too
I don’t care, I don’t care if they call us crazy
V: Despite the stars separating the two, Barnum finds a way to write letters to Charity…
Run away to a world that we design
…and beautifully paralleled in the next line, Charity believes in him enough to follow suit, writing letters back
Every night I lie in bed
V: Barnum’s father is literally lying on his deathbed, unable to rewrite his own stars
The brightest colours fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
V: After his dad dies, his desperation to escape poverty grows, turning to… more crime
V: I want to highlight that Barnum’s top hat is the same hat from his late father. Important for later.
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
V: the vendor takes back his bread. That’s it, hah
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
Video: in contrast, a deformed woman is the one inviting him into her dream: a dream where outcasts help each other out and give each other a family
Every night I lie in bed
V: Time jump. They’re adults now, but they’re together.
The brightest colours fill my head
V: Barnum’s face is glowing from the lights of a candlelight dinner of a fancy diner window
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
V: The duo are dancing in a fog, where the vision is hazy, risky and unsure like a Tightrope
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
V: By proposing, Barnum’s dream and world is now his family. And that’s all she ever wanted.
However big, however small
Let me be part of it all
Share your dreams with me
V: Charity realizes his dream of a candlelight dinner with a simple picnic blanket in their living room… with many more candles than an expensive candlelight dinner… with the HUGE sunlight pouring in through the windows. This is A Million Dreams, already fulfilled.
You may be right, you may be wrong
But say that you’ll bring me along
To the world you see
To the world I close my eyes to see
V: Charity is caught by Barnum from falling. She closes her eyes, trusting in his dream and in him
This is also the first line they sing together, as their dreams should involve one another
I close my eyes to see
Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colours fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
V: MBAS, Barnum is in darkness while Charity is illuminated. Charity has already found her dream of family, but Barnum hasn’t gotten his mansions
A million dreams, a million dreams
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
V: Again with the trust exercise!
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
V: Camera pans to show she’s preggos, their “world” being their family
For the world we’re gonna make
Common Motifs
“I have a dream that urges me…”
I close my eyes and I can see
But it feels like home
Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
“..it’s MY dream…”
A world that’s waiting up for me
That I call my own
…the brightest colours fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
A vision of the one I see
“…it’s peculiar, defying reality.”
Through the dark, through the door
Through where no one’s been before
They can say it all sounds crazy
They can say I’ve lost my mind
…so call me crazy
…a world that we design
…the brightest colours fill my head
Every room inside is filled, with things from far away
The special things I compile…
To the world I close my eyes to see
“So others will mock, but I’ll still dream…”
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind
Run away to a world that we design
“…I will realise my dream…”
I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design
I think of what the world could be
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
“…sharing it together with you…”
But it feels like home
We can live in a world that we design
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
There’s a house we can build
…each one there to make you smile
They can say “I” lost my mind >> “We” lost our minds
Run away to a world that we design
Let me be part of it all
Share your dreams with me
But say that you’ll bring me along
“…no matter how it looks like.”
…on a rainy day
However big, however small
You may be right, you may be wrong
In-Universe Imagery
Barnum
- A dreamer who thinks it’s possible to have a future where caste is irrelevant
The world
- A lucrative business, a platform to achieve one’s dreams, be it a circus or a singer, or family
- Barnum’s dream fulfilled, an unrecognizable landscape from the world he’s in right now
- “I will give [your daughter] a life [world] as grand as this one.”
- Barnum’s real family
- You have to redesign the harsh, cruel world if you want it your way; ironically, Barnum already has exactly the world he’s been dreaming of.
“They”
- Charity’s father
- Society itself, really
- Even they themselves recognize how crazy (but not impossible) it is to defy social class
The door of the house/room
- The gateway between a dark interior to a colorful world
- The gateway between being homeless to being part of a family
The house
- A literal family, accepting members no matter how far away they have drifted
- The circus family that accepts all kinds of “special things” from far away
- has to be built
The shrouded bush and the fog
- the “blind” risk and uncertainty in daring to trust, surrender to and follow another’s dream
The Medium
- A really nice montage that I think highlights that even throughout the storms, though environments and others have tried to restrict them; Barnum and Charity have defied odds, that they can really rewrite the stars and make their dreams come true
- Joining voices in the last chorus shows how their dreams are aligned (but are they really?)
What’s the name about?
Why must it take a million dreams, and not nine hundred thousand?
Why so many, and for what?
Reflection
Storywriting. In Asian countries such as my own, the arts take a back seat in favour of science. Like so many around me, I’ve been on the path of science so far. But every time I close my eyes, the brightest colours of story seem to demand my attention. A key quote, a lyrical phrase, an element, a motif. It keeps me awake at night, distracted in the day.
Pursuing this successfully… in truth, it does sound crazy. Juggling computer science with storywriting, it’s definitely a dreamworld. A world that’s gotta be designed from scratch.
But the dream is too loud. So I have to.
Great thing is, this home that I’ve found, this dream I’m realising – I can share it with y’all. And no matter how crazy it may be for you, at least we’re being called crazy together.
That’s the thing about having a dream. It pulls at you, it’s weird, people will scorn. But it’s yours. So chase them, and share them with others! (I didn’t have to ask and friend #2 told me she recently went through the entire soundtrack and loved it) Do you have such a dream?
Q: What dream keeps you awake at night and fills your dreams? What are you going to do about it?