MovieChat Forums > Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2000) Discussion > Any Dream Will Do - Song Meaning?

Any Dream Will Do - Song Meaning?

posted 18 years ago by Influence2009
5 replies | jump to latest

I was just curious what anyone thought the song "Any Dream Will Do" meant? I mean beyond just the Joesph references.

I always looked at the song as a way of sort of saying..

It does not matter what you want out of life, as long as you want something, instead of just doing nothing. Any thing you want will do. In other words, Any dream will do.

Beyond that, the first lines, "I pulled back the curtain. To see for certain, what I thought I knew." I think this line also has a deeper meaning, or could if you wanted to apply a deeper meaning to it. (IE - I stopped viewing the world the way I did, to see for certain if it was really the way I thought it once was, or if it was something different all together.)

Anyone else have any ideas about song meaning?

[–] BecauseIWantYou 18 years ago

I've watched this movie many many many times and I've been wondering the same thing, but here's my take on it:

Since there are 2 versions of the song, I think the first is kind of a prophecy (did I spell that right?). Joseph had the ability to interpret dreams, and I think it was a kind of foreseeing into the future. Things hadn't started to go downhill yet, but at the same time he could see that something was going to go wrong.

The second one, when he's reunited with his father, is now that he's a grown man and been exposed to a world very unlike the secure one that he grew up in, he's more mature and understands that he is not the center of everyone's universe. He's looking back on the life he once led and he's almost conparing it to the life he now leads.

I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.

[–] laurence01 18 years ago

Only problem there is that the version at the begining was not added till about 23 years after the show was written

[–] Jessaly 18 years ago

I actually never thought of that at all. Which is weird, since I've been watching and listening to this for years now.

[–] musicalgal123 17 years ago

I've also thought about this. I believe that it was written as another dream. The first time he sings it, he's just singing about the dream he saw. The second time he sings it, he finally has understood it. I believe it was a way to foreshadow the darker moments in the show, while still following the theme of interpreting dreams.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time given us - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

[–] bens33 11 years ago

I think you are right. The Narrator even says that some people just float thru life, while others follow their dreams and have focus. The song being sung at the beginning and the finale, bookends the show. Joseph seeing the coat makes him realize that his life, together with all the suffering he went thru, had a purpose.