But why or why not a musical?
Their reasons why it is a musical: the music drives the story, there are songs sung by the characters, etc.
My reasons why it is not: the film's storytelling is not musically driven. It's a straight film with songs input for biographical purposes. While the songs are emotionally attached to the character, they are not sung to express specific emotion for specific events relating directly to the character.
Agree? Disagree? I'm finding it hard to express my opinion.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle