If you’ve been noticing the melodies of showtunes and rhythm of intensely dancing feet echoing from somewhere within your television this holiday season, there’s no need to call for repairs. It’s just Netflix.
The streaming service has rung in Christmas this year with the release of 3 major musical productions: “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” “The Prom,” and “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.” Two are holiday-themed, two feature Keegan-Michael Key and today I’m looking at the one that sits in the heart of that bizarrely specific Venn Diagram: “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.”
“Jingle Jangle” follows the story of a brilliant toymaker and inventor – Jeronicus Jangle (played first by Justin Cromwell, then Forest Whitaker) – whose rise to greatness is brought to a sudden halt when his greatest creation, a living toy matador voiced by pop star Ricky Martin, coerces his loyal apprentice Gustafson into stealing the book of inventions.
Years later, Gustafson (now played by Keegan Michael-Key) is acclaimed world-wide as the greatest toy maker, with an empire built off his former mentor’s plans, while Jeronicus languishes alone in obscurity and financial ruin, having driven away his last remaining family - his daughter, - in grief after the death of his wife. The most excitement he finds these days is fending off the advances of the local, recently widowed postwoman Mrs. Johnston (Lisa Davina Philip) who is determined to win over the affections of the former inventor with the help of a pernicious trio of backup singers.
Everything changes when Jeronicus’ granddaughter, the brilliant, precocious Journey, comes to stay with him. Her eagerness for learning, innovation and genius young mind overflowing with optimism strike a chord with Jeronicus’ own youth – but that is a part of him he has long sense locked away. Journey is not so easily dissuaded, however, and a grand adventure begins.
The first thing to highlight about “Jingle Jangle” is the diversity of the cast. Among all of the timeless classics in the Christmas film canon, if they have one thing most plainly in common, it is that they are aggressively white. In fact, in the highest tier of the Christmas Movie Pantheon, only the reluctantly admitted Die Hard has more than one significant non-white character. In that, producer/director/writer David E. Talbert has taken a huge and refreshing leap forward in representation with this work.
The cast members themselves are all excellent on an individual level. Newcomer Madalen Mills thrives in Journey’s shoes as the heart and soul of the piece, driving the plot forward with a tenacious determination that bespeaks to the start of a promising career. Key, meanwhile, is clearly having a blast as the villainous Gustafson. His 2020 shift into musicals is as surprising as Jordan Peele’s shift to horror, but he’s shone both here and in "The Prom," and I look forward to seeing him sing and dance across the screen in what will hopefully be many more movie musicals to come.
The biggest stand-out however is Whitaker as Jeronicus. The Academy Award-winning actor is renowned for his serious, stern and intimidating performances, but he sheds all of that here in a delightful type-breaking performance. Beneath a carefully maintained gruff exterior he has erected to keep the world out, Whitaker's Jeronicus is at heart a stammering, goofy nerd; an aged, depressed Steve Urkel desperate to hide away his youthful hope for fear of being hurt again. It is a beautifully nuanced performance that grounds the piece, and his wry reactions to the musical-shenanigans erupting around him was the highlight of the movie for me. His chemistry with Phillip as Mrs. Jonston also sings, making their scenes together especially memorable.
It’s not all holly-and-ivy, though. The songs are upbeat and catchy, but lyrically shallow, often feeling like they were written by the same algorithm that churns motivational phrases into poppy, inspirational song and dance numbers for Disney Channel Original Movies. The film verges heavily into CGI territory that it does not have the budget to pull off. None of those weaker moments were necessary, and could have been easily reworked to spare distraction. Lastly, at two full hours, it feels overlong, tacking on an admittedly needed conclusion that pushes the runtime far beyond the climax.
In the end, however, all the gripes my cynically-inclined critic’s mind could conjure up weren’t enough to put a lid on the sheer joy that is bursting from every corner of Talbert’s work here. It may be a saccharine-sweet, in-your-face shotgun blast of holiday cheer, but it’s a family Christmas movie, and it delivers everything one expects from it in spades. For that, I can wholeheartedly recommend slipping “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” into your holiday watchlist.
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