Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

6/10

Starring

Forest Whitaker

Keegan-Michael Key

Anika Noni Rose

Madalen Mills

Ricky Martin

Directed by David E. Talbert

Jingle Jangle is a musical fantasy movie set for the festive periods and it tells the tale of a toymaker who falls into hard times and needs that tiny spark of hope to get back on his feet. That spark came from his beautiful granddaughter.

The movie has some fantastic musical numbers and the acting from all the cast is inviting to make you want to sit through the movie. The characters are memorable and the movie is well suited for the family and it will surely entertain.

The movie is both written and directed by filmaker David E. Talbert. I want to think he made this magical Christmas movie to stand in the same frame as the oldies which do not feature black folks in the forefront. The movie is not perfect, there are some pacing problems and it takes quite a while to finally get going, but regardless it is a nice movie.

Talbert’s movie starts in a toy shop of an inventor named Jeronicus. Jeronicus whole world were his inventions and his family, in this nice intro into his life we meet his young apprentice Gustafson who also wants to be as good as Jeronicus.

We can see Gustafson fail in one of his inventions and the store occupants laugh at him as they all crave the toys done by Jeronicus. A parcel arrives and we are brought closer into Jeronicus world as we watch him open this parcel which happens to be the missing thing for his new invention, a robot toy which can talk and move by itself. The invention produced a toy called Diego (voiced by Ricky Martin). Diego we immediately see is self absolved, vain and wants all the attention. When he finds out that Jeronicus has plans to make more of him, he was angry and jealous. He was able to poison and persuade the young naive Gustafson to steal Jeronicus book of inventions and the plans to make more of him.

That singular act ruined Jeronicus as it sucked him into a world where he wanted to get back on top. Reason being Gustafson (Keegan-Michael Key) started spinning out toys which Jeronicus (Forest Whitaker) has not yet made. Soon Jeronicus was no longer popular and he lost everything, even his family.

His daughter left him and we see Jeronicus at the mercy of the bank as he was about to lose everything. He gets a visit from his granddaughter, Journey (Madalen Mills) one day who was so curious to meet her grandfather. Journey was like her grandfather smart, inventive and full of life (like Jeronicus used to be).

Soon the pair were working together and against them is Gustafson and Diego who are still after anything new Jeronicus comes up with.

The movie is about how this pair of grandfather and granddaughter go up against the other pair of Gustafson and Diego.

The movie is very colorful and field with casts that deliver grand performances of their own.

You can catch this on Netflix.