Jingle Jangle Review

Source: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020) (imdb.com)

Deck the Hall with boughs of holly because it is now officially Christmas! Well December, which in turn means Christmas! So bring on the festive films!

While I intend to watch as many as I can, just like I did for Halloween (we'll see how that goes), I've now crossed a new one off the list: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, the new original Christmas musical that has made a splash on Netflix recently. 

The new film produced by John Lennon follows a genius inventor who after his apprentice steals his work, loses everything. Fast forward several decades, can his optimistic granddaughter bring the shop back to what it used to be, and restore his belief in a bit of magic. 

So yes it does have a good few old-fashioned Christmas tropes in, but there is something about it that makes it feel different from the carboard cut-outs. 

Like The Greatest Showman, this film mixes the Victoria era with the modern, mostly in its music. As it features a mostly African-American and Black-British cast, there's a lot of soul-type numbers in mixed with the classic musical theatre style. There's even a reggae song with Grandpa Me Nie' (Aswe Jingle Jangle Remix) happening during a snowball fight. 

Madalen Mills is enchanting as Journey, and Anika-Noni Rose steals every scene she's in as her mother Jessica. For theatre nerds like me, look out for "current" London Eliza Hamilton Sharon Rose, and also Marisha Wallace (Waitress, Dreamgirls), who is Ms Johnston's singing voice, among the cast.  

This is only a quick one as if you think you'll enjoy this, just watch it. It's not perfect by all means, the pacing can be a bit off, I secretly wish for a bit more action, and Keegan Micheal-Key's villain was a bit off for me; but it IS an incredibly fun Christmas film with a twist. 

Now like I said... It's Christmas!!! Bring on the mince pies!!!!