Movie Breakdown: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Pre-Screening Stance:
Considering that I’ve already put up Christmas lights around my house, yeah, I’m ready for a movie like Jingle Jangle. Here’s to the holidays, folks.
Post-Screening Ramble:
I really wanted to like Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey – it’s thoroughly wholesome, plus it’s the first big holiday film of the year to be released. Unfortunately though, it just doesn’t do enough to be anything more than one of those movies you put on in the background while you wrap presents.
The story follows Jeronicus Jangle (Justin Cornwell / Forest Whitaker), a once glorious toy maker who fell into obscurity after his apprentice, Guftofson (Miles Barrow / Keegan-Michael Key), stole his book of designs and his most advanced creation (a talking toy named Don Juan Diego, voiced by Ricky Martin). As if that wasn’t bad enough, his pawn shop (formerly a toy store) is about to be taken by the bank and an intrepid young girl (Madalen Mills) claiming to be his granddaughter just barged into his life. Also, Guftofson has run out of designs, so he’s on the hunt for one more from Jangle. It’s a perfect storm!
To be fair, I actually did like the story here, but it just goes on for too long. In between its handful of worthwhile moments, there are a lot of musical numbers and plot points that are very much filler, which in turn bloats the runtime to just over two hours. At one point I paused the movie and my wife exclaimed “there’s an hour left?!” and then she promptly bowed out in favor of another activity. This film should not have been longer than 90 minutes or so.
Jingle Jangle is far from awful, what with its talented cast, a couple of catchy songs (Guftofson’s main one is a jam), a dialed holiday vibe and a good story at its core, but it completely fails at being an engaging experience. This hollow affair will hit Netflix on Friday.
One Last Thought:
There’s no way whatsoever that I would want the Don Juan Diego toy that Jeronicus Jangle creates at the start of the film. It’s ALIVE. How terrifying. Can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night and it’s just … there, staring at you, thinking about you, plotting against you.
