Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey – Jeronicus Jangle is an amazing inventor, his ability to bring life into fantastic toys is magical but, when his ideas are stolen, his life falls apart and puts him into a deep depression. Many years later, with his shop on the verge of being taken by the bank, his granddaughter, Journey, turns up on his doorstep. With an inventive mind just like he used to have, can Journey pull him out of his funk and get him to believe in himself again? 

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020) – Director: David E. Talbert

Rating: PG

Running Length: 124 mins

Starring: Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Madalen Mills 

Genre: Christmas, Drama, Musical

REVIEW: ‘JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY’

With the age-old trope of children gathering round a wise old person to be told an exciting but thought-provoking story from an oversized book, ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ has strong beginnings. Set in such a wonderfully whimsical backdrop as the ‘Jangle & Things’ toy shop filled with numerous fascinating inventions flying around the packed store, add a musical framework with songs such as the genuinely fun, toe-tapping number ‘This Day’ and mix in a dance routine to rival anything out of ‘The Greatest Showman‘, this was a movie I had high hopes for.

Sadly, things begin to go downhill fast once Jeronicus Jangle (Justin Cornwell and later Forest Whitaker), inventor extraordinaire, is betrayed by his long-suffering apprentice, Gustafson (Miles Barrow and later Keegan-Michael Key). Honestly, from the way Jangle ignores, and dismisses Gustafson, it is no surprise that he gets fed up! He is easily swayed by newly created sentient toy, Don Juan Diego (Ricky Martin) who, despite his selfish and arrogant personality is understandably horrified that he is to just become one of millions of identical sentient matadors. So while stealing Jangle’s book of inventions rightly puts the pair into villain territory, it’s hard to entirely sympathise with Jeronicus as the movie seems to want us to!

What gets established early is that Jeronicus is an incredible inventor. His daughter Jessica follows closely in his footsteps and later, Jessica’s daughter, Journey (Aha! The movie’s subtitle now make sense!) is no different. What makes the Jangle family inventions super special are vague, twee, and ultimately meaningless phrases like ‘the square root of possible’. Of course, certain things only work with ‘belief’; whatever that means. These things could just about work as ‘Jingle Jangle’ is a kids’ Christmas movie and all but the movie becomes too dull shortly after the first toe-tapping number.

Sure, the last 20 minutes ramp up the action but the middle flab of the movie is thickly spread whimsy loaded with cringeworthy saccharine ‘moments’ lifted from the generic of greetings cards. It doesn’t help that Jeronicus’ personality goes from wide-eyed and gregarious to closed-in and miserable too early, only to resurface far too late. Madalen Mills thankfully does a grand job of bringing much needed sparkle to the proceedings but it isn’t enough to lift the movie back to where it was.

Unfortunately, the villains of the movie Gustafson and Don Juan Diego are barely a threat. They don’t return to the movie until almost the final Act and when they do, they don’t really do a lot. Apart from threatening to crush Buddy, an artificially intelligent robot who has had one brief scene beforehand so the children’s desperation to save him comes across as contrived, they fail to drive the story or add any tangible sense of urgency. What really grinded my gears though was that after everything, Jeronicus took the credit for the work his daughter and granddaughter did!

Overall, ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ is ok, it has a couple of good songs, Forest Whitaker plays the elder Jeronicus well with plenty of misery, angst and regret and the movie certainly looks spectacular (those dresses are to die for!) but had it been cut by a good 30 mins and the characters been refocused it could have been excellent.

CONTENT: IS ‘JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Don Juan Diego is a sentient matador toy who is very arrogant. Speaking of his looks he says ‘When the bull sees me, he slays himself!’. Also, when pressuring someone to take immediate action on something he says ‘The bull waits for tomorrow but then he is dead’.

Jeronicus is betrayed by his apprentice, Gustafson and is devastated. This leads to his life falling apart where a loved one passes away. The live action filming switches to animation and there is a close up of a headstone, Jeronicus and another character stand over it, grieving. The narration tells that he becomes ‘broken’ and ‘defeated’. His beloved daughter is sent away as he cannot cope anymore.

Many years later, a woman pursues a romantic relationship with Jeronicus even though he is not interested at all. As she comes on very strong, he asks her ‘Are you drunk?’ Her persistence is fun although it does border on sexual harassment! However it is meant to be in good humour.

Gustafson unveils his new invention to great fanfare. He gives them out to the crowd that is gathered around him, he says ‘Give one to your momma! Tell her to call me!’

An invention malfunctions and flies dangerously around the room. A man is seen struggling to hold it away from his face with a large (but not graphic) burn mark on his face.

Buddy, the cute robot, only works on ‘belief’. Gustafson attempts to show him to people without understanding the belief aspect and, thinking Buddy is yet another malfunctioning invention, tells his men to put him in the crusher to be destroyed.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY’ FOR KIDS?

A movie with lots of potential but suffers from being too long, ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ is likely to try the patience of even the most avid young Christmas movie buff. With regards to the content level, we recommend this movie for kids aged 6 and over.

• Violence: 0/5
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (a character dies and their loved ones are devastated. Jeronicus is filled with regret about the way he treated his daughter)
• Fear Factor: 1/5
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (some mildly suggestive dialogue, a character pursues another romantically despite the other person not being interested)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 1/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of love, loss, brilliance, being unique, belief, betrayal, depression and determination.

Words by Laura Record