Premise: After his book of ingenious designs was stolen by his apprentice, an aging and nearly bankrupt toymaker makes one last attempt at success with the help of his granddaughter.
The easiest way to think of this movie is calling it The Greatest Toyman. It's a musical about the greatest person at his craft rediscovering the joy of what he does as well as the importance of his family. Similar to The Greatest Showman as well is that it is a musical that everyone put a lot of effort into that doesn't entirely work.
I'd rather start with the good though. I love the idea of a Christmas movie with a black cast that's really is just a Christmas movie. No one tries to shoehorn deeper messages into it. No one is trying to reference back to the horrors of slavery. It's generally my opinion that Christmas movies are allowed to ignore all the modern rules of storytelling and be abashedly optimistic. Make them as silly and unrealistic as you want. So, this magical world of Jingle Jangle that's fresh out of a snow globe fits right in with the rest of the genre. The cast is great. I didn't realize Forest Whitaker could sing. Keegan-Michael Key relishes a villain role like this. That dude is great at performing like he's reading a book to a group of enthralled 1st graders. Young Madalene Mills has some pipes on her and holds her own against the grown-up performers. The music and productions around each number are lively throughout. In a world where Netflix wasn't releasing so much product weekly to render everything disposable, I could've easily seen this turning into a Holiday classic for some people*.
*And I do just mean "some people". That's not coded language for "This is a black movie". This really is a Christmas movie to be enjoyed by anyone.
The one big drawback about the movie is that the songs weren't that memorable. Days later, there weren't any that I was still trying to get out of my head. The lyrics and melodies weren't memorable. A lot of effort went into making sure the performances were showstoppers, but the songs couldn't justify the effort. I'm sure some musical historians can find a counter-point here, but musical films don't succeed unless the music is the best thing about them.
So yeah. Jingle Jangle gets virtually everything right. The cast is great. They all sing pretty well and come ready to play. The production design and costuming are great, like a cartoonish Christmas Carol. The staging of the dance sequences is big and impressive. The story hits the right tone of ebullience with the slightest hint of sadness. It's just missing the key element. None of the songs are bangers or even all that memorable.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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