Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey Review

While it is uncommon for a Christmas movie to follow an original plot line that has not been done to death, Jingle Jangle provides a fresh new Christmas style. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey came out on November 13th of 2020. While family is a running theme in many movies, Jingle Jangle really focuses on family relationships during Christmas. I saw this movie for the first time in December 2020. My family and I grabbed our hot coco and sat down to watch all two hours of this holiday film.

The film starts with a shot of two children in front of a fireplace with a Christmas tree in the background. The viewer immediately gets the Christmas feel, without the movie shouting the fact that this scene takes place during the Christmas season. Their grandmother then walks into frame and begins to tell them a story of a magical  toy maker. The audience gets transported into a musical number that is used as an introduction to the toy maker named Jeronicus and his apprentice named Gustafson. This song had a much more hip-hop style beat to it rather than the typical Christmas movie song. The movie goes on to properly explain the character dynamics and how they feel about each situation. Unfortunately, the apprentice ends up stealing Jeronicus’ book of inventions and becomes a famous inventor and one of the richest men in the world. This eventually takes all of Jeronicus’ customers and puts him into a state of depression and isolation, along with quite a bit of debt. His wife passes away, and he loses connection with his daughter, causing him to lose his magic. His granddaughter is sent to stay with him to hopefully brighten his life and establish a relationship with him. 

One thing that really stood out to me about this film is the fact that the cast in this movie is filled almost entirely with people of color. All of the main characters are black, and there are side characters who are hispanic/ Latino. It seems to be a common practice in the holiday film industry for casts to be primarily white. Due to the primarily black cast, there is a very different type of music and choreography, which personally I really enjoyed. 

One criticism I would make about this film would be that there is no room for interpretation. Even in straightforward scenes, there is always an extra in the scene who points out what everyone is feeling. For example, in the opening scene, kids and adults are wowed by Jeronicus’ inventions. Obviously, everyone is impressed, but there is still an extra who yells “he is an amazing inventor” from off screen. This happened quite a few times throughout the film when it was unnecessary, and I feel like this movie could have been more universal with age groups if they had left some room for interpretation and imagination. 

Overall, I would give this movie a 7/10. The plot never felt rushed or unresolved, and I felt that the pacing was a little inconsistent, but overall it was a great holiday film. Although I would have appreciated more room for interpretation and imagination, I loved the casting of so many people of color and black people. Hopefully there will be more holiday films like this one that don’t go off of the overused Christmas trope. 

7/10