Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Christmas Bells Jingled: 🔔🔔🔔🔔

It’s been thirty years since former toymaker Jeronicus (Forest Whitaker) the owner of a pawn shop, invented any new toys. When his granddaughter (Madalen Mills) shows up on his doorstep one winter, he goes on an unwilling but unnecessary journey.

If you want music, you want family friendly and you want snow, then Jingle Jangle has you covered.

Forest Whitaker as the grumpy toymaker is perfect in his role and his soft but resonating vocals (and those dance moves) brought a heart warming tone to his character.

Jingle Jangle was a little more kiddish than I thought it would be, considering it only features two children. However I did enjoy the characterisation of protagonist Journey played by Madalen Mills, and the scaredy-cat but loveable Edison.

A few things were certainly random about this movie from Rick Martin’s sentient matador antagonist and why a young Jessica was mixed race when both her parents were Black, however the bright twirling colours and Victorian Steam-Punk vibes soon distracted from these discrepancies.

Ultimately, even though Christmas itself isn’t repeatedly mentioned, Jingle Jangle is still a really sweet movie that gives all the warm and fuzzies we crave for this time of year.