User reviews

Great music, great cast, great sets, and great visuals (including the CG characters). Just a bit too long for the story.

In the filmmaker's want to create a universe, he neglected the plot (ie what happens in said universe). There's a lot going for the film: some amazing singing, toe-tapping lyrics, some good choreography, dazzling cinematography, set design, editing. You can tell they really tried to make something special and had no limits to get it. That, though is likely the problem. Limits make creatives cunning and conservative with their resources, it leads to re-writes & redesigns & trimming of the fat. Here, you can tell it has no limits and thus an inexperienced filmmaker is let loose, you can hardly blame him for not grounding the idea in originality or complexity. This is obviously a simple child's tale, there's no problem there. Nobody expected this to be The King and I or Sound of Music in subtext, but the characters too often stop everything to sing a full song, when that song has little to do with furthering their character or the plot. When it does, the plot inches forward in a very slow, predictable and tired way. There is more fun when the young cast is going on then when we flash forward. At least the young brooding toy maker has a Phantom of the Opera darkness that is fun and matches well against the bright Christmas backdrop. However, as soon as we go to the later times CGI characters, not unlike the plastic ones in the early days of cinema (90's Flubber or Small Soldiers comes to mind), take over the direction of the scene but aren't likable enough to care about nor dislikable enough to care about either. They are flat, the whole film falls flat, is hollow, too simple for a mega spectacle. It reminded me of the terrible La La Land, in which everybody in Hollywood thought was brilliant, but my family and I kept waiting for it get started, unable to engage with. I love that they have an all black cast, black filmmakers... totally about time to do so... but this film wasn't the right one to invest in creatively. The production was up to being the best Christmas movie of the season, but the story and delivery simply didn't deserve the attention. I hope Netflix and other continue to invest in black cinema, just with better scripts & more interesting deep characters... even in a musical, even for kids, this fell flat.

Looks amazing, sounds fantastic; and the costumes are nothing short of glorious. But this film needs to head back to the cutting room and loose about 30 minutes.

with John Legend as producer, it's no surprise that the voices are impressive. The musical numbers and choreography top notch.

The combination of digital animation and live action is seamless.

But this film feels heavy and by the end of it, we were carrying kids to bed.

I went in blind with this movie. I didn't watch the trailer. And I was pleasantly surprised. I love musicals hence my name. I adored some of the songs in the movie. The STORYLINE is EASY to follow if you pay attention. The people giving it negative reviews must be ADHD or just plain miserable and unimaginative. How can you say Felicia Rashad is crappy actor? What about Forrest Whittaker? Come on now. They are film veterans, y'all need to go back to bed and get back in on the right side.

The story essentially is about family and believing in yourself when all hope is lost. The impossible is POSSIBLE if you have faith in your ability. And don't forget to ask for help when you need it the most! How hard is that to follow? Don't listen to the negative people!

Watch it for yourself. Absolutely fantastical and purely for people with hearts!

This had all the ingredients for a great family Christmas film.

Good cast, check Solid story, check Great set and costume design, check Excellent special effects, check Top songs, check

Then whoever did the sound/music mixing and editing went and threw a massive spanner in the works.

When it comes to a musical, one of the most important things to get perfect is the sound, but oh my days... the levels are all over the place and it really makes a negative impact.

It's especially noticeable during songs where there are lots of dancing and additional background noises.

One moment everything sounds great, then the music it too quiet, then the vocals are too loud and then suddenly everything muddies together.

It's a shame, as it's a massive flaw in an otherwise enjoyable film.

While I can't agree with the "best ever" crowd I certainly don't subscribe to horrible either. Something for everyone and that's what doesn't put it in the classic category for me. Like-able cast, like-able musical numbers, and like-able special effects just didn't add up to a love-it movie. Cut the flying scenes and love interest moments and it might have felt a little more focused.

The costumes, hair, sets all AMAZING! I liked the story and premise too. The child actors are great, Journey and Edison. The songs however....torturous to sit through. I actually had to fast forward through many of them. They are not catchy nor inspiring. They actually take away from the movie. They should have cut 50% or more of them and shortened the movie to 90 minutes. The movie is over 2hrs long. I found myself pausing it several times and going and doing other things it was so hard to sit through.

Grab the family, get comfy & enjoy great singing, acting, sets, & animation. The people that rated this low apparently need more movies like this in their lives. It was beautiful, clean and added a bit of magic & belief which is what we all need this Christmas. Wonderfully over the top - I highly recommend watching!!

Children and most adults will probably love this film. It's got everything but in my opinion a little too much of everything. If you enjoy the greatest showman then you will recognize the similar music and choreography right off the bat. For me this movie is way too sugary, over the top and cliche without any real sincerity.

What a magical movie!!! The colors!! The costumes!!! The singing!!! The sets!!!! The magic!!! It's a cross between The Wiz and Greatest Showman. I enjoyed every minute and will surely watch Jingle Jangle every Christmas holiday going forward right alongside Polar Express and Elf.

Jingle Jangle is such a pure, heartfelt movie. You will enjoy it.

Very much a kids movie, but one which could be enjoyed by adults as well. This Christmas fantasy's strengths include impeccably detailed, sumptuous set design and set decoration; beautiful costume design, very colorful and imaginative - I'm not usually the kind of viewer that notices costume design but it's really spectacular here; good choreography and enjoyable songs - some of them are a bit too much of what you would expect from this kind of movie, but enjoyable nonetheless; excellent vocals and casting from top to bottom - I never knew Forest Whitaker could sing! Netflix clearly invested heavily in the project. The special effects are excellent and production values are high, and it certainly is good to see such a movie with a Black cast dominating all of the lead roles.

The story does rely too much on the "all you have to do is believe" trope, which is repeated over and over again, and certainly the conflict and character development are utterly two-dimensional. But then again, that's not the point of this movie. It's a fantasy, very much along the lines of Peter Pan, and achieves what it sets out to achieve. It's an entertaining, escapist holiday fantasy.

This is a jumble of movies you've already seen. It's Wonder Imporium meets short circuit meets Christmas carol meets polar express. It has beautiful sets and a good cast but it's just a thrown together fruitcake of played out themes.

Give this movie a chance! I felt like I was watching a Broadway show. The singing, choreography, and CGI was great. It's funny, clever, and heartwarming. Jingle Jangle is definitely going on my annual Christmas Movie Watch List!

This film is a visual feast of colourful and creative items. It is also great to watch a Christmas musical that is joyful and delightful!

Another glammed-up fantasy movie that's far far from fantastic - unfortunately, as usual, all the expense and efforts went into the glam sets, effects and dance choreography, and good scripting and story telling just dumped aside in the dust heap.

A good cast wasted on poorly developed characters mouthing yesterday's tacky common dialogues, some clearly in the zone of laughable unfunny garbage - eg. 'love closes the wave function' - eeek!

None of the songs are worth remembering, lacking in originality and a worthy tune.

Loopholes abound and characters behaving in ways that are meaningless and ludicrous, with baseless motivation that makes you go 'huh?'

And isn't this supposed to be a family children's movie? So what's with the lascivious gyrating widow out to hook her next lay?

Ricky Martin's voice over is surprisingly good - possibly the only highlight of this empty glitter. But then as a character that too falls into the throw-away heap.

An effort that's all about technical production pizazz ... fullstop. 😟

This likable Christmas movie combines feel-good cyberpunk tech, colorful riffs on 18th century dress, energetic dance numbers, and the gruff-man-redeemed-by-child trope into an energetic escapist concoction that hits all the right Christmas notes.

The cast is a likable collection of talented actor/singers, most notably the radiant Madalen Mills as the little girl who eventually becomes the main protagonist.

The dance numbers are wonderful; I particularly liked the antagonist's toy debut and the mail lady's frisky (and failed) seduction. The songs backing them are fine but most didn't strike as as memorable on first lesson, although I did find myself humming Madalen's big "I'm going to do fabulous things" number during the next scene.

Jingle Jangle is fun but not by any means original. Instead it's a bit of a greatest hits collection of tropes from other films, including a cute toy that is pretty blatantly a Wall-E meets E.T. knock-off (to the point that when I saw it in posters I thought, "wait, that's from something else").

It also has an anti-gravity bit that makes no sense even within the world's rather fanciful physics. It's not explained and I just found that really annoying. It's like the movie couldn't decide whether the world was magic or not so it made most of it generally sci-fi-ish but then decided to toss in one thing that was just flat out sorcery. That really bugs me, especially in a movie that really emphasizes science and engineering.

Jingle Jangle is also, like a lot of Christmas fiction, wonderfully calculated. Christmas Carol is a ghost story but also an attempt to change attitudes towards the poor and unchecked capitalism while Rudolph the Reindeer is an adventure that is also a plea for tolerance and acceptance of difference in oneself in others.

In that tradition, Jingle Jangle is a clear attempt to reframe Christmas entertainment away from its overwhelming whiteness. The movie presents a charming pseudo English village where almost everyone is black and middle-class. It offers a little girl who is a hard-core math geek (can a movie like this change the balance of men to women in STEM? We'll find out in a couple of decades). It is a movie that wants to make the world better, which is an honorable goal.

Perhaps that's why the film is so derivative; it doesn't want to rock the boat, it wants to repaint the boat with more colors.

While the movie goes on a bit long and has some sluggish patches and janky elements, overall it's hugely likable. My girlfriend was in a terrible mood when she watched it and said it was one of those rare movies that could make her feel better.

It's not perhaps the *best* Christmas film, but I do think it's effortlessly put itself into the Christmas Classics rotation. You should definitely check it out.

The first and last 15 minutes were wonderful. The opening number was so promising and it went downhill from there. I adore Christmas movies, but this started dragging 20 minutes in until nearly the end.

I did LOVE the representation and choreography and costuming and sets. But the story and Pace totally lost me-they should've shortened it and cut some songs. It had so much potential to be much better.

Far beyond the usual Netflix Hallmark-style Christmas films, this one is high budget and very well produced. The musical numbers are fantastic and the costume design is marvellous. It's a tad cheesy and more than a little absurd, but the plot is solid and it's very charming.

I love a bit of magic for Christmas. I love the kind of movies that let me be a child again, especially at Christmas time. This movie promised exactly this. And looking at the visual effects, costumes and scenery it definitely does its "magic". However throughout the story there were too many similarities to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Nutcracker, Wall-E and many others. I couldn't help but experiencing constantly déjà vue like moments. Also from time to time I cringed a bit hearing things like "square root of possible" though I'm afraid this might just be due to the fact that for some movies I probably REALLY am too much of an adult, no matter how hard I try to find my infantile enthusiasm again. In the end Jingle Jangle was easy to watch but it won't be added to my list of traditional X-Mas movies-must. I think if you have kids, they will like this movie and your christmas spirit might be enlightened by their ability to enjoy it as what it is: A sweet xmas flick - nothing more nothing less.

I wanted to love this, I really did. I give many props for the representativeness of the cast, especially with the theme of empowering women and people of color in engineering, science and math. Visually, this is a really good looking film. A few (not all) of the original songs are catchy, and much of the dancing is off the hook. And then, that's it. Many of the negative reviews on here mention how the film is derivative of many other holiday films that have come before it. True, but not a deal breaker - after all, there are only so many ways to be original when compared to the 1000s of other holiday movies out there. My problems are plot, pacing, characterizations and motivations - the writing seems to be last on the list in Jingle Jangle. Forest Whitaker is a Academy Award winner and a national treasure. He has nothing to work with here. Mr. Jangle moves from resenting his granddaughter to screaming "I love you" in the course of minutes - I felt like I had fallen asleep and missed important plot points, but nope. The rest of the cast fares little better - what are their motivations? Why are the evil characters so "evil"?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD (but c'mon, it's pretty formulaic...)

We are told through the frame story that the Jangles "didn't have any proof" about the evil deeds of Gustafson and I guess we should just accept that? Lazy writing. There is no development of Lisa Davina Phillips' character other than her odd obsession with Jangle...the obsessed fluffy girl trope - lazy characterization. The conflict comes almost solely from the vague threat that the bank(?) is going to foreclose(?) on him, despite the fact that his "friend" (we know this because he calls him "old friend" a couple of times) will save him, if only he can complete his astonishing invention. Lazy plotting. I wonder if THAT will happen. Speaking of, the astonishing invention only interacts with the characters for like 5 minutes and suddenly he's their best friend and the most important thing in their world? Or, he's just there to sell toys (look out Baby Yoda!) Everything that happens is a huge MacGuffin - it's never explained how Jangle rediscovers his power to believe. The magical math that Journey can do extends to "the square root of possible." Um. I'm not looking for "A Beautiful Mind" here, but this is so trite and meaningless that it almost undercuts the important work the film does to show that black girls and women can succeed in science and math. And the big ending reveal that our narrator, Phylicia Rashad is...gasp...well, rather than spoiling it, how would these kids NOT have known about Jangle's toy factory - the factory of the greatest toy inventor who ever was - that happens to be across town and visible from grandma's window? It feels like this is a big budget film that spent all its money on visuals, music, dancing, and then there was no money left to polish a script/story. It's not even particularly holiday-oriented other than the glurgy good feeling. Hey, I love glurge, and I'm all in favor of good feeling, especially around the holidays, but glurge has to be backed up with clear character development, or a real experience of something miraculous happening. Both of these are missing from Jingle Jangle. Someone once said that the only thing more disappointing than a bad movie is a movie that could have been good.

I am a sucker for a good Christmas film, and a good underdog story. This one hit all the right notes. Yes, there are tooth-achingly cheesy moments-what would a good Christmas film be without those? But more importantly, when this movie hits your heartstrings, it really hits HOME. I was sobbing in the best, happy-cry way at multiple points, and when everything ties up with a bow at the end, it feels so truly well-earned. This captures the real meaning of Christmas-it's definitely going on the once-a-year Christmas film rotation.

I made it halfway into the movie and gave up when Jangle started singing. Not just because he was singing... for all I know he can.

It was because the movie was already showing signs of a weak, phoned in plot and then it just gave up and relied on the audience knowing all the usual kid/Christmas film tropes rather than develop the plot and characters themselves. I mean, if we do that, they said, we won't have room for all the songs.

And it had so much potential! It's visually stunning, full stop. A feast for the eyes. I love Steampunk and I love a magical Christmas movie. The cast couldn't be called diverse but if anyone has a problem with a movie of mostly black actors with a few token white people, well, do I have to say it? I loved it. I see white people all day in my own home and in the mirror so it made a nice change to see other members of the human race get center stage. And Forest Whittaker was utterly delightful as the confused and grumpy inventor. I could have watched him all day. Just him.

And while I don't care for these Broadway style musicals, the first song was promising. The rest (that I heard) reminded me of Frozen. That was not a compliment... Frozen is yet another film where plot and character were sacrificed on the altar of songs... not even very good ones, but very typical ones.

The trouble is, there's a slice of society that looks at you like you're threatening to eat their hamster if you so much as mention that you don't like musicals. People who will forgive any sin of plot failure and character shortcut if there's song and dance numbers. People who think that to crowbar in songs is a reason to make a movie. They ruin a lot of good stories.

Not that this was one. It just didn't take the time to do it. It started tolerably well and went on to interrupt an interesting story with a pint sized Mary Sue and predictable action as well as forced conflict. The toy that was gonna make him rich was a creepy sentient tin matador with a giant ego? Why in the world would anyone, much less everyone, want this irritating toy? But it took a toy like that to punt the plot forward so it must be a matador. Honestly, all the toys I saw were really unappealing.

This film was a wasted opportunity.

Feels like netflix wanted a bunch of things in this movie, but this resulted in little time for each keyword. There was no time appreciating any relationship and decisions. When the characters lack motivation and logic as well the movie becomes lackluster.