Dear Santa | 2024 Christmas Movies

This year Paramount+ gives us a Christmas movie starring Jack Black, Dear Santa. The trailers make it seem like it would be a fairly typical Jack Black movie. That doesn’t always mean it will be good.

Liam Turner (Robert Timothy Smith) is a dyslexic sixth-grader whose parents are constantly arguing. When he writes a letter to Santa with his Christmas wishes, he accidentally addresses it to Satan. That night, Satan (Black) shows up to grant Liam three wishes. But Satan’s idea of a good wish is very different from Liam’s.

For the most part, this wasn’t a terrible movie. It is, indeed, a rather typical Jack Black movie. He jumps around, acting crazy, while the main characters try to get him to calm down and listen. The twist with his character at the end was interesting but what he did at the end was annoyingly short-sighted. I don’t want to spoil it but that “wish” kinda screws up the whole happy ending. I’m thinking maybe they wanted to try to spin this off into a sequel? Though I’m not sure how that would work either.

Like a lot of Jack Black movies, Dear Santa is a watchable mess. You will probably enjoy it, even if you aren’t sure why you enjoy it. At least the Post Malone cameo was fun?

Rating: Be careful what you wish for

Wendell & Wild | Halloween 2022

Coraline is a favorite movie in this household. When we heard that Henry Selick, the writer and director of Coraline, was releasing a new stop-motion animated movie with Jordan Peele, I knew we had to watch Wendell & Wild.

Kat (Lyric Ross) is a young teenager that blames herself for the death of her parents. When she is enrolled in an all-girls school in her old hometown of Rust Bank, Kat finds out that she is a “Hell Maiden.” Two demon brothers - Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele) - are trying to make a fairground for souls, one that is better than the one their father, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), uses to torture souls. However, the brothers need money to create their dream. They convince Kat to summon them to the mortal world, where they make an agreement with the evil Klaxons, Irmgard (Maxine Peake) and Lane (David Harewood). The demons will resurrect the deceased members of the town council so they can vote in favor of the Klaxons demolishing Rust Bank. But Wendell and Wild also promised that they would bring back her dead parents, which the Klaxons don’t want. Who will win the fight for Red Bank and will Kat ever forgive herself?

As I said, Coraline holds a special place in our hearts. A lot of people will compare Wendell & Wild to Coraline but they are very different movies. The music in Coraline is catchier and there isn’t quite as much humor in it. Instead, W&W is more punk rock. I did expect it to be a little scarier, since horror king Jordan Peele helped write the script but it doesn’t quite make it. It lies in this weird middle ground where it’s not family friendly enough for small children but it’s not scary enough for older teenagers. W&W seems to be aimed at a very specific demographic - pre-teens who are looking to figure out who they are apart from their parents. Or people who really like stop-motion animation.

I do think Wendell & Wild is worth watching. Almost all of the cast is made up of people of color, which is amazing. But, as such, it’s not getting as much publicity from Netflix as it deserves. The more people that tune in, the most Netflix will realize this is what people want to see. And, I mean, Key and Peele are always magical when they are together. You may not walk away singing the songs but you will walk away loving the characters and hoping for more. Oh, and stick around after the credits. There’s a little scene with Selick and Kat that is adorable.

Pinocchio | Movie Review

Disney is really into their live action remakes nowadays. The latest one, Pinocchio, was released on Disney+ on September 8. After watching it, I understand why they chose not to release it in theaters.

Geppetto (Tom Hanks) is an old woodcarver in a small Italian village. One night, a cricket named Jiminy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wanders into Geppetto’s house. The insect finds the old man putting the finishing touches on a wooden marionette named Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). Before going to sleep that night, Geppetto makes a wish on the evening star. As he slumbers, the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) visits to bring Pinocchio to life. She assigns Jiminy as Pinocchio’s conscience as she leaves. Pinocchio, wanting to be a real boy, tries his best to learn the right way to live his life.

There are a lot of people that didn’t like this movie. This is, after all, almost a beat by beat remake of the 1940 animated version. There are a few new characters. Most notably, Fabiana (Kyanne Lamaya) and her puppet Sabina (Jaquita Ta’le), who work at Stromboli’s (Giuseppe Battiston) puppet show, and Sofia (Lorraine Bracco), a seagull who befriends Geppetto. But I’m not sure they were enough to really differentiate the live action from the original.

Personally, I didn’t hate the movie. But I didn’t love it either. There were a lot of scenes where I had trouble hearing what Geppetto was saying because Hanks kept mumbling all of the lines. It was the main reason I ended up watching the movie with subtitles on. In addition, the big scene where the kids are getting scooped up to go to Pleasure Island is so dark that I couldn’t tell who was who. It made it a little difficult to tell the kids apart from each other, except for Lampwick (Lewin Lloyd) because Pinocchio says his name every five seconds.

With that said, there were some very good parts. Fabiana and Sabina were perfect. I loved them so much. Casting Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John was brilliant. He is so good in evil roles. Finally, while I was originally confused about Monstro (thanks original Pinocchio), I loved his design. Instead of just being a giant whale, they actually made him a giant sea monster with tentacles and rows of sharp teeth. It definitely made him a bit more fearsome than the original designs.

Would I recommend watching the live action version over the animated version? Probably not. However, you aren’t going to hate yourself if you decide to watch this one instead. I don’t understand why it seems to get as much hate as it does. There are absolutely worse live action remakes out there. I’m looking at you, Beauty and the Beast.

Jingle Jangle | 2020 Christmas Movies

When I was trying to decide where to start my Christmas movie festival, I remembered the hype around one of Netflix’s new movies - Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Granted, all of the hype I heard was about the color of the cast’s skins rather than the content of the show. So, knowing little more than this was “a Christmas movie with black people!” (Ugh, I hated typing that line….), I clicked on my Netflix and got to watching.

Jingle Jangle is the story of Jeronicus Jangle, an amazing inventor. Everyone loves his toys and creations. Jeronicus’ greatest invention is a sentient doll named Don Juan Diego. When Don Juan finds out that he is about to become a mass produced toy, he convinces Jeronicus’ apprentice, Gustafson, to steal Jeronicus’ Book of Ideas to become a master inventor himself. Gustafson quickly becomes a top toymaker whole Jeronicus’ life falls apart. After losing most of his business, Jeronicus’ wife dies. His heartbreak causes him to turn on his beloved daughter, Jessica, and he sends her away. Jessica grows up and has a daughter of her own, Journey. Journey, a brilliant inventor of her own, tricks her mother into sending her to spend time with her grandfather. But can Journey get through to an inverted heartbroken old man?

I’m not really sure where to start the review. Do I talk about the gorgeous steampunk visuals? Or do I talk about the awesome musical numbers? Or do I just jump into how freaking talented the cast is? OK. OK. Breathe.

The whole movie is set in this sort of 1930s-ish steampunk world. Everyone wears brightly colored suits and dresses and they all seem very happy with gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. The visuals are seriously gorgeous. Since the movie is framed as a book that a grandmother is reading to her grandchildren, when the story needs to move a little faster, we get steampunk doll versions of the characters acting out the scene. I love it so much.

Then we have the musical numbers. Thanks to songs from John Legend and Philip Lawrence (his songwriting team has written for Bruno Mars, CeeLo Green, Adele….the list goes on) and the musical talents of the cast, the score is just as beautiful as the visuals. The songs have a little more soul to them than most Christmas songs, which is a lovely change to the usually bland stuff we hear these days. And I seriously didn’t know that Forest Whitaker (old Jeronicus) and Keegan-Michael Key (adult Gustafson) could sing. They were very impressive. (Though not nearly as impressive as Lisa Davina Phillip as Ms. Johnston. I think I could listen to that woman sing for hours.)

And now the cast….I think maybe the casting directors found the most talented people in the entire world. (OK, maybe that is exaggerating a little…) A lot of the characters have two actors - a younger version and an older version. Justin Cornwell plays Jeronicus as a young man and Forest Whitaker plays him as an old man. So this might get a bit convoluted but stick with me.

Justin Cornwell does a lot of heavy lifting with the first song of the movie, “This Day.” It sets the entire tone of the movie and it does it well. My husband was so impressed that he actually came over to watch the movie with me. (He never watches these Christmas movies with me.) I already mentioned Forest Whitaker and Keegan-Michael Key. We also have Anika Noni Rose (better known as Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog) as adult Jessica, Ricky Martin as Don Juan Diego, and newcomer Madalen Mills as Journey. Mills absolutely blows everyone away as Journey. She has this amazing song “Square Root of Possible” that I was a little hesitant about at first…..but she nailed it.

To be honest, the only parts of the movie that I didn’t like were minor. Don Juan Diego was annoying. I understand the role the character plays in the movie…I just didn’t like him. But I suppose you aren’t supposed to like the villian. And I would have liked for them to do a little more with Edison, Journey’s friend and Jeronicus’s assistant. It was like he was around when the plot needed to move forward but then his mom would call him home when things actually started happening. I would have liked him to have spent a little more time becoming part of Journey’s family rather than an outsider who occasionally shows up.

Jingle Jangle is a great movie. While I know that Netflix will take it off the service after the holiday season, I wish they would leave it up so I can watch it again and again throughout the year. I mean, the Christmas part of the movie is so small that it doesn’t really matter. This movie is about the characters and their story…not Christmas. What are you waiting for? Go watch this NOW!