With it becoming increasingly evident that a family trip to the cinema is not likely to be part of the routine this holiday season, it is time to look for alternatives. Luckily, streaming giant Netflix released a trailer on Sunday for their forthcoming family-friendly adventure Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, and it looks to be brimming with yuletide merriment.
Playwright-and-author-turned-director David E. Talbot, whose previous work includes Baggage Claim and First Sunday, is behind the camera on this whimsical musical-fantasy in which Forest Whitaker is a gearpunk-ish toymaker named Jeronicus Jangle who invents a robot in the eye-popping hamlet of Cobbleton. Keegan-Michael Key is the baddie (a former apprentice turned usurper!) and a group of adorable tykes, led by Jeronicus’s granddaughter (Madalen Mills), must save the day.
They’ll do so to the beat of new songs written by John Legend (who is also a producer on the film), Philip Lawrence, and Davy Nathan. A track called “This Day” is performed by Usher and Kina Ledé, and, as Variety points out, it is eligible for Oscar consideration. Rounding out the cast is Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Ricky Martin, and Phylicia Rashad.
Note: this is a family film, and its title has nothing to do with the addictive drug seen on Riverdale.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey will be available to stream on November 13.
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