Newsies

1992

Directed by Kenny Ortega

Quick synopsis… In 1899, a courageous group of New York City newsboys became unlikely heroes when they team up to fight an unscrupulous newspaper tycoon.

• I’m a little surprised that I’ve never seen this before.
• I love musicals.
• I love Disney.
• I’m basically a ’90s kid.
• How have I never seen this?
• Still, it’s a little odd seeing Christian Bale singing and dancing in the street, matching choreography with the rest of the newsboys.
• I guess it shouldn’t be, though.
• If I can accept Wolverine singing during the French Revolution, this shouldn’t be too hard to swallow.
• But Les Miserables didn’t really ask too much of Hugh Jackman when it comes to the choreography.
• The Greatest Showman did, though.
• Okay… I’m over the awkwardness of Batman dancing.
• After all, Adam West did introduce us to the Batusi.
• I don’t guess there are still kids that sell newspapers on street corners, right?
• It’d probably make the newspaper industry a little more interesting.
• According to Bale’s character, Jack Kelly, headlines don’t sell papers. Newsies sell papers.
• Or papes, as they call them.
• Papers takes too much time.
• Gotta cut out that syllable.
• Jack connects with the Jacob brothers, David and Les, who are new to the newsy gig.
• They’re trying to help out while their father is recovering from an injury he sustained working in a factory.
• Jack plan is to make enough money to get out of New York and move out to Santa Fe, a place which has been idealized in his mind by the stories he’s heard.
• Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall), in his desperation to outdo rival William Randolph Hearst, increases the price of newspapers for the newsies.
• In response, Jack rallies the newsies all over Manhattan to go on strike.
• Eventually, Jack gets caught and, as an escaped “convict” from a crooked orphanage/juvenile detention center.
• Pulitzer cuts a deal with Jack to work for him or spend the rest of his young life in detention.
• Just when it looks like Jack has turned scab, he swoops in and saves David from being severely beaten by Pulitzer’s enforcers.
• “You done messed up now! Batman’s here!”
• As musicals go, it’s not going down as one of my favorites.
• But I can definitely see how people my age who grew up watching it have a certain fondness for it.
• I’d say it’s worth watching.

We’re over the hump with this year’s A to Z Challenge and more than halfway there. I’ll keep on hitting these Disney movies each day (except Sunday), so come back for more if that’s your thing!

Tomorrow’s Disney flick starts with an O and brings us to another underrated animated gem from the ’80s. This time, it’s a movie that’s loosely based on a novel by Charles Dickens. Any guesses?