Movies, whether audiences realize it or not, are seasonal. Unless a movie depicts all seasons within its runtime (or seasons don’t apply to it at all), they tend to stick to one season—and a good example of this is holiday movies, specifically one called “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey”. Today, I’ll be giving my review of the underrated movie if anyone wants insight before watching.

Coming from the headquarters of Netflix.com, I consider this Christmas musical a hidden gem on their catalog. The movie, which is set during industrial England, was released on November 13th, 2020—right when COVID was still a thing. It was quickly met with an average grade of a B+/A- among movie watchers and critics alike and holds a record for the most nominations at the NAACP awards. But besides the reception, the plot is simple: the granddaughter of a renowned toy maker pays a visit and ends up on a journey of glitter and magic.

The beginning of the movie is moderately simple; a musical intro with dialogue by the main character and his family. They show some established chemistry (romantic and platonic), then move onto the everlasting issue within the movie. The niece comes and visits, some musical numbers, a new character gets introduced after a time skip, and some more events occur before everything comes to a satisfying end. But, the whole story was actually narrated by the niece herself, which is pretty cool.

My Rating: 8.5/10

I personally loved this movie when it came out, and I still do since I had to rewatch it for this article and to get into the holiday spirit. I loved the soundtrack, cast, and overall story. My only issue was how some stuff felt unexplained, even though it seemed crucial to the plot.