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

Taking a look for details of the X-Mas movie line-up on Netflix over Christmas 2021, the rather unique production details made this title stand out to me straight away. Sadly not getting the chance to see the title over the holiday period, I decided not to wait round for X-Mas 2022, and to instead go for an early Christmas journey.

View on the film:

Originally planned to be a stage show, until Netflix signing up led to it being changed into a film, the 20 years that writer/director David E. Talbert spent trying to get this title made, comes across on screen, thanks to an exquisite, attention to detail,of the joyful Victorian Steampunk design, with Talbert & cinematographer Remi Adefarasin's shining gliding camera moves across the bright, colour-coded costumes and a wonderful mix of practice of CGI bringing toy maker Jeronicus's creations to life.

While the origins of the title are from the stage, Talbert brilliantly embraces the cinematic format, as the live action is crossed with excellent stop-motion animation sequences that open up flashbacks to Jeronicus, (played with a perfect cuddly warmth by Forest Whitaker) and sparkling crane and whip-pan shots over the festive Musical numbers.

The most prominent area of the film to retain some threads of this originally being planned for the stage, the screenplay by Talbert is a sprawling Musical epic, which ties a thieving assistant toy maker, (played with glee by Keegan-Michael Key) a melodramatic matador doll, (voiced with an unexpected comedic charm by Ricky Martin) toe-tapping songs, and Jeronicus rediscovering the joy of toy making, with an enthusiastic nimbleness, as Jeronicus takes everyone on a Christmas journey.

This is a fun movie for kids, but I have to admit, while watching I felt that I'd seen elements of it before. The most obvious was the Buddy 3000's resemblance to E.T., while forgetting about Wall-E, which other reviewers have reminded me of. What really dazzled me were the outstanding sets, so vibrant and colorful. In that respect, I was also reminded of the 2011 film "Hugo". with all those gears and wheels working harmoniously together, much like that whirlygig toy in this movie that required a gyroscopic stabilizer. The shining light of this film was the young granddaughter Journey (Madalen Mills),just a sweet kid with a loving disposition. At first I thought to myself, 'who names a kid Journey', but then figured why not, it's symbolic of a youngster's journey from being a child to adulthood, so why not. For some reason, I felt disappointed that Forest Whitaker's Jeronicus character wasn't as outgoing and friendly to Journey at the outset, I felt he should have been thrilled to see her even though he was despondent over his failing toy shop and career. The whole deal with his assistant Gustafson (Keegan-Michael Key) was a downer, and threatened to turn the story into a maudlin affair. But you knew it couldn't last because after all, this is a Christmas movie and you can't let the kids down with an uninspiring message. I have a feeling this might become a Christmas staple in the tradition of "Elf" or last year's "Klaus", and if this keeps going on, there won't be enough days in December to rewatch them all.