Sunday, February 08, 2009

Musical Sunday #3 - Newsies



Continuing on with our new Sunday Family Activity, we watched the 1992 musical sensation Newsies.

Director Kenny Ortega (director of High School Musical, HSM2, and HSM3) took a shot with Disney on reviving the musical back in 1992. It didn't really garner that much attention, but it did gain a cult following... one of them being my wife.

A grown-up Christian Bale (last seen as a boy in Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun) stars as Jack "Cowboy" Kelly, a newsie in the Big Apple that helps ignite a strike against newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall). A small time newspaper reporter (a pre-ID4 Bill Pullman) helps them win their rights... but not after alot of singing, dancing, spit-shaking, and a little bit of smoking and carousing (care of Ann-Margaret, who in this films a still-hot-at-50-dancing-girl).

It's an enjoyable film and the kids loved it (except for Alex who wondered off to play with the toys on the other side of the game room).

We we're going to watch Gigi... but Min didn't get it from library yet. So that's next week.

After that we might help the kids learn that "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" and how to really pronounce the term "etcetera, etcetera, etcetera."

2 comments:

amy k said...

I remember this being popular when I was a kid. I loved this show. That and I secretly had a crush on Jack. I think your new "tradition" is neat.

Jill said...

Good luck with my fair lady...that one is a long one. I think I tried to get Tyson to watch it with me once and he was asleep in no time. But I love that movie!