Newsies

I'm 19 years old in college. I sing the music from this movie on my way to class. And people stop me and say "that's from 'Newsies!' I love that movie!" How many times do you get that kind of response? This movie was exciting, well-choreographed, and funny. It has the best ingredients a musical could have. The best part...you can find this stuff in the history books (well, maybe not dancing newsboys and Robert Duvall playing Joseph Pulitzer...but nobody's perfect...except Christian Bale). See it, love it, brings the kids. They'll want to carry the banner after the movie's long over.

apart from being a wonderful musical (which i've grown up watching so i can tell a good from a bad) it also has a wonderful story-line. the plot is so well thought of, it isn't every day when they make a musical about a strike that happened in 1899. i fell in love with this movie the first time i watched it. it's classical, and when you see it, you can't help but liking it. the dancing, acting, and singing is great. i don't know many teenagers who can dance and sing like that! evenn thought this movie was made 10 years ago and i don't remember it, it's starting to come back. my mom's friend called one day saying that her daughter loves this movie called newsies, and i said that i love it! i thought nobody knew about it, but i was wrong. how could you forget a great movie like this? if you haven't seen it, i gaurentee you 100% that you will probably end up liking it as much as i do.

Having seen this movie in the theatres when it was released, at the age of eight, I have a real affection for it. I had the hugest crush on Spot Conlon. It's hard to find faults in a movie like that. How you feel about this movie will probably depend on how receptive you are to it. Chances are, you'll have one of two reactions while watching "Newsies". One: "I can't believe I'm watching a musical about newsboys." Two: "I freakin' *love* this movie."

Yep, I'm with the latter group. My interest in Newsies was revived when I picked up the soundtrack lately. The music is well written, and infectiously engaging. If you don't like musicals, you're not going to like this film. If you do like musical, I defy you to not like it.

Some parts, yes, are a bit hokey. It's a Disney flick, and by definition, is kid friendly. (A lyrics sampling: "And we'll kick their rear!" "They gave their word, but it ain't worth beans.") But the characters are great (and I'm not just talkin' 'bout Spot). The dynamic between Jack and Davey is great. And even though the cussin' is bland, it's still a story of young kids living in an adult world, facing adult problems with teen angst. That's good stuff. Plus, Robert Duvall's in it. Come on.

"Newsies" kind of got pushed aside after release. As an afterthought, it's interesting to wonder, with the new interest in musicals thanks to "Chicago", if the reception would be different if it were released today. No matter. As evidenced by the comments here, people enjoy it. Darn tootin'.

Waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the early 1990's, when Jeffrey Katzenberg was still a top exec at Disney, he had one of his less successful ideas -- to bring back the break-into-song musical. So, as the story goes, he selected three scripts that were about to go into production and gave them to Disney Music Maestro Alan Menken and asked him which of the scripts could be turned into a musical.

And that's how NEWSIES was born.

It's a great story, too, being a fictionalized account of the newsboy strike in New York at the turn of the century. It follows the exploits of a ragtag band of teenage boys, including Cowboy (Christian Bale), who dreams of becoming a ranch hand in Santa Fe, and David & Les (David Moscow & Luke Edwards), brothers who take up selling newspapers when their father is injured on the job.

Conflict arises when Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duval) gets greedy and raises the price of his newspapers to the newsboys, but not to the public. The outraged "newsies" decide to go on strike, which eventually galvanizes all the working children in the city to stand up for themselves.

It's a fun film, with Duval playing his villain to the hilt, but Ann-Margret is wasted in her role as a showgirl (both of her musical numbers are badly edited down to just snippets of song). Bale is the real wonder here, though, singing and dancing with surprising aplomb. The songs overall are quite good, but a couple of them are hard to distinguish from each other. My favorites are the opening number, "Carrying the Banner," and the rousing "The World Will Know." It seems odd, though, that Duval doesn't get a musical number of his own, considering in Disney's animated musicals the villains usually get the best songs ("Poor Unfortunate Souls" or "Be Prepared" anyone?).

It's a shame that the film didn't do better financially, since as a result of its dismal box office Disney declined to ever make another like it. First time director Kenny Ortega, who also choreographed (he was known for his choreography of DIRTY DANCING), directed one more feature after this, the underrated Bette Midler flick HOCUS POCUS; since that film also failed to find an audience, he hasn't directed a movie since. And that's a shame; he has a very distinctive kinetic style that served both films well.

Seek out a copy of NEWSIES, and go for the widescreen version. You won't be disappointed!

This moving is a testament to how good of an actor Christian Bale is. The casting director literally picked a Welch actor -who absolutely couldn't sing or dance if his life depended on it- to play the lead character in this disney musical about New York kids unionizing. Amazing.