Review of Newsies (1992) by Jason S — 08 May 2008

Before he was big, Christian Bale sang and danced in Newsies, a low budget live-action musical that Disney often tries to forget about. Director Kenny Ortega (Dirty Dancing) knows how to generate great choreography, but his direction lacks some pizazz.

Often the film feels like a TV movie due to the static shots and cheap sets. Nearly the entire film takes place on poorly dressed corners of the Universal lot. Regardless, Alan Menken has written some great songs, but also includes some other numbers that feel like they came from his reject pile.

Bale makes an attempt at a Brooklyn accent and comes off as mediocre while Pullman and Duvall seem like they just want to go home. Overall, the film comes off as just average because of it's low budget.

But, if you were to see it in a TV movie context, it'd be excellent.