NEWSIES
A film review by David Fristrom
Copyright 1992 David Fristrom
Yesterday I saw a preview of the eagerly awaited (by me, anyway) new Disney movie NEWSIES (opening April 10th). NEWSIES is an original, live-action musical, Disney's first in years, with music by Alan Menken (THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST). It is based on an actual strike by newsboys in New York at the turn of the century, although the characters and incidents in the movie are fictitious.
First the good news: there is a fair amount to like in NEWSIES. To begin with, an original movie musical is always a good idea, and I'm glad to see that Disney seems to be putting some marketing muscle behind it. The cast is quite engaging, especially Christian Bale (the lead in EMPIRE OF THE SUN, "boy" in HENRY V) as the ring-leader of the strike, but all of the boys do a good job. The basic story line is strong -- a little obvious at times (do I have to tell you whether the strike succeeds?), but a good structure and decent writing. And I'm a sucker for period costumes and back lot sets.
Alas, there is also plenty that is wrong with NEWSIES. Filming dance is an art that appears to be lost, which is strange considering how simple it is. As Fred Astaire showed in his best movies, the way you film dance is with long takes showing the full body. Long takes, because it is the dancer who is dancing, not the camera; full body shots because dancing is done with the body, not the feet. Of course, while this approach is simple for the camera person and editor it is much harder for the choreographer, who must actually choreograph a full dance, with a definite structure building to a climax.
That's not the way it is done in NEWSIES. Instead, when dancing is called for the screen is suddenly filled with athletic dancers performing really amazing gymnastic feats or a bunch of people moving in unison, with no take lasting more than a few seconds. The dances have no structure; they begin with a burst of energy, continue at the same level for a few minutes, and then stop. No emotion is expressed other than a pseudo-excitement.
Besides dance, the other crucial element of a musical are the songs, and here NEWSIES fares somewhat better. Menken is, of course, best known for his work with the late Howard Ashman, and I'm sure he and his lyricists will soon be sick of comparisons. The unknown (whose name I am afraid I don't remember) who has provided the lyrics for NEWSIES is no Ashman, but he does a reasonably good job and has produced some clever lines. But while the songs are basically pretty good (although the lyrics are hard to make out during some of the chorus numbers), they don't really fit well with the story. Choosing where to put the songs, and then writing the lead-ins, is one of the hardest parts of creating a musical -- especially nowadays, when audiences no longer accept the old convention of stopping the story for a marginally related song. It has become a cliche that songs should advance the story, at least emotionally if not in plot terms -- and the fact it is a cliche doesn't stop it from being true.
This integration of song and story is what is missing in NEWSIES. Like the dances, most of the songs are just bursts of undirected energy, which could largely be moved around interchangeably. The one exception is a more introspective song by Bale's character in which he dreams of going to Santa Fe, and that songs comes dangerously close to unintentional silliness. Still, after seeing the movie only once I have a couple of the songs bouncing around in my head, so maybe they pass the dreaded hummability test.
While basically sound, the plot does have a few oddities. Inevitably, there is a love interest for the main character, but, perhaps in deference to the intended audience of children, the love sub-plot is so down played that it might as well not be there. There is really only one scene devoted to it, and that comes off odd because it sets things up for a love song which never arrives. Also, Ann-Margret appears in a pointless role as a vaudevillian who implausibly owns her own theater. As she has no real plot function, you would think she was there as an excuse to get in some musical numbers, but all we get are fragments of a couple of songs.
If I had seen a preview of a Broadway show instead of a movie, I would be cautiously optimistic. The book needs a bit of tightening, the musical numbers need better lead ins, they need a new choreographer, and a love song or two have to be written. A lot of work, but just the kind of thing that you have previews for, and there is good material here and a great cast. But since it is a movie it is too late to make any changes, and we are left with an interesting failure. Fans of musicals will probably want to see it since it is the only thing going, and for all I know children will love it (and their parents at least won't be too bored). But I don't think I can recommend it to the average movie-goer.
David Fristrom Interleaf, Inc. davidf@ileaf.com
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