leila_sami

I've been a lifelong Disney fan. I still remember how special it was when dad would take my sisters and me to the cinema to see the new Disney movie; how enchanted I was with the characters, songs, stories etc. I wanted to be the voice of a Disney character when I grew up. I had a Disney themed 18th birthday party.

Sadly though, as much as I keep hoping the next movie that comes out will achieve even a fraction of the magic of the good old days, my complaints are the same as everyone else's: a lack of originality, constant live action remakes and lacklustre sequels/prequels and very little put into anything that is a little new. Let's be honest, you'd be silly not to understand the corporatisation of movies and why companies do it; we tolerate it if it allows them to continue making movies we love. I've been defending Disney and largely ignoring the trash money grab movies whilst still enjoying things like Moana, Frozen, Ron's Gone Wrong etc but there's really no way to ignore it anymore (as it's the vast majority of what they put out now) and the movies I enjoy are a thing of the past. Moana 2 and Frozen 2 were pretty terrible.

It's also getting harder and harder to ignore their terrible corporate practices; they're exploitative, they hire people they shouldn't (I won't get political here but I'll just say Snow White - I still can't believe a company that markets to children can ignore what's going on in the world and hire the person they did for that movie and I'm glad the people spoke with their money/reviews and the movie bombed) and whilst I know my actions probably won't make any difference, I refuse to give my money to them. If everyone does the same, they'll be forced to do the right thing (politically and in terms of their movies, respecting their workers etc)

Anyway onto this movie. It's was... fine? A little trite, a lot predictable and largely forgettable. This was kind of their last chance for me. I always loved Pixar movies in particular. I'm done. I've cancelled my Disney subscription and I won't be going to see another Disney movie. Even my nieces, who used to beg me to take them, got bored during Elio and wanted to leave. I convinced them to stay since I didn't want to waste the money for the ticket but when you're having to talk their target audience into staying for 90 minutes you know things are bad.

I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of live musicals and I really think West End and Broadway actors are some of the most talented performers around! I'm so sick of musical adaptions where it's such a priority to cast famous actors even when they can't sing (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Beauty and the Beast, the list goes on). To compensate they have to auto-tune the living daylights out of every song so it sounds like you're listening to some kind of tone-deaf, mechanical monster or, when even that fails, they have the actors basically speak the songs (cough Emma Watson cough). I also don't know who decided that James Corden is the musical star du jour but I'd like to know how we get them to cease and desist. It also upsets me when they brutally cut loads of the songs for no apparent reason and/or add in new songs that are clearly just tacked on for unfathomable reasons (a la Aladdin and pretty much every movie musical I've already mentioned).

Anyway, enough moaning about other movie musicals. Given the movie's title, I shall join everybody else talking about Jamie. I like that it's not a carbon copy of the musical (otherwise why not just do an awesome Hamilton-style stage recording) but instead acknowledges that this is a new and different medium from the stage and uses this to its full advantage. All of the cast are talented actors and singers. Max Harwood is the perfect Jamie: sweet, naive and endearing with the most gorgeous voice. His performance is very different from John McCrea's but equally beautiful. All of the other actors do a great job making this as heartwarming, enjoyable and moving as the live musical with a beautiful and meaningful message about encouraging people to be their true and honest selves.

I've no idea who is giving low ratings to this but I'd really encourage everyone to watch it and make up their own minds.