A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.
Enjoyed this.
I've noted before that musicals aren't my favourite (the more I watch, the more they grow on me to be honest), but I had a fun time viewing 'Newsies'. It manages to maintain the entertainment whilst keeping strong focus on both the music and storyline, a lot of the musicals that I've seen tend to focus on the tunes first and almost forget about the plot, this doesn't. I thoroughly liked seeing the premise unfold.
Talking of song and dance, I rate the musical numbers. I wouldn't say I'll remember or revisit any of the songs but that's not really important, the fact that it all suits the onscreen stuff is what matters most. I do like "Santa Fe" by Christian Bale, who is excellent by the way. Best actor on display, though David Moscow (David), Bill Pullman (Bryan) and Robert Duvall (Pulitzer) are good too.
This overtakes 'Babes in Toyland' as my standout Disney strictly live-action musical so far; not including films like 'Mary Poppins', which is a live-action/animation mix.
This was a financial flop for Disney that became a cult classic and finally turned a profit in video rentals.
Let's look at this logically (especially since I was 12 when it came out and as a 12 year old I was about all things movie related), this wasn't a failure of the film, it was a failure of marketing.
No one heard about it, no one knew about it, they failed in the marketing campaign, no real buzz was around it, so it flopped.
Now if you ask me... don't cast Bill Pullman in musicals, that could be a correction. But in all honesty, the songs were catchy, the case was great, the setting was appropriate and the plot was engaging. It has everything it needs to be a decent film...
... everything but the initial marketing.
