sies

Newsies is Disney's 1992 return to that rarest form of film the live-action musical. With original music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman the music tells the story of the 1899 New York City newsboy rebellion against newspaper kings William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The film was dead on arrival and played in some lucky local cinemas for two weeks. This was sad news considering that it could have been the beginning of a whole new musical generation. The music of Newsies has since gained a following and has a timeless appeal joining the roots of a great Broadway musical while attempting to fit the songs to their era. Despite the 1990s production we are expected to believe the songs might have been sung by newsboys in the 1890s. We don't of course -- the songs are too elaborate and pop driven (it is also likely that a newsboy who was more melodic than a hum or whistle would have been put in his place if the newsies are as rough as this film would have us believe).

Arguably one of the oddest films to emerge from the modern Disney Entertainment empire, this scrappy 1992 live-action musical tells the tale of a turn-of-the-last-century labor uprising among New York City's newsboys (or "Newsies")--an especially ironic topic given the Mouse House's own historical labor relations problems. It was also a valiant attempt to revive the glory days of the Hollywood musical, and Alan Menken (fresh from his triumphs Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid) serves up a rousing retro slate of songs (with lyrics by Jack Feldman) that both evoke the Ragtime-era story and bring a musical revivalist's fervor to the task of reanimating one of filmdom's most endangered genres; a throwback to be sure, but an energetic and infectious one. --Jerry McCulley