This film is a delightful for some good family-friendly viewing.
Personally, I found the pace a bit annoying but the songs were great and the acting was good but it was a good, uplifting film.
Jeronicus Jangle (first Justin Cornwell, then Forest Whitaker) is a celebrated inventor and might have just stumbled onto his big break when his neglected assistant, Gustafson (first Miles Barrow, then Keegan-Michael Key) steals his most precious invention, a talking doll (voiced by Ricky Martin) who is actually probably the true villain, despite being a doll but this doll is vain and self-centered and doesn't wish to be replicated and thus the story truly begins.
Thirty years pass and Jeronicus is a bitter recluse, his wife has died, his daughter left and he's about to go bankrupt when his creative granddaughter arrives at his doorstep. Journey (Madalen Mills) is exactly what he needs, sweet and brings a fresh mind and life into the old shop not that he wants her to.
Throughout the rest of the film the plot runs its predictable course, with Jeronicus working on invention that Journey finishes but it is stolen by Gustafson and then recovered by Journey and Edison (Kieron L. Dyer), the apprentice and then fixed by Jeronicus and his adult daughter, Jessica (Anika Noni Rose) and nearly stolen again by Gustafson, saved by Journey and then seen by Delacroix (Hugh Bonneville), the banker who won't evict Jeronicus after all. So the ending is a happy one.
While the plot may not be thrilling or inventive, the musical numbers are truly great with talent packed on every inch of your screen and the inventions that are created, including the different math system are great. And Mills is a great talent. Her career should be long and varied as there seems to be nothing she can't accomplish. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-The widowed postmistress, Ms. Johnston (Lisa Davina Phillip) flirts shamelessly and obliviously with Jeronicus and eventually, he does realizes it and takes her up on her offer.
-Anika Noni Rose outsings everyone else.
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