Noelle: A Merry Misadventure

I’m sure you’ve realized this by now, but if you’re new to this blog: I am a Disney addict.


So, hell yes I got Disney+.


I’m still exploring it. I have a lot of old Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOM) on my Watchlist, so get prepared for those. And I have a planned So Weird binge watch. But for now, I’ve watched Endgame yet again and I’m in the middle of watching the recording of the Newsies stage musical.

However, I also took some time to watch Noelle, an original Christmas movie made for the platform. So let’s spread some holiday cheer and enjoy this sweet if wacky movie.

Ho ho SPOILERS!

The Last Five Years: A Movie Musical

Let’s rewind to 2004. I was a high school senior who was already very obsessed with Broadway musicals. And the biggest one that year was, of course, Wicked. One of the male stars of the musical was Norbert Leo Butz (Fiyero). A classmate of mine had a huge crush on him and she told me about his other work, including “The Last Five Years.” When I went to college, I discovered a great music store in the nearby mall who had a great Broadway selection. I found “The Last Five Years” and I bought it.

And I loved it.

So I was excited to hear there was a movie version coming out. Okay, I’ll be honest—I’m always excited to hear about a new movie musical.

However, I never found someone to go see it with nor the time to go on my own. So I had to wait for it to come on Netflix, which it has.

SPOILER GODDESS!

“Into the Woods”: Fractured Fairy Tales

Once Upon a Time, in a far off kingdom lived a sad young woman, a lonely lad named Jack and a childless baker with his wife.

This is “Into the Woods,” Stephen Sondheim’s musical about fairy tales. Disney and Rob Marshall have brought it to the big screen, working with Sondheim and James Lapine. And being a musical theater geek, of course I saw it.

I had some hesitation when I saw Disney was going to produce the film. Since I was familiar with the stage show, I knew there was a chance it was going to be changed to fit more with the Disney tone. Especially when fairy tales are so synonymous with “Walt Disney.” But it wasn’t as bad as I had initially feared. In fact, it was still very good.

Into the SPOILERS!