YMMV / Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

• Accidental Aesop: If you're in pain, you may feel the urge to distance yourself from those you love, but that is the opposite of what you should do. People can't help you unless you let them.
• Awesome Music: A large part of the movie's high tomatometer score is the music. It's no surprise that John Legend was involved in the writing of it.
  • Special mention goes to ‘Magic Man G’, performed by Keegan-Michael Key.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • "This Day," the very first song of the film, really sounds like it belongs at the end of a film, with it's utterly victorious tone and swelling style. That's because it is. Jeronicus and his wife are singing it because they're fully confident they've made their big break and they think it's the end of their journey. But knowing this was supposed to be the happy ending Jeronicus and his family deserved, the song makes all the awful ways their lives fall apart even more heart-rending.
  • Wakanda is referenced with a sticker on Jeronicus' briefcase. On top of being another film Forest Whitaker appeared in, it's a film applauded for having a cast that represents the black community just like this one.
• I Am Not Shazam: Jingle Jangle is not the name of any character in the movie.
• Jerkass Woobie: Gustafson felt ignored by Jeronicus, then was manipulated and abused by Don Juan for thirty years. But he was still the one who decided to go along with the matador's idea to steal the inventions and ruin Jeronicus' life, all because he couldn't be patient. Yeah, emphasis on jerkass.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • The film got a lot of positive press attention, both before and after its release, for being one of the few mainstream films to be led by an entirely black cast, with a story that has nothing to do with race—still a rarity in 2020.
  • How many people tuned in just to see Forest Whitaker sing?
  • Many have also said the film is worth a watch for the visuals alone.
• Love to Hate: No one really tries to justify Gustafson's actions (beyond expressing sympathy towards his Inferiority Superiority Complex, and Don Juan's abuse of him), but he still managed to endear himself to viewers through sheer force of pizzazz and hamming it up. He's often touted as a high point of the movie.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Don Juan was a pretty slimy character to begin with, but it wasn't until he demanded the guards kick the children and pull their hair that we realize what a truly despicable and heartless toy he is.
  • The same can certainly be said of Gustafson as well. After he spent thirty years stealing every invention from Jeronicus he finally returns to not only claim credit for another stolen invention but to frame Jeronicus for theft of it. He even dares to say he slaved over it and presents stolen blueprints to the cops as proof. This leaves little doubt as to whether he feels any remorse for his deeds.
• Narm: Being a Christmas movie, of course the word "believe" is uttered by our heroine a ludicrous number of times. While believing in yourself and what you still have is the moral of the film, the way Journey says it multiple times (very vaguely) only comes off as corny.
• Narm Charm: This movie is very cheesey and unabashedly cliched, but the kids are so darned cute and everyone plays it with such sincerity, and the visuals and music are so beautiful, it's hard not to be charmed by it.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: More than a handful of viewers don't show a lot of sympathy towards Jeronicus Jangle and his troubles, feeling like he's his own worst enemy, and that he brought a lot of his troubles upon himself. The film expects the viewers to feel extremely bad for him due to the betrayal of his most loyal apprentice, and his wife passing away. And while those are definitely tragic events in their own rights, and he has a right to be depressed, the way he reacted to said tragedies has rubbed some viewers the wrong way: Namely he pushed his daughter Jessica away and stated that she was better off without him, and didn't even try to ask how she felt about her mother's passing. Her father's neglectful parenting, in turn, would result in Jessica leaving his life due to feeling responsible for his state, and he never contacts her for nearly 2-3 decades, and sat there feeling sad for himself, even quit the inventing gig. No wonder Jessica felt like she lost both her parents and not just her mother. Great parenting, Jeronicus! As a result, Jeronicus' state of being lonely, miserable and poor and the Jangle family being torn apart is mostly his own fault, due to him being a terrible father. He was also a lousy grandfather considering he tried shutting Journey out of his life and started off as super intensive towards her feelings.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the set design is very nice, the gorgeous animation used to tell the story at certain points is where the film really shines.
• The Woobie: Jessica and Jeronicus have had a very bad couple of decades (especially Jessica), with their once-loving relationship totally falling apart when Jeronicus self-isolated instead of properly dealing with his grief. Jessica's mostly recovered by the time Journey goes to visit him, but her Calling the Old Man Out moment makes it clear she's still hurting from the way her father pushed her away. Jeronicus, for his part, fully admits he deserves her anger, and has been so depressed and lonely for so long that you just want to give the man a hug and tell him it'll be okay. Not that he'd believe you even if you told him that.