This live-action Christmas musical adventure for the entire family weaves classic Christmas melodies with humor, faith, and new pop songs in a retelling of the greatest story ever told: the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus.
Musicals are not a genre I like. Watching a scene occur between two people and then suddenly bursting into song is one surefire way to take me out of a scene. Animated musicals are different; they are not live-action, so I can enjoy them for what they are. With “Journey to Bethlehem,” the filmmakers take the birth of Jesus and turn it into a musical. When the film finishes, the producers state that they took dramatic license with the film and tried to stick as closely to the biblical chronicling of the birth of Jesus as much as possible.
In “Journey to Bethlehem,” we are introduced to Mary (Fiona Palomo) and Joseph (Milo Manheim), her soon-to-be husband in Nazareth in Galilee. When she is visited by the archangel Gabriel during the middle of the night and told that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and his name will be Jesus, the Son of the Most High, she is confused as she is a virgin, but Gabriel informs her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and her child will be holy. When she tells Joseph, he has trouble believing her and plans to divorce her quietly but Gabriel visits him in a dream and makes God’s will known to him. They travel to Bethlehem, where Mary gives birth to Jesus.
When King Herod (Antonio Banderas) learns of Jesus from the three wise men, Caspar (Rizwan Manji), Melchior (Omid Djalili), and Balthasar (Geno Segers), who refer to Jesus as the King of the Jews, he fears a threat to his rule and sends his soldiers out to try and locate him. When that proves fruitless, he orders his soldiers to execute all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Now, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus must travel to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem.
I would have much rather that “Journey to Bethlehem,” like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” was a faithful adaptation from the bible instead of taking dramatic license and creating subplots and scenarios that were not recorded. Granted, a certain amount of dramatic license is taken with all films based on source material, but here, the filmmakers created and modified scenes to fit their narrative.
As a musical, the movie works fine. The songs are catchy and appealing, much like the “High School Musical” films, and the story employs a lot of humor throughout. There is more humor than I would have preferred, but it seems like they are trying to reach a younger audience, which is good, and adding songs and a sense of fun is a guaranteed way to appeal to that particular audience. In the end, “Journey to Bethlehem” offers nothing new, musically or thematically, it’s 100 minutes of escapist entertainment and sometimes, that’s all you need.
Now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray™ and DVD January 16th
