Newsies is a 1992 Disney live action film musical starring Christian Bale, David Moscow and Bill Pullman. Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret also appeared in smaller roles. The film marked the directorial debut of Dirty Dancing choreographer Kenny Ortega and featured the music of composer Alan Menken.

Although the film was not originally intended to be a musical, it contains twelve songs and multiple dance sequences (for which the young cast trained for approximately 10 weeks). Highlights include "Carrying the Banner", "Santa Fe", "Seize The Day", and "King of New York".

Newsies was not a commercial success (at the time it was one of the lowest-grossing Disney live-action films in the studio's history) and for years did not appear on video. It has subsequently gained a modest yet enthusiastic cult following and was released on DVD in 2002.

It was nominated for Worst Picture in the 1992 Golden Raspberry Awards.

Tagline: A Thousand Voices. A Single Dream.

Plot

Newsies is based on the story of the 1899 newsboys' strike in New York City. Jack Kelly (played by Bale) is a newsboy ("newsie") selling newspapers for Joseph Pulitzer and his paper, the New York World. David Jacobs (played by Moscow) leaves school temporarily and joins the newsies to help his family while his father is out of work. Shortly afterwards the price of newspapers to the newsboys is raised to 10 cents for 100 papers by joint decision of Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

Feeling they will be unable to bear the added cost, Jack Kelly organizes a strike with the aid of David Jacobs. Along the way the boys are aided by newspaper reporter Bryan Denton (Pullman) and vaudeville performer Medda (Ann-Margret), as well as being hindered by Snyder, warden of the "Refuge" juvenile detention facility (played by Kevin Tighe) and Pulitzer (played by Robert Duvall).

Cast

• Christian Bale as Jack Kelly
• David Moscow as David Jacobs
• Bill Pullman as Bryan Denton
• Robert Duvall as Joseph Pulitzer
• Ann-Margret as Medda
• Luke Edwards as Les Jacobs
• Max Casella as Racetrack Higgins
• Marty Belafsky as Crutchy
• Gabriel Damon as Spot Conlon
• Aaron Lohr as Mush Meyers

External links

• Newsies at the Internet Movie Database
• Newsies Fan Site