Page 118 - CelebrationsSpring2020

Night Live) in the title roles, with Sam Elliot (A Star is Born) as Trusty, Ashley Jensen (Arthur Christmas) as Jock and Jonelle Monáe (Harriet) as Peg, it is certainly a good reason to spend a “bella notte” on the couch with a movie!
Released just in time for Christmas, Noelle is the story of Santa Claus’s daughter who is enlisted to take over when her father retires and her brother, the heir apparent, vanishes. The delightful holiday comedy stars Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods), Bill Hader (Inside Out, Finding Dory) as her brother Nick, Oscar winner Shirley Maclaine (Terms of Endearment) as Elf Polly, Julie Hagerty (Airplane!) as Mrs. Claus and Billy Eichner (2019’s The Lion King) as Gabriel Kringle.
The World According to Jeff Goldblum has emerged as a popular Disney+ series. The famed star of Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and Thor: Ragnarok takes an in-depth look at everyday things loved by everyday people, with topics as diverse as ice cream, tattoos, denim, and coffee. Inspired by his own natural curiosity and desire to explore, his endearing, if somewhat quirky, personality makes for a most entertaining kind of an educational experience in science-meets-social studies-meets-any number of genres that Goldblum ties together.
Getting back to musicals, those who trod the boards in
their own high school drama clubs will appreciate Encore!, produced by Arendelle’s own Kristen Bell. The show visits the alumni casts of high school theater productions, who are now all grown up. The former castmates reunite and have five days to re-stage the shows in which they once performed, assisted by Broadway and off-Broadway showpeople, including Susan Egan, the voice of Megara in Disney’s Hercules and Broadway’s original Belle.
And fewer series have sparked more chatter – not to mention more memes – than the new Star Wars incarnation, The Mandalorian, produced by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Avengers, 2016’s The Jungle Book, 2019’s The Lion King). Portrayed by Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), the Mandalorian is a bounty hunter roaming throughout the galaxies, well out of the reach of the New Republic, five years after the fall of the Empire. The First Order will not come into its own for a number of years yet, and the lone wolf Mandalorian is on his own, searching for prey he will sell to the highest bidder. And as anyone with Internet access can attest, whether or not a single episode has been seen, he has stumbled upon a 50-year-old infant of an unidentified species, who is undeniably adorable and also bears a striking resemblance to a certain well-loved Star Wars character who is on the
118 · Celebrations