Toon Talk: Newsies
Page 4 of 4
(l. to r.) Bumlets (Dominic Lucero), Racetrack
(Max Casella), Mush (Aaron Lohr),
Jack (Christian Bale), Crutchy (Marty Belafsky) and Boots (Arvie Lowe, Jr.)
(c) Disney
Toon Talk Trivia
Many of the makers and stars of Newsies went onto continued success with
Disney:
Christian Bale (Jack Kelly) was able to use his authentic British accent as Thomas in Pocahontas. After Newsies, he danced again in Hollywood Pictures' Swing Kids .
Christian's sister Louise Bale was also in Newsies, as Medda's assistant.
Marty Belafsky, who played Crutchy, was a sailor in Pearl Harbor.
In addition to his Broadway stint as Timon in The Lion King, Max Casella was in Touchstone's Ed Wood and can be heard as Zini in Dinosaur and Tip in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, as well as on the television series The Legend of Tarzan.
Lyricist Jack Feldman's songs were a highlight of A Goofy Movie.
Like fellow Newsies alum Feldman, Aaron Lohr(Mush) was involved in A Goofy Movie, as the singing voice of Max. He was also Dean Portman in the two Mighty Ducks sequels, D2 and D3, and appeared on The Disney Channel's Teen Angel.
Arvie Lowe Jr., a.k.a. Boots, can currently be seen in The Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire.
Tragedy ended the young career of Dominic Lucero, who as Bumlets can be seen spinning from the ceiling fan at the end of the "King of New York" dance number. He died in 1994 of lymphatic cancer.
Alan Menken went on to win four more Oscars for his music in the films Aladdin and Pocahontas. He also received nominations for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. His next project is the animated musical Sweating Bullets, due in 2003.
Director Kenny Ortega's second feature was the Disney comedy Hocus Pocus, starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Nijimy. It is not as fondly remembered as Newsies.
Bill Pullman (Bryan Denton) made his movie debut in Touchstone's Ruthless People, and was later seen in While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock.
The underscore for the film was composed by J.A.C. (Jack) Redford. His many Disney music credits including working on as either composer, conductor or musical arranger on The Little Mermaid, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Oliver and Company, Mighty Joe Young, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and both Mighty Ducks sequels.
Screenwriters Bob Tzudiker and Noni White worked on the scripts for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan and 102 Dalmatians, as well as Fox's Anastasia.
The Final Word:
"Keep carrying the banner!"
-- Kenny Ortega, et al, at the end of the audio commentary for 'Newsies'.
• • •
Coming Soon in the Next Toon Talk:
Get sucked into the computer world of Tron with the deluxe, 2-disc 20th
Anniversary Edition DVD.
Discuss It
Related Links
- Purchase Newsies on DVD or VHS from The LaughingPlace Store
- January 29th Guest Column
A Newsies fanatic gives her opinion of the DVD - List of all Toon Talk articles
-- Kirby C. Holt
Kirby, a former Walt Disney World Resort Cast Member (and Trivia Champ), is a lifelong Disney fan and film buff. He is also an avid list maker and chronic ellipsis user ...
Took Talk: Disney Film & Video Reviews by Kirby C. Holt is posted whenever there's something new to review.
The opinions expressed by our Kirby C. Holt, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted April 10, 2002