JoBro Productions & Film Finance, Myriad Pictures,
Bailee Madison, French Stewart, Kolton Stewart, Luke Bilyk, Scott Thompson, Naomi Snieckus, Sara Waisglass, Jennifer Robertson, Arnold Pinnock, Darrin Baker, Sabryn Rock, Sandy Jobin-Bevans, Natalie Ganzhorn, Ethan Pugiotto, Darren Eisnor
Holiday Joy is the story of a young lady named Joy (Bailee Madison), who is frustrated with life. She has two brothers and is being cared for by her single Dad who is very timid and not a very good father. Joy is very shy, but really nuts over the cute boy in class, and talks endlessly to her best friend who lives next door and has tons of money and great parents. Joy is really jealous of that life. But when she is injured in an accident, she magically wakes up to find that she’s now lives next door and is a volleyball legend in high school and very popular. The boy she had a crush on is madly in love with her and can’t let her out of his sight. Everything looks perfect, but as Joy is soon to find, the new life has its cost too, and things are not exactly how she dreamed it would be.
Bailee Madison has grown up a bit and is quite the young lady. You may remember her as the young Snow White in the TV show Once Upon a Time, or from many other projects that’s she’s done. She is a really good actress, and has been for years, but this is the first time I’ve seen her in a more grown up role. She’s able to handle the coming of age drama pretty well. This is kind of a “Freaky Friday” movie, and that makes sense as it’s a FreeForm TV movie. FreeForm is the weird new name that ABC Family (formerly Fox Family) is using these days, and is a Disney station. They do the 25 Days of Christmas thing every year in December, and though it’s mostly known for reruns of the classic TV Christmas shows and movies that Disney owns or has rights to, but this is an original movie. It was different in that Joy didn’t change places with someone else, she just changed it up and became a daughter in a new family with a new home address. The film is really mostly for teens and near teens, and is well suited to them with some of the more childish stuff that goes on. Some of the jokes and gags are pretty juvenile for adults and older teens, but it is a Christmas movie and was entertaining just the same. Not sure how many times it will be replayed, but it’s worth watching as it’s a clever story that teaches the lesson of appreciating what you have.
If you have Cable or Dish service, you can use this link to watch on-line at freeform.go.com.
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