A Very Jonas Christmas Movie marked a first for writing and producing duo Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger.
The Disney+ original movie, now streaming, follows Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas as they face a number of magical holiday mishaps while trying to get home to their families for Christmas. While the film’s seven original songs were created by singer-songwriter Justin Tranter, Aptaker and Berger also got to dip their toes into the world of music for the project.
Many of Aptaker and Berger’s projects over the years have featured musical moments, from Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) singing on This Is Us to Benji (George Sear) playing in a band on Love, Victor. A Very Jonas Christmas Movie, however, goes full movie musical with several festive song and dance numbers.
“I think it was very exciting for us, just in general. The music component of this made it so different than anything that we’ve done before,” Berger told TV Insider. “I mean, collaborating with the brothers, collaborating with Justin Tranter, who is a brilliant songwriter that worked on this, getting to see the guys record — It was just so cool to sort of sit in the back of the recording booth and see Nick and Joe do what they do so stunningly and brilliantly and beautifully.”
She continued, “We’ve made a lot of TV and we’ve made a bunch of movies, but we’ve just never gotten to do anything like that before. And again, it was just so joyful and so special to see it sort of all coming together behind the scenes that way.”
Disney/John Medland
Throughout the movie, Kevin works up the courage to tell his brothers that he wishes to sing more in the group. His hopes pay off at the end of the film, as the eldest Jonas Brother gets his own solo moment in the song “Time.”
“We would kind of come up with what the narrative needed, like, what the song needed to do to move the story forward and sort of the vibe. And if it was a funny song, what the comedic beat would be, and maybe some sample lyrics,” Aptaker said of collaborating with Tranter. “And then, Justin and his incredible team would come up with kind of like a demo and send that to us, and then we’d give feedback on that, and then they’d incorporate those notes.”
Another standout moment is Nick’s sing-off with Andrew Barth Feldman‘s Ethan, as the two perform a number from a fictional musical adaptation of Home Alone. “That was our idea that Justin then — and Andrew— took to the next level,” Aptaker shared. “We knew we wanted to do a Broadway-inspired number, and we wanted it to be based on Home Alone. But there’s a lot of sort of red tape involved there with getting the rights, so we had to wait for that to all be sorted out.”
He added, “As soon as we got the go-ahead, it was actually pretty close to when we had to film that scene. We were calling Justin, like, ‘We got it! Go, go, go, go!’ And then, like, literally, over a weekend, he wrote that hilarious Home Alone ballad.”
Feldman is one of several celebrities featured in the movie’s star-studded cast, including Chloe Bennet, Billie Lourd, Laverne Cox, KJ Apa, Andrea Martin, Kenny G, Randall Park, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and several members of the Jonas family. The movie even opens with a hilarious cameo from Will Ferrell, his wife Viveca Paulin, and their three sons.
“Everyone that famous is very busy, so there’s always scheduling stuff. But the answer we were met with most often was just like, a resounding yes,” Aptaker told TV Insider. “I think everyone is such a fan of the Jonas Brothers to begin with, so that was a huge leg up in getting people to come hang. And then, the idea of, like, coming in for a day or two and doing something fun and joyful and a little bit silly that families could watch together, I think, is really, really appealing to people right now. So, it was not a very high lift getting these people to come be hilarious with us.”
A Very Jonas Christmas Movie, Streaming Now, Disney+
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