No one in my household grew up on the Jonas Brothers. The only brothers in a band that my husband and I came up with were Liam and Noel Gallagher, and my kids, who are 12 and 7, completely missed the window when Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas were teen heartthrobs with a hit TV show. And yet, I’m here to tell you that every person in my household loved the new Jonas Brothers movie, A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (out this weekend on Disney Plus), despite none of us necessarily being the target audience.
A Very Jonas Christmas Movie is probably the most generic title anyone could have given this film so it doesn’t really give you a clue about what you’re in for when you watch. In the very first scene, Will Ferrell shows up playing a heightened version of himself, and he’s forcing his family to attend a Jonas Brothers concert in London because he’s a massive superfan. “If my kids fell off a boat and you fell off a boat, I’d save you over my children!” Ferrell yells at the band while they’re performing in concert later in the film.
That scene sets the tone for what’s to come: A well-crafted, sharp road trip comedy that mines a lot of jokes from how uncool the Jonas brothers are now that they’re tired “old” dads in their 30s — with the brothers making most of the jokes at their own expense. I used to not relate to the Jonases, but I, too, am a tired parent who uses self-deprecation as a survival tool. Perhaps I have more in common with these former teen stars than I thought? It makes me forgive them for going with such a drab title.
The film begins at the final concert of the Jonas Brothers’ world tour, just a few days before Christmas. When the show ends, Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas all plan to take their private jet from London to New York to see their families. However, the brothers haven’t been getting along, and when Joe has a chance encounter with Santa Claus (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) at a bar, Santa realizes that the Jonases need some time together to reconnect. So Santa does what you expect Santa to do, and puts a friendly curse on the brothers. Its first effect causes their airplane to explode before they can board it, forcing them to work together to find a way home. (This is not the only airplane in the film that will become a fireball, just so you know.)
What follows is a series of mishaps and a cavalcade of celebrity cameos, including K.J. Apa as a pilot, Andrea Martin as a cab driver who doesn’t really know how to drive, and Kenny G as himself (which I won’t spoil for you), as the brothers desperately try to get home, with Santa’s curse sabotaging them across every city in Europe.