When someone says, "Let's watch a Disney movie!" what are the movies that come to your mind?

Maybe you're thinking of the old classic Disney movies like, Cinderella or Bambi. Maybe you're thinking of your childhood Disney movies like, High School Musical or that one Lizzie McGuire movie. We all have our ideas of what a Disney movie is. There is that typical story line: Poor, lonely, sad person and something happens. They find love and it's all unicorns and rainbows. They live happily ever after.

There is one Disney movie that I've watched that does have a similar story line but there is more to the story. I have seen this movie at least fifty times and it still is my all time favorite Disney movie.

Newsies (1992)

Have you heard of it? Probably not. Disney doesn't show it on their channel or talk much about it. Why? Even though it is rated PG, there's swearing, smoking, some "violence" and some hidden sexual comments. And by Disney's standards today, it's just not a movie they want to bring up again. This movie has important historical background that teaches you to appreciate the wages and the work we have today as well as the rights we have.

Anyway, the story takes in the late 1890s in New York City during the circulation wars between the newspaper companies. At that time, the richest and most powerful men in the city were newspaper owners. During that time, industrialization brought on child labor and the exploitation of workers. Strikes broke out as employees demanded fair pay, better working conditions, and better hours.

The most powerful men where Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, and William Randolph Hearst, owner of the New York Journal. Both had very successful companies and engaged in yellow journalism. They both had greed and that drove them into their circulation war. At the very bottom of it all there was the newsboys (Newsies). When Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise the distribution price one-tenth of a cent per paper, ten cents per hundred, the newsboys, poor enough already, are outraged and begin a strike. The movie is about that newsboy strike of 1899, which was one of the most significant strikes at the time.

It's a musical movie. The dancing is amazing and the songs are catchy, there is a sad back story of the main character, Jack Kelly (Christian Bale), and the all the songs were song by all the actors which is pretty amazing. Kenny Ortega helped produce the movie and did a great job. It took them months and months to practice, train, and produce.

Although it isn't a classic Disney movie, it may be one of the best underrated and unknown movies I've stumbled across.