Just when you thought that the cartoon characters were the only ones left who were allowed to burst into song, along comes Newsies, an old style, live-action musical from Disney. Yet if Newsies is any indication, it would probably be a better idea for Disney to leave the singing to cartoon characters. For the film's attempt to fuse the spirit of classic MGM musicals with a message about workers' solidarity hardly goes beyond the limits of innocent fun.

The criterion for a good musical has always been the ability to draw us in far enough so that we can suspend disbelief and accept the characters' expression of their emotions through song and dance. Newsies is not a winner here. As directed by Kenny Ortega, the choreographer whose credits include the film Dirty Dancing , Newsies is a long, half-hearted romp through what is made to seem a not terribly compelling chapter in New York's history.

Ortega, whose great strength should have been in handling the musical sequences, unaccountably breaks up songs with dialogue and sometimes limits a musical outburst to only a few bars; never does he allow a song-and-dance number to build to a rousing finale. The choreography, by Ortega and Peggy Holmes, is similarly strange. The musical outbursts do not grow organically from the film's other action, nor do they otherwise feel authentic, since the dancing look forced. Alan Menken's music would have sounded better under almost any other circumstances than these.

Still a score featuring music by Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman provides the film's rare bright spots, but even these are bungled. Many of the musical numbers are staged so strangely that the character, when they begin singing, appear to have taken leave of their senses. Christian Bale, as the film's hero who dreams of escaping to the Southwest, is made to sing "Santa Fe" while ambling through a dusty, too picturesque New York street at night. The staging goes well beyond run-of-the-mill fantasy when it sends him leaping onto a horse and frolicking on a hay wagon.

Bale plays Jack, a happy-go-lucky newsboy who hawks papers for the New York World, part of the sensationalistic "yellow press" of the 1890's. He and his fellow orphans and street kids scrape by on the pennies they make selling papers. Jack teams up with a pair of down-on-their-luck brothers, Davy (David Moscow) and the baby-faced Les (Luke Edwards) and teaches them the tricks of the trade. ("Headlines don't sell papers, newsies sell papers.")

Robert Duvall, hidden behind glasses and large tufts of facial hair as a cartoonishly villainous Joseph Pulitzer, looks understandably uncomfortable in the role. ("There's lot of money down there in those streets, "he tells his thugs." I want to know how I can get more of it--by tonight!") Only slightly better off is Bill Pullman, as the newspaper reporter who helps to champion the newsboys' strike against the Pulitzer and Hearst empires.

Christian Bale, the young English actor who starred in Empire of the Sun, is the brightest spot of the film. Seeming completely comfortable in the skin of a New York street kid, he gives an utterly magnetic performance. Few other cast members have the chance to shine, since the film's idea of charm is misguided. Lovable little Crutchy (Marty Belafsky), a disabled newsboy with a heart of gold, personifies the film's would-be winsome side. Ann Margret, done up in orange and fuchsia as a vaudeville star who looks more like a madam, particularly strains the limits of innocent fun.

Newsies is even further hurt by a fairy-tale view of labor relations. It would be hard to imagine a worse moment for a film that supposes a dispute between labor and management could be settled by a few songs.

Newsies is after innocent fun, but, unfortunately, can never go beyond it. The story, which is meant to be less an assault on capitalism than a celebration of a victory over injustice, lacks the effect of sincerity which would stick with you long after you leave the theater. In a remade form, using only cartoon newsboys, the material for Newsies may work, but as it stands, the film will seem dull to children and badly contrived to their parents.