Dick Van Dyke on Holiday Musical ‘Buttons: A Christmas Tale’ With Angela Lansbury and Jane Seymour

When it comes to the holiday season, you can never have too many family musicals. One you may not know of is coming your way in the form of Buttons: A Christmas Tale, which brings together a cast that includes Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Jane Seymour, Roma Downey and Abigail Spencer. It’s narrated by both Kate Winslet and veteran actor and director Robert Redford.

Written and directed by Tim Janis, Buttons follows the heartwarming journey of two orphan girls whose only wish is to find a home for Christmas. With a little help from their guardian angels (Dick and Angela), they discover that miracles really can happen when you find the power to believe when sometimes it seems so impossible to do so.

Dick Van Dyke, of course, has among his many credits some classic musicals, most notably Bye Bye Birdie, the original Mary Poppins (though he does have a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, based on the children’s book by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. In an exclusive comment to Closer, the veteran performer enthuses of Buttons, “It was refreshing to work with young, upbeat artists with an entrepreneurial spirit to breathe new life into the musical genre.”

In an interview with sonomachristianhome.com, Tim Janis explains that the film project actually came together in a surprising way. “It initially developed two ways,” he says. “First, I was at a mass at St. Christopher’s when the idea came to me. Then Dick Van Dyke came across my song ‘Keep a Smile on Your Face’ and contacted me directly to say that we needed to do something with this song.”

Buttons: A Christmas Tale will make its debut on digital November 19 and on DVD December 3 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

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