27th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010)

BACKGROUND

Most Disney Channel Original Movies are just that: original movies created by Disney Channel, produced by Disney Channel, and airing exclusively on Disney Channel. However, there have been a select few that have, rightly or wrongly, gained the title “Disney Channel Original Movie” without fitting these criteria.

That could be because the movie was actually released in theatres first, though was still quite obviously linked to Disney Channel, by being a continuation of one of their television series or movie franchises. The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003) and High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) are two examples of this.

There have also been cases of movies being produced by a completely different company, in partnership with Disney Channel, that have gone on to be dubbed Disney Channel Original Movies. One of these happens to be Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.

Now, it is not currently named on the official DCOM lists, nor was it part of that Movie Marathon Weekend in 2016 that led up to the release of Adventures in Babysitting (2016), the 100^th official DCOM. And yet, whilst being advertised ahead of its premiere date on Disney Channel, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars was promoted as a Disney Channel movie and as a Disney Channel World Premiere movie – whatever that means – on the channel itself.

I’ll get into the specifics of the channels and production companies involved with Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars later on, but as it was once viewed as a Disney Channel movie, it would’ve been unfair to disregard it from my DCOM reviews, so I watched it – reluctantly.

Getting to the movie itself, I did not enjoy Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. The fact I did not watch this as a child, and had never ever heard of it before, did not help as it is clearly not aimed at adults. I’m also not old enough to have read the original book, nor was I old enough to have watched the 1996 Nickelodeon movie Harriet the Spy when it was released.

I came to this franchise completely blind, and, despite it being about blogging, which, as you can see, I dabble in myself, it was uninspiring. The whole idea of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars was to move the 1960s-set novel into the 21^st Century and what used to be popular online in the early 2000s? Blogging. And as Harriet is a writer and observer of people, this would be a natural way of modernising the story. But Harriet is not a likeable character and her methods of obtaining information, by spying on a celebrity actor in this case, are dodgy and unethical to say the least.

PLOT

Sixteen-year-old Harriet is a writer and “observer of life”. Well, that’s what she tells herself. In actual fact, Harriet spends most of her time looking in other people’s windows and following them around so that she can write about them in her notebooks in the hopes that these secrets can lead to her becoming a great writer. But now is the time for her private thoughts to become public as Harriet’s big aim is to become the class blogger at her school.

Harriet lives with her movie producer father and board member mother, however, since they are so busy, Harriet spends most of her time whilst at home with the nanny, Golly, and is currently in the midst of a war with her family’s chef, who wants her to expand her culinary horizons. Harriet just wants a plain tomato sandwich. Every day.

Anyway, at school, Harriet is completely focused on her goal of becoming the class blogger, until her friends, Janie and Simon, also known as Sport, remind her that it’s all a popularity contest, so it will inevitably go to Marion Hawthorne once again. Marion is obviously nominated for the position by her friends, and Janie and Sport do the same for Harriet, so their teacher has no choice: it’s time for a “blog-off”. They’ll both write their blogs and the class will vote on the best one in a few weeks.

Harriet is excited to get started, knowing that she has so many thoughts she can write up on to her blog. But this excitement is short-lived when she learns that Marion has already posted, writing about their day at school. And what’s worse is that people actually seem interested in it! Harriet knows she needs to act fast and thinks about her first post.

Meanwhile, Harriet’s father teases Harriet about a new business deal he’s been involved in but wants it to be a surprise for her. That evening, Harriet discovers that teen actor, Skander Hill, the lead in the Spy Teen movie franchise that Harriet actively despises, is at her house. It turns out her dad will be producing Spy Teen 2, which, instead of impressing Harriet, actually horrifies her.

The next day at school, Harriet is pressured by her teacher to get moving with her blog and write her first post. Harriet writes her first one that evening, about a con artist on her street who seemingly scams women out of their money. There is little engagement on this post and Harriet can’t work out why. She tries again the next day with an entry about a pampered pooch and its owners, but still, no-one is interested, not even her friends, and the Comments Section is full of complaints about Harriet’s lame blog.

Harriet asks Golly for some advice. Golly tells her that perhaps she should try a different approach and write about things that are more interesting to the general student body, rather than just writing about what interests her. Harriet isn’t convinced by this change of direction, but gives it a shot. She writes about Skander Hill “invading her home” that night he came to visit her father to talk about Spy Teen 2. Even though Harriet isn’t nice at all about Skander, the post gets plenty of discussion and engagement from her class and the people want more. Marion says that Harriet can’t possibly know Skander Hill, making Harriet’s blog basically dead in the water. Harriet lies and says she does, and plots to write an exposé on Skander Hill, his whole shallow world, and his meaningless career. Nice…

Harriet manages to convince her parents to allow her to come to the set of Spy Teen 2, saying she wants to spend time with her father; she actually just wants to get information about Skander for the blog. Harriet is allowed to come to set one day, supervised by Golly, but is told to be on her best behaviour as Skander doesn’t like visitors being on set whilst he’s there. They are shown around the production site briefly, before sitting in on one of Skander’s song rehearsals – because Spy Teen 2 is a musical, obviously – with his co-star, Poppy, who he is supposedly dating. The rehearsal does not go well and the two argue loudly, giving Harriet the perfect scoop for her blog. Naturally, she films this argument on her phone, but is quickly ushered away when Skander notices visitors on set.

Harriet’s next blog entry allows her to take down Hollywood’s latest power couple which is of huge interest to her class, especially the girls who would obviously think that if Skander isn’t with Poppy anymore, then it makes him available for them. Ah, the delusions of young girls with crushes on celebrities; I was just like that too… Then I grew up.

Harriet learns from her father that the set is going to be closed to any outsiders, meaning that Harriet’s access to Skander has been severely limited. No problem, because Harriet is a spy, and manages to find Skander’s schedule in her father’s office. She finds out a wardrobe fitting will be taking place at Skander’s hotel and plans to sneak into the hotel room to get some gossip. Hiding in the clothes rack of the wardrobe fitter, Harriet easily makes it into Skander’s room and hides behind the sofa. She discovers that Skander has a birthmark on his shoulder, which Harriet refers to as disgusting on her blog. Judgemental much? It’s hardly nice to make comments on people’s skin, Harriet!

Again, this post goes down well with the students at school, however, Harriet is soon being warned by her nanny not to become like the tabloid press, writing sensationalist gossip just to tear someone down. This falls on deaf ears though as Harriet continues with her spying, following Skander to the gym; whilst he’s out running; sneaking onto set, and into his hotel again. This time, she steals a room service bill, with Skander catching her in the act, making him incredibly anxious and paranoid that someone is stalking him. Later, she takes photos of a food fight on set. Harriet also continues to lie to Marion and her popular crowd about knowing Skander, going so far as to have her friend, Sport, pretend he is Skander and sit in a taxi, so that Harriet can pretend to be talking to him as Marion watches from a window during a sleepover she was randomly invited to.

Whilst Harriet’s star is on the rise with her writing abilities, she soon becomes suspicious of her nanny who is having secret conversations with Coop, the owner of Harriet’s favourite book and ice-cream shop. What a great store combination! Harriet follows Golly to Coop’s house and accuses the two of dating. She runs off back home, with Golly running after her. Golly explains that actually she is going to buy the bookstore from Coop and will be leaving Harriet, not being her nanny anymore. Harriet is furious, feeling that Golly is abandoning her. I mean, does Harriet really need a nanny at sixteen? And won’t she just see Golly at the bookstore? She’s there every week. So overdramatic, Harriet.

At school, Marion demands that Harriet show proof that she knows Skander, or else Marion will reveal to everyone that Harriet’s blog is all lies. Harriet is once again motivated to go on set by Marion’s threat, but luckily, it’s a day where there will be 100 teenage extras on set so she can blend right in. Harriet, dressed as a beefeater – because Spy Teen 2 is partially set in London, though filmed in the US, with incredibly stereotypical British props and set designs – attempts to follow the choreographed number but fails. She might be a good writer but a natural dancer she is not! Skander instantly recognises Harriet as his stalker and launches into a huge tirade about fans not allowing him any privacy. Which is a completely fair comment to make – but not when someone is recording it. Yes, Harriet being the “super spy” that she is records all of this onto her phone and posts it as her latest blog entry. At the same time, her mother accuses her of having a crush on Skander Hill and tells her that her stalking attempts have gone too far now. Oh yeah, NOW it’s gone too far.

The next day, Harriet discovers that her blog post with that video has been leaked to the media. Their school blog is password-protected so only students of the school can access it, but Marion, jealous of Harriet, decided to post it outside of this blog. Skander threatens to sue Harriet’s father and leave Spy Teen 2 unless that extra who broke onto set and filmed him is found. As Skander is at Harriet’s house, it won’t come as a big surprise to find that Skander soon comes face-to-face with his stalker. Skander is shocked and scared, reiterating that he’ll be suing Harriet’s father and won’t be working on Spy Teen 2.

At this point, Harriet finally learns that her actions have had devastating consequences, with this potentially ruining Skander’s career. She vows to make amends and apologises to Skander. Skander says he’ll forgive her and continue with the movie if Harriet promises not to blog anymore. Harriet is about to agree when her father cuts in; he says she’s a good writer and won’t allow her to stop blogging. Skander has no option but to quit and walks away into a sea of reporters and photographers. It then turns out that Skander’s rant has given him a new movie opportunity and he runs over to thank Harriet, even kissing her on the cheek. She’s saved his career, apparently.

At school, Harriet’s teacher says that they won’t have a class blogger this year as Marion broke the rules by posting outside of the school blog, causing this mess. However, the rest of the students stand in support of Harriet as their class blogger, having enjoyed her posts, even if they lacked any ethical reporting whatsoever. Their teacher relents and officially names Harriet as class blogger.

So, everything ended happily, with Harriet getting her dream and enjoying her life again. But then, the movie decides to end in a really stupid way by having magazines allude to the fact that Harriet and Skander have become a couple… Excuse me, what? An actor ending up with his stalker? That’s not sweet, that’s disturbing. A fan, fine, but a creep that spies on you, no way. What a ridiculous ending to an already disappointing movie…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Harriet has to be one of the most unlikeable protagonists I have ever seen in a movie. From the beginning of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, I found her to be entitled, pushy, judgemental, and just generally strange – and it only gets worse as the story goes on. Harriet never seems to think that her spying – sorry, “observing” – is a problem despite everyone being allowed to live their lives privately, without fear of being followed and stalked, celebrity or not. She also isn’t nice to her friends, instantly ditching them when the popular girls suddenly become interested in Harriet’s “friendship” with Skander. She shows no remorse for her lying or spying until the rant that she was quite happy to post on a “private” school blog goes viral after it gets leaked. I don’t understand how Harriet can be so selfish and self-absorbed that she doesn’t have any guilt even though she claims to be a great observer of people. You’d think all those observations might have made her an empathetic person but no, it’s done the opposite and just makes her think she’s entitled to comment on everyone else and their lives. I don’t understand this character at all.

My thoughts on Harriet have no relation to my thoughts on the actress who played her. That actress is Jennifer Stone, best known for her portrayal of Harper on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12), a character I did like. Stone also starred in Mean Girls 2 (2011) as Abby Hanover. After this, she was cast as The Babysitter in the horror-fantasy series Deadtime Stories (2012-14) for Nickelodeon. Most recently, Stone co-wrote and starred in the movie The In-Between, which premiered at the 2019 Twister Alley Film Festival in Oklahoma.

It’s probably a good idea to look at Harriet’s home life to figure out why she is the way she is. Harriet has lived quite a privileged life, with her parents having household staff and paying little attention to Harriet because they’ve got their careers to think about. This has meant that Harriet spends a lot of time with her nanny, Golly, the only person in the house Harriet feels actually cares about her. And the two are quite similar, swapping literary quotations with each other, and enjoying spending time with each other. Golly is Harriet’s shoulder to cry on and the person she can go to for advice. Harriet is probably too old to have a nanny – I’m sure she can be left in the house on her own at sixteen – so I’m glad that Golly finds her next career path in the film, even if it did make Harriet angry for a bit.

Golly was played by Kristin Booth, who starred alongside Ryan Reynolds in the heist film Foolproof (2003), this being one of Booth’s earliest film roles. Booth has since gone on to star as Shane McInerney in the Signed, Sealed, Delivered series of television movies, which has, so far, reached fourteen movies in the franchise, with a fifteenth coming in 2025. For Harriet’s parents, her mother, Violetta, was played by Shauna MacDonald, and Doug Murray played her father, Roger.

Then we have Harriet’s friends, Sport and Janie. Janie is an eco-protestor, as well as being very intelligent. She likes to do science experiments at home after school, even though these can sometimes go terribly wrong. Sport’s real name is Simon with this nickname being quite ironic because he is actually bad at sports, although he does manage to be somewhat successful in basketball by the end of the film. These two are loyal to Harriet, however, they cause her downfall, by not being supportive of her writing about people she’s encountered, instead telling her just to write about Skander Hill, even if that means having to follow him around, and lie about knowing him, and ultimately end up forgetting about her friends to continue with her escapades and keep up with the popular crowd. But as most teen movies end up, all bad moments are forgotten and friendship wins out in the end.

Melinda Shankar was cast as Janie. Shankar was playing Alli Bhandari in Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-15) and Indie Mehta in How to Be Indie (2009-11), which aired on Disney Channel, at the time that she appeared in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. For her role as Indie Mehta, Shankar won a Gemini Award and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Children’s or Youth Program or Series. Sport was played by Alexander Conti. Conti had previously been cast in movies such as Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005) as Kenneth Murtaugh, and the horror film, Case 39 (2009) as Diego, alongside Renée Zellweger and Bradley Cooper, for which Conti was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actor. He was nominated for another Young Artist Award for his performance as Sport in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.

On the other side of that, we have Harriet’s enemy, Marion Hawthorne. She’s popular, pretty, and thinks she’s the best at everything, including blogging. Although Marion is meant to be the mean girl here, she’s not exactly Harriet’s bully. There’s no real dissing here, apart from calling Harriet a liar, which turns out to be accurate; no girl fights, nothing like that, just a milkshake spill on one of Harriet’s notebooks. They trade a few barbs with each other but really, Marion is annoyed and a little jealous of Harriet but not very antagonistic. She also has two sidekicks, Beth Ellen and Rachel, who also aren’t unkind to Harriet. In fact, these two are big fans of Harriet’s posts on Skander Hill, so much so that they push for Harriet to become the official class blogger. In terms of trying to represent “mean girls”, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars doesn’t do a very good job.

Vanessa Morgan was cast in the role of Marion. She had previously appeared in the teen sitcom The Latest Buzz (2007-10) as Amanda Pierce, going on to star as Sarah in the 2010 movie My Babysitter’s a Vampire, and its subsequent series, which ran from 2011 to 2012. Morgan was later cast in the Disney Channel movie Geek Charming (2011) as Hannah Mornell. More recently, Morgan was cast in the role of Toni Topaz in Riverdale (2017-23) and stars as Max Mitchell in the Canadian series Wild Cards (2024-present).

Beth Ellen and Rachel were played by Aislinn Paul and Kiana Madeira. Paul went on to be cast as Clare Edwards in Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-15), winning two Canadian Screen Awards for her performance, and as Phoebe Frady in Heroes Reborn (2015-16). Madeira went on to appear in the Disney Channel movies Bad Hair Day (2015) and The Swap (2016) as Sierra and Sassy respectively. In recent years, Madeira played Deena in the 2021 Netflix horror trilogy Fear Street, and voiced the character Supergirl in the animated series My Adventures with Superman (2023-present).

Finally, we have Skander Hill, the teen actor and heartthrob of the Spy Teen movie franchise. He doesn’t come across well as a person, with Harriet’s primary goal being to expose him as a terrible person, but he’s not all bad. Unlike Harriet, I found Skander to have some redeeming qualities. Although he is egotistical, easily angered, and difficult to work with, Skander is struggling to figure out his career as many child and teen actors do when they want to make that leap to mainstream roles. Skander is not able to find work outside of Spy Teen, finding that he has already been typecast. This is a common problem for many actors and trying to break that perception can be difficult and disheartening to say the least, so I do have sympathy for Skander Hill in this sense. There’s also the fact he’s being stalked by Harriet which makes Skander paranoid and jumpy, not able to trust even his co-stars and production crew. Harriet really does cause Skander all manner of problems, but somehow, she manages to fix it, because obviously, having an actor go off on a rant about how bad their fans are is a good way of getting more work, right?

Wesley Morgan was cast in the role of Skander Hill. Morgan had roles in Canadian series Overruled! (2009) and Majority Rules! (2009-10) prior to his role in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. He later had roles in the sitcom Really Me (2011-13) as Brody, which also starred Kiana Madeira as Julie, and the science fiction drama Between (2015-16) as Kevin.

MUSIC

Unsurprisingly, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is not a musical, although the movie-within-a-movie here is. Therefore, we get a few songs but none of them are particularly special as the whole point of the Spy Teen franchise is that it is meant to be a parody of teen musicals, so the songs are supposed to be cringey and bad. One of these succeeds only too well in that, and that is the song “I Spy a Lie”, which features in a trailer for the Spy Teen DVD that Harriet sees on television early on in the movie, and then again when she is “forced” to take part in the karaoke edition of Spy Teen at the popular girls’ sleepover, much to Harriet’s dismay as she hates this song. For once, I can actually agree with Harriet! It is performed by Chad Doucette as Skander.

Spy Teen 2 is filming during the events of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars and we hear two separate songs. The rehearsal number that Harriet sees on her first visit to set is heard briefly, although Skander and Poppy can’t seem to work out their choreography so not much is heard. It seems to have been titled “Love on Display” and is performed by Chad Doucette as Skander and Jennifer Walls as Poppy.

These two then sing again together for the Spy Teen 2 finale number, “Hello to the Future”, which is also used as the End Credits song for Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. It continues with the teen musical parody, of being a big song to end the movie, about moving on with your lives and being excited for the future. Although it is the best original song within Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, that’s not saying much! All three Spy Teen songs were written by Marco DiFelice, Benjamin Pinkerton, Jody Colero, Alexandra Clarke, and Heather Conkie. Clarke and Conkie also wrote the screenplay for Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.

For the additional music, a few pop songs are used, which were written and performed by Canadian songwriters, singers, and bands. I only remember hearing one and that is “Another Way to Cry”, written by Justin Hines, performed by Robyn Dell ‘unto, used during the scene of Harriet seeing her nanny, Golly, leave the household. It is a melancholy song to fit with Harriet’s sadness.

Outside of that, there are four other songs. Early on in the movie, during Harriet’s visit to the bookstore and ice-cream shop, Book Scoop, the song “Summer Girl” by Stereos can be heard. Towards the end of the film, as Sport gets called into the basketball game and surprisingly does well, the song “Time to Win”, performed by rock band Down with Webster, is played. The other two songs, “Get to You”, performed and co-written by Shiloh, and “You and Me”, performed by Justin Blais, have been harder to find in the film. I think “Get to You” is played at Book Scoop when Marion and her friends talk to Harriet about Skander and Poppy’s on set argument. “You and Me” might be playing as Golly and Harriet drink milkshakes a little earlier on and discuss why her early blog posts aren’t doing well.

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is not known for its music, and I don’t think many people will have found a love for these artists’ songs from the movie as the majority of them are only used as background music in the store so they can barely be heard.

PRODUCTION

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is not technically a Disney Channel Original Movie, despite being promoted as such, or in slightly different terminology, prior to its Disney Channel air date.

This movie was first released by Canadian media company 9 Story Entertainment and is credited as a 9 Story Entertainment Production during its opening titles. The reason it can be attributed to Disney Channel is because the movie was co-produced in association with Disney Channel and the Canadian channels Movie Central and The Movie Network. Disney Channel may have wanted to claim it as a DCOM at the time, and for a while afterwards, because it was a good fit for their target audience and starred one of their actresses, Jennifer Stone, who was a well-known figure on Disney Channel at the time, thanks to her role in Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12).

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is not the only movie to have been made and promoted in a similar way. 16 Wishes (2010), starring Debby Ryan from The Suite Life on Deck (2008-11), was also a co-production between different entertainment companies. Unlike Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, I do remember 16 Wishes being promoted as a movie premiering on Disney Channel and always believed it was a DCOM until recently, when I was trying to work out why 16 Wishes is not on Disney+ in the UK.

Regardless of who made Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, the movie is based on the novel from the 1960s, although it is a modern-day adaptation of the novel, since kids of the day were unlikely to be familiar with the character of Harriet or the original book. The whole concept of blogging is included as the basis of the movie to set the story in the 2000s.

The first blog was written and published online in 1994, and became a way for anyone to publish their thoughts and opinions. Ty, the company behind the best-selling Beanie Babies, started the first business-based blog, which had 1.6 billion visits by 1997. With the premiere of WordPress, the well-known blogging platform, in 2003, more and more people started writing their own blogs, with 50 million being available online in 2006. With the advent of YouTube in 2005, vlogging became fashionable as did “microblogging” thanks to Twitter’s arrival in 2007[1]. Basing Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars around blogging was on trend for its 2010 release date. Nowadays, though, thanks to social media, blogs are now seen to be less interesting and less necessary. Wow, I wish I’d been told that two years ago! Just kidding. I actually don’t care; I love my little blog, even if it is “out of fashion”.

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is based on the book Harriet the Spy, published in 1964 and written by Louise Fitzhugh, who also illustrated her book too. She had begun her career in publishing by illustrating Suzuki Beane, which was written by Sandra Scoppettone.

Similarly to the movie, Harriet in the book is a girl who likes to watch people and record her observations. In the book, she is only eleven-years old, but she does live in New York City as Harriet does in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars and has a nanny called Katherine or “Ole Golly” in the book, whereas in the 2010 film, she just goes by “Golly”. The novel then follows Harriet as she finds that her nanny is going to get married and leave her forever, which shocks and saddens Harriet. Things get worse for Harriet when her notebook of writings goes missing and is read by everyone at school, who hate what she’s written about them – even her friends, Sport and Janie. They then torment and bully Harriet, to stop her spying on them, with the ring leader being Marion, editor of the class newspaper. Harriet slowly starts to become depressed and is eventually consoled by Ole Golly once more, who tells her she will have to apologise to everyone for what she wrote. Eventually, the bullying stops and Harriet regains her friendships with Sport and Janie. She also replaces Marion as editor of their newspaper, which becomes a success from Harriet’s writing. Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars follows the same general premise of the book, with a few changes.

Fitzhugh herself has referred to her character of Harriet as being a nasty little girl, writing awful things about her friends and classmates. Harriet the Spy, the book, was even banned in some areas of the US later on its lifetime, despite being popular with critics at the time of its release and in present day; it has been added to lists of the best children’s novels in the US. This was because Harriet was not seen as a good role model for children, with all that spying, lying, and talking back to adults. I’m not one for banning books but I can certainly see why Harriet the Spy might have been problematic for impressionable children!

On the other hand, Harriet was also seen as a comfort to others, because of her tomboy qualities, refusing to dress “like a girl” and conform to 1960s gender roles and society’s view of what women should and shouldn’t do. She is still seen as a progressive character and an icon of feminism in some ways. Harriet sneers at conventional femininity as Fitzhugh did, even when she was a girl growing up in the South, showing that Fitzhugh put some of herself into her most famous character[2].

Two sequels to Harriet the Spy were published, The Long Secret in 1965, and Sport in 1979, which was published posthumously five years after Fitzhugh’s death. Two further sequels were published, but not by Fitzhugh. These were Harriet Spies Again, published in 2002, and Harriet the Spy, Double Agent, published in 2005. Fitzhugh was credited as a co-author and these sequels were approved by her estate. They were actually written by Helen Ericson and Maya Gold respectively[3].

It is possible these 2000s novels were published in response to the first movie adaptation of Harriet the Spy. This was the 1996 Nickelodeon Movies film, starring Michelle Trachtenberg as the titular character. It was again a slightly updated version of the novel, specifically changing the parent-child relationship from the formal 1960s to the current 1990s. There was little reference to technology though so as not to date the film. The movie is still set in New York City, although it was filmed in Ontario, Canada, as was Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. The 1996 film received mixed reviews, with many liking Trachtenberg as Harriet, who won the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film for the role, as well as the dark side of school being shown with all the bullying incidents and mean comments, although the movie itself was deemed to be a bit slow and boring. It made a decent profit at the box-office.

RECEPTION

So, how did Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars do with critics and audiences?

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars first aired in Canada on The Movie Network and Movie Central on 19^th March 2010, and was then shown on Disney Channel in the US on 26^th March 2010. It was later shown on international versions of the Disney Channel throughout 2010. It is not known what viewing figures at the time were for this film.

But the reviews are clear. Although some said it was a faithful retelling of the novel, just with some modern updates, and that it was a good film for kids, many said that they did not like the character of Harriet, finding her disrespectful and spoilt, with no understanding of personal boundaries. Others said that it was a boring story and that they preferred the 1996 film. This is an interesting thing to say as the stories of both Harriet the Spy (1996) and Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars are similar, with the character of Harriet therefore being similar as well. I can only think that Harriet’s behaviours of lying and sneaking around are easier to accept in an eleven-year-old character, who has time to learn from her mistakes, rather than a sixteen-year-old girl who should already know how to act around people by now, and understand that following people around and writing offensive things about others is not ok.

I haven’t watched the 1996 film, but I think I’d feel sorry for Harriet to see her being bullied by her peers and would want her to learn from this and not make the same mistakes again. Watching Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, all I could think was that this girl was never going to learn how to behave properly and that I’d never have wanted to know someone like her when I was that age.

LEGACY

Disney Channel didn’t progress further with Harriet the Spy as a movie franchise, not adapting any of the Harriet the Spy written sequels.

But this was not the end for Harriet the Spy, as an animated series was released on AppleTV+ on 19^th November 2021. Beanie Feldstein voices Harriet; Jane Lynch voices Ole Golly; and Lacey Chabert voices Marion Hawthorne. This is yet another opportunity for a new generation to see an adaptation of this popular children’s novel. Despite receiving mixed reviews, mostly around this series not being as good as the book, a second season was released on 5^th May 2023.

Harriet the Spy, as a character from the book, has continued to be relevant, even without the screen adaptations. She has helped numerous kids not feel alone for being different and has allowed them to celebrate being an outsider, or the odd one out, instead of fearing it. It was comforting for some to read about a character who does not conform with “normal society”[4].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Instead of being a wholesome story about a teenage girl determined to be a great writer, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars seems to me to be more of a morality tale. Harriet has to learn that she can’t follow people around just to dig up gossip on them, and it’s not something she learns quickly, which makes her unappealing as a movie character for most viewers.

I can only hope that nobody watched Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars and tried to emulate this character. I understand that being a great writer is a dream of many, and to do that, observing people’s characteristics and behaviours is important to develop characters and find real-life events to base a good plot on. That is all fine, however, Harriet here blurs the line between observing and stalking, telling herself that following a celebrity around is all for the greater good of her career, which is completely wrong; she should never have rationalised and excused her behaviour.

Harriet didn’t deserve to be class blogger from her actions in this story. What she actually needed was a restraining order. Perhaps that might have taught her a lesson!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: James Hardy, ‘The History of Blogging: Unraveling the Mystery of the Web’, HistoryCooperative.org, 29^th July 2024.

[2] Credit: Rebecca Panovka, ‘The Tragic Misfit Behind “Harriet The Spy”’, NewYorker.com, 9^th December 2021.

[3] Credit: Stacy Conradt, ’11 Facts About Harriet the Spy’, MentalFloss.com, 11^th June 2011.

[4] Credit: Kat Patrick, ‘Harriet the Spy helped me come to terms with my queer identity’, TheGuardian.com, 5^th October 2019.

20th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Lemonade Mouth (2011)

BACKGROUND

Disney Channel have created many musicals throughout their decades of making Disney Channel Original Movies. Some have been super successful and spanned one, two, or maybe three sequels. Others haven’t reached that same level and remain as standalone Disney Channel musicals – but some of those go on to achieve “cult status”.

Lemonade Mouth appears to be one of those musicals. Probably not something that many people would remember instantly, or would come to mind when you say “Disney Channel Musical”, but if you remind a certain age group of this movie, there will likely be many comments on how much they loved that film when they were ten, eleven, twelve-years old. Basically, it might not be in the forefront of many minds, but memories of it are in the back there, somewhere, waiting to get out.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people and have never been one of those people for a number of reasons. I was eighteen when Lemonade Mouth was first released. Some might think that I must’ve just missed out on it because I would’ve been “too old” to be watching Disney Channel at the time.

That was not true. I was watching Disney Channel in 2011, and I remember Lemonade Mouth being heavily advertised that year, never seemingly being able to get away from hearing “Determinate” at least twenty times in one week, just from those small, little advertisement portions Disney Channel have between their programming, where they show off their newest Disney Channel movie or latest Disney star’s songs. It didn’t appeal to me and to be honest, I just found all this “lemonade” was started to slowly choke me.

That’s a bit extreme, but my general reaction to Lemonade Mouth was disinterest. I liked Bridgit Mendler in Good Luck Charlie (2010-14); however, it wasn’t a “must-see” show for me. I didn’t know any of the other actors in the movie; the music was alright but when you hear the same song over and over again, it does start to grate on you; and just the name of the movie made me laugh. I just kept thinking: Lemonade Mouth, what a ridiculous name for a film. Maybe that’s just because I’m more of a cola girl myself.

Anyway, I did finally watch Lemonade Mouth sometime around 2016 or 2017 when DisneyLife came to the UK, a similar idea to Disney+, meaning that lots of Disney films were suddenly available to a wider audience. I thought it was alright, but didn’t love it. Rewatching it this week, I found I liked the music more, but I still felt the same about the story.

PLOT

Lemonade Mouth recounts the tale of how a famous band of the same name came to be, going back to a high-school detention, where Stella, the guitarist; Wen, on keyboards; Mohini, on bass; Charlie, on drums; and Olivia, the lead singer, all met for the first time. But how did they get there?

Stella is the new girl at school. She’s a bit rebellious, probably because her parents and younger brothers are all geniuses and she’s not, so instead of being focused on school work, she’s interested in music and generally finding ways to “stick it to the man”. She gets detention after trying to stage a protest against Principal Brenigan’s rules on t-shirt slogans during a corporate-sponsored assembly – the principal sounds a bit corrupt if you ask me, but that sadly is not the point of this movie.

Wen is struggling to get along with his father’s new girlfriend, Sydney, who is in her mid-twenties. He discovers that she has accidentally taken his school assignment to her college classes and is horrified to find that she has come to his school to return it to him. This warrants some classic banter from the surrounding students, but Wen actually gets detention after snapping at his teacher, who mistakenly thought Sydney was his mother.

For Mohini, or just Mo, she gets in trouble after being caught trying to skip class with her boyfriend, Scott, and settles for detention instead of a call to her overprotective, strict father. Scott, being a school athlete, gets no punishment at all. Charlie gets detention for accidentally kicking a football (soccer ball) into his coach during try-outs after he gets teased for his poor skills, which is irritating because Charlie is only there because he feels like he has to live up to his older brother’s football and academic talents. Finally, Olivia gets detention for sitting in the janitor’s closet – which doesn’t seem like a punishable offence to me, but I guess she was skipping class too? I don’t know; but like I said: corrupt principal.

In detention, which is housed in the basement along with any other extracurricular activity that is not sport related, the five students, after getting a Mel’s Lemonade each from a vending machine just outside the room, are being supervised by Miss Reznick, who is the school’s music teacher. She is furious about her class being moved to the basement and leaves the room briefly. The five go about cleaning up the room for her but quickly become distracted by the instruments and play a song together. Miss Reznick is overjoyed to find these kids have some natural talent and try to convince them to enter the upcoming Rising Star competition, but none of them are interested, not believing they could compete with the school’s most famous band, Mudslide Crush, anyway.

They all head home. Olivia lives with her grandmother and their very old cat, Nancy who Olivia treasures. Wen distances himself from his family because he doesn’t want to be around Sydney. Mo is practising her violin, trying to get away with putting a rock twist on her music; her parents quickly tell her to stop. Charlie lies to his parents, telling them that football (soccer) try-outs went well for him, and Stella continues to feel like an outcast in her family.

The next day, Stella decides to call the other four together at the local pizzeria to discuss this Rising Star contest, because she thinks they have something to say and deserve to have their voices heard. Wen doesn’t need much convincing, but the other three really aren’t sure. So, they solve this the way so many great discussions and debates have been settled in the past – with a coin toss! If the coin lands on heads, then they go ahead with forming this band. It lands on heads; their fate is sealed. However, their first practice doesn’t go well at all. Mo and Charlie are even about to leave, until the other three start up a song, with Mo and Charlie joining. They sound really good again and get the opportunity to play at the upcoming school Halloween Bash.

Mo goes to see her boyfriend, Scott, who happens to be the guitarist for Mudslide Crush. He complains to her about their set being cut at the Halloween Bash, so some other band can play as well. Mo tells Scott that is her band that will be playing at the bash. He is confused and feels somewhat betrayed. The next day at school, the other students apparently feel the same way and as the group head to practice, they find a threatening note on their door. Everyone at school hates them. Olivia then finds herself being harassed by some of the popular kids, including Ray, the lead singer of Mudslide Crush, who can’t understand how shy Olivia could possibly be the lead singer of a band. The others come to defend her, with Stella spitting some of the Mel’s Lemonade into Ray’s face. As he pleads his innocence and turns the blame on the others to Principal Brenigan, he inadvertently gives the band their name, by saying that “lemonade mouth” over here spat at him. Well, if the boot fits…Wen later goes to Olivia’s house to work on new music for Lemonade Mouth where the two become closer. Olivia explains to Wen about Nancy the cat, and how it’s the last thing she has left of her mother, but that the cat probably won’t be around much longer. Anyway, they get back to writing a brilliant song for the Halloween Bash.

Then, disaster strikes. Due to Principal Brenigan’s corporate sponsor, Turbo Blast, who built their gymnasium, no other competing drinks brand can be sold in the school, so that means the Mel’s Lemonade machine will have to go. Stella is angry and plans to protest it. More disaster strikes after Wen learns his father is going to marry Sydney, and Mo finds that Scott has been cheating on her, with a cheerleader no less! At the Halloween Bash, things descend into chaos when Olivia has a panic attack and needs to be coaxed out of the girls’ bathroom and onto the stage. She struggles initially but soon finds her feet, and Lemonade Mouth become an instant sensation with the students. Stella also uses this newfound fame to protest publicly about the removal of Mel’s Lemonade from the school. The principal is not happy about this and shuts the band down, banning them from future school performances.

However, the band soon realise that they’ve gained a whole army of fans, with kids even asking for recordings of Lemonade Mouth’s Halloween Bash performance. This gives them an idea; Principal Brenigan can ban them from playing at school but not outside of it, so Wen and Stella arrange for Lemonade Mouth to play regularly at the pizzeria.

Later, the band discover that Olivia is not at school and, worried about her, they go to her house. They learn that Olivia’s cat has died and she’s absolutely devastated. As the band members console her, Olivia also reveals to them that her father is in prison for an undisclosed crime. They all agree to support each other through any personal problems.

As the band’s fame reaches new heights, with their performance even being played on radio and the Rising Star competition coming closer and closer, more troubles hit the band. Mo becomes entangled in a love triangle between Scott, who wants her back, and Charlie, who wants to be with her. Mo rejects Charlie and he storms off. Mo later comes down with the flu. Charlie breaks his fingers after trapping them in a drawer. Wen gets a black eye after a picture frame falls into it, and as he and Olivia fight over the future of Lemonade Mouth, Olivia loses her voice.

Meanwhile, Stella has plans to protest against the removal of Mel’s Lemonade’s vending machine. On that day, the other four begrudgingly come to support her. Stella is shocked by the state of them all. But there’s no time for that because the machine is being removed. A scuffle ensues between the removal men and the band, with the police being called. They are thrown together in a holding cell, awaiting their parents. This gives them lots of time to talk about the band, and whether or not they should perform at Rising Star. Despite their issues, they decide they should try.

Their parents come to collect them and each band member has their own moment of clarity. Wen accepts Sydney as a new member of his family; Stella learns that her family love and support her, despite them being quite different; Mo tells her dad that she needs to be her own person, not who he wants her to be; and Charlie talks to his brother about the pressure their parents are putting on him to be just like him. They say they’ll speak to their parents together. We also learn that Olivia has been narrating the story of Lemonade Mouth to the audience by way of a letter to her father, which she sends to him in jail, not wanting to be embarrassed and distant from him anymore.

At Rising Star, Mudslide Crush are a huge hit with the audience and it is then Lemonade Mouth’s turn. They attempt to get through their signature song, “Determinate”, but find they can’t go on with all their illness and injury. Saddened, they head off the stage, but soon hear the audience singing their song for them. Scott also comes on stage to play guitar for the band, as a way of trying to win back Mo. Olivia then tells us that Lemonade Mouth didn’t win Rising Star. Well, yeah – it would’ve been ridiculous if they had. You can’t have the audience compete for you!

Tying up some of the movie’s loose ends, Mo and Scott get back together, with Scott joining Lemonade Mouth as a guitarist; Charlie moves on from Mo and finds himself another girl; and Olivia and Wen start dating, with Wen also giving Olivia a new kitten to replace Nancy the cat. Stella meets the owner of Mel’s Lemonade at Wen’s father’s wedding of all places and asks him to donate some money to build a new auditorium at their school. He agrees and Principal Brenigan has to learn to accept that there are beneficial classes for his students outside of sports! Oh yeah, and Lemonade Mouth went on to achieve great success, even getting the chance to play at Madison Square Garden.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Stella Yamada doesn’t get off to a good start at her new school right from the off. She is wearing a t-shirt that says “Question Authority” which bothers Principal Brenigan, telling her to cover it up, which shows that her rebellious nature will not be welcomed here. But Stella, luckily, doesn’t care and refuses to be silenced, even when she’s thrown in detention, her band is shut down, and her favourite lemonade vending machine is taken away. Stella just doesn’t know when to give up. And good thing too, otherwise Lemonade Mouth may have never become so famous, as she was the one who pushed the others to create this band.

Singer and actress Hayley Kiyoko was cast as Stella, having previously portrayed Velma in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009) and its 2010 sequel, television reboots of the early 2000s Scooby-Doo live-action movies. So, Kiyoko was not a Disney Channel star before Lemonade Mouth, however she did have a recurring role in Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12) as Stevie Nichols in 2010. Also on screen, Kiyoko appeared as Raven Ramirez in CSI: Cyber (2015-16) and later starred as Lexi in the web series Five Points (2018-19). In recent years, Kiyoko has focused on her music, releasing albums in 2020 and 2022, and released her first novel Girls Like Girls in 2023.

Wen Gifford is struggling to cope with his father having a new woman in his life. This isn’t uncommon for many children and teenagers to deal with, as divorce is a very real thing, however, when your father is dating someone so much younger, that’s where the difficulties can come in, especially as a teenager. The jokes and comments can be brutal and inappropriate, so I can see why Wen isn’t overly accepting of Sydney. Instead, he uses the band to take his attentions away from all that and becomes closer to Olivia in the process, as they write the band’s music together and talk about their personal lives. By the end of the movie, Wen has learnt that if Sydney makes his father happy, then it should make him happy too, regardless of their age gap, and stands beside his father as best man at their wedding.

Wen was played by Adam Hicks who was already famous on Disney Channel at this time for his role as Luther Waffles in the comedy series Zeke and Luther (2009-12). He went on to star as King Boz in Season 3 of Pair of Kings (2010-13), also for Disney, after the departure of Mitchel Musso from the show. Hicks later appeared in the horror series Freakish (2016-17) in the role of Diesel Turner. Hicks has recently been releasing his own music.

Mo has a difficult time adjusting to who she wants to be whilst also managing her parents’ expectations of her, to be a good student, a brilliant musician, and a perfect daughter. It’s a lot for her to deal with so Lemonade Mouth gives her an outlet to figure out who she wants to be. Her boyfriend, Scott, doesn’t seem to be particularly good for her, encouraging her to skip class with him, and then getting caught, but she loves him anyway. He later cheats on her, which is further proof that he’s not good for her – and yet, they still get back together. If you ask me, I think she would’ve been much better off with Charlie.

British actress Naomi Scott was chosen for the part of Mo Banjaree. Scott had no prior Disney experience, and did not go on to star in any Disney Channel series afterwards, which is a bit of a different journey to most actors who appear in Disney Channel movies. This was entirely Scott’s choice as she came to work on Lemonade Mouth at the age of 18. She had not been in the “Disney machine” throughout her childhood and adolescence and felt that she already knew where she wanted to go with her career, so refused Disney’s offers of putting her on one of their shows or making her one of their recording artists[1]. However, this did not hold her back. Scott was cast as Kimberly Hart, the Pink Ranger in Power Rangers (2017) and went back to Disney to star as Princess Jasmine in their live-action remake Aladdin (2019). She was also cast as Elena, one of Charlie’s Angels, in the 2019 film. Later, Scott appeared as Olivia Lytton in the series Anatomy of a Scandal (2022).

Charlie’s brother has just left for college, and he was academically and athletically gifted at school. Because his brother isn’t there to take the pressure off, Charlie’s parents have their full attentions turned on him. They want him to be as successful as his brother, but disregard the fact that actually Charlie isn’t good at sports and just wants to play music instead. Being part of Lemonade Mouth is a dream-come-true for him. It’s only when his brother returns home from college and Charlie learns that his brother’s grades during his first year of college haven’t been so great, that he realises he doesn’t need to be like his brother and can be his own person. Charlie also deals with his first heartbreak during this film, with Mo seemingly not interested in him. But the joke’s on her, because Charlie moves on and meets someone else, whereas Mo is left with her cheating, jealous boyfriend!

Blake Michael was cast in the role of Charlie Delgado. Michael had not previously been cast in any Disney Channel series either, however, went on to star as Tyler James in the Disney series Dog with a Blog (2012-15), winning Best Leading Young Actor in a Television Series at the Young Artist Awards in 2013 for this role. Michael has since refocused his attentions on work outside of acting.

For Olivia White, she’s had a difficult life, with both of her parents absent for different reasons. This has made her shy and a bit of an outcast. She potentially needs Lemonade Mouth the most out of all the other members because she has little to no self-confidence and this gives her a way to become more confident and outgoing as a person. It also allows her the chance to make real friends who will stand by her, regardless of what’s going on in her life. It’s nice to see her reaching out to her father too, as losing one parent is tough, but losing both must be horrific.

Bridgit Mendler portrays Olivia here, and had a long career with the Disney Channel, first appearing as Juliet van Heusen on Wizards of Waverly Place (2009-12), going on to lead her own show Good Luck Charlie (2010-14) in the role of Teddy Duncan. After a recurring role in the series Nashville (2012-18), as Ashley Willerman, and main roles in the series Undateable (2014-16) as Candace, and Merry Happy Whatever (2019) as Emmy Quinn, Mendler has also moved away from acting and pursued other business interests.

Moving away from the Lemonade Mouth members, we also have two members of Mudslide Crush who make repeated screen appearances. One of these is obviously Scott Pickett, Mo’s boyfriend and lead guitarist in Mudslide Crush, later guitarist in Lemonade Mouth. I think I’ve said all I need to about him, so let’s move on! Scott was played by Nick Roux. Roux had a small role in Wizards of Waverly Place (2009-12) around the time of Lemonade Mouth. The other Mudslide Crush member we see is Ray Beech. Ray is a classic bully, thinking he’s better than everyone else and picking on those who he doesn’t think are worthy of breathing his air. Every Disney Channel movie needs a jerk and Lemonade Mouth’s happens to be him. Ray was played by Chris Brochu, whose brother Doug starred as Grady in the Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance (2009-11). Brochu was later cast as Luke Parker in Seasons 5 and 6 of The Vampire Diaries (2009-17) and as Dylan in Season 6 of Shameless (2011-21).

For the adults, we have the corrupt Principal Brenigan and the wacky teacher Miss Reznick. Brenigan cares about money and ruling the school with an iron fist, needing everyone to follow his rules or risk the consequences. He’s also one of those teachers who only cares about sport, with any achievement in anything else not considered to be worthy enough because sport is where all the money is. From my limited experience, I think sports usually take precedence in most schools which is both unfair and wrong. It makes Principal Brenigan seem like a real principal – even though I doubt many like to ride a Segway through the halls to check up on people…Christopher McDonald was chosen for this role, having previously become known for his role as Shooter McGavin in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore (1996). A sequel to this movie, which does include McDonald, started filming in 2024. McDonald has also had roles in movies such as Grease 2 (1982) as “Goose” McKenzie; Thelma & Louise (1991) as Darryl; Quiz Show (1994) as Jack Barry; and Flubber (1997) as Wilson Croft. On television, McDonald was cast as Rex Weller in Family Law (1999-2002); as Tommy Jefferson in Harry’s Law (2011-12); Harry M. Daugherty in Boardwalk Empire (2010-14); and as Marty Ghilain in Hacks (2021-present).

Miss Reznick is a passionate music teacher, encouraging the kids to start up Lemonade Mouth, but she’s probably a bit too crazy for this movie, screeching loudly and generally seeming quite scatterbrained. I wasn’t a huge fan of Miss Reznick, but I do like the actress who portrayed her, Tisha Campbell. One of Campbell’s earliest movie roles was as Chiffon in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) which I watched recently and really liked. I also know her from the series My Wife and Kids (2001-05), where she starred as Jay. She also starred as Gina Waters-Payne in the sitcom Martin (1992-97) alongside Martin Lawrence. More recently, Campbell appeared in Last Man Standing (2011-21), as Carol Larabee in Seasons 7 and 8, and was cast as Suzanne in the series Uncoupled (2022), with Neil Patrick Harris.

MUSIC

The soundtrack for Lemonade Mouth consists of ten original songs.

Having said that, only nine of these exist within the final edit of the movie. That is because the song “Livin’ on a High Wire” appears within the Extended Edition of Lemonade Mouth, which was released on DVD in May 2011. It was quite common at the time for Disney Channel to release extended editions of their movies on DVD, which generally included an additional song. This song features within a scene of Lemonade Mouth being interviewed on a show called The Music Scene, before launching into a performance of this new song. As I don’t own the Extended Edition of this film, I’m not sure where this scene would come into the original cut of the movie, but I can only assume that it’s at the end as Scott is sat there as their new guitarist. Anyway, it wasn’t a song I liked.

But luckily, I liked many of the other songs within Lemonade Mouth, with seven of the nine being performed by the title band, and two by Mudslide Crush. For the two Mudslide Crush songs, “And the Crowd Goes”, their song for the concert in that warehouse, and “Don’t Ya Wish You Were Us”, their song for Rising Star, both performed by Chris Brochu as Ray, I didn’t like either of these, but as we’re meant to be rooting against Mudslide Crush for having an egomaniac as a lead singer, that was probably for the best! They just sound too obnoxious for me; this band love themselves way too much.

For the Lemonade Mouth songs, I’ll start with my three favourite ones. The first of these is “Determinate”, the signature song of Lemonade Mouth, featuring in two different instances; first at the Halloween Bash and then at Rising Star. It’s all about overcoming fear, which is quite ironic seeing as their lead singer is almost too nervous to even perform it. I like the chorus of “Determinate”, finding it very catchy, and I like that small bit of choreography they do here too; those bounces on the spot and the step to the side? You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it!

I also really like “Somebody” and “She’s So Gone”. “Somebody” is performed as a way of convincing Mo and Charlie to stick with the band during their disastrous first rehearsal, as they say that their band will give them a voice and stop them feeling so invisible. “She’s So Gone” is a powerful song about moving on after a break-up and is the only song in the movie to be led by Naomi Scott as Mo. Although Scott and Hayley Kiyoko are featured as backing vocalists in Lemonade Mouth’s songs, Bridgit Mendler as Olivia is the lead singer with Adam Hicks as the lead rapper, also contributing to the writing of the songs “Determinate”, “Breakthrough” and “Livin’ on a High Wire”, allowing Mo a chance to express her feelings about Scott results in a breathtaking, hugely emotional song that I love.

The other songs that Lemonade Mouth sing are: “Turn Up the Music”, during that first detention, making this their first performance; “Here We Go”, performed at the Halloween Bash after “Determinate”; “More Than a Band” as they agree to help each other through their troubles; and “Breakthrough”, which they perform at the end of the movie. Of these four songs, I wasn’t too impressed with “Here We Go” as it was quite loud and didn’t say much to me; it was about rebellion but I’ve never been very rebellious so the message just went right over my head! I also found “Breakthrough” to be a bit disappointing as a final number. I would’ve preferred to just hear “Determinate” again, though I understand that this was meant to be their big showstopper to show how far they’d come from that basement detention. I do like “More Than a Band” and “Turn Up the Music” though as these seemed to say the most about friendship, which, to me, was the main point of Lemonade Mouth the movie.

Lemonade Mouth’s soundtrack topped the US Billboard Top Soundtracks and Kid Albums charts and peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200. The three singles “Somebody”, “Determinate” and “Breakthrough” also reached the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 89, 51, and 88, respectively on that chart. “Somebody”, “Determinate”, and “Don’t Ya Wish U Were Us” also all managed to get into Radio Disney’s Top 30. “She’s So Gone” would later be included in Billboard’s The 100 Greatest Disney Songs of All Time list, at No. 79.

Urban Outfitters even released a limited-edition vinyl album of the Lemonade Mouth soundtrack in 2024. I’m not entirely sure why, as I wouldn’t have thought that Disney Channel movies quite matched the hipster, trendy vibe of Urban Outfitters, but I guess anything Disney is popular these days and businesses have to jump on that band wagon!

The score for Lemonade Mouth was composed by Christopher Lennertz. Lennertz had previously work with Disney Channel, on the music for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). He has also composed the music for many other movies, including Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007); Hop (2011); My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016); The Pickup (2025) for Amazon; and Back in Action (2025) for Netflix.

PRODUCTION

Instead of being based on an original story, Lemonade Mouth is actually based on a young adult fiction novel, written by Mark Peter Hughes.

Hughes wrote his debut novel, I Am the Wallpaper, in 2005, after entering the manuscript to Random House’s Delacorte Press Young Adult Novel Competition. He was one of five finalists, getting the opportunity to publish the novel, despite working as a data analyst at the time. Once Lemonade Mouth got noticed by a publisher and became a big success, he soon quit his job to become a full-time writer.

Hollywood producer, Debra Martin Chase, who had produced Disney Channel movie, The Cheetah Girls (2003), as well as The Princess Diaries (2001), felt that the novel Lemonade Mouth was very special, and that it appealed to Disney Channel’s perfect audience of young adults. Chase also thought that the story would fit in with the usual genre of Disney Channel movies, being about school life and living your dreams, with the added bonus of being able to make it a musical, one of Disney Channel’s most popular film types.

Hughes’ novel tells the story of the band from five different narrators, each member of the band, with them giving accounts of their lives and the history of Lemonade Mouth from their point of review. Hughes has said that he got the idea for this novel structure from The Beatles Anthology, which featured accounts from all four members[2].

As with most book-to-film adaptations, some elements of the story have to be changed or omitted to fit the general runtime of a movie. Lemonade Mouth is no exception, although the general story remained unchanged. One big difference is the instruments played by the Lemonade Mouth band members. In the book, the characters play instruments like the ukulele, the trumpet, and the double bass, however, to make Lemonade Mouth into a rock band, probably to interest young audience members as well as to get across the idea of challenging authority, these instruments were replaced with more classic “rock” ones such as guitars, keyboards, and drums. Some other differences include that Charlie’s brother was stillborn in the book, whereas in the movie, he is just at college, and that Mo gets detention for being caught making out with her boyfriend. Mo also ends up with Charlie at the end of the book – but not the movie. Boo! The main characters’ names were slightly altered too.

Regardless, Hughes was very pleased with the final movie and with the five main actors for their portrayal of his much-loved characters and even sent them notes thanking them for doing so well with the material. Hughes loved every minute of the experience of turning one of his best novels into a television movie. The Hughes family got to spend a couple of days on the set of the film, which was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A couple of interesting facts linked to the “lemonade” of Lemonade Mouth include that the author’s inclusion of Mel’s Lemonade in his book was a tribute to Del’s Lemonade, a drink he enjoyed during his time growing up in Rhode Island[3]. Also, the spitting of the lemonade by Stella onto Ray was from a machine. The machine was used to spit out the perfect quantity and viscosity of liquid to make it look great on screen. The liquid used was not lemonade but some sort of green substance that would look yellow when landing on human skin. This fact came from the “What’s What” Edition of Lemonade Mouth, where, during the showing of the film, random facts about production would come up on screen.

RECEPTION

To build-up excitement for the release of Lemonade Mouth, the cast were invited to perform on shows such as Daybreak and Good Morning America, choosing to perform their signature song, “Determinate”. The usual behind-the-scenes videos and music clips were shown on Disney Channel in the weeks before the movie’s release date also.

Disney Channel aired Lemonade Mouth on 15^th April 2011. On its premiere night, Lemonade Mouth reached 5.7 million viewers, which is a decent figure. It also became the No. 1 cable movie of 2011 in the US. It wouldn’t reach the UK until 16^th September[4].

Lemonade Mouth certainly seems to have amassed a group of loyal fans, even as these fans have gotten older. Many claim that Lemonade Mouth deserves more recognition, despite not being as hugely successful as High School Musical, and that the soundtrack is one of Disney’s best from their Disney Channel musicals. The opportunity to have a storyline for each of the five characters was also appreciated, as it gave viewers a chance to get to know each one’s troubles, strengths, and worries. The message about questioning authority was another positive comment, although, speaking for myself, I didn’t feel that was the primary purpose of the movie. With hindsight, parallels have been found between Lemonade Mouth and The Breakfast Club (1985), both being about five very different students all meeting in detention, which is a good thing to reflect on if you’ve seen both movies.

On the negative side, some didn’t like the amount of Disney Channel actors that appeared in Lemonade Mouth. This doesn’t bother me so much, as I found when I was younger that having actors I already knew in Disney Channel movies got me more interested in watching them. It also has the added benefit of allowing people to watch the Disney Channel movie and then go back and find the shows that the actors have come from. Others said that Lemonade Mouth was too “squeaky clean” to be aimed at teenagers, despite the movie being all about teenagers. I can understand the reasoning behind this comment, because Lemonade Mouth does not feel like a movie aimed at teens. It’s not exactly Mean Girls (2004), or Easy A (2010) is it? So, teenagers wouldn’t exactly feel they could relate to all aspects of it. Looking at some reviews I’ve read, the ones who were in their tween years or early teens seemed to like Lemonade Mouth the most, and still do to this day. Those that didn’t grow up with it have found it harder to appreciate.

But all that being said, I found many more positive comments about Lemonade Mouth than I did negative ones, with many saying that Lemonade Mouth remains one of Disney Channel’s best original movies.

Lemonade Mouth won the Popstar! Poptastic Award for Favorite TV Movie in 2011 and director Patricia Riggen was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs at the Directors Guild of America Awards in 2012.

LEGACY

After the release of the movie, members of the cast were seen at Downtown Disney at Disneyland in May 2011, and then at the D23 Expo in Anaheim in August 2011, where they met fans, signed autographs, and took part in interviews.

Some of these interviews included questions about the future of Lemonade Mouth, both as a band and as a movie. The cast were very interested in going on tour, with other Disney Channel musicals, such as High School Musical (2006) and Camp Rock (2008), doing this just a few years earlier. Disney announced a joint Descendants and ZOMBIES tour for Summer 2025, so tours are natural extensions of their movie franchises.

However, a tour never happened. Nor did a sequel, which the cast were excited for as Lemonade Mouth 2 had been greenlit for development not long after the movie’s air date. It was even hoped that it could be a feature film, released in cinemas, just like High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)[5].

And yet, Lemonade Mouth 2 didn’t happen, with Bridgit Mendler announcing this during an interview in 2012. She said that it was decided not to move forward with it as there wasn’t a good enough story to tell in a sequel, as well as the cast having moved on to their own individual projects[6]. To make it even more disappointing for film fans, Mark Peter Hughes, author of Lemonade Mouth, stated that he was writing a sequel novel to Lemonade Mouth in 2011[7]. This was published in November 2013 and titled Lemonade Mouth Puckers Up, with the story delving in to what happened after the band achieved instant fame, whilst dealing with plenty of unexpected events in their personal lives too.

Even with this sequel novel, Disney Channel never made Lemonade Mouth 2, despite having the material to do it. This would suggest to me that Disney felt Lemonade Mouth was not a successful enough franchise to continue expanding.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Lemonade Mouth claims to be a movie about making your voice heard and refusing to be silenced by those that don’t understand or don’t care about you. It’s a movie about underdogs, finally fighting through and coming out on top.

It’s also a “band movie”, showing the highs and lows of being in one, which isn’t exactly a new concept but if you’re someone who is a dedicated follower of bands, then this concept might be interesting to you. I’ve never really been interested in bands. I like to listen to music but I’ve rarely been able to settle on a band, or even a singer, that I’ve liked and followed for years. Instead, I have collections of songs from a variety of different people that I throw into a playlist and shuffle up. I don’t think I’ve followed a band since I was about seven or eight-years old and liked S Club 7.

Lemonade Mouth is also simply about friendship, something we can all relate to. Where the rebellious messaging of the movie and the band concept didn’t work on me, the friendship elements certainly did. It was great to see a group of people that perhaps wouldn’t have been friends be thrown into a random situation and come out the outside feeling like they’ve known each other for years.

But the music is really were Lemonade Mouth shines, and how it has managed to stay in the minds of many. It’s a good soundtrack and even though I only really like three of the songs, they’ve been thrown into that random playlist I was talking about and I’ve listened to them many times since then.

Lemonade Mouth was an edgier movie to come out of Disney Channel and one that feels very serious at times, looking deep into the lives of these students. I’m sure many kids found they could relate to one of these characters, which is hugely beneficial to anyone who might have felt isolated or like an outcast.

It just shows “your people” can always be found.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Perri Nemiroff, ‘Here’s Why Naomi Scott Didn’t Want Her Own Disney Show Early in Her Career’, Collider.com, 18^th April 2021.

[2] Credit: Karen McCally, ‘Features: Paperback Writer’, Rochester.Edu, from Rochester Review May-June 2011, Vol. 73, No. 5.

[3] Credit: Bob Tremblay, ‘Film: Wayland author’s ‘Lemonade Mouth’ opens wide’, MetroWestDailyNews.com, date unknown.

[4] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Disney’s ‘Lemonade Mouth’ cast talk touring, sequels and being “edgier” than other Disney movies – watch’, DigitalSpy.com, 15^th September 2011.

[5] Credit: Clevver TV, ‘Adam Hicks Talks Possible ‘Lemonade Mouth’ Tour At D23 Expo 2011’, ClevverTV YouTube Channel, 22^nd August 2011.

[6] Credit: Shine On Media, ‘Bridgit Mendler on No “Lemonade Mouth 2” & New Music’, Shine On Media YouTube Channel, 12nd July 2012.

[7] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘”Lemonade Mouth” author Mark Peter Hughes already working on sequel to this Disney Channel Original Movie’, JimHillMedia.com, date unknown.

13th Sep 20242nd Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#13 Brave (2012)

BACKGROUND

After more than a decade of success for Pixar, releasing hit after hit every one to two years, and after a period of transition whereby Pixar were officially acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, in 2012, Pixar released their thirteenth feature film, Brave.

Unlucky for some you might say, but Brave continued Pixar’s general trend of being at the forefront of animated technology, as well as being one of the leading figures in family-friendly entertainment.

Brave took Pixar in a slightly different direction though. Pixar were known for their contemporary stories, taking place in the real world, with the occasional fantastical element or creature thrown in. Pixar’s movies had all felt like they were taking place in the present day, or in an alternate version of it. With Brave, Pixar moved their story into a medieval time period, Medieval Scotland to be exact. And they would also be straying into Disney territory, by making their very first fairy tale.

Pixar don’t really like to think of Brave as a fairy tale, because it isn’t about a princess falling in love with a prince, being cursed by witches or evil stepmothers. Pixar chose to turn the classic fairy tale on its head and make something completely new. Brave follows Merida, the headstrong daughter of a Scottish clan leader, fighting for her free will after a betrothal ceremony gets out of hand. She is not a typical fairy-tale princess, and she does not find love; a very important part of Pixar’s story was that she didn’t do so.

By having the character of Merida front and centre in Brave, this film also became Pixar’s first movie to be focused on a female protagonist. Female characters had existed in Pixar movies previously, but they had been in a supporting role to a male protagonist, like Dory in Finding Nemo (2003) or Helen Parr in The Incredibles (2004). Not only that, but Brave also became Pixar’s first movie to have a female director.

Brave was a different movie to come from Pixar, and some critics seem to have noticed that, finding Brave to be less entertaining or heartfelt than some of Pixar’s big blockbusters. Knowing that Brave is focused on the importance of mother-daughter bonds instantly disproves the feeling that Brave is not heartfelt because the whole point of it is to represent this relationship, that can be tense, in a fairy-tale format. It’s nothing but heart.

I have seen Brave a number of times, perhaps too many at one point because, like with Zootopia (2016) and Tangled (2010), British television liked to air these films every festive season for many years, but I do still like Brave. My family first got to watch it in Scotland, which added an air of authenticity to our viewing of the film, just because it so happened to be in cinemas at the exact same time as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2012. Though I don’t watch Brave particularly often, it’s a story that is relevant and representative of many families, so it’s an important watch as well as being a funny one.

PLOT

The movie begins in the forests of Scotland, where a little princess, named Merida, is playing hide-and-seek with her mother, Queen Elinor. Her father, King Fergus of Clan DunBroch, presents Merida with a small bow and arrow for her birthday, which she immediately wants to try out. Merida aims at a target – but unfortunately shoots the arrow into the woods. Merida goes into the woods to fetch the arrow, where she sees a trail of blue lights, called “will-o’-the-wisps”, or just wisps. Elinor tells Merida that wisps have been known to appear to show people their fate. At this point, a huge, black bear attacks the royal camp, with the King and the soldiers trying to fight it off, as Elinor rides away with Merida.

We then jump forward ten years. Merida gives a recap of what has happened over those years, like Fergus losing his leg in the battle with that bear, Mor’du; Merida getting three little brothers, triplets called Hubert, Hamish, and Harris; and Merida having regular “princess lessons” with her mother to learn to be a princess and future queen, which she doesn’t enjoy. Occasionally, Merida gets a free day all to herself where we see her riding her horse through the Highlands, climbing waterfalls, and practising her archery.

At the end of one of these free days, Merida walks back into the castle to join her family for dinner. Fergus is telling everyone the story of how he lost his leg to Mor’du and vows to avenge it for the hundredth time, maybe more. Then Elinor announces that the leaders of the three neighbouring clans that make up their kingdom – Macintosh, Dingwall, and MacGuffin – have all accepted the Queen’s invitation to present suitors to marry Princess Merida. Merida is completely blindsided by this news, having no idea that her mother would be lining her up for marriage when she’s still so young. Merida runs to her room. Elinor comes in and tells her the tale of a former kingdom where the was rule divided amongst four princes. However, one selfish prince caused ruin to the kingdom and it fell. This little morality tale doesn’t work on Merida and she refuses to go along with it. Elinor’s parting shot, as she doesn’t understand Merida’s horror, is simply “It’s just marriage. It’s not the end of the world.” Way to be supportive, Mum.

The next day, the clans arrive and each leader presents their eldest son as a suitor for Merida; the warrior pretty boy, son of Lord Macintosh; the strong but shy son of Lord MacGuffin; and the small, dweeby son of Lord Dingwall. The leaders are already feeling competitive which results in a fight, with Fergus even taking part. The Queen soon puts a stop to it though, by dragging the four clan leaders by their ears back to the front of the room. She announces that the first-born from each clan will be competing in an event of the Princess’ choosing at the Highland Games. Merida chooses her favourite sport: archery.

At the Games, the three suitors take aim at their targets. MacGuffin misses the main target; Macintosh comes close but doesn’t hit the bull’s eye, which just leaves Dingwall who surely doesn’t have a chance of getting closer…does he? Actually, yes, Dingwall is the one to hit the bull’s eye, horrifying Fergus who doesn’t want Merida married off to this puny kid. He turns to her, but Merida isn’t there. A cloaked figure then approaches the targets with a bow. It’s Merida who boldly announces that she is “first-born of Clan DunBroch and I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”. Merida swiftly hits the centre of each of the three targets, ripping her dress and acting very unladylike as she does so. Elinor is furious and drags her back to the castle. She shouts at Merida, asking her if she has any idea what she’s just done, embarrassing her and the clan leaders, not to mention potentially causing war between the four lands once more. Merida calls her mother a beast and tears the tapestry of the family that Elinor has spent years working on, separating her mother away from her in the picture. In retaliation, Elinor throws Merida’s precious bow onto the fire. Merida runs off in tears. Elinor then realises what a mistake she’s made and tries to retrieve the bow, but it’s too late.

Merida rides away on her horse, Angus, arriving at the Ring of Stones. A trail of wisps appears to her again and she follows, making her way to a cottage. The woman in the cottage claims to be just a wood carver, having filled the room with all her creations, but Merida spots an enchanted broom and a talking crow and accuses the woman of being a witch. The witch orders Merida to leave, as she’s stopped witchcraft after having too many unsatisfied customers, but Merida makes a deal with her: she’ll purchase all of the carvings in exchange for her necklace and a spell. The witch asks Merida what she wants from the spell, to which she responds that she wants to change her mum, because that will change her fate. This reminds the witch of a previous spell she created for a prince many years ago. The witch obliges and makes the spell, which appears as a cake. Merida takes it home.

At the castle, Elinor is happy to see Merida back and tells her she has pacified the Lords but that a decision will still have to be made. Merida had hoped that her mother might have had a change of heart but as she hasn’t, Merida gives her the cake to eat. Elinor takes a bite, saying that it tastes awful, and puts it back down. She leads Merida to the hall with the Lords; the spell hasn’t worked… But then Elinor starts to feel unwell and asks Merida to take her to her room. In Elinor’s room, as she rolls over in bed, Merida starts to think something is wrong. She calls for her mum but doesn’t get a response. Then a huge bear appears in the room, terrifying Merida, who starts screaming. The bear seems frightened too and tries to protect Merida. Merida then realises she’s turned her mother into a bear! Instead of pointing the blame at herself though, Merida blames the witch for giving her a bad spell. She wanted a spell to change her; it certainly did change her so I don’t know what Merida is so upset about. I can see why that witch has sworn off magic if this is how her other customers have reacted!

Merida insists Bear Elinor comes with her to find this witch to get the spell reversed and they try to leave the castle. The Lords and Fergus realise there is a bear in the castle and start hunting for it, as one of the servants, Maudie, has just seen Merida with one. Merida tries to sneak Bear Elinor out of the castle but she’s too slow and keeps getting distracted, like by disciplining her sons who are messing about with stuffed deer heads! Merida finds her mother and begs the boys to help her, saying they can have a year’s worth of her desserts if they do. They instantly oblige, coming up with a plan to trick Fergus and the Lords which results in them being stuck on the roof of the castle, having to use their tied-together kilts to repel down the castle. You can’t have a Scottish film without a kilt and a bare bum joke now, can you?

At the Ring of Stones, the wisps do not appear to Merida again so she searches for the cottage. When they arrive there, they see the cottage empty apart from a cauldron and some potions, a bit like a customer service helpline. The witch has a message specifically for Merida. It says that to reverse the spell she must remember this poem: “Fate be changed. Look inside. Mend the bond torn by pride”. The spell will become permanent by the second sunrise if she does not succeed in reversing it. That only gives them just over a day and Merida has no idea what that poem means. She freaks out and pours all the potions into the cauldron but instead of getting answers, she blows up the cottage.

After a night sleeping in the rain, Merida wakes up to find Bear Elinor fixing breakfast. She starts to eat some berries but Merida tells her they are poisonous. Bear Elinor spits them out and tries to drink some lake water, but that’s disgusting too. Merida has a better idea. She uses her archery skills to catch some fish and then Bear Elinor uses her bear skills to catch some of her own. At one point though, Merida sees that Bear Elinor has become like a real bear which scares her. They have to find out how to reverse the spell – and fast.

A wisp appears to them and leads them to a ruined kingdom. Merida falls down into a hole, where she sees a mural of four princes which has been split like the tapestry. Merida wonders if this is that kingdom her mother keeps telling her about with the selfish prince. Merida then remembers the witch saying she’d done a similar spell for a prince and quickly realises that Mor’du, the bear the kingdom fears, must be that prince! Merida turns around to find Mor’du standing there, and he attacks. Merida and Bear Elinor manage to escape, but at least this detour means that Merida knows what they must do; they have to sew up their family tapestry that Merida tore in two. They head back to the castle.

At the castle, the clans are fighting again in the main hall so Merida cannot sneak Bear Elinor back to her room very easily. She starts to give a speech to the Lords, leading up to her announcing a decision on her suitor, but Bear Elinor, using charades to communicate, finishes Merida’s speech for her, saying that they should let these young people find love for themselves. All the leaders agree to this and Merida and Bear Elinor rush upstairs. However, once again, Elinor goes into bear mode again. To make things worse, Fergus sees Elinor’s shredded dress from when she first transformed into a bear, and then sees this bear in his castle with Merida. Jumping to conclusions, he believes this bear killed Elinor and that it’s after Merida next. Trying to protect her, he fights off Bear Elinor, who runs away scared, and locks Merida in her room as she tries to explain to Fergus that the bear is Elinor.

As Merida tries to get Maudie to give her the key to the room, three little bears walk up to the door. It’s Merida brothers who must’ve eaten the cursed cake she thoughtlessly left in the castle kitchens…Merida gets her brothers to terrorise Maudie and find the key for her. It works and Merida is released, grabbing the tapestry and her brothers and riding off to find Fergus and the clans who have chased Bear Elinor.

They get to the Ring of Stones with Merida having sewn up the tapestry. Merida then fights off her father to protect her mother who has been tied up by the clans. Mor’du then arrives. The men try to defeat it once and for all, but they are pushed back. Merida is then pinned to the ground, leading Bear Elinor to fight for her daughter. Bear Elinor is pushed into one of the stones, which has cracked. She tricks Mor’du into standing up against it and Elinor pushes the bear into the stone. As Mor’du is about to launch at Elinor, the stone breaks in half and crushes Mor’du to death. The spectators then see the spirit of the prince leave the bear’s body; he’s finally free.

As the sun begins to rise, Merida knows she must hurry and wraps the tapestry around her mother. But nothing happens. Bear Elinor’s eyes then revert to bear mode once more. Merida cries and apologies to her mother, saying she loves her and just wants her back. As the sunlight touches the tapestry, a hand reaches out to Merida. It’s Elinor, back to her human form once again. Merida, Fergus, Elinor, and her brothers all hug.

We then see the DunBroch royal family waving off the clan leaders, with the boys causing mischief once more by jumping onto one of their boats, which Fergus has to retrieve them from! Merida also seems to have an admirer, Wee Dingwall, which is interesting to say the least. Don’t worry; she’s not at all interested! The movie ends with Merida and Elinor looking over the countryside on their horses, with Merida reminding the audience that anyone can change their fate; they just have to brave enough to see it.

And for anyone who thought the Witch was a con artist, in an End Credits scene, the witch’s bird arrives with all of the carvings Merida purchased from the Witch, and asks one of the guards to sign for it on a floating piece of paper. The guard freezes in shock.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Merida is the princess of Pixar’s fairy tale but she is nothing like a regular princess. She’s messy, wild, wilful, stubborn, and lacks the elegance and grace of Disney’s top royalty. And that was exactly the point, because Brave was never meant to be a traditional fairy tale, so Merida was never going to be a traditional princess. Merida wants to change the course of her life, the life that her mother has planned out for her; she doesn’t see herself ever getting married and doesn’t want her mother making decisions for her, so Merida being Merida, she fights back against it and refuses to back down. Her mother also will not back down so the two butt heads over this, and don’t see eye-to-eye on much else either.

The Pixar team felt it was important for Merida to have a skill so it was decided that she would be good at archery, making her athletic and strong. Any time Merida is using her bow, it shows that she is free and feels completely herself. Another way that Merida was shown to be a free spirit was with her hair. It’s curly, it’s red, it’s voluminous, and it’s a bit messy. It was a hard problem to solve in terms of the animation, and there were even talks about cutting Merida’s hair, but the animators strove to deal with this challenge because Merida’s hair is a key representation of her character.

Elinor, on the other hand, is a complete contrast to Merida. Though Elinor’s demeanour potentially hints at a past life where she was similar to Merida, because of Elinor’s sense of duty and knowing what is best for her kingdom, she has given up her freedom and a chance to be wild in order to become a great queen, who is the diplomat within the royal family, communicating with the other three clans and making tough decisions that affect everyone else. Elinor’s character design represents her as a person, for example with her fitted, heavy dress, her pulled back hair, and her lack of gestures and facial expressions. This shows how “together” Elinor is a person.

For the betrothal ceremony, Elinor forces Merida to wear a corset and a tight blue dress, which shows Merida being made to conform to fit her role as a princess. When Merida decides to “shoot for her own hand”, her dress gets torn at the seams and then gets shredded and made dirtier on her journey to “change her mum”. This is representative of Merida’s mental state deteriorating at the thought of ending up restricted like her mum.

When Elinor becomes a bear, her character traits continue to shine through, with Bear Elinor being very concerned that she isn’t wearing any clothes, despite all that fur; continuing to wear her crown for a time; and even setting a table for her and Merida to have breakfast on when they are stuck in the woods. But when Bear Elinor starts to become a real bear, this allows for some of her pent-up rage and anger to come through in a very natural form. It’s only through Merida and Elinor communicating that Merida learns to accept some sort of responsibility for the kingdom, and for Elinor to start to be less uptight and strict[1].

Merida was voiced by Kelly Macdonald. Macdonald made her film debut starring as Diane in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and returned to reprise her role in the 2017 sequel. She later appeared in the movies Elizabeth (1998) as Isabel Knollys and Gosford Park (2001) as Mary Maceachran. Around the time of Brave, Macdonald was starring in the television series Boardwalk Empire (2010-14), playing the character of Margaret Thompson, alongside Steve Buscemi, and had been cast in the minor role of Helena Ravenclaw in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). More recently, Macdonald was cast in these BBC series: as DCI Joanne Davidson in Series 6 of Line of Duty (2012-21); Sarah Weitzmann in Giri/Haji (2019); and Anna Dean in The Victim (2019), for which she won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Actress Television.

Apparently American actress Reese Witherspoon was originally meant to voice the role of Merida, with the Pixar team being confident that she would be able to pull off the Scottish accent, however, it was said that scheduling issues meant Witherspoon was unable to complete the movie[2]. That’s the official line, however, Witherspoon herself has said in previous interviews that her accent wasn’t good enough and she had to quit. Either way, as much as I like Reese Witherspoon, having a Scottish actress voice Merida was definitely the best choice for the film.

Dame Emma Thompson was chosen to voice the role of Queen Elinor. In the 1990s, Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Howards End (1992) for her role as Margaret Schlegel and was nominated the next year in the same category for The Remains of the Day (1993) where she played Miss Kenton. In 1995, Thompson wrote and starred in Sense and Sensibility (1995), playing the part of Elinor Dashwood, where she was once again nominated for Best Actress, and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Thompson later became known for her roles of Karen in Love Actually (2003); Professor Trelawney in the Harry Potter film franchise; and Nanny McPhee in the 2005 movie, which also featured Kelly Macdonald, and its 2010 sequel. For Disney, Thompson starred as P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and voiced Captain Amelia in their animated movie Treasure Planet (2002). More recently, Thompson was also cast as Baroness von Hellman in Cruella (2021) and Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical (2022).

For the rest of the DunBroch royals, we have the triplets, Hamish, Hubert, and Harris, and of course, King Fergus. The boys are particularly smart and sneaky, playing pranks on servants in the castle and just generally causing mischief. Though you might expect Merida to be indifferent or annoyed by her little brothers, having been an only child for quite a few years, she actually does not seem to be, even giving them cakes that she took from the kitchen so they don’t have to suffer through their haggis at dinner! Merida also recognises their talents and asks for their help getting her and Bear Elinor out of the castle without being seen. The boys aren’t stupid though; they’ll only be helpful if there’s something in it for them!

King Fergus is a tall, broad-shoulder, Viking-looking man with a huge beard and rough voice. He might look scary, but he’s not really. His biggest ambition in life is to avenge the loss of his leg to Mor’du by ultimately killing the “demon bear”, and he recounts the story often, even if everyone has heard it already. Fergus is a good king for battle, but he’s not great with public speaking or diplomacy – which is where Elinor comes in. He’s up for a fight anytime though and doesn’t take kindly to rudeness or disrespect.

Sir Billy Connolly voiced the part of Fergus. Connolly began his career in both music and comedy, before acting on screen in the 1970s. Some of his acting roles include John Brown in Mrs Brown (1997), alongside Dame Judi Dench playing Queen Victoria; Dr. Montgomery in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004); King Theodore in Gulliver’s Travels; and Wilf Bond in Quartet (2012). Connolly also voiced the character of Ben in Disney’s Pocahontas (1995). Shortly after Brave’s release, he was cast as Dáin II Ironfoot in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). In more recent years, Connolly has continued to appear on our screens, but in television documentaries about his life and travels. Connolly won the BAFTA Fellowship Award in 2022.

Then there are the Lords, Lord Macintosh, Lord MacGuffin, and Lord Dingwall, of the three neighbouring clans. Though the kingdom is supposed to be at peace, there is clearly some bad blood between these three as they don’t get along well at all, trading barbs and generally being rude to each other, thinking their clan is more superior than the others. Lord Macintosh has long, dark hair, and has blue body paint covering his arms and face, showing that his clan are warriors, ready for war. His son looks very similar to him. Lord Dingwall and his son are shorter than the others, and are more eccentric too, snapping at the slightest insult. Lord MacGuffin and his son are large men, with blond hair, showing their physicality compared to the smaller Dingwalls and weedier Macintoshes.

Lord Macintosh was voiced by Craig Ferguson, who is well-known in America for hosting the late-night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005-14). He then hosted the game show Celebrity Night Game (2014-17), which won two Daytime Emmys. Prior to his casting in Brave, Ferguson was already voicing the character of Gobber for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise and had voiced Owl in Winnie the Pooh (2011) – the less said about that, the better! Steven Cree voiced the Macintosh son, who went on to be cast as Ian Murray in Outlander (2015-present); Chief Constable Collier in COBRA (2020-present); and Gallowglass in A Discovery of Witches (2018-22).

Lord MacGuffin and his son were both voiced by Kevin McKidd, who appeared as Tommy Mackenzie in Trainspotting (1996) alongside Kelly Macdonald. McKidd went on to star as Dr. Owen Hunt in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present) and voice the character of Captain John “Soap” MacTavish in the games Call of Duty: Modern Welfare 2 and 3. More recently, he was also cast in the British crime miniseries Six Four (2023) as Detective Constable Chris O’Neill, and plays the role of Andrew Bloom in the movie It Ends With Us (2024).

Robbie Coltrane voiced Lord Dingwall, who is most well-known for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film franchise. Outside of that though, Coltrane was also known for his appearances in the comedy series The Comic Strip Presents… which starred popular comedy actors Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Rik Mayall, and Ade Edmonson, and as gangster Valentin Zukovsky in the Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). Coltrane also gained recognition in the 1990s for his leading role as Dr Edward Fitzgerald in the British crime series Cracker (1993-2006), for which he won the BAFTA for Best Actor in 1994, 1995, and 1996. Coltrane sadly passed away in 2022.

Finally, we have the witch and woodcarver that Merida meets in the forest. She isn’t a particularly good witch, clearly not remembering many important details of her spells until much later on, which causes Merida and Elinor some problems… But then she does warn Merida at the start that she doesn’t do witchcraft anymore because of customer complaints, so she shouldn’t have expected too much from her! The witch just wants to be a wood carver now without being hassled for her magic. Is that too much to ask?

Julie Walters was chosen to voice the small role of the witch. Walters made her screen debut in Educating Rita (1983), playing the title role for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to appear in other movies, including in Billy Elliott (2000), playing the part of Mrs. Wilkinson, being nominated for another Oscar for Best Supporting Actress; Molly Weasley in the Harry Potter film series; Rosie in Mamma Mia! (2008) and its 2018 sequel; and as Mrs. Bird in Paddington (2014) and its soon-to-be two sequels. Walters is also well-known for her television comedy roles, acting alongside famed comedienne Victoria Wood for a number of screen projects, including Wood and Walters (1981); Acorn Antiques (1986-87); and dinnerladies (1998-2000). She also starred with Robbie Coltrane in the miniseries National Treasure (2016).

The only other name to mention, because it is a Pixar movie and his name is usually in the credits as the studio’s “good luck charm”, is John Ratzenberger, who voiced Gordon the guard here.

Brave features a whole host of British talent in its impressive voice cast, with the majority of them being Scottish. Although no definitive Scottish dialect is used amongst the cast, with each one having a slightly different accent, certain decisions about phrases and accents were made by the cast. For example, Kevin McKidd was inspired by his grandfather’s dialect, Doric, spoken in the northeast of Scotland, when voicing Dingwall. Scottish words, like “gammy” and “scaffy”, were also incorporated into the script to give it more authenticity, but the Pixar team made sure it wasn’t too difficult to be understood by a global audience[3]!

PRODUCTION

Although Brave was dubbed “Pixar’s first fairy tale”, the story was not based on any fairy tale in particular. The initial concept came from Brenda Chapman, who was the first woman to direct an animated feature at a major studio with DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt (1998). She moved to work at Pixar in 2003 where she began developing an idea for a movie, which was first called The Bear and the Bow, which would use elements from some of the best loved and most memorable fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, as well as drawing inspiration from her own difficult, at times, relationship with her daughter. It was also decided to set the story in Scotland, and to include some elements of magic.

It’s quite clear where elements of a troubled mother-daughter relationship come into Brave – the whole movie is about it, after all. It’s slightly less clear where the fairy tale elements came from, however, it has been said that the Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale Snow-White and Rose-Red was used in part as a basis for the story. This story has nothing to do with the popular Snow White fairy tale, and is instead about two young girls who live with their poor widowed mother. A bear knocks on their door one night, saying it wants to escape the cold. This happens every night over winter with the girls soon becoming friends with the bear. In summer, the bear leaves to guard its treasure. The girls then come across a dwarf in the forest. His beard is stuck in a tree so they free it by cutting the beard, which angers the dwarf, who apparently has strange priorities and would rather die than lose a bit of facial hair, and yells at the girls. They continue to save the dwarf from his troubles and the dwarf continues to be annoyed. Their bear friend later kills the dwarf, who tries to get the bear to eat the girls, and this act transforms him into a prince. It turns out the dwarf had cursed him and it could only be broken by his death. Fairy tales can be so messed up…The idea of Merida and Elinor’s bond being able to break the curse is similar to the Grimm’s story. The cursed prince becoming a bear was also taken from this story, along with a death being needed to undo it, although no dwarves were harmed in the making of Brave[4].

Although this was Chapman’s initial idea, and she remained credited as a co-director on Brave, Chapman was not able to see her project through to the end. She was taken off the project in 2010 and replaced with a different Pixar employee, Mark Andrews, who had previously been the Story Supervisor on The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007) for the company. It was also around this time that the movie’s title changed from The Bear and the Bow to Brave, matching the snappy one-word titles that some of the best Pixar and Disney animated movies have had. Chapman stated that she was struggling to put across this female-centric story in a company that she described as “a boys’ club”. Then, her friend, Joe Ranft, who was the voice of Heimlich in A Bug’s Life (1998) and was co-director on Cars (2006), died in a car accident in 2005 which shook everyone up at Pixar. That, combined with her not getting on particularly well with John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at both Disney and Pixar at the time, led to her being taken off the film, in her opinion. In the end, Chapman was pleased to find that her original message and the general concept of her story still came through in the final film[5].

Whatever the reason, this was not an ideal situation for the movie itself, and Chapman was reportedly said to be devastated about leaving the project. Mark Andrews turned out to be a good choice as a new director though, as he loved Scotland and its culture, as his mother’s ancestors come from Torridon in the Scottish Highlands, and Andrews had been particularly interested in the mythology and the folklore of the area for many years[6]. He even liked to wear kilts into the office for Friday meetings[7]! Andrews’ passion for the project was only too obvious.

To make a movie set in Scotland, multiple research trips were required to study the landscapes, the environments, and the architecture, particularly in areas like the Highlands, as the movie was going to be set in Medieval Scotland. The Pixar team were going to need to see how grass and moss grew on every object in its path, look at rock placement and stone structures, and just take in the fresh air and see how the area made them feel.

Some specific Scottish landmarks that the team visited were Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Glen Affric in the Highlands, and the Calanais Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis. The castle obviously inspired DunBroch castle, which was initially going to be set against a loch in the Highlands, however, after seeing Dunnottar Castle, the team liked the idea of placing the castle on a cliff edge, and added a village to it too, to create a community. The Calanais Standing Stones became the Ring of Stones in the movie, where Merida sees the wisps for the first time as an adult and where the curse on her mother and on Mor’du are finally lifted. Glen Affric has one of the largest Caledonian pinewoods, and shows authentic Scottish wilderness, which was perfect for capturing the essence of this Medieval Scotland that Brave would be based in[8]. The weather and cloud formations would have also been studied to get an idea of the usual weather experienced in Scotland. At one point, it was said that the majority of Brave was going to be set in snowy terrain, as could be seen in an alternate opening of Mor’du and Fergus’ initial fight, however, this was later scrapped. Traditional Celtish and Pictish symbols are also used throughout the movie. This love of Scotland that all of the research team discovered on their trips around Scotland is easily found in every aspect of Brave.

In terms of incorporating magic into Brave, they wanted this to include “real” magic, as in using elements of spirituality and folklore to create something more believable than just fairy magic and spells. They discovered that will-o’-the-wisps are a natural phenomenon that were created when gas on the Moors was ignited by static electricity; this electricity then turned the gas blue and the current created by walking towards them seemed to make them move. Legend says that wisps would appear to lost travellers and would either lead them home or to their doom. The Ring of Stones is the spiritual arena in Brave, feeling like there is an air of mystery attached to them, through legend or myth.

As well as the animation struggles of animating Merida’s hair, there were other challenges that the animators faced on the movie. One of these was trying to make everything look dirty, because this is Medieval Scotland, after all; it’s not like there was any indoor plumbing. This required some investigation into how dirt sticks to surfaces and how to make clothes look unwashed. Computer graphics are apparently great for making things look pristine, but not so good at make things less-than-perfect. But the team persevered and successfully managed to make this work, even going so far as to ensure that the Scottish characters had stained, crooked teeth and very scruffy hair!

A key element of Brave is the family tapestry. The movie was even going to open with Merida and Elinor sewing this family tapestry together. It is initially a metaphor to show the family bound together for life, but then shows how the family has been torn apart, quite literally, by the emotional divide between Elinor and Merida. Firstly, it was going to be difficult to animate a hand-sewn tapestry anyway, as it had to look like it was sewn with individual threads, to give it that handmade, traditional quality to it. But then, it was going to need to be ripped through with a knife, so how would they figure that out? By experimenting in real-life, of course! After much close-up inspection of sewn tapestries being ripped apart, the animators were able to replicate that look of frayed threads. To make it worse, a completely new tapestry is made at the end of Brave, showing a new harmonious relationship between Merida and Elinor, so there were two completely different designs needed, along with the sewing scenes, the ripping, and the sewing back up moments!

There were also animals that needed to be animated in Brave. One of these is Angus, Merida’s horse, who allows Merida to have some freedom away from the castle. Angus is a huge Clydesdale, so he had to be big and powerful. There was also more hair that was needed on this character, with the texture being different depending on where on Angus’ body it is. For example, Angus has his regular body hair, but then has thick hair on his mane and tail. Angus also has thinner, wispy white hair on his hoofs and his chin, which, being white, would get muddy riding through Scotland, so that was an added difficulty. But Angus is an important character, so it was worth the effort to make him look like a real horse.

Then, there are the bears, Mor’du and Bear Elinor. Disney Animation has had a history of animating bears, such as Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967), Brother Bear (2003), and the huge bear in The Fox and the Hound (1981), which looks the most real of them all. To start with, the animators went to the zoo to look at a wide variety of bears, like polar bears and grizzly bears, to get a feel for how they move and how they behave. However, Bear Elinor, for the most part, does not act like a real bear, walking around on two legs most of the time, and having her human eyes used on her bear form. Bear Elinor is a more caricatured version of a bear, however, Mor’du, “the demon bear” is not. He had to be really scary and feel more like a monster than a bear. Mor’du became very muscular and wide shouldered. It also had to seem like Mor’du had been around for centuries, as we don’t know when the legend of the four princes was meant to have taken place. This is shown by Mor’du having spears stuck in his back, and wounds and scars all over his body, proving that he has fought back against humans for years – and won[9]. This was also going to be presented in a more disturbing way. The initial scene of Merida and Bear Elinor at the ruined kingdom where they encounter Mor’du was going to be full of bones and skeletons of past warriors who’d tried to fight him. A preview audience deemed this to be too scary so the bones were edited out[10].

Once the movie was ready, it was deliberately marketed in a way to stop the story from being actively shown with even the main trailer not giving much away, as is typical from Pixar. At the D23 Expo in 2011, more details of the film were shown then, with some of the Pixar team appearing at the expo to show scenes from Brave. One of these was the big archery scene. It was also confirmed that Brave was going to be set in 10^th Century Scotland and be released in theatres on 22^nd June 2012[11].

But, even with the older setting for Brave, Pixar couldn’t resist including some of their most loved Easter eggs. One of these is the Pizza Planet truck, which can be seen as one of the witch’s wood carvings in her cottage. Also in the cottage, A113, the number of the classroom that many of the animators studied in at CalArts, is written in Roman numerals, as ACXIII, above the witch’s cottage door. A tribute to Steve Jobs, who died in 2011 and helped found the Pixar company, was also included in the Brave credits with a dedication message.

One last fact about Brave that occurred during production on the movie was that the baseball team The Atlanta Braves apparently opposed Disney’s attempt to trademark the title ‘Brave’ and filed their opposition at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board; the team had been calling themselves the Braves since 1912. This, frankly quite ridiculous, issue was allegedly resolved soon after June 2012 through settlement discussions[12].

MUSIC

Brave, like most Pixar movies, does not feature many original songs, as Pixar don’t make big Broadway musical-inspired movies like Disney do. However, a lot of effort still goes in to the soundtrack of Pixar films, and in this case, continuing that authenticity of the Scottish setting from the animation and story to the music was essential. In this case, Brave has five original songs, with only two being sung by one of the characters. The other three are performed by singers as though they are expressing Merida’s thoughts and feelings.

The first of these is “Touch the Sky”, which accompanies the scene of Merida on one of her “days off” from princess lessons early on in the film; she rides off with her horse, Angus, into the forest and countryside to explore. It’s a good introduction to both the film and the character of Merida, highlighting Merida’s wish to be free from the constraints of royal life. It’s reminiscent of a traditional folk song, but also quite a powerful one. Another song that is similar in style and shares the same performer is “Into the Open Air”. This is sung over the top of the scene of Merida and Bear Elinor catching fish together. This is my favourite song on the soundtrack; it’s quite calming and melodic. These songs were performed by Julie Fowlis, a Scottish folk singer who primarily sings in Scottish Gaelic. They were both written by Alex Mandel.

The song at the end of Brave is “Learn Me Right”. It’s a less relaxing song than the other two I’ve mentioned, but it still sounds distinctly Scottish and folk in style. It’s not the best song in Brave for me personally, but it does embody the spirit of the movie. This song was performed by Birdy, and Mumford & Sons, with the band also writing the song. Birdy’s most popular songs include “Skinny Love” and “Wings”, as well as “Just A Game” which featured on The Hunger Games (2012) soundtrack and “Ghost in the Wind” from The Edge of Seventeen (2016). Mumford & Sons are a British folk-rock band who have been recording and performing music since 2007. Some of their biggest hits have been “Little Lion Man”, “I Will Wait”, and “The Cave”.

The final two songs to mention are “Song of Mor’du” and “Noble Maiden Fair”, both performed by characters in the movie. The “Song of Mor’du” is a silly drinking song, that is performed by Billy Connolly as King Fergus, building up motivation amongst the clans to finally slay Mor’du the bear who has been a constant terrorising figure in their lives. “Noble Maiden Fair”, or “A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal” in Gaelic, is a lullaby that we see Elinor singing to Merida in a flashback moment from when Merida was little and scared of a thunderstorm. It is also played again as Merida begs for her mother to come back to her and not stay as a bear forever. It is the first Disney song to feature lyrics in Scottish Gaelic and is performed by Emma Thompson and Peigi Barker. These songs were written by Patrick Doyle.

Finally, the score was also composed by Patrick Doyle, as Pixar turned to a new composer after a long-standing collaboration with Randy Newman, as well as frequent collaborations with Thomas Newman and Michael Giacchino, on previous Pixar movies. Some of Doyle’s previous works include the score for Sense and Sensibility (1995), being nominated at the Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes for it; Hamlet (1996), also being nominated for his score at the Academy Awards and the Satellite Awards; Gosford Park (2001), winning the World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year; Nanny McPhee (2005); and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). More recently, Doyle has composed the scores for Disney’s live-action Cinderella (2015) and the Poirot remakes Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022).

One of the best instrumentals within the score for me is “We’ve Both Changed” which is played during the final battle scene between Mor’du and Bear Elinor and when the curses are finally broken. The end of this piece is beautiful as the two reconcile, believing that they’ve failed to break the curse, but then it all ends happily, as so many animated movies do. I also really like “The Games”, with all its bagpipes, despite there being little evidence that those were used in Scotland before the 15^th Century, and fiddles.

The soundtrack of Brave reached No. 2 in the US Billboard Soundtracks Chart, making it the highest-charting Pixar soundtrack since Cars in 2006. “Learn Me Right” was nominated for Best Original Song at the Satellite Awards and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, but lost out to “Suddenly” from Les Misérables (2012) and Adele’s “Skyfall” from the Bond movie of the same name. It was also nominated at the Grammy Awards for Best Song Written for Visual Media, but lost to “Safe & Sound” from The Hunger Games (2012). “Touch the Sky” also received a nomination for Best Original Song, along with “Learn Me Right” at the Houston Film Critics Society, and Patrick Doyle was nominated for Best Original Score for an Animated Feature at the International Film Music Critics Association Awards and the Annie Awards, but sadly, no there were no wins at any of these events for music.

RECEPTION

Brave was revealed to the world on 22^nd June 2012, after the film premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on 10^th June that year. Brave also had a British premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 30^th June 2012.

When Brave was released in theatres, it was released alongside the Pixar short film La Luna (2011), which originally premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in June 2011. This short film also has a story about family dynamics, so it pairs well with Brave. Specifically, La Luna follows a young Italian boy who goes to work with his father and grandfather, where they sweep away stars from the Moon’s surface. The two adults argue over how the boy should be wearing the cap that he has just been given, and how the boy should sweep up the stars, wanting him to follow their way of doing it. Then, a huge star falls onto the Moon. Thanks to the boy’s clever thinking, showing he is independent from his older relatives and capable of making his own decisions, he hits the star, causing it to separate into many smaller stars. All three then sweep them up together.

Over Brave’s theatrical run, it grossed a worldwide total of $539 million, becoming the third highest-grossing animated film of 2012, behind Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012), which were both additions to two already successful animated movie franchises. But money isn’t everything; Pixar’s movie release of 2011, Cars 2, did well at the box-office, yet was not received well by critics and audiences. So, what did the reviews say?

Luckily, they were mostly positive. Many enjoyed the twist on the traditional fairy tale, because, of course, Pixar wouldn’t just follow in Disney’s footsteps. Audiences liked the contemporary, strong, and unconventional Princess Merida, which also leant into a debate around feminism and how Merida chooses to fight for her free will by not allowing herself to be forced into an arranged marriage. It also would appear that Merida is not interested in falling in love and perhaps would never have gotten married herself, which adds a new layer to this non-traditional princess. The landscapes were considered to be beautiful and the message about mother-daughter relationships was received well also. Brave explores some important themes and wasn’t afraid to have some dark, deep moments in places.

However, there’s always a contrary opinion and some of the more negative comments included that the story felt rushed and that it was not funny like Pixar movies normally are. I can agree with this to a point; the build-up to the spell does seem to take up more of the runtime of the film than the reversal of it, but I certainly find Brave just as funny as Pixar movies normally are. Perhaps some of these reviewers didn’t understand the Scottish accents and missed the jokes? Other comments were based around the many historical inaccuracies within Brave, such as the clothing material and body paint on the Macintosh clan being from later time periods and that bears did not exist in Scotland during the chosen time period. Although the two living bears featured in Brave are actually cursed humans, viewers with incredible attention to detail spotted stuffed bears within the film, suggesting that those bears had been killed within the same timeframe as Brave. Those who worked on Pixar admitted that they weren’t bothered about being historically accurate.

In terms of accolades, Brave won numerous awards, including Best Animated Film at the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards. Brave was also nominated for many Annie Awards, in categories such as Animated Effects, Character Animation, Writing, and Music, winning awards for Editorial and Production Design. Brave was nominated here for Best Animated Feature too, but lost to Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph (2012).

LEGACY

Brave will always have a place in Pixar history, by being the first movie from the company to be co-directed by a woman; the first Pixar movie to have a fairy-tale-type story; and the first Pixar movie to follow a female protagonist. Merida also became part of the official list of Disney Princesses. However, Brave ultimately did not hit audiences in the same way as other Pixar movies have done both in the past and the present, making it one of the least represented movies of the Pixar movie collection on both screen and in the Disney Parks.

Pixar don’t generally set out to make sequels – unless the movie is so incredibly popular that they know good money can be made. Sorry, that was cynical of me; maybe if they hadn’t made Toy Story 4 (2019) I might have believed their official reasoning: that a sequel is only made by Pixar if they know that there is a good enough story to be told in a further movie. Brave works perfectly well as a stand-alone movie, so even though some fans may have wanted another outing for Merida and Elinor, it didn’t make sense to push the story past the singular film. Nor have Pixar decided to follow Disney’s lead and make live-action remakes of all their past movies – and I hope they never do.

If you did want to see Merida in a live-action format though, then there’s no need to be disappointed because Merida was a recurring character in Season 5 of Once Upon a Time (2011-18), first appearing in Episode 1 of the season. It is supposedly set ten years after the events of Brave, but as the storylines in Once Upon a Time don’t generally follow the storylines of the animated movies that some of the characters come from, it doesn’t make much difference! Episode 6 of Season 5 is even titled “The Bear and the Bow”, paying homage to the original title of Brave. Amy Manson was chosen to portray Merida in this series. Prior to her casting on Once Upon a Time, Manson had been cast as Medea in the British series Atlantis (2013-15). She went on to appear in movies such as Spencer (2021), as Anne Boleyn, and in series, like Bodies (2023), as Charlotte Hillinghead; The Nevers (2021-23) as Maladie/Sarah; and the Scottish crime drama Rebus (2024-present) as Rhona.

And if you wanted to see Merida in animated form once more, she featured in that much loved Disney Princess scene within Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). The recurring joke around Merida here is that none of the other princesses can understand her, partly for her thick, strong accent, and also because she is from “the other studio”.

Also on screen, a short film was released along with the DVD and Blu-Ray of Brave called The Legend of Mor’du (2012). The Witch tells us the story of the four princes that we hear in Brave. We are told that in an ancient kingdom, each of the four sons of a king had their own gifts: the youngest son was wise; the third was compassionate; the second was just; and the eldest was strong. When the king died, he proclaimed that the rule would be divided between each of the four brothers, wanting them to rule together to create a strong kingdom, however, this annoyed the eldest who felt he, and he alone, should be king. He declared that he should be king, and the brothers fought against each other. As the war came to a stalemate, the eldest son sought a way to victory. He found himself at the Ring of Stones and was led by the wisps to a cottage, that housed “a ravishing vision of loveliness”, the Witch, of course. The Witch gave him a spell to either fulfil his wish of becoming king or to mend the bond with his brothers. Luring his brothers with talk of a truce, he drank the spell, which turned him into a bear, which surprised him as he wanted the strength of ten men. The eldest son accepted his new form and defeated his brothers, but his people fought against, and fled from, the bear. Mor’du’s soul has been forever buried within his bear form. We then see that Wee Dingwall has found the Witch’s cottage, and she is telling him the story, showing him the cake spell that Merida received. He freaks out, saying he just wanted a drink of water, and leaves – after realising he needs to pull the door, instead of push it!

Julie Walters returned to voice The Witch again, and Steve Purcell, who was also a co-director on Brave as well as working on the screenplay, reprised his role as The Crow. Wee Dingwall was voiced by Callum O’Neill here and in Brave, though strangely, I don’t recall him speaking in the movie at all…

At the Disney Parks, Merida used to have her own meet-and-greet area at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida, called Fairytale Garden, which can be found next to Cheshire Café, to the side of Cinderella Castle. For Merida, the area was decked out with Scottish tapestries and an archery target. Her meet-and-greet location was open from May 2012 until July 2023, when it was refurbished to make way for a new Mirabel meet-and-greet themed to Encanto (2021) instead. Merida has since been seen at the gazebo in Liberty Square but she does not appear at scheduled times. She has also been spotted on the Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade recently, though these characters do swap out fairly frequently. Within the Happily Ever After fireworks show, “Touch the Sky” can be heard with some narration from Merida. Clips from Brave can be seen throughout the show. Merida was a permanent feature in the daily Festival of Fantasy Parade, which has been running since 2014, with her own bagpipes-shaped float and using music from Brave, however, this section of the parade was removed when the parade returned after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear if this float will ever return to the parade, or if it will be repurposed in some way. “Touch the Sky” from Brave also used to feature within the Epcot fireworks show Harmonious as part of the Europe section, along with some small animations, but this show was removed in April 2023.

At Disneyland, Merida used to have her own dedicated meet-and-greet area, themed with a tent like we see at the start of Brave, archery paraphernalia, and small animatronic figures of her three brothers, still as bears. This area was opened in 2012, around the same time that Merida’s location at Walt Disney World opened, but nowadays, it looks like Merida can be seen walking around Fantasyland at times. She also had a small meet-and-greet location during Pixar Fest 2024 at Disneyland near the Fantasyland Theater. Sadly, even though Disney California Adventure has Pixar Pier, and Disneyland has the Pixar Place Hotel, it looks like Merida and Brave in general are not particularly referenced, though Merida is on the mural of Pixar movies within the Pixar Place Hotel. It looks like Brave can join the same club as A Bug’s Life (1998) as being one of the forgotten Pixar movies…

In the Disney Parks outside of the US, Merida has been seen at Disneyland Paris, most recently at Princess Pavilion, and around the castles at both Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. There are also clips of Merida riding on a mechanical horse in front of Shanghai’s castle as part of the Golden Fairytale Fanfare stage show. It is unclear if Merida has been available to meet at Tokyo Disneyland though I have seen one photo of Merida at Tokyo DisneySea from 2021.

Within shows, Merida is featured within the Princess section of the show Mickey and the Wondrous Book at Hong Kong Disneyland, which has been running since 2015, singing “Touch the Sky”, shortly after Ariel’s “Part of Your World” and Rapunzel’s “When Will My Life Begin”. Although a similar show appears at Shanghai Disneyland, called Mickey Storybook Adventure, this section is instead relaced with Moana, Mulan, and Rapunzel singing “I See the Light”, but there is a mosaic of Merida within the Enchanted Storybook Castle.

Outside of this, there are no specific attractions solely focused on Brave, Merida, or any of the characters. Since Merida is a princess though, she may appear at character dining locations such as Cinderella’s Royal Table at Walt Disney World or Auberge de Cendrillon at Disneyland Paris, but these princesses swap out on a regular basis. Children can also choose to be made up to look like Merida at the various Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique locations across the Disney Parks. There is also likely to be some other sort of merchandise, like pins or ornaments featuring Brave’s characters, around a milestone anniversary.

You may also be lucky enough to see rare characters from Brave appear at the Disney Parks on occasion. It was a while ago but in 2013 for a special event celebrating Scottish food and drink as part of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival that year, Elinor was available to meet guests with Merida. Elinor was also seen during Merida’s Coronation ceremony that took place at Walt Disney World in 2013 when she was officially crowned as a new Disney Princess. It is possible that Elinor may be seen at future Special Events.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Everybody has a mother. Everybody has a father. Even if that’s only biologically-speaking. This universal truth is why portrayals of family life and parent-child relationships are common on stage and screen, and in literature.

There are ample opportunities for different takes on these types of relationships because each one is different to every person. Sometimes the parent-child relationship is not easy or even healthy. Parents may distance themselves from their children, or the child may distance themselves from their parents, perhaps as they get older. One can be absent from the other for a wide range of reasons.

Brave specifically looks at the mother-daughter relationship which can be fraught with friction, arguments, unsaid words, and angry, impulsive comments. Many mothers have said that all they do is fight with their daughters, especially teenage ones, and that is the sort of relationship Merida and Elinor have with each other.

I did not have that experience with my mother; we are very similar so we don’t tend to disagree or argue on many things, and even if we do, one of us will be apologising soon after. My dad likes to say I am my mum’s “mini me”, which is quite accurate. We aren’t a “mushy gushy” sort of family but I love my mum, and I’m lucky to have such a close relationship with her; I know many aren’t so lucky.

The message that Brave looks to teach us, which can apply to any familial relationship, not just mother-daughter, is that with communication, honesty, and listening to the other person, these relationships can become workable, albeit not perfect. Having a parent-child relationship irretrievably break down is not good for either person, so even if you don’t see eye-to-eye with your family, and perhaps that relationship has broken down in the past, it’s best to try and find some way of making sure the relationship continues in some form, in some way, to avoid that feeling of regret years down the line.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Pixar, Merida & Elinor (2012), Disney+.

[2] Credit: Mark Harrison, ‘Mark Andrews and Katherine Sarafian interview: on making Brave’, DenOfGeek.com, 22^nd April 2016.

[3] Credit: Pixar, ‘Brave 2012 Behind The Scenes’, WonderLand YouTube Channel, 31^st October 2020.

[4] Credit: Chase Wilkinson, ‘Pixar’s Brave Took Inspiration From a Lesser-Known Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale’, CBR.com, 25^th November 2021.

[5] Credit: Petrana Radulovic, ‘Prince of Egypt director Brenda Chapman: ‘We wanted to do something that reached more adults’, Polygon.com, 17^th December 2018.

[6] Credit: Steven McKenzie, ‘Andrews and Sarafian on Disney-Pixar’s Brave’, BBC News, 19^th November 2012.

[7] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Behind the Scenes of Pixar’s Brave’, Time.com, 24^th February 2012.

[8] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Disney Pixar’s Brave’, VisitScotland.com, date unknown.

[9] Credit: Pixar, ‘Brave 2012 Behind The Scenes’, WonderLand YouTube Channel, 31^st October 2020.

[10] Credit: Pixar, Deleted Scenes (2012), Disney+.

[11] Credit: Germain Lussier, ’11 Things We’ve Learned About Pixar’s ‘Brave’ [D23 Expo]’, SlashFilm.com, 22^nd August 2011.

[12] Credit: Eriq Gardener, ‘‘Brave’ Trademarks Pose Problems for Disney-Pixar’, HollywoodReporter.com, 21^st June 2012.

6th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Gotta Kick It Up! (2002)

BACKGROUND

Would you believe that Disney Channel released seven Disney Channel Original Movies in 2002? And that’s not even the most; in 2000, twelve DCOMs premiered on the channel.

What’s my point here? Well, this shows that Disney Channel, from their first DCOM in 1997, had thrown a lot of resources behind telling stories that would represent and relate to kids, tweens, and teens of the day, regardless of their background or personal experiences.

Disney Channel, or The Walt Disney Company in general, or any filmmaking studio actually, don’t always get things right and representation back in the 2000s especially wasn’t great. There were many DCOMs that focused on white people, but what about everyone else, what about their stories?

In 2002, Disney Channel premiered Gotta Kick It Up!, a story centred on a group of Latinas forming a dance team at their school. This was quite progressive and a forward-thinking move from Disney at the time, although looking at it today, it is far from a perfect representation of Latino culture.

What Gotta Kick It Up! got right was that it showcased the talents of many Latina actresses, with just one of these being an 18-year-old America Ferrera, who still remembers her time filming Gotta Kick It Up! fondly as it was her first acting job[1]. It also showed hard-working girls fighting to be taken seriously in a world that had perhaps already discounted them. Gotta Kick It Up! might not go far enough in exploring these girls and their family lives, making the exploration of their culture quite surface-level, but the message of telling yourself that you can do this, even though it may be difficult to achieve your dreams, is uplifting. You also can’t discount the joy of Latino children watching Gotta Kick It Up! at the time and seeing themselves represented on screen, now able to relate to these characters.

I had not seen Gotta Kick It Up! before this week. I was quite young when the movie was released so I wasn’t really watching Disney Channel at the time. I also don’t remember it being re-run on Disney Channel, but whether that was Disney Channel UK choosing not to air it much after 2002, or just me not taking much notice of a movie I hadn’t seen before, I don’t know. Gotta Kick It Up! wasn’t for me; I liked the dancing and the overall message, but it wasn’t the best “dance movie” I’ve ever seen.

PLOT

Gotta Kick It Up! begins with a new teacher, Ms. Bartlett, arriving at Marshall Middle School, having moved into teaching after the dot.com company she worked for went bust.

During her first class teaching Biology, it’s clear that the students are not interested in what she’s got to say, with one of them, Daisy, deciding to express herself by dancing through the classroom. She’s actually really good – but that’s not the point. Principal Zavala comes into the room, takes control of the class, and gives Daisy detention.

We then learn that Daisy’s friends, Yolanda and Esmeralda, are upset that their dance team has had to disbanded. Esmeralda learns by reading Ms. Bartlett’s résumé that Ms. Bartlett has some dance experience, having attended Julliard. She begs Principal Zavala to speak to Ms. Bartlett and try and convince her to become their new dance coach. Ms. Bartlett is not convinced by this, wanting instead to focus on the job she was hired for. Esmeralda then comes to Ms. Bartlett and is able to convince Ms. Bartlett to become their new coach. Meanwhile, Daisy has been given the idea from her high-school drop-out boyfriend, Chuy, that she might be able to swap detention for an extracurricular class instead. Principal Zavala agrees to let Daisy join the dance team, but says that he’ll be telling Ms. Bartlett to check her commitment to the team; any funny business, and Daisy will be back in detention.

Auditions are held for the new dance team, but Ms. Bartlett is late to them. Thinking she doesn’t care about this team, Daisy heads out to leave, but Ms. Barlett arrives just in time to tell her to sit back down. Ms. Bartlett then proceeds to tell the girls that there are going to be some rules to this team, like mandatory uniforms; attending practice on time; no failing grades – at which point, two students leave the room; and no long nails – two more students leave at that rule. Those that are left are asked to perform a one-minute dance to showcase their dancing talents, but just as the team are about to begin, the basketball team enter the gymnasium. They have practice too, and splitting the gym in half doesn’t work as a rogue basketball breaks the dance team’s CD player. They leave and find somewhere else.

Ending up at what looks to me like the Auto Shop classroom, the girls are finally able to audition and show Ms. Bartlett what they’ve got – all except Daisy who already did her “audition” during Ms. Bartlett’s first Biology class! Ms. Bartlett seems unimpressed with the girls’ dancing abilities and with their stamina. At their next practice, they are told to run laps, which annoys the girls who only have two and a half weeks to learn a new routine for their first competition. Ms. Bartlett says they aren’t ready to compete and will just have to keep their routine simple, which further irritates the team.

At their first competition, the dance team do not have team uniforms ready, instead showing up in their gym clothes, and look out of their depth. Things don’t get much better for the group when Esmeralda begins to have a panic attack just before they go out on stage. The team then mess up their routine, causing Daisy to storm off stage, angry that she’s been made to look like an idiot. She promptly quits – although she still has to get the bus back to school with everyone, including Ms. Bartlett. Awkward…

Daisy and her boyfriend Chuy head to the school on Saturday to pick up her backpack, where they see Ms. Bartlett dancing in the gym. This annoys Daisy even more, because she feels that Ms. Bartlett has been holding out on them, not telling them anything about her “dancing career” and not seeming to believe in the team at all. This sentiment is echoed by many of the other girls.

At the next practice, Ms. Bartlett says that she will take this team and the girls more seriously by first teaching them basic eight count steps, to help with their rhythm. Daisy also returns to the team, after being asked by Ms. Bartlett to rejoin earlier in the day. A whole new routine is created and practised. It’s looking great and the girls want to compete in another competition. Ms. Bartlett tells them they aren’t ready and that’s the end of the conversation. But the girls want more opportunities so they come up with a plan to show their routine during lunch at school. It impresses the other students, but Ms. Bartlett is not impressed, and angry at the team’s disrespect towards her. She reiterates that they aren’t going to that competition and then informs them that the old dance team’s uniforms have been found.

As the girls upcycle these old uniforms, they decide that they should just go to the dance competition anyway, without a school bus or their coach, using the phrase “Sí, se puede”, meaning “Yes, we can”, as motivation. The team show up late to the competition, having to rely on others driving them there, and when they do arrive, they are told that their coach has to sign them in. This throws the girls for a second but Daisy quickly makes up an excuse, saying that their coach is in the restroom and had asked for Daisy to sign them in. Apparently, that’s enough explanation and the team go on inside.

The group perform and it is a much better performance than at their first competition. Daisy even grabs the attention of one of the judges, Ms. Elliott, who works at a performing arts school and wants Daisy to join her academy, potentially on a scholarship. The team win third place at the competition and are super excited – until they see one of the team’s – Alyssa’s – parents standing outside the school, furious that some random boys drove them to the competition and that their dance coach is nowhere to be seen. They threaten to tell the principal all about it. Esmeralda has a similar reaction when she comes home to her parents, who are mad that she is late home and that she needed to babysit her brother. They aren’t so sure Esmeralda being a part of the dance team is a good idea for her or the family.

Daisy visits Ms. Bartlett the next day and it turns out she already knows about their trip to the competition without her. Ms. Bartlett demands some respect from the girls, to which Daisy responds saying they want her to believe in them, wanting to know what her problem with them competing is. Ms. Bartlett tells her that she had danced from the age of four, but had never been good enough in her parents’ eyes so she trained and kept going, eventually getting into Juilliard. Seeing the talent of the other students scared Ms. Bartlett and she left the school after only two weeks. Ms. Bartlett said the first competition had brought back all those negative thoughts for her again and that she isn’t ready to go through that all again. Daisy responds by teaching Ms. Bartlett the phrase “Sí, se puede” which motivates her to work with the girls and make this team a success.

Ms. Bartlett finds herself excelling as both a Biology teacher and as a dance coach, where the team successfully get to Regionals. Daisy, however, finds that her boyfriend, Chuy, doesn’t like all her dancing, thinking it takes up too much of Daisy’s time and they break up when Daisy makes it clear she won’t be giving up her dancing, so everything isn’t rosy for her. Ms. Bartlett then learns about Daisy being spotted for her dance talent by Ms. Elliott and urges her to take the opportunity while she has it. Daisy calls up Ms. Elliott and asks for an application to her school.

As the team get ready for Regionals, Ms. Bartlett learns from Principal Zavala that there is no money in the budget to get them to San Diego to compete, even though the team have been working on a new routine that will be inspired by and incorporate many different Latin dance styles. As the girls start to think about how they can fundraise to get the money they’ll need for Regionals, they learn that Ms. Bartlett has interviewed for a new job. They accuse Ms. Bartlett of walking out on their team, just for more money. Ms. Bartlett corrects them, by telling them that, yes, the job offer was good, but she turned it down. Well, I sure hope the girls feel guilty for not hearing Ms. Bartlett out first before accusing her of betrayal!

Anyway, Yolanda also learns that she is failing Math, so Ms. Bartlett makes a deal with Principal Zavala to keep her on the team; if she does all the calculations from their car wash / fundraiser that weekend and does them correctly, then Yolanda will get the extra credit she needs to pass the class and stay on the team. After the fundraiser, they discover that they are $100 short of their total, having enough for transportation and insurance, but not enough for new uniforms. Luckily, a line of cars arrives to be washed. It turns out that Chuy felt bad for not supporting Daisy and pays them $100 to wash these cars.

At Regionals, the group are much more confident. Well, all of them except for Daisy who is having a moment of panic, which is very unlike her. Daisy sees this an audition for her, putting pressure on herself. Ms. Bartlett tells her to forget all that and to dance from her heart. During the routine, Daisy freezes up, before being encouraged by the others to just dance for the love of it. The routine is a crowd-pleaser, and the future is bright for this team. Daisy also reconciles with Chuy, who says he was jealous of her success. We then learn that the team got second place at Regionals and went on to compete at Nationals – though we don’t know where they placed or whether Daisy actually got to go to that school…Mean.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Daisy Salinas is a free spirit. She likes to dance and express herself but initially, she doesn’t have plans to maximise her talent in any way. Daisy isn’t bothered by school, now that her boyfriend, Chuy, seems to have done just fine having dropped out of school and gone straight into work. Daisy only wants to join the dance team so she can avoid detention – or that is what we are made to believe at the start of the movie. As you can see from that first competition, Daisy clearly does want to do well in her dancing because she storms off stage when the routine goes badly, which shows that she does care and wants to succeed. When Ms. Elliott, the dance judge, tells her to apply to a performing arts school, Daisy is hesitant. It’s far from home and her friends, and her boyfriend doesn’t like the idea, but really, Daisy is scared of failing and would rather not try and not expect too much of herself. Ms. Bartlett and the others in the dance team help her understand that if opportunities are given to you, then you should take them because life is too short and Daisy is very talented.

Camille Guaty was cast in the role of Daisy. After this, she went on to act in the series Prison Break (2005-17) in the role of Maricruz Delgado. She later appeared as Donna in the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) and in the recurring role of Megan O’Brien on the action series Scorpion (2014-17), before being cast as Nina Sandoval in Daytime Divas (2017). Guaty will appear in the crime series Duster, co-created by J.J. Abrams, in 2025.

Yolanda Vargas is Daisy’s friend and member of the dance team. Like Daisy, she also is not particularly academic but loves to dance, perhaps being more passionate about it than Daisy, although Yolanda is not as naturally gifted. We don’t get to see much of Yolanda’s background or life outside of school, but she is outspoken, confident, and loyal.

America Ferrera was chosen to play Yolanda, in one of her earliest screen roles. Ferrera went on to star as Carmen in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) and its 2008 sequel. In 2006, she was cast in the title role of Betty Suarez in the sitcom Ugly Betty (2006-10) which catapulted her to mainstream fame and for which she won a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, amongst others. In recent years, Ferrera has voiced the character of Astrid in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and been cast in the role of Amy Sosa in the sitcom Superstore (2015-21). In 2023, Ferrera was talked about yet again for her role as Gloria in the hugely successful film Barbie, where she was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Esmeralda Reyna is another key member of the girls’ dance team. She is passionate about her dancing, even treasuring a ballerina music box that she must’ve had since childhood. Esmeralda takes dancing the most seriously of the others and is the one who proactively looks for a new dance coach, successfully finding one with Ms. Bartlett. Esmeralda has a more difficult home life though, which we do not see with the others. Her parents must work long shifts as Esmeralda is asked to look after her little brother quite often, and the parents, at one point, don’t know if Esmeralda should be dancing as it is taking her away from her home commitments. She doesn’t give up dancing though and helps the team get to Nationals. Sabrina Wiener was cast as Esmeralda.

There are two other members of the dance team that are focused on, those being Alyssa and Marisol. We see that Alyssa’s parents are quite overprotective, accompanying her to their first competition and then not liking the fact she was driven to the second competition by people she didn’t know. Marisol struggles at times with her English, but since dance is the same in every language, it doesn’t hold her back at all. Alyssa Cortez was played by Jhoanna Flores, with Marisol being played by Suilma Rodriguez.

Ms. Bartlett is the new teacher at Marshall Middle School. She’s uncertain of herself, not particularly authoritative and seems to floundering in her new role. This isn’t exactly surprising as she only went into teaching after her dot.com company failed. She isn’t sure about being the new dance team coach, but decides to give it a try. Unfortunately, because of her previous disappointing dance career, Ms. Bartlett isn’t overly motivated to help the team go far; she doesn’t want the stress and hassle of competition as it makes her go back to her days doing that as a child and teenager, where she never felt good enough. Luckily, with help and inspiration from the girls, Ms. Bartlett does finally work together with them to make a team that has come very far since its first competition.

Ms. Bartlett was played by Susan Egan, whose name might sound familiar to Disney fans as she provided the voice of Megara in Hercules (1997). Outside of that, Egan also originated the part of Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast in 1994, before going on to star in numerous other stage musicals, such as the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, performing as Sally Bowles; the 1998 Sacramento Music Circus production of South Pacific, playing Nellie; and as Molly Brown in the 2002 Sacramento Music Circus production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Egan was actually performing in this musical at the time of Gotta Kick It Up!’s premiere date.

Finally, we have Principal Zavala, who is a strict principal having come from a military background. He had a great line early on in the film when he was disciplining one of the students, something like: “Go to class with your pants pulled up. No-one cares about the colour of your underwear”, which tickled me. Though Zavala is a strict principal, he seems to be firm but kind; he allows Daisy to join the dance team instead of having to attend detention, for one thing. He also clearly cares about the welfare of his students, wanting them to divert their excess energy into health pursuits, like extracurricular activities.

Principal Zavala was played by Miguel Sandoval, who is most known for playing the role of D.A. Manuel Devalos in the supernatural series Medium (2005-11). He also appeared in Jurassic Park (1993) as Juanito Rostagno and voiced the character Land of the Remembered Captain in The Book of Life (2014).

PRODUCTION

Disney Channel Original Movies are generally considered to be original stories, some set in fantastical lands with magic at the heart, whereas others are set in contemporary times, based around kids with normal lives and how they cope with their day-to-day struggles.

Gotta Kick It Up! fits into that latter category, but it was actually based on a true story. Meghan Cole, who worked on the story alongside Nancy De Los Santos and was a co-producer on Gotta Kick It Up!, worked at Disney as Director for Creative Affairs at Walt Disney TV Animation. Cole later pitched the idea for Gotta Kick It Up! to become an original movie for the channel based on her real-life story. She had begun working at Nimitz Middle School in Huntington Park, California, as part of the Teach for America program, and had decided to start up a dance program there for the students, who were mostly Latinos.

Cole’s main goal for Gotta Kick It Up! was to finally show some diversity on television, as most shows and movies at the time had featured white children, as well as show a positive portrayal of Latino kids who are hard-working and successful. A secondary objective was also to highlight how important after-school activities are for children and teenagers, to give them a creative outlet outside of regular school work[2].

Ramón Menéndez directed Gotta Kick It Up! Menéndez is best known for writing and directing the movie Stand and Deliver (1988) which starred Edward James Olmos, who was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards in 1989 for his portrayal of the character Jaime Escalante. The movie itself won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Menéndez also directed and wrote the movie Money for Nothing (1993), which starred John Cusack, and co-wrote the story for Tortilla Soup (2001).

It has been said that filming of Gotta Kick It Up! took place in 2001 with one of the filming locations being Verdugo Hills High School in Los Angeles. This building happens to be a popular filming location for movies and television series, including Heathers (1988), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008-13).

MUSIC

Since Gotta Kick It Up! features a lot of dance routines, music is obviously a necessity here.

But before I get to that, I was slightly confused by the fact that Gotta Kick It Up! claims to be about a dance team, but when it came to the competitions, they were wearing cheerleading uniforms and waving pom-poms around. There are numerous articles explaining the differences between cheer teams and dance teams, with one of the more obvious being that dance teams don’t tend to focus on tumbling. That was the case with Gotta Kick It Up! but I still wasn’t expecting the pom-poms; I was expecting a contemporary dance troupe. I guess this was just my misunderstanding as I’m not American.

Gotta Kick It Up! features a lot of music to accompany the numerous scenes of dancing. One of the first cluster of songs comes from the auditions for the dance team, which involves the would-be dancers choosing a song and routine to perform in front of the others. Because of this, both the dance styles and music genres are very different from each other. For example, Marisol chooses to dance to “No Te Rajes”, written by Daniel Indart and performed by Mariachi La Estrella, to make a routine authentic to her culture. In complete contrast, Alyssa auditions to “Rockabilly Rebels”, written and performed by Frank Shelley, and Yolanda auditions to “Take-u-Away”, written and performed by chalk & cheez, therefore having more contemporary routines. Esmeralda goes quite left field and does a ballet-inspired routine to “Candy Love”, by Yan David.

Then there is a lot of competition music. For the schools that compete against Marshall Middle School’s dance team, their music is only credited as Rolling Hills Middle School Medley, from the first competition; Peninsula Middle School Medley, from the second competition; and Los Alamitos Middle School Medley from Regionals. At the first competition, Marshall Middle School appear to dance to “Boom Boom” by Ray Cham; there are no lyrics to match the song to the performance, but it seems to match the movie timing, assuming the credits listed the songs in order. That is how I had to figure out some of these pieces.

At the second competition and at Regionals, the team use the same set of music, which consists of three different songs. The first one is “Do Dat Thang” by Ray Cham, which also features in the movie during a dance practice; the second is “Shake” written by Ray Cham and Charlene Licera. “Shake” also has a Latin Remix, which is the End Credits song. This was the best song in the film for me. The third song in this competition medley for Marshall Middle School seems to be “Electronica” by Ray Cham. There is also a sneaky lunchtime performance that the dance team put on for the Marshall Middle School students, and the song used here is “Shake It” by Pascal Arceneaux.

A few other songs that appear during scenes outside of competitions are “Ready to Party”, written and performed by Cheche Alara, which is played during the car wash and fundraiser scene; “Turn Up the Radio”, written by Ray Cham, Chaka Blackmon, Anson Dawkins and Jason White, and performed by Black Diamond, which is playing on the radio as Chuy picks up Daisy early on in the film; and “You Will Make It Thru”, written by Ray Cham and Charlene Licera, performed by Licera, which plays as Ms. Bartlett dances alone in the gym. This was another song in the movie I really liked. I think “Kick the Beat” is the song that Yolanda and Daisy dance to right at the start of the movie, which was written by Pascal Arceneaux and performed by PBA. There is one final song listed on the End Credits that I couldn’t place because it has no lyrics, called “Tell Me”, written by Chaka Blackman, Ray Cham, Eric Dawkins, and Jason White. Going off the order that this song appears in the list of credited songs, I think it is probably the background music playing as Esmeralda asks Ms. Bartlett to coach their dance team, but I can’t be certain.

There have been comments that the opening music for Gotta Kick It Up! was changed when it was put on Disney+. Looking into this further, I found the song “Bailando en la Ciudad”, performed by Myra, used to appear first in the list of songs in the End Credits; on Disney+, it is not there and I could not hear it in the movie. Based on that, I would assume that this was the opening track for the movie, which was replaced with generic salsa music. It was also the promotional song for the movie.

You may have noticed that the name Ray Cham popped up a few times when discussing this music. Ray Cham was listed as one of the music supervisors for Gotta Kick It Up! – the other was Greg Cham. But this was not the final time that Ray Cham would be involved with a Disney Channel movie. Cham went on to co-write songs for other DCOMs, such as “Girl Power” for The Cheetah Girls (2003); “Dance With Me” for The Cheetah Girls 2 (2005), and “Getcha Head in the Game” for High School Musical (2006).

RECEPTION

Gotta Kick It Up! premiered on Disney Channel on 26^th July 2002. I have not been able to find a total viewing figure for this movie’s release, so I am unsure how popular it was on its premiere date. Viewing figures aren’t everything though, and what was important was that Gotta Kick It Up! was Disney Channel’s first Latino-focused Disney Channel Original Movie, so that’s a milestone all of its own without looking to break viewership records.

In terms of reviews for Gotta Kick Up!, they are much more obvious. Many did enjoy this movie, and people are excited to watch the movie today as America Ferrera is in it. Viewers liked the fact that young Latinas were being showcased in a Disney Channel movie, and liked the personal development of the main characters. It also has an uplifting message about motivating yourself to change your life if you want to. Those who grew up watching Gotta Kick It Up! in particular love this movie and it has a group of dedicated fans.

On the other hand, some viewers were quick to point out its similarities to Bring It On (2000) which centres around a high school cheerleading team preparing for competition, although it is also about a rivalry with another school’s team. It is debated whether Gotta Kick It Up! is better or worse than Bring It On, although Gotta Kick It Up! was obviously meant to be more kid-friendly as it was shown on Disney Channel, whereas Bring It On was targeting an older, teenage audience. I have now seen both movies and I personally prefer Bring It On, but then I never watched Gotta Kick It Up! as a child or tween.

Other more negative comments included concerns about how old the actors looked when they were meant to be portraying ninth graders, so 14/15-year-olds, with Chuy apparently looking much older than 17/18. I didn’t really notice this when I was watching Gotta Kick It Up! Some also found the characters unlikeable and selfish. Again, I didn’t feel this way when watching the movie. I did agree, however, that Gotta Kick It Up! is not the worst film about a dance team, but nor is it the best. And there have been many others!

From a contemporary point-of-view with more in-depth analysis into the movie, some writers have commented on the “white saviour” issue that exists within Gotta Kick It Up! as Ms. Bartlett is a white teacher, coming in to “rescue” this dance team. I’m not sure I agree with this comment, as I found Ms. Bartlett to be quite indifferent to the girls; she doesn’t save them from anything, because the girls figure everything out for themselves. They go to competition without Ms. Bartlett to prove to themselves that they are good enough and they have to convince Ms. Bartlett to forget her past trauma and to work with them, more to help Ms. Bartlett than the girls. They only need a coach for administrative purposes, really! It might have been more powerful to have this teacher also be Latina, but as this was based on a true story, I guess Disney decided to stick to the story and to have the Latina girls be the focal point of Gotta Kick It Up!, which they are. I would agree that not enough is made of the girls’ stories and family lives though; these should have been explored more[3].

LEGACY

Unlike Bring It On (2000) which spanned a whole series of films – there have been seven of these so far – Gotta Kick It Up! did not receive a sequel. However, the phrase “Sí, se puede” was launched into popular culture in part as a result of this movie.

Screenwriter Nancy De Los Santos had the idea of using this phrase as the girls’ motto and motivational tool in Gotta Kick It Up! as it was not a part of teacher Meghan Cole’s story[4]. De Los Santos did not come up with the phrase herself, and “Sí, se puede”, meaning “Yes, we can” can be traced back to 1965 and be credited to Dolores Huerta.

Huerta and César Chávez co-led a series of strikes alongside hundreds of agricultural workers from 1965, as these labourers were being subjected to terrible conditions, for example, working long shifts in unbearable heat, not having access to water, and being exposed to pesticides. This motto became a rallying cry for the workers, which aimed to change unfair and unsafe labour practices for these workers. In 2008, Barack Obama would use this same slogan, but in English, for his presidential campaign[5].

As a reference to America Ferrera’s role in Gotta Kick It Up!, her character’s husband in Barbie (2023) says “Sí, se puede” to Barbie at the end of the movie, to which Gloria, Ferrera’s character, responds by saying that is a political statement, with many quick to notice this Easter egg to one of Ferrera’s earliest acting roles. It both serves as a reference to Gotta Kick It Up! as well as harkening back to a historical moment of fighting for basic worker rights for all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Gotta Kick It Up! might not have been the movie for me, but I did like its focus on friendship, teamwork, and not giving up even when times get tough. I also enjoyed the dance routines, which seem to be a staple focus of quite a few American movies and television shows.

The most important part of Gotta Kick It Up! is that it showed Disney Channel attempting to tell stories that represented the experiences of all children, regardless of their ethnicity or background. Although Gotta Kick It Up! may not be perfect, it led the way for Disney Channel to make more serious movies with more diverse casts.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Glenn Garner, ‘America Ferrera Celebrates 20 Years Since Her ‘First Day as a Working Actress’: ‘We Did It Baby Girl’’, People.com, 24^th April 2021.

[2] Credit: Allison Fass, ‘FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; To Be Young, Talented, Hard-Working, and Latina’, NYTimes.com, 21^st July 2002.

[3] Credit: Mekia Rivas, ‘I Rewatched Gotta Kick It Up! 20 Years Later & It Hasn’t Aged Well’, Refinery29.com, 26^th July 2022.

[4] Credit: Allison Fass, ‘FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; To Be Young, Talented, Hard-Working, and Latina’, NYTimes.com, 21^st July 2002.

[5] Credit: Nili Blanck, ‘Why Sí, Se Puede’ Was the Winning Motto for the United Farm Workers’, SmithsonianMag.com, 5^th January 2023.