1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Most of us are familiar with the concept of “body swapping” on screen. A popular example of this is Freaky Friday, which was originally a children’s novel written by Mary Rodgers and published in 1972. The story sees a teenage girl swap bodies with her mother. It has been adapted by Disney four times – so far – in 1976, 1995, 2003, and 2018.

Disney Channel’s The Swap has a very similar premise to Freaky Friday, although in this case, the two people swapping bodies are two teenagers at the same school, but one is a boy, and one is a girl, making for some awkward moments if you think about it too much… The two swap bodies thanks to a “text wish”, where they claim to be able to fix each other’s lives because the guy thinks girls have easier lives, and the girl thinks the exact opposite.

I wasn’t watching Disney Channel in 2016, so I didn’t watch The Swap at the time it first premiered. Instead, I found it randomly on the channel a few years later, at a point where I was probably “too old” to be interested in watching a Disney Channel Original Movie that was new to me. But I went ahead and watched it and surprisingly, I found I actually really liked it, and it is one of very few DCOMs that make me cry.

In fact, I liked The Swap so much that I was desperate to own it on DVD, because I’m weird like that and don’t trust streaming services, who take your favourite things away with very little notice or can’t put them on there because of rights issues, or whatever. I’d rather own something so I know I can watch it as long as I have a DVD player. I searched for The Swap and found it on the website of a reputable company that sell pre-owned technology and media in the UK. However, I ordered the film, which was advertised as the DCOM, only to receive the 1979 film The Swap which starred Robert De Niro – two very different films! I’ve had back-and-forth communication with this company a few times about The Swap, because it keeps being listed as available to order online but the film never comes. I’ve since done my research and concluded that Disney’s The Swap likely wasn’t released on Region 2 so this company cannot have it and will never have it, as the items they sell must be viewable via normal devices in the UK which is limited to Region 2. I’ve told them to update their systems, but you never know, if it appears again, I might order it, just to see what happens.

Anyway, I was in my mid-20s when I found The Swap, so how could I possibly like it that much? Well, I’ve always liked Freaky Friday, the 2003 version specifically, with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and the premise of The Swap is very similar to Freaky Friday. The other reason is that The Swap is quite moving for a “kids’ movie”, because it tackles the subject of absent parents, one through loss, the other through divorce, which felt like quite difficult, but important, topics to be bringing to a channel that is mostly aimed at children and teenagers. It was touching to see that.

PLOT

The Swap begins with two teenagers. Jack Malloy plays hockey, his dad is the strict, tough hockey coach, and he wants to make the varsity team this year. Jack is also being pressured by “bully” Porter, who wants that last spot on varsity too, despite trying to make the team four years in a row and failing every time. Ellie O’ Brien is a rhythmic gymnast and is currently struggling with the fact her best friend Sassy has suddenly become close to new girl Aspen, so Ellie and Sassy are drifting apart. Ellie and her rhythmic gymnastics team have also just been told by their coach that if they don’t perform well at their competition this weekend, their sports team will be downgraded – to a club!

The next day, on Friday, after Jack smashed his phone screen playing hockey with his brothers, he is given their mother’s sparkly pink phone to use because their father likes to send motivational quotes over text throughout the day. Their mother died recently. Meanwhile, Ellie is getting ready for school and sees a message to her rhythmic gymnastics group chat from Aspen, saying all the girls should wear skirts today. Ellie is wearing her team tracksuit since it’s the day before a competition and they always wear tracksuits that day. On the way to school, Ellie’s mother asks Ellie if she wants a new phone. Ellie is using her dad’s old phone, which isn’t exactly the technological advancement of the day. Ellie’s parents are now divorced and her father has a new family now, but Ellie likes to use his old phone. Ellie’s mum says she is risk attaching too much emotion on to this phone and making it a “totem”. She likes meditation, yoga, crystals, that sort of thing. Ellie ignores her comment.

At school, Ellie is the only one of her team in her tracksuit but, not to worry, because she has a skirt she can wear over the top of it. This only adds to Aspen’s list of reasons why Ellie is “uncool” and makes a point of telling Sassy that Ellie needs to be un-invited from teammate Claire’s party this weekend. Aspen then sees Jack Malloy and convinces Sassy to go and talk to him because Sassy has a – very recent – crush on him. Jack doesn’t find it easy to talk to girls though so the conversation is awkward…

Later, Porter baits Jack into fighting him. It’s not a particularly good fight and Jack loses out with only a bloody nose to show for it, but it’s enough for Porter who has filmed their “altercation” and plans to show Coach Malloy so Jack cannot get that last spot on the varsity team. Back with Ellie, she overhears Sassy and Aspen gossiping about her, with Aspen being particularly mean, saying Sassy needs to take Ellie off “social life support”, whatever that means. Sassy says she doesn’t want to upset Ellie, so Aspen allows Ellie until Claire’s party to prove she’s cool enough to still be friends with her. Devastated, Ellie heads to the nurse’s office in tears, and finds Jack there with his nosebleed.

Jack and Ellie begin arguing over whether girls or boys have it harder in life, with Jack saying being beaten up isn’t exactly easy, and Ellie stating that the politics of female friendships are so much more difficult to cope with. Eventually, the nurse gets fed up with listening to the two of them debating and tells them to have this conversation over text instead, to give her some peace! They continue through text messages, getting to the point when they say they’d like to take each other’s lives because they’d easily get through a day being the other person. When they text “deal”, Ellie and Jack start to feel strange and are thrown out of their seats by some sort of force. Getting up, they soon realise that Jack is now in Ellie’s body, and Ellie is in Jack’s! They try slapping each other to snap themselves out of it but it doesn’t work. They try taking their “text wish” back but that doesn’t work either. Ellie then remembers the conversation she had with her mother about totems and emotional connections to their phones and asks Jack if his phone is special to him. Because it was his mother’s and she’s now gone, that is definitely the case. Ellie says her mother has a book about this so maybe that’ll give them something to help swap them back, but they’ll have to wait until “Ellie” is back home to get it. Ellie and Jack say they’ll just have to get through the day acting like each other.

Their first testing encounter happens shortly after, as Porter confronts “Jack” about the video of their fight. Jack, but in Ellie’s body, tells Porter to stop threatening him with this video, saying it’s not right. Porter, impressed by this Ellie girl, invites “her” to have doughnuts with him on Saturday. “She” accepts, but only because Jack hopes that him being Ellie will be able to convince Porter to delete that video forever. Sassy and Aspen then approach “Jack”, so Ellie as Jack talks to Sassy. However, Jack in Ellie’s body is still unable to talk to girls so “Ellie” babbles incoherently in front of Sassy and Aspen, giving them further ammunition for Sassy to end her friendship with Ellie. Jack and Ellie then give each other a brief rundown of their lives and home situations before being picked up at the end of the day. Ellie tells Jack her mum is the textbook example of an overprotective “helicopter parent” and Jack says to Ellie that his dad is the hockey coach and is quite tough on them, plus he has two older brothers, Gunner and Stryker. It turns out Jack’s father named his older brothers, but Jack’s mother picked out his name which is why Jack’s name is so different. Jack will call Ellie once he’s found the book at Ellie’s house.

“Jack” is picked up by his brother, but strangely enough, they don’t seem to use their car doors so Ellie as Jack has to jump in to the car through the open window… Jack, as Ellie, then does the same in Ellie’s mother’s car, shocking her. Ellie’s mother takes “Ellie” to rhythmic gymnastics practice, where unsurprisingly, “Ellie” is terrible. Jack also refuses to undress in Ellie’s body so wears her leotard over the top of her tracksuit, making “Ellie” seem even weirder today. Ellie as Jack accidentally agrees to have Jack’s brothers cut his hair, because they used the term “chopping the salad”, which Ellie obviously didn’t understand. Jack didn’t want his hair cut, but it’s a varsity tradition apparently.

After practice, Ellie texts Jack about the haircut. Jack calls Ellie back saying he is mad, but can’t live without him, meaning he can’t live without his body. However, Aspen overhears this conversation and, hearing Ellie saying those things, believes Ellie is interested in Jack, going completely against “girl code” since Sassy has made it only too obvious she likes Jack. Aspen goes to tell Sassy about this immediately. Jack then gets back in Ellie’s mother’s car so she can take “Ellie” to her team physical. Ellie’s mother lets slip that Ellie’s phone’s data plan will be ending on Sunday at noon. This only gives Ellie and Jack less than two days to switch back! At Ellie’s physical, Jack wears a mask throughout so he doesn’t see any of Ellie’s body, but the doctor perceives this as strange behaviour coming from the fact Ellie’s father recently left her and her mother, and she tries to talk to “Ellie” about it. Meanwhile, Ellie as Jack is at hockey practice and plays badly, disappointing Coach Malloy, Jack’s father, who says Jack needs to play much better on Sunday for varsity try-outs because they’ll be dedicating a bleacher seat to Jack’s mother on that day and it would look really bad if he missed out on varsity that day.

Back at home, Jack finds Ellie’s mother’s book on totems and calls Ellie. Jack’s brothers actually answer the phone and tease him about having a girl on the phone. Ellie tells Jack about the dedication for his mother, and Jack tells Ellie that her doctor wanted to talk to her about her father leaving. The two briefly bond over the shared connection of both having an absent parent. They then get back to their switching back situation. It says in the book that the quest they must accomplish is in the original wish, and they need to complete this to undo the swap. Jack and Ellie decide they have to make each other’s lives better, like they said. Firstly, Ellie’s phone contract needs to be extended to give them more time, and Porter needs to delete the fight video. Sadly, although Porter is expecting Ellie’s body, Jack will have to go, as Ellie’s body will be needed at the phone store to talk about the contract.

On Saturday morning, Ellie is woken up at 5am by Coach Malloy and Jack’s brothers for early morning training, whereas Jack gets to sleep in. Sassy comes to Ellie’s house later that morning though to confront “Ellie” about her crush on Jack. Sassy eventually sees what Ellie looks like in childish pyjamas and doesn’t perceive her as any sort of threat so Sassy simply tells Ellie to be “less her” at Claire’s party tonight. Jack as Ellie is taken for a spa day by Ellie’s mother, where he manages to sneak away for a few minutes from the torture of leg waxing to go to the phone store across the street. The store clerk cannot help with extending the contract since Ellie’s father actually cancelled the plan, something Ellie is not aware of…

Ellie as Jack meets up with Porter and the two have a talk about varsity. Porter doesn’t actually seem to like hockey all that much, so “Jack” takes him to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) club at school since Porter likes making fun gadgets. He has a good time there and deletes the video. Ellie also sees her friend Mackenzie there and talks to her, but Mackenzie is confused about why Jack Malloy is talking to her. Oops.

Ellie and Jack update each other on their mornings, but Jack doesn’t tell Ellie the real reason her phone contract cannot be extended, just saying it couldn’t be done. Ellie then tells Jack he has to help her get Sassy to be her best friend again. Jack agrees to do this and asks Ellie’s mum if Ellie’s body can have a complete makeover that afternoon. Ellie’s mum is happy to help. But just before that, Jack decides to get payback on Aspen, by pretending to be her hairdresser when Aspen’s eyes are covered and spreading random dyes into her hair! Ellie decides to help Jack at home and decorates his room with some of Jack’s mother’s belongings which were being kept in a closet that nobody wanted to look at.

That night, Jack’s phone gets a text from friend Owen, telling him to take a break from varsity preparations and come to a game night. Coach Malloy would never allow that so Ellie calls on Porter to help “Jack” get out of the house. Using a makeshift zip wire, Porter gets “Jack” out of his room and the two go to Owen’s game night. Once there, Ellie as Jack starts to panic that Porter wouldn’t be welcome here, but is surprised to find that guys are much more accepting of new additions to friendship groups than girls are.

“Ellie” shows up at Claire’s party, but Aspen and Sassy are not impressed with Ellie’s new look, believing she’s done all this to impress Jack. Jack in Ellie’s body tries to convince Sassy to be friends with Ellie like they used to be, but Sassy says the two of them have grown apart and they can’t be friends anymore. Mackenzie then helps “Ellie” get into the party spirit. At some point, Aspen and Sassy get bored and start messing about with the photos on the photo booth, so Jack as Ellie stands up to them, saying that they are being uncool and that Jack Malloy wouldn’t find it funny and “she’d” know that because they’re very close. Aspen decides she must mean that the two of them are together and tells all the guys at game night to meet the girls at the river to see if “Ellie” is telling the truth.

At the river, Jack and Ellie walk away from the group but they argue about how Jack has messed things up between Ellie and Sassy for good now. Ellie as Jack starts to cry in front of everyone, and to make it worse, Coach Malloy shows up to take Jack home. Jack as Ellie sees Aspen looking smug and reveals her terribly dyed hair in front of everyone, which Aspen had been hiding under at hat. Back home, Ellie is devastated about losing Sassy, whilst Jack as Ellie looks through old photos in Ellie’s room. He sees photos of Sassy, Ellie, and Ellie’s dad, and realises Ellie doesn’t want to lose both of those people. Jack and Ellie make up and decide they have to be good at their respective sports on Sunday, so with help from Owen, who has now been told all about their swap, opens up the sports centre and they have an all-night training session.

On Sunday, Ellie as Jack meets Jack’s brothers and father for an early morning run as usual. Jack as Ellie gets to the rhythmic gymnastics competition and is sad to see that Ellie’s father didn’t show up. However, apart from one minor slip up with the ribbon, Jack does well for Ellie at the competition and their sports team will be staying a team, with badminton being demoted to club status instead. At the hockey rink, Ellie as Jack watches the bleacher seat dedication for Jack’s mother and then plays well enough to get that spot on the varsity team. Ellie and Jack catch up with each other afterwards and at 11:15, with only 45 minutes to go until Ellie’s phone contract expires, they try a text to switch themselves back. It doesn’t work. Ellie says they need to get it extended, but Jack reveals that actually her father cancelled it, because he wanted a new family plan… “Jack” is then taken home by his father who tells him he didn’t play well today. Ellie as Jack stands up to him, asking if he is actually proud of Jack at all, and saying this isn’t how he should be treating his sons, and that boys can cry and in fact they should sometimes. It would seem that Ellie is finally having the conversation she needs to have with her father with Jack’s instead. Jack as Ellie takes a walk with Ellie’s mother and they discuss Ellie’s dad not being at the competition. Jack says that he misses his mother and Ellie’s mother tells “Ellie” she’ll always be there for her.

Feeling better about their lives, Ellie and Jack text each other to meet at the river with only five minutes until noon. Ellie as Jack gets a ride from Porter to make it in time. With one minute to spare, they text to say their lives are much better now and – it works! The two swap back to their normal selves. Ellie tells her mother that she’s going to be alright and that her mum should start doing more things for herself. Jack’s dad then says “Jack” was right with the things he said and that he’s been tough on the boys thinking it would stop them from feeling the pain of losing their mother. He loves his sons so much. They have a group hug.

At school the next day, Ellie and Mackenzie talk about how Mackenzie likes Jack, and Owen is given “permission” by Porter to ask out Ellie, with Ellie and Jack remaining good friends. They introduce their parents to each other, and see that Coach Malloy is awkward in front of women, just like Jack was. Ellie and Jack text about the situation, wondering if they should help them out. They soon realise they’ve texted another wish and quickly delete it, before putting their phones away!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Disney Channel like to have their stars lead Disney Channel movies, something they’ve managed to do for a wide variety of their films, although they do not always do this. The Swap is no exception to this preference, with its two leads coming from Disney series.

Ellie O’Brien is not feeling very confident in her life at the beginning of The Swap. Her father has left her and her mother, though it’s not clear how long ago this was, and she’s starting to lose her best friend, Sassy, to another girl, Aspen, who isn’t even nice. Ellie has been trying to stay close to Sassy but the more she tries, the more Sassy pulls away. Ellie has also been trying to stay close to her father by keeping his old phone, despite the fact Ellie’s dad has clearly moved on and can’t even be bothered to show up to her rhythmic gymnastics competitions. Ellie thinks Jack Malloy’s life must be so much easier, but little does she know, Jack’s life is just as difficult as hers. Eventually, Ellie learns that she can let go of Sassy, with Jack realising Sassy isn’t a good enough friend for Ellie, that she can have other friends, like her friend Mackenzie, and that she still has her mother even if her father didn’t want to stay with them.

Peyton List was cast as Ellie. Some of List’s very early acting roles include being cast as Young Jane in 27 Dresses (2008) and Young Becky in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010). She made her Disney Channel debut as Emma Ross in the Disney Channel series Jessie (2011-15). List reprised this role for the first three seasons of Bunk’d (2015-24). More recently, List was cast as Tory Nichols in Netflix’s Cobra Kai (2018-25) and stars as Maddie in School Spirits (2023-present) for Paramount+.

Jack Malloy is having a difficult time too. His mother has recently died, although again, we don’t actually know how long ago this was, leaving Jack with his older brothers and his father, who is also their hockey coach. Jack has been training for years to get on the varsity team and knows his father will be very disappointed in him if he doesn’t make it. When Porter threatens that chance with the video of them “fighting”, Jack knows he has to get it deleted or his father won’t let him on the team. This is Jack’s primary issue at the start of The Swap, however, when him and Ellie swap bodies, Ellie also helps Jack learn to have a balance in life between hockey and friends, after getting “Jack” to Owen’s game night, as well as standing up to Jack’s dad, telling him to be more supportive.

Jack Malloy was played by Jacob Bertrand, who, at the time of The Swap, was playing the title role in Kirby Buckets (2014-17) on DisneyXD. Like Peyton List, Bertrand was also cast in Netflix’s Cobra Kai (2018-25), in the role of Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz. Bertrand currently voices the role of Bam / Batmobile in the animated series Batwheels (2022-present) for Cartoon Network.

For Jack’s friends, we have Porter, who starts off as a bit of a bully to Jack, picking on Jack because he’s smaller and is big competition for the varsity team, which Porter has been trying to get on for years. Thanks to Ellie being in Jack’s body, she is able to convince him that his strengths lie elsewhere, in science, and takes him to STEM club where Porter learns to let go of hockey. From this point, Porter is grateful to “Jack” and they become friends. Porter was played by James Godfrey, who went on to be cast as Bonzo in the Disney Channel musical franchise ZOMBIES, appearing in the first three movies. Godfrey also voices the character in Zombies: The Re-Animated Series (2024-present).

Owen helps Jack with his hockey training, having lots of tips and tricks for him to ensure he makes varsity, but Owen also believes in a healthy balance, so invites Jack to his game night the night before the varsity try-outs. He almost doesn’t expect to see Jack there, because Jack takes hockey so seriously, but Ellie as Jack made sure Jack’s body showed up. Here, Ellie learnt that Jack takes hockey too seriously and has to learn to have fun with friends sometimes. It’s also at this game night that Ellie learns that both Porter and Owen have a crush on her, since she hears this whilst in Jack’s body, which was clearly quite awkward for her to hear! Owen says he’s going to ask Ellie out at the end of the film but we never get to see what transpired there.

Kolton Steward was cast as Owen. He had previously played Jarvis in the Canadian sitcom Some Assembly Required (2014-16). Steward went on to appear as Zelly in the sort-of-DCOM Sneakerella (2022) and as Tyson in the Disney sequel Disenchanted (2022). Steward voices Rory in the animated Netflix series Unicorn Academy (2023-present).

For Ellie’s “friends”, we have Sassy and Aspen, who are quite mean to Ellie, talking about her behind her back and generally making it seem like Ellie isn’t good enough to hang out with. Sassy was best friends with Ellie, but Aspen seems to have warped Sassy’s mind, by telling her that Aspen is a much better friend, being more mature than Ellie for a start. Sassy stupidly listens to Aspen and drops Ellie, although she does apologise to Ellie for being a jerk to her at the end of the movie. Ellie accepts that they can move on as best friends now though. Ellie becomes closer to her friend Mackenzie, who is a member of STEM club, because of this. Mackenzie is a much kinder person than Sassy.

Sassy was played by Kiana Madeira, who had earlier been cast as Rachel in the Disney Channel-affiliated movie Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010) and as Sierra in the DCOM Bad Hair Day (2015). More recently, Madeira appeared as Nora in the After film series. Aspen was played by Eliana Jones. Around the time of The Swap, Jones appeared in the recurring role of Summer in the live-action/animated series The Stanley Dynamic (2015-17). Jones was later cast as Peyton Westfield in Season 11 of Heartland (2007-present) and as Gwen in Northern Rescue (2019). Mackenzie was played by Devyn Nekoda, going on to be cast as Sami in Disney’s Sneakerella (2022). Outside of Disney, Nekoda was cast as Anika in Scream VI (2023) and as Sage 5 in the sci-fi series Utopia Falls (2020). She also appeared as Riley in Season 1 of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia (2021-present).

For the adults, we have Coach Malloy, Jack’s strict hockey coach father, who seems to struggle to have a balance between his personal life and his work, making it seem to his sons that they are only worthy if they are good hockey players. It’s clear that Coach Malloy is not coping well with the grief of losing his wife, but instead of talking about it, he’d rather just ignore it and try to block out the pain as much as he can, making sure his sons focus on other pursuits as well. After Ellie as Jack tells Coach Malloy this isn’t the right way to deal with things because he’s hurting his youngest son by doing so, Jack’s father turns things around and tells his sons he does love them and wants to do better by them. Coach Malloy was played by Darrin Rose, who played Bill in the sitcom Mr. D (2012-18).

Summer O’Brien, Ellie’s mother, is quite protective of Ellie, although she is always upbeat and positive, no doubt due to her yoga teacher mindset. Summer wants to do everything for Ellie, like run her bubble baths and take her out on spa days, probably because she has some guilt that Ellie isn’t coping well with her father not living with them anymore. Summer does all this because she cares and loves Ellie so much, but at the end of The Swap, Ellie tells her mother she knows that but that Summer needs to do more for herself now and stop worrying about Ellie so much. Claire Rankin was cast as Summer. Rankin played Miranda in Syfy’s Halcyon (2016), and was recently cast as Mary Critch in the sitcom Son of a Critch (2022-present).

Finally, I just want to mention Coach Carol, the rhythmic gymnastics coach. Coach Carol has an on-going rivalry with the coach of the badminton team, since one of their teams has to be demoted to club status. Coach Carol is a funny side character in The Swap because of this, as the two coaches trade barbs with each other. She may be familiar to Disney Channel fans as she was played by Naomi Snieckus, who was cast as Principal Lee in the first three ZOMBIES films and voices the character in Zombies: The Re-Animated Series (2024-present).

MUSIC

The score for The Swap was composed by Kenneth Burgomaster, who has composed the score for other DCOMs including How to Build a Better Boy (2014) and Frenemies (2012), as well as the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle (2016-18) and The Villains of Valley View (2022-23). The rest of the music comes from contemporary artists, with some well-known songs and singers in the mix.

The opening of The Swap begins with scenes of Jack playing ice hockey, and Ellie practising her gymnastics. The song playing here is “Me Too” performed by Meghan Trainor, who shot to fame with her debut single “All About That Bass” back in 2014. “Me Too” was written by Trainor, as well as Jason Derulo, Peter Svensson, Ricky Reed, and Jacob Kasher Hindlin. It is a catchy song, all about confidence, which is strange since neither of the main characters have much confidence in themselves or their abilities at the start of the movie!

A sadder song is played shortly after: “Nowhere Fast”, performed by Polarcode and Lauren Ruth Ward. This piece plays in the scene where Ellie has just heard Sassy and Aspen talking about her in the bathroom, and she heads to the nurse’s office in tears. I quite like this song, despite only hearing it for a few seconds.

Another piece of popular music used in The Swap is Olly Anna’s song “Write My Story”. This song plays as “Ellie” has a makeover, and “Jack” is putting some of his mum’s stuff in his bedroom. Following on from that, the song “Sax”, performed by 2014 X Factor runner-up Fleur East, plays at the party when “Ellie” is dancing with Mackenzie after having been dumped by Sassy. I had heard both of these songs before seeing The Swap.

There are also songs used for some of the sports montages. When Jack as Ellie is at his first rhythmic gymnastics practice, and doing terribly, the song “Body Double” by Roeland Ruijsch is used. It’s another peppy song to feature in the film. Then, as Ellie and Jack compete in each other’s respective sports towards the end of the film, “DJ Blow the Speakers” is heard. This song was performed by Photronique, Ms. Triniti, and JP Castillo. 

Sadly, but not uncommon for Disney Channel movies, there are numerous other pieces of music used in The Swap that I have been unable to trace, because neither Google nor Shazam have the answers. If Disney Channel listed every piece of music they used in their movies, I would be able to match them up to the song and the scene, however, I have been unable to do that here, even with audible lyrics, leaving five songs unaccounted for.

These are: the song that is used for when Ellie as Jack has to go for early morning training with Jack’s brothers and father on Saturday morning; the first song heard at Claire’s party when “Ellie” walks in; the sad song playing when Ellie and Jack go home after they argue on the Saturday night; the music playing when Ellie and Jack are training late with Owen to prepare them for their competition and try-outs the next day; and finally, the song playing at the phone store that Jack as Ellie goes to when trying to get the phone contract extended, though this song was not particularly audible anyway.

I also don’t know the End Credits song. Initially, I thought it was “Until the Sun Comes Up”, sung by Drew Seeley, because this is listed online as being part of The Swap’s soundtrack on some websites, but listening to the song, I don’t think it is, so again, I’m not sure what the music is.

PRODUCTION

Production on The Swap began in early 2016, with announcements being made around April of that year that The Swap was set for an autumn premiere date. Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand were announced as the movie’s two leads at this time as well.

2016 was an important time for Disney Channel, as they unveiled plans for the 100^th DCOM Celebration around this time. A marathon where all 100 official Disney Channel Original Movies aired began on 27^th May 2016, with a four-day marathon of 51 DCOMs, followed by the remaining 49, including the premiere of Adventures in Babysitting (2016), the official 100^th DCOM, in June 2016. Adventures in Babysitting was the only other new DCOM release in 2016 other than The Swap[1].

The story of Disney’s The Swap was not actually an original idea, nor was it specifically based on the Freaky Friday novel. The movie was in fact based on the novel The Swap by young adult author Megan Shull. The novel was published in 2014. Apparently, Disney Channel “aged up” the main characters so that they are high schoolers, whereas the novel is set in middle school, with the characters around 12 or 13, I suppose, not closer to 16 like they appear in Disney’s The Swap. This meant there was more opportunities for awkward discussions about puberty that Disney avoided[2]! Shull went on to write the novel Bounce, published in 2016, which was set to be adapted into a movie by Paramount Pictures. The movie adaptation was first announced in Summer 2020 with Nickelodeon star Jojo Siwa cast as the lead. However, by 2022, the movie had apparently been removed from Paramount Pictures’ upcoming film listings[3].

Shari Simpson and Charlie Shahnaian were tasked with adapting Shull’s novel into the Disney Channel movie. Simpson is both a screenwriter, co-writer of the movie Sweet Sweet Summertime (2017), and an author, having written Sam Saves The Night and Sam Lights The Dark, part of the Sleepwakers series of books, published in 2019 and 2020 respectively, as well as being the author of the more recent 2023 Sugar Rush Racers series, based on the Sugar Rush racers in Disney Animation’s Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Charlie Shahnaian later collaborated with Simpson after The Swap, along with Pamela Wallace, to write Color My World with Love (2022), having also co-written The Redemption of Henry Myers (2014) prior to The Swap’s release date.

The Swap was directed by Jay Karas. Karas had previously directed episodes of DisneyXD’s Kirby Buckets (2014-17), which starred Jacob Bertrand, prior to directing The Swap. He went on to direct episodes of comedy series such as the US adaptation of Ghosts (2021-present) and Abbott Elementary (2021-present). Karas also directed the movie Break Point in 2014[4]. The Swap was seemingly a co-production with MarVista Entertainment.

Disney’s The Swap was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada throughout Spring 2016. One specific filming location for The Swap was Erindale Park in Mississauga. I believe the park can be seen in two parts of the movie: the bridge where Ellie and Jack talk on the night of their respective parties, and again near the end of the movie, with the park being the location where Ellie and Jack finally swap back.

Since ice hockey and rhythmic gymnastics are key aspects of Jack and Ellie’s lives, it’s important that Jacob Bertrand and Peyton List looked like natural athletes in The Swap. List had intensive training to learn to do rhythmic gymnastics and found it a fun experience. Bertrand couldn’t even ice skate, let alone play hockey, before the movie, so he was given a two-week crash course in ice skating and then taught how to play hockey, although he did also have a stunt double to help him. Bertrand said that most of the actors who play hockey in The Swap – apart from Darrin Rose who played Coach Malloy – couldn’t actually skate before filming[5].

Another important part of The Swap is the body swap between Jack and Ellie, with List and Bertrand having to learn how to be like the other person for the majority of the film. This required them to do some research on each other, looking at their posture, for example, with List being quite elegant and Bertrand slouchier; their speech, with Bertrand learning that boys speak more staccato than girls; and learning each other’s mannerisms[6].

RECEPTION

Despite The Swap not being remotely scary or even spooky, it premiered on Disney Channel on 7^th October 2016, as part of Disney Channel’s “Monstober” event for the Halloween season. Strange choice. Why didn’t they just wait until after Halloween to release it?

Anyway, The Swap was reportedly viewed by just over 2.5 million viewers on its premiere date, although it was said to have reached 7.2 million total viewers by the time figures from both the premiere and “encores” from its first weekend were combined[7]. 

In terms of reviews, The Swap was seen to be funny and appealing for a young audience, without being too cheesy. It was also appreciated that the film attempted to tackle deep family issues, like divorce and grief. Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand were praised for their performances as Ellie and Jack – as was James Godfrey as Porter – making the audience genuinely care about their characters. The lack of romantic interest between the two lead characters was a different direction for Disney Channel as well.

On the other hand, some said that The Swap was nowhere near as good as Freaky Friday, specifically the 2003 version, and found it too similar in concept, making it a predictable story. There were further mixed reviews relating to the opposite gender swap and the jokes made about it in the script. Some found these to be very awkward whereas others liked the clear but not too obvious references to consent and the objectification of women.

For me, The Swap was a familiar storyline, granted, but I enjoyed it for that reason, because it was easy to follow and concentrate on as a form of light entertainment. I also thought that the acting in The Swap was above average in terms of Disney Channel Original Movies – not to be mean to other actors who have starred in these sorts of films – and I liked that the movie was quite profound in its messaging.

LEGACY

The story of Freaky Friday has been adapted so many times, with other “body swap” movies such as She’s the Man (2006) and It’s a Boy Girl Thing (2006) following the same type of plot. The 2003 Freaky Friday even got its own sequel, this being Freakier Friday, released in August 2025.

However, The Swap did not ever get a sequel, likely because its viewing figures were simply not high enough. It is worth noting that, although 2.5 million doesn’t sound like a lot – and it probably isn’t – DCOMs had been struggling to match the viewing figures of the 2000s since the mid-2010s, with the Descendants franchise being the only exception.

There was also no sequel novel from author Megan Shull, although a possible storyline could’ve revolved around the potential romance between Ellie’s mum and Jack’s dad, which is mentioned at the end of the movie. This means a sequel movie to The Swap from Disney Channel was made even less likely.

Another reason for there not being a sequel movie could be that Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand both left Disney Channel productions shortly after The Swap, with Bertrand’s DisneyXD series ending in 2017, and List leaving Bunk’d in 2018 to pursue other projects away from the company.

But if you wanted something more to come out of The Swap, you can always watch Cobra Kai which List and Bertrand both feature in.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The DCOMs you watched in childhood tend to be the ones that stick with you the most.

Is it the nostalgia that does that, or is it that DCOMs were genuinely better when you were younger? This is a topic open for debate, with everyone having a different favourite DCOM. I watched the most DCOMs in the 2000s and early 2010s, so generally, my favourite Disney Channel movies come from that era.

However, that doesn’t mean I’m not open to liking more recent ones, and that is exactly why I randomly watched multiple DCOMs over the summer months one year, finding a re-run of The Swap in the process. It was funny, it was sweet, it was moving, and it was led by two talented, likeable Disney actors. The Swap surprised me, and I would count it as one of my favourite DCOMs, despite it not being one from my childhood.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Patrick Hipes, ‘Disney Channel Original Movie ‘The Swap’ Set As Network Plans 100-Pic Celebration’, Deadline.com, 20^th April 2016.

[2] Credit: Michelle I. Mason, ‘MMGM: THE SWAP by Megan Shull’, MichelleIMason.com, 6^th February 2017.

[3] Credit: Matt Donnelly, ‘Jojo Siwa Exits Will Smith-Backed YA Movie ‘Bounce’, Paramount Players No Longer Involved’, Variety.com, 6^th April 2022.

[4] Credit: Original Pictures Inc., ‘The Swap’, OriginalPicturesInc.com, date unknown.

[5] Credit: Shine on Media, ‘THE SWAP Interview w/ Jacob Bertrand I Interview’, Shine On Media YouTube Channel, 8^th October 2016.

[6] Credit: Young Hollywood, ‘Peyton List & Jacob Bertrand Switch Places in THE SWAP’, Young Hollywood YouTube Channel, 6^th October 2016.

[7] Credit: Caryn Robbins, ‘Premiere of Disney Channel’s Original Movie THE SWAP is Ratings Hit in Key Youth Demos’, BroadwayWorld.com, 13^th October 2016.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

For some, celebrating a milestone birthday is the best time of their life, something they’ve looked forward to for months, or even years; something they’ve planned down to the tiniest of detail, whether that is a huge party or just a special day.

I’ve never been particularly bothered by birthdays, milestone or not. For me, birthdays are just days where you get presents. I’ll generally plan out what “special” dinner I’m going to have and what film I want to watch in the evening. That’s what my birthday normally consists of.

I haven’t had a birthday “party” since my sixteenth birthday and that wasn’t a party exactly. I went bowling with some friends who then came back to my house to eat pizza and watch Bride Wars (2009), which I’d just got on DVD. I don’t actually remember any of my friends having sixteenth birthday parties, but that year at school in the UK tends to have a lot of coursework and exam focus on it as we take our GCSE exams at that age.

Yet in some countries, including the US, sixteenth birthdays are a big deal, signalling the move from childhood to adulthood. These birthdays have even been dubbed the “Sweet 16”. In some Spanish-speaking countries, they have a quinceañera, a traditional celebration of becoming fifteen. Either way, an extravagant party is generally considered to be the best way to celebrate these milestone events.

This is where the movie 16 Wishes comes in. 16 Wishes is all about having the best Sweet 16 birthday ever, culminating in the best Sweet 16 party ever. It’s all about making sure your day is better than anyone else’s.

Although I didn’t care much about turning sixteen and I was older than sixteen when I first watched 16 Wishes on Disney Channel, I did quite like it at the time. The thought of having all your birthday wishes come true is appealing to most people, young or old, even though some aspects of 16 Wishes are quite shallow and materialistic – but that’s teenagers.

I always thought 16 Wishes was one of the better Disney Channel Original Movies, but watching it back this week, I don’t have that same opinion now. I didn’t like the main character this time, and hadn’t noticed some of her flaws at a younger age. Anyway, 16 Wishes is not even a true DCOM. It was made as a co-production between Disney Channel and other companies, including MarVista Entertainment. More on that later.

PLOT

16 Wishes begins, as you might expect, on Abby Jensen’s sixteenth birthday. She has been excited to turn sixteen for years, even writing a “Sweet 16” wish list of all the things she wants to have on her sixteenth birthday. Abby won’t let anything or anyone get in the way of her perfect day. On the morning of her birthday, despite her parents and her brother, Mike, getting in her face practically the minute she wakes up, Abby’s outlook on the day is positive. She’s got the perfect outfit to wear; spent thirty minutes doing her hair and make-up; and has money saved up to buy an amazing dress for her party that evening.

And yet, something just has to show up to ruin her day: a wasps’ nest is found in the attic. Luckily, an exterminator left their information at the front door earlier that morning – handy – and she arrives quickly, telling the family the infestation should hopefully be dealt with in a matter of days. Days?! But Abby’s birthday is today! The family is barred from entering the house, although the exterminator did manage to “save” Abby’s birthday wish list for her. Abby’s brother Mike manages to get a lift to school with their neighbour across the road, Krista Cook, who has hated Abby for years and tries to make her life a misery at every opportunity. To make it worse, Krista and Abby also have the same birthday and instead of getting wasps for hers like Abby did, Krista gets a fancy new car, a yellow VW Beetle.

Abby is left to get the bus to school, still wearing her pyjamas and slippers, since she didn’t have time to get dressed. Personally, I would’ve put my clothes on before doing my hair… At the bus stop, Abby is met by her best friend, Jay, who gives her a friendship necklace for her birthday. Randomly, as they wait for the bus, a postal service van shows up and a woman who looks very much like the exterminator hands Abby a parcel. Jay doesn’t think Abby should open it, expecting it to be something sinister, but Abby says it’ll just be a birthday present – yeah, because the postal service normally delivers packages to people stood at bus stops – and proceeds to open it. Inside, she finds sixteen birthday candles and some matches from the Lucky Duck, whatever that is. The box reckons they are meant to grant birthday wishes. Getting bored waiting for the bus, Abby lights the first candle.

Randomly again, the tour bus of singer Joey Lockhart, someone Abby has been a fan of for years, shows up at the bus stop. Joey comes out, kisses Abby on the cheek, wishes her a happy birthday, and then leaves looking confused. Abby realises that this first candle corresponds with her birthday wish list, since the first wish on that list was to meet Joey Lockhart. Abby now knows she can make all sixteen of her birthday wishes come true today. She takes a look at her list to find something that could help her right now. Wish #8 should be good. Abby lights Candle #8 and a bright red Mustang appears. Yep, she wished for her own car, and it is being driven by a woman who looks just like the postwoman AND the exterminator. This is Celeste, and she has been tasked with making all Abby’s birthday wishes come true. However, Jay points out that Abby doesn’t have her license yet, so Celeste drives them to school instead.

At school, everyone who was admiring Krista’s car then moves on to admire Abby’s car. Emboldened by this, Abby announces that she will be having an amazing party tonight and invites everyone in the year – she has a wish and a candle to make sure she has the best Sweet 16 party ever, after all. However, Krista and her friends laugh in Abby’s face, reminding Abby that she’s still wearing her pyjamas and slippers. Jay leads her away. Abby heads straight for her gym locker to find some clothes and then realises that she has a wish that can fix this: Wish #2, which promises that she’ll have the best clothes in school. But Abby finds Candle #2 just won’t light and she is soon spotted by a teacher, who confiscates the candles and sends Abby to the guidance counsellor. I guess the teacher is concerned Abby is now a pyromaniac after playing around with all those matches?

Abby then learns that the school guidance counsellor is Celeste, well, today it is anyway! Celeste explains the rules of the magic candles. All the wishes she makes before midnight tonight will be permanent, however she can only light one candle per hour. Celeste hands over the candles and matches, warning Abby to be careful where she lights them, and as a special birthday present, Celeste also gives Abby Krista’s diary to have a read through. Abby does just that and learns that Krista has been out to get her for years, deliberately upstaging Abby at every turn. Well, not any more. Abby goes to the supply closet and lights Candle #2, since it is now a new hour. The closet is magically transformed into a wardrobe and Celeste is on hand to be her personal stylist. Abby goes back out wearing her new clothes. All of Krista’s friends love her new outfit – despite having one handbag that is now “out of style”. Celeste quickly swaps out the bag for a newer one.

At gym class, Abby uses this new handbag to avoid running laps, by handing it over to her teacher as a bribe; the whole class will now play a friendly game of volleyball. But just before she heads out to play, Abby lights Candle #12, so that she can beat Krista at something. Abby suddenly becomes a pro-volleyballer and spikes the ball hard into Krista’s face. Krista is promptly sent to the nurse as Abby is admired for her mad skills. The nurse turns out to be Celeste who tells Krista, after she regains consciousness, to go to the principal’s office. There, Krista is told by the principal that Abby is going to be the new Class President, despite not campaigning for it like Krista had. It turns out Abby was a write-in, so beloved by her class that they couldn’t bear for her not to be their president. I think a magical wish might just be classed as election interference, Abby….

Abby basks in the glow of her newfound school popularity – which happens to be all down to Wish #10 – and the fact she’ll now get free lunch as president. Abby goes to meet Jay who is working on a school project. Abby doesn’t want to do any work though, and tells Jay she’ll just bribe the teacher again. Jay reacts angrily to that, annoyed that Abby has won Class President, this being a secret dream of Jay’s. Abby makes up with Jay by offering to get him some free lunch. That was easy.

Abby then says she needs a new dress for her party, which is being planned by some girls in her year and is going to be huge. But Abby’s party money is at home and she can’t retrieve it. Jay says he’ll lend her some money and that they have a free period next so can go shopping then. The only trouble is how are they going to get there; Abby doesn’t have her license yet so can’t drive them. Well, Wish #7 will solve that. Sure enough, a worker from the DMV shows up and hands Abby her driver’s license; no need for a test!

At the store, Jay unknowingly drops his wallet outside. Krista has followed them there and picked up Jay’s wallet. As Abby tries on dress after dress, Krista heads in and tells the assistant that those two won’t be buying anything. The assistant tells Abby and Jay to leave, as Jay figures out he has lost his wallet and will not be able to pay for anything. Jay rushes outside to look for his wallet, and Abby goes back into the changing room. There, she lights Candle #9, so that people will stop treating her like a kid. Suddenly, Abby is transformed… into a girl with straight hair, because that is what signals “adult” apparently! She asks the assistant where her friend is, who tells her he left with another girl, presumably Krista. Abby is annoyed Jay just left her, but she becomes distracted by the assistant who suddenly wants to help her find some more “age appropriate” clothing. You might think Abby not having any money might be an issue here, but nope, that’s what a charge account is for.

Abby arrives back at school in a whole new wardrobe. She is mistaken for being the new substitute teacher, and discovers that nobody remembers her as the Abby Jensen from their year. Abby is soon picked up from school by her parents, who instantly move her into her new apartment, telling her she is 22 years old today and needs to grow up. Wow, harsh or what! At least wait until the day after her birthday… Her parents have paid the security deposit but it’s up to her to pay the first month’s rent so she’ll need to find a job. Abby is overwhelmed by how badly her last wish has gone wrong and lights Candle #3, a wish about decorating her room the way she wants, to get Celeste to explain what has happened here. Celeste tells Abby that the candles have their own logic and since Abby has no do-over wish on her list, at midnight, this will be her new life. Abby desperately tries to find a way back to her old life and thinks Wish #14 will do the trick: to get her parents to understand her.

She goes over to her parents’ house, to find them living in an RV on the driveway because of the wasps, and tells them the whole sorry story of her day so far, showing them the candles and matches as proof. Her parents are distracted by the matches as they are from the Lucky Duck restaurant that they went to on the night Abby was born. Although her parents understand what Abby is going through, they don’t believe she is actually 16 and tell her she needs to be independent. At a loss as to what to do next, she walks over to her crush, Logan, who is admiring her car. Logan is on his way to Krista’s party across the street. Abby uses this as an opportunity to get Jay to listen to her. She proves their friendship with the necklace he gave her that morning, as Jay has the other half of it. Jay remembers. He looks over her wish list to try and find a solution but all her wishes are pointless and won’t help her. As Abby annoys herself with her stupid wishes, like wishing to like sushi when she’s sixteen, she learns that her brother is a talented guitarist, having his own guitar in this life instead of playing a plastic one in her real one, and that Krista is nice without having Abby to compete with. So, everyone is better off without Abby in their life and she should just get on with her new independent life. That’s the lesson here, isn’t it?

Perhaps it should be, but that’s not the case. Abby sadly heads back to her apartment. Her car runs out of gas, she breaks a heel, and then is splashed by a driver going through a massive puddle. When things look really bleak, Celeste arrives with pizza to cheer her up. Abby takes another look at the list, realising that all of her wishes for clothes, popularity, and cars were a total waste, and that being an adult isn’t as amazing as she thought it would be. Celeste hands Abby Candle #16, and Abby looks at her corresponding wish. It is simply a picture of Logan that she stuck on there with gum that morning. As Abby wishes she could change this wish, she flicks the photo – and it comes off, leaving a blank space. She quickly rummages around her belongings and finds the photo her parents took of her that same morning. She sticks it on the list and lights Candle #16, wishing she could start the day over again, just before midnight.

Abby shows up in her room on the morning of her sixteenth birthday. Instead of shouting at her parents and brother to get out of her space, she tells them she loves them, even giving her brother her party money so that he can buy his own guitar. She also warns her parents about the wasps’ nest, panicked she’s about to relive the whole traumatic day again. But they already knew, and the exterminator is already here. It’s Celeste again, who tells Abby everything is going to be ok now. Abby then screws up her wish list and goes to confront Krista once and for all. On Krista’s driveway, Abby demands to know what she did to start this war between them. It turns out when Abby first arrived in town, she took Jay, Krista’s previous best friend, away from her – on her birthday, no less! Right… that’s incredibly childish; you’d think Krista would’ve got over that by now! Abby apologises and says they should help Jay together. After learning he wanted to be Class President, she asks Krista to join forces with her to ensure Jay is voted in. Since Krista is the only name on the ballot, if she drops out and campaigns for Jay instead, he’ll surely win.

Sure enough, at Krista and Abby’s joint sixteenth birthday party, Jay is celebrated as Class President. Krista also tells Abby she really likes Logan, but doesn’t know how to talk to him. Abby tells her to ask him about his dream car, the Mustang she used to have. Abby and Jay then dance together. Jay admits his feelings for Abby and the two kiss. As the movie ends, Celeste appears as a waitress before disappearing. Her work here is done.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Abby Jensen has never been popular. Although she has her best friend, Jay, it seems like he is her only real friend, so it’s very much them against the world. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not enough for Abby. She wants to be popular, but thanks to Krista Cook, she’s never been able to. This is why Abby’s sixteenth birthday is so important to her, because it’s finally going to be the day where she gets everything she wants. To be honest, Abby is kind of annoying through most of 16 Wishes with this attitude. She isn’t very nice to her family, telling them to get out of her room, and takes Jay for granted, expecting him just to go along with whatever she wants. It’s not until Abby’s wish to stop being treated like a kid goes wrong that Abby finds she’s alone, without her best friend. This makes Abby feel incredibly scared and lonely, as many people would after being thrown out of their family home and forced to live on their own. At this point, Abby learns a real lesson: that wishing for materialistic, superficial things is a waste of time and effort, because they never make you truly happy. She also realises that she shouldn’t be in a hurry to grow up, as being an adult comes with its own responsibilities and isn’t as glamorous as it looks. From this point, Abby becomes a more redeemable character, and less like a spoilt brat!  

Debby Ryan was cast as Abby. Ryan began her Disney Channel career as Bailey Pickett on The Suite Life on Deck (2008-11), the spin-off and sequel series to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08), and then reprised her role in The Suite Life Movie (2011). After this, Ryan continued to feature on Disney Channel by starring in the series Jessie (2011-15). During this time, she was also cast in the leading role of Tara Adams in the DCOM Radio Rebel (2012). Outside of Disney, Ryan’s most famous role is perhaps as Patty Bladell in the controversial Netflix series Insatiable (2018-19). More recently, she voiced the character of Krista in the animated series Velma (2023-24), a spin-off of the Scooby-Doo franchise, and is due to appear in the thriller film Famous, which will star Zac Efron.

Jay is Abby’s best friend, and former best friend of Krista Cook. He clearly has feelings for Abby that she is completely unaware of until the end of the movie. Jay is an incredibly loyal friend to Abby, quickly forgiving her even when she’s being a bit of a self-obsessed jerk. When Abby’s wish goes wrong and she becomes an adult, Jay is friends with Krista instead. I think Jay would’ve been better off in this alternate life; however, Abby makes sure that he can’t be free of her, getting him to remember that morning when he gave her the friendship necklace. He does remember, but can’t actually help, so it was a completely pointless exercise, making him feel guilty for no reason. When Abby gets to do over her birthday, she is a better person, and I’d like to think that her, Krista, and Jay become a trio, as Krista and Abby have supposedly moved on from that childhood event that caused all the animosity between them. This would be the best thing for Jay, I think, because Krista can hopefully balance out Abby’s impulsiveness and Jay’s willingness to go along with her plans. He also got to be Class President thanks to Abby, so I guess she did one good thing for him.

Jay was played by Jean-Luc Bilodeau. One of Bilodeau’s earliest roles was as Josh Trager in the ABC series Kyle XY (2006-09). After 16 Wishes, he then appeared as Jeremy in the movie LOL (2012), which starred Miley Cyrus, and in the television movie Expecting Amish (2014), alongside AJ Michalka. Bilodeau later starred as Ben Wheeler in the sitcom Baby Daddy (2012-17). Most recently, he was cast as Dr. Daniel Kutcher in the sitcom Carol’s Second Act (2019-20), and as Ronnie in the Roku series The Holiday Shift (2023).

Krista Cook is meant to be the typical mean girl who comes from a rich family and is the most popular girl in school. Krista has tried to overshadow all of Abby’s successes throughout her life, by having better parties and sleepovers, for example. It’s worked and that makes Abby jealous of her, but in fact, Krista is jealous of Abby, and that is because Abby “stole” her best friend Jay from her when they were younger. Friendship groups always change throughout school so I think this is a pretty pathetic excuse for Krista’s hatred of Abby. Why did Krista not just keep talking to Jay instead of accepting that her friend was “gone” forever? Abby didn’t even know she’d taken Jay away from Krista so I doubt she was a horrible kid who would’ve banned Jay from talking to Krista ever again. I’m sure if Krista had even had a mature conversation with Jay and Abby about it all as they got closer to the age of sixteen, this could’ve all been resolved. Krista was played by Karissa Tynes, who was cast as Rhonda Blair / Vanessa A. Williams in The Unauthorized Melrose Place Story (2015) for Lifetime, and as Jameson in Season 2 of the drama series UnREAL (2015-18).

Celeste is the magical being who makes all of Abby’s sixteenth birthday wishes come true, though I’m not sure why she chose Abby of all sixteen-year-olds to do this for; it’s never explained. Celeste seems to deliberately make the wasps more active in Abby’s house, leaving her information on the front door, knowing that Abby’s parents would need to contact someone. It’s all a bit dodgy if you ask me. I’d rather not have some strange woman put wasps in my house just to get my birthday wishes to come true, not to mention not wanting to have her follow me around all day, but Abby is quite happy with the situation, as Celeste pops up at random intervals during 16 Wishes, either to help Abby accomplish some of wishes, like being her personal stylist and interior designer, or to make sure Abby understands what is going on with her wishes. Celeste also has to come to Abby’s rescue close to midnight on her sixteenth birthday as Abby has given up hope. Celeste gets Abby to realise that she can change Wish #16 as it’s just a photo, but apparently, isn’t allowed to come out and say it. She probably hoped Abby would figure it out earlier. Talk about leaving it to the last minute! Anna Mae Wills was cast as Celeste. She was cast as Patty in the movie I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) just before her role in 16 Wishes.

Outside of these four main characters, there are a few others to mention. One is Abby’s brother Mike. Mike is Abby’s younger brother but he isn’t particularly annoying like you’d expect, though he does play a plastic guitar around the house, clearly wanting to buy a real one but not having the money to do so. He even asks Abby for a loan but she refuses, saying this money is for her party dress. I mean, you have lots of money, Abby; do you really need a dress that costs that much? Mike is actually a pretty cool little brother, not bothering her at school, but also not being embarrassed to say Abby is his sister. Maybe that’s why Abby decides, after seeing Mike play a real guitar in her alternate life, that she should give him the money for a guitar; she thinks he’s really talented and should explore that. Cainan Wiebe was cast as Mike. Just before appearing in 16 Wishes, he had been cast as Gareth in the television movie Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009).

Finally, there are Abby’s parents, Bob and Sue. They seem like nice parents, making Abby a birthday cake and a special birthday breakfast, however, all their actions are thrown back in their faces when Abby orders them out of her room on that morning. Later on, we see Bob and Sue in a different light, after Abby accidentally makes herself 22-years-old. They suddenly seem to be quite harsh on her, moving her into her own apartment without talking to her about it first and telling her to “be independent”. It’s apparently because they don’t have enough room for her in the RV that they’re forced to live in because of the wasp infestation. Really, though, it seems like something must have gone on between Abby and her parents that even Abby doesn’t know about because she’s skipped six years of her life. Maybe Abby was sat around watching TV all day, not bothered about getting a job. Although when they pick her up from the school, it seems like a regular annoyance they have to deal with so maybe this Abby never gave up wanting to be sixteen – I can understand how that could be draining for her parents! Anyway, none of that matters because Abby does get back to her real life and has a new appreciation for her parents and her brother.

Bob Jensen was played by Patrick Gilmore. At the time of 16 Wishes, Gilmore was appearing in the recurring role of Dale Volker in Stargate Universe (2009-11). He went on to be cast as David Mailer in the series Travelers (2016-18) and as Mr. Anderson in the Paramount+ series School Spirits (2023-present). Kendall Cross was cast as Sue Jensen. She went on to appear in the recurring role of Major Byrne in The 100 (2014-20).

MUSIC

16 Wishes features eleven songs. All tracks are on the 16 Wishes soundtrack, released on 15^th June 2010, just over a week before the movie’s premiere on Disney Channel.

Usually, if a Disney Channel movie’s lead actor can sing, then they will get to sing one or two songs in that movie, if it’s not a musical. In this case, Debby Ryan gets to perform two such songs. One of them is the song’s opening number, “A Wish Comes True Every Day”, written by Ali Theodore, Jason Gleed, and Alana da Fonseca. This is probably my favourite song in the movie; it’s an upbeat pop song, which is the perfect song for Abby to wake up to on her sixteenth birthday. This song then features again as the finale of the movie, just before the End Credits, with a special video showing the cast and crew dancing on set, as well as a few bloopers. The music video for this song was also uploaded to Disney Channel’s YouTube Channel on 18^th June 2010, a week prior to its premiere date.

The other song Debby Ryan performs, alongside her brother Chase, is “Open Eyes”, another song in 16 Wishes that I like. It is played as Abby sadly heads back to her apartment after Krista’s party, resigned to her fate of remaining 22 forever. This song was written by Chase Ryan, Debby Ryan, and Matt Beckley. Chase also contributed to another song on the soundtrack, “Saying Goodbye”, which he wrote and performed alongside Michael Popp and Aaron Harvey. I believe this song is played in the dress shop; however, it is so quiet, being used as background noise, that it is hard to tell. Another song that may have been playing in this shop is “The Way It Used To Be”, performed by punk rock band Not By Choice, and written by M. Bilcox. I didn’t specifically hear this song, but given that the 16 Wishes soundtrack track list appears to be in order of appearance in the film, it must have been played at this time, but I didn’t specifically hear it.

There are a few other songs in 16 Wishes that are only played briefly in the movie. One of these is “No One’s Fool”, performed by Keith and Renee and written by Keith Macpherson, Renee Lamoureux, and Creighton Doane. It plays as Abby gets ready in the morning. Following on from that, “Princess Girl”, performed by Minnutes, is used for the moment that Abby meets Joey Lockhart at her bus stop. Then, there is “Picture Perfect”, performed by Jennifer Cathcart, and written by David Isaac Feldstein, which plays as Abby leaves the dress store in her new “age appropriate” clothes. There is also “Bad Momma”, written by Marc Ferrari, Josh Kessier, and Chad Gendason, performed by Gendason, which can be heard as Abby reveals her new clothes that she wished for at school.

Then there is music that plays at the different birthday parties. Krista’s solo party has two songs, the first being “Vertigo” performed by the band Willknots. It was written by Douglas Deibel and Shawn Richardson. It is followed by “Overreaction”, another song performed by Chad Gendason, and written by Ferrari, Kessier, Gendason, and Andrew Robert Hayes. I can’t say I really noticed either of these songs, however, at Krista and Abby’s joint party at the end of 16 Wishes, the song “Don’t Wanna Grow Up” by Willknots is played, written by Deibel and Richardson. This song might sound familiar to DCOM fans, as it appears towards the end of Cow Belles (2006). It’s a great song, and you get to hear more of it in 16 Wishes, as it is also used for the End Credits.

James Jandrisch is credited with composing the score for 16 Wishes. He would go on to compose the music for another Debby Ryan DCOM, Radio Rebel (2012), as well as for the DCOM Zapped (2014). Jandrisch is also the composer for some television film series including Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2014-present), and Gourmet Detective (2015-20). More recently, Jandrisch composed the music for the Netflix series’ Tiny Pretty Things (2020) and Sweet Magnolias (2020-present). He also composed the music for one of my favourite Christmas television movies, Call Me Mrs. Miracle (2010).

PRODUCTION

16 Wishes focuses on the whole obsession with the idea of the “Sweet 16”, whether that is by having a great birthday or an amazing party.

 Having a movie or a series based on the importance of sixteenth birthdays is nothing new. One of the most popular shows about Sweet 16 parties is the MTV reality series My Super Sweet 16 (2005-17), which followed kids as they planned huge parties for their sixteenth birthdays, complete with the usual tantrums and meltdowns you’d expect to see from spoilt kids that don’t get their own way[1]! Sometimes other milestone birthdays, such as 18^th or 21^st birthday parties, were also featured. Even some celebrities got in on the action, including Aly and AJ Michalka, who held a joint party for their 18^th and 16^th birthdays, respectively, in 2007. Their episode may have been a promotional technique for the girls’ own movie, Super Sweet 16: The Movie, which was released in 2007. It saw two girls make plans to throw a huge, joint Sweet 16 party. When the girls have a falling out, they start trying to outdo each other with their own parties.

MTV even made a spin-off three-part horror film series, created for television, based on their reality series entitled My Super Psycho Sweet 16 (2009-12).

Let’s also not forget the 1980s John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles (1984). It might not feature a huge Sweet 16 party, but it is a coming-of-age movie about a girl’s sixteenth birthday, which her family have forgotten about because her older sister is getting married the next day. The plot of the movie is not similar to 16 Wishes; however, the title does link to it as Abby gets sixteen wish candles; the titles can potentially be mistaken for each other.

I’m sure Sixteen Candles must have been some sort of loose inspiration for 16 Wishes, however, the obvious 2000s obsession with huge sixteenth birthday parties must also have been. Although Abby does not end up having a grand party, it is alluded to the fact that she was hoping to have one. Just before Abby and Jay head off to the store to buy her a dress, she mentions to Jay that two girls in their year have taken on the planning of Abby’s party, which they want to hold in a hotel in Las Vegas, potential trying to make the party similar to the elaborate affairs that exist within My Super Sweet 16.

16 Wishes also takes some plot points from the Jennifer Garner movie 13 Going on 30 (2004), something that some reviews mentioned. In 13 Going on 30, the main character, Jenna, wishes to be thirty on her thirteenth birthday, believing that being an adult will fix all her issues, as she feels like a loser as a teenager. This is much like Abby in 16 Wishes, who hates being treated like a child. Her wish instead makes her 22 and therefore an adult. Obviously, 16 Wishes is a more family-friendly version of 13 Going on 30 and does not involve too many real-life problems since it only takes place over a day, with Abby’s biggest issue being that she was forced to move out of her parents’ house. 13 Going on 30 not only looks at relationship and family problems, but also work issues too. Big (1988) also features a teenage boy wishing to be “big”, with his wish going wrong and turning him into an adult, but again, it deals with this issue in a more mature way. But neither Big nor 13 Going on 30 were aimed at younger children, or set to be aired on Disney Channel, so they didn’t have to conform to certain expectations.

With all that being said, 16 Wishes is not a particularly unique story, clearly expanding on ideas from other movies, however, that does not make it any lesser of a movie. Many movies borrow ideas from others to create their storylines. It meant that 16 Wishes felt like familiar territory, but in one way, it might be slightly more relatable, and that is by not changing the actress playing Abby. To the audience, it doesn’t look like much has changed when Abby “grows up” from 16 to 22, so we are able to fully understand her confusion at why she’s being treated differently. In 13 Going on 30 and Big, we are introduced to a young actor first, and then asked to relate to a different one. In some ways, they feel like two separate journeys or a dream, but with 16 Wishes, it is solely Abby’s story.

16 Wishes was directed by Peter DeLuise. Peter DeLuise went on to direct the DCOM Zapped (2014), which starred Zendaya, but prior to 16 Wishes, he had also directed some episodes of Kyle XY (2006-09); Stargate Atlantis (2004-09); Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007); and Stargate Universe (2009-11). Previously, DeLuise had starred as Officer Doug Penhall in the series 21 Jump Street (1987-91). DeLuise also has some famous family with links to Disney. His brother David DeLuise was cast as Jerry Russo in the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12) and its 2009 movie. They are sons of comedian Dom DeLuise, who voicing the character of Fagin in Oliver & Company (1998).  

The screenplay for 16 Wishes was written by Annie DeYoung, who had previously worked on Princess Protection Program (2009), Return to Halloweentown (2006), and Girl vs. Monster (2012) for Disney Channel.

16 Wishes was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with one of the most obvious filming locations being Walnut Grove Secondary School. Much of the movie’s scenes are either filmed at the school or at the street where Abby and Krista live, so nothing too exciting to report on there.

I’ve mentioned a lot of Disney links in the cast and crew credits; however, 16 Wishes is not a Disney Channel Original Movie, in a similar way to Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, which is also not technically a Disney Channel Original Movie, despite being promoted as such, or in slightly different terminology, prior to its Disney Channel air date. 16 Wishes was a co-production between Disney Channel and MarVista Entertainment[2]. Unity Pictures is also listed on the Opening Credits. Because of this small technicality, this is potentially why 16 Wishes is not available to stream on Disney+. Instead, if you want to watch 16 Wishes, you’ll have to hope it appears on another streaming service – I found Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars on Amazon Prime in the UK when I reviewed that movie – or go the old-fashioned route and watch it on DVD, which is what I did with 16 Wishes[3].

RECEPTION

16 Wishes first premiered in the US on Disney Channel on 25^th June 2010.

A trailer was released on Disney Channel’s official YouTube channel on 9^th June, which referenced 16 Wishes as a Disney Channel Movie, but not a Disney Channel Original Movie[4]. This is a subtle distinction but one I guess they had to make somewhat obvious with this being a co-production.

On its US premiere, 16 Wishes apparently got 5.6 million viewers, and became the most watched cable program of the day. 16 Wishes later premiered in Canada on Family Channel on 16^th July 2010.

In terms of reviews, these are mixed, as some say that it is the best DCOM of all time, and that the ones to debut afterwards were nowhere near as good – I’ve read this quite a lot around other DCOMs released in 2010 or 2011 – whereas others call it the worst. For me, I liked 16 Wishes when it first came out, and rewatched it quite a few times. Looking at it now, though, I wouldn’t call it the best or the worst; it’s just average.

Those who like 16 Wishes say it was quite deep for Disney Channel, as it taught an important lesson about not growing up too fast, and made kids re-examine their lives in some ways. I’m not sure 16 Wishes ever affected me to the point where I made changes to my life, and I was a similar age to the characters, so I’m not sure I agree with this point. 16 Wishes was also called cute, although typical and predictable.

Others who don’t like the film say it is cringey and they dislike the main character of Abby Jensen, calling her “awful”. I think awful is a bit harsh, and she does eventually change her ways, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be friends with her at school. She’s not a bad person, but she does strike me as the type to constantly moan about how unfair her life is, which would get draining after a while…

LEGACY

Luckily, the story of 16 Wishes did not allow for a sequel, or a series of movies.

I mean, Disney Channel could have done it, obviously. They could’ve brought Abby back to do 17 Wishes, maybe even 18 Wishes, where she makes new wishes based on her current situation but they would’ve been samey and boring; sometimes one movie is enough.

So, 16 Wishes has not spanned its own franchise, however, 16 Wishes did boost Debby Ryan’s Disney Channel career. She was already known for her role on The Suite Life on Deck, so 16 Wishes allowed her to star in her own project. This led to her role as Jessie in the series, and then to star in Radio Rebel in 2012.

Outside of that, I did discover that there is a website selling the set of sixteen candles, the Lucky Duck matches, and a recreation of Abby’s wish list, so if you’re a huge fan of this film, this could be the perfect gift for you.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Sixteenth birthdays are meant to be a big milestone moment for teenagers, where they start to feel more mature and become more independent.

In 16 Wishes, Abby can’t wait to turn sixteen because she seems to think that on that one day, she’ll wake up and feel differently about herself. She also believes that everyone around her will finally notice that she’s not a child anymore. That is not the case, and Abby becomes disappointed that her sixteenth birthday hasn’t been everything she hoped it would be. The wishing candles seem to be making it the best day ever until it goes badly wrong.

I think too many teenagers put pressure on themselves to grow up quickly. Once you do grow up, many realise that being an adult is not all that wonderful, and that they should’ve spent more time being a kid.

If 16 Wishes teaches people anything – and it’s a Disney movie so generally they try to teach you something – it’s don’t be in such a hurry to grow up. Adulthood probably won’t be everything you imagined.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: MTV, ‘My Super Sweet 16’s Biggest Meltdowns I MTV Ranked’, MTV Vault YouTube Channel, 12^th May 2019.

[2] Credit: Disney, ’16 Wishes (television), D23.com, date unknown.

[3] Credit: Daniel Furn and Cole Luke, ‘How to watch 16 Wishes: Is it available to stream on Disney+?’, RadioTimes.com, 18^th September 2023.

[4] Credit: Disney, ’16 Wishes Trailer – Disney Channel Official’, Disney Channel YouTube Channel, 9^th June 2010.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

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.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, within the huge catalogue of Disney Channel Original Movies, the films that are generally remembered and treasured the most are the musicals.

Yet, if you are a true Disney Channel fan, you’ll know that there have been plenty of great DCOMs that are not musicals but are still just as memorable, especially if you watched them at a young age. Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is just one of these for me.

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off combines two things that adults like to force on all children if they can: cooking and sport, baseball in this case. Cooking, at least at a basic level, is necessary to ensure that kids grow up to be self-sufficient adults – even if that’s only being able to cook pasta or eggs; they will at least keep you alive. Sport teaches you about teamwork, as well as the importance of keeping fit and active.

I never liked sport and wasn’t any good at it since I’m only five foot tall now. I was even shorter whilst at school, so I was never going to excel in that area. Most of my P.E. teachers took pity on me, saw I was trying, and didn’t push me, which I was thankful for, but even in a game of rounders – the closest equivalent the British school system has to baseball – I couldn’t even run to first base before being told I was “out”. I showed some aptitude for cooking, however, I don’t like to touch raw meat, believing I’ll get e-coli or salmonella on the rare occasion I do, even if I wash my hands ten times in scalding hot water, so that avenue was blocked off to me as well.

With all that in mind, you’d think Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off wouldn’t interest me. Though the baseball portions of the film certainly don’t, I have always enjoyed Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off for its cooking scenes. Eddie Dogs, the lasagne, the soufflé, that weird purple barbeque sauce, all looked so good through the screen.

But Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off isn’t just about cooking and baseball. It has a much more important message at its heart and that is the importance of allowing people to be what they want to be.

PLOT

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off begins with preparations being made for the new baseball season. The field is ready, the food vendors are ready, and the team, the Groundhogs, are warming up. It turns out the Groundhogs aren’t exactly the best team in their league though, as two twin players fight on the ground, another player trips on her untied shoelaces, and another hits a ball straight into a hot dog cart, destroying most of their food supplies. But the team has one hope: Eddie, the star player, who happens to be the coach’s son too. There is also Hannah, the best female player on the team, whose mother thinks she’s at the baseball field to be the Groundhogs’ cheerleader.

As expected, the Groundhogs lose their first game. But Eddie has perfected the best way to console the team after their defeats: by making his famous loaded hot dogs, Eddie Dogs. As Eddie and his friends, D.B. and Frankie, chow down, they are tormented by players from the rival team the Eagles. Eddie says they should do whatever it takes this season to finally beat them and win the playoffs.

At Eddie’s house, D.B. and Frankie plan to watch a baseball game on TV, but Eddie’s brothers want to make it difficult for them. As the others fight over the remote, Eddie becomes distracted by a cooking show. His father tells him that he needs to focus on baseball. A college scout has been spotted watching players from the Eagles so it’s only a matter of time before the scout comes to see Eddie. Eddie’s mother tells Eddie’s dad not to put so much pressure on him with his baseball career, and then slices her finger open as she’s making dinner. Eddie’s parents and brothers go to the hospital to get it taken care of, with Eddie being asked to put the food away. Instead, Eddie has the idea of cooking all of it, and, with the help of his reluctant friends, they successfully make fried chicken, surprising everyone when they get back. Despite the food looking strange – the fried chicken has sugary cereal on it and the gravy is pink – everyone loves it. But it’s not long before the teasing starts, with Eddie’s brothers calling him “Edwina” and “Eddie Crocker” …

The next day at school, Eddie’s year have to sign up for a new elective class. Eddie has been told by his brothers to sign up for Computer Science because it’s meant to be an easy class. It turns out that signing up for these classes isn’t going to be simple because the sign-up sheets are being crowded around. Eddie throws himself in to the sea of kids and grabs the Computer Science clipboard. He also grabs the Home Economics clipboard, having been amazed by the classroom earlier on. He covers up the class name and passes a clipboard to his friends to sign their names on. It turns out they’ve all signed up for Home Economics, much to Frankie and D.B.’s horror. To make matters worse, Hannah from the Groundhogs is also here, having chosen Home Economics to appease her mother.

Also in this class is the overly prepared and uptight Bridget, who takes cooking very seriously and warns the boys not to interfere with the class. Mrs. Hadley, the enthusiastic Home Economics teacher, welcomes the class and informs them all about the Million Dollar Scholastic Cook-Off, where students compete to win scholarships to culinary schools. Bridget is immediately interested and takes a flyer. Eddie appears interested but doesn’t take a flyer until after class when everyone has left. Hannah sees but says nothing.

That night, Eddie starts to come up with ideas for his Cook-Off recipe entry. After many attempts that all taste horrible, Eddie gets the idea of making a peanut butter and jelly smoothie, but the blender lid comes off and the mixture spills out everywhere. That’ll take forever to clean up… He’ll have to figure something else out another day instead.

In their next Home Economics class, Eddie tries to secretly talk to Bridget about the Cook-Off but is overheard by D.B. To change the subject, Eddie throws batter at D.B. which results in a food fight taking place. The principal comes in to give them all detention and the students are told to clean up the room. As they are doing this, Frankie, Eddie, D.B., and Hannah come across a bowl of purple sauce. Frankie immediately tastes it, disgusting the others, but apparently, it’s good. The others all try it and agree; it is good. This gives Eddie a new idea for his Cook-Off recipe, and that night, he recreates this sauce.

But just when Eddie thinks he’s got his recipe sorted, he hears Bridget stressing about the measurements in her Cook-Off recipe. It turns out the judges will need precise measurements, something Eddie hasn’t done. He rushes home to fix it, and his mother arrives home at the same time. He tells her all about the Cook-Off and she is happy to help him with the recipe, though they both agree to keep this a secret from Eddie’s father.

At school the next day, during Home Economics, Mrs. Hadley announces that both Bridget and Eddie are finalists in the Cook-Off. D.B. is annoyed that Eddie wouldn’t tell him, with Eddie lying to say he entered as a joke just to keep the peace. Eddie’s father and brothers both find out about the Cook-Off after Mrs. Hadley calls them to congratulate Eddie. The brothers tease Eddie and his father is clearly confused. At school, things don’t get better for Eddie as he is mocked by others in his year group. To make matters worse, he is also called into extra lessons with Mrs. Hadley and Bridget to prepare him for the Cook-Off, which takes him away from his baseball commitments, making him late to games, distracted during games, and even told to go home during a game by his dad.

Eddie later finds out that should the Groundhogs make it to the playoffs, he’ll have to choose between the game or the Cook-Off because both are on the same day. This leads to an argument with D.B., which causes another food fight, in the school cafeteria this time. Eddie then reaches breaking point; he’s sick of being made fun of and doesn’t want to waste his time in Cook-Off classes anymore, so he quits and rejoins his baseball team. At the same time, the team have revolted against their coach, Eddie’s dad, for his constant sexist remarks, with his jibes about the Eagles coach being a nurse, and telling the players not to run or hit “like girls”. Coach says he’ll change his ways. Good for them for speaking up!

The Groundhogs unexpectedly do make it to the playoffs but as the team celebrate at Eddie’s house, Mrs. Hadley arrives to try and convince Eddie to go to the Cook-Off tomorrow. He says he’s committed to the team, but clearly has some regrets about his decision as he stays up all night cooking because he can’t sleep. The next day, Eddie goes to the Cook-Off venue and meets Bobby Flay. Bobby tries to convince Eddie to stick around, promising to teach him how to crack eggs with one hand if he does, but Eddie has to go.

At the playoff game, the Groundhogs play well initially, however, Frankie decides to put the Cook-Off competition on his mini television that he has in the dug-out. This puts Eddie off the game, and irritates D.B. Frankie tells D.B. he shouldn’t have made Eddie choose between cooking and having friends, making D.B. feel guilty. He tells Eddie that they don’t need him in the game, and that they can win by themselves, leaving Eddie free to compete in his competition. His mum drives him there, but he only has about an hour of time left and no-one to help him; Eddie thinks he can manage.

Back at the game, Hannah’s mum arrives with the pom-poms that Hannah “forgot”. Hannah has to tell her mother that actually she isn’t a cheerleader, but a good baseball player. Hannah’s mum is completely onboard with this but tells Hannah she didn’t need to lie to her about it, as long as baseball makes her happy. Eddie’s dad overhears this and decides to get himself thrown out of the game. He then goes to help Eddie.

At the Cook-Off, Eddie is surprised to find his dad there to help, and even more surprised to learn he can crack eggs with one hand, a skill Eddie has yet to master. However, events do not go well. Some of Eddie’s dishes have been overcooked or not set properly. He rushes to get a plate of food up to the judges and manages with a second to go. The judging begins and the result is soon announced. The winner is… Bridget.

Eddie is devastated, but his dad is there to console him, telling him to keep working at it if cooking is what he wants to do. The Groundhogs then arrive with some better news – they finally beat the Eagles and won the playoffs, making Eddie feel a bit better. As they go off to have some celebratory Eddie Dogs, Bridget follows, saying she’s hungry too. Eddie has Bridget join them as evidence that Eddie is still more of a winner than Bridget, even without a trophy!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Eddie believes that he will be a Major League baseball player one day. Eddie never thought that cooking might make him reconsider this, but it does as Eddie finds he has a natural talent for it. This isn’t considered to be a “manly” profession though, despite many celebrity chefs being men, so Eddie is teased by his friends, his brothers, rival baseball teams, and spends much of the movie torn between what he wants to do, and what he feels he should do. He finally stands up for himself though, and says that he wants to see where he can go with his cooking. There wasn’t actually a reason why he couldn’t be interested in cooking and baseball; he never really needed to make a choice, other than on that one competition day. It’s a shame Eddie didn’t win the Cook-Off, but sadly, it did make sense having this “twist” ending. He didn’t have enough time, he didn’t make anything particularly impressive, and the use of the four “mystery” ingredients wasn’t anything special. It was also important to show that sometimes it’s worth working hard for something, and that it may take a few attempts to finally succeed at it.

Taylor Ball was chosen for the role of Eddie, after playing the part of Brian Miller in the sitcom Still Standing (2002-06). In recent years, Ball has stepped away from acting but seems to be a member of the band Tragic Forms.

For Eddie’s dad and baseball coach, Hank, Eddie’s love of cooking couldn’t come at a worse time. He believes that Eddie will be seen by a college scout soon, get a scholarship, and then have a long baseball career, however, Eddie soon becomes distracted from baseball. Hank doesn’t think it’s normal for a teenage boy to be interested in cooking and tries his hardest to steer him back to their baseball plan. It does take a while for Hank to be convinced that perhaps letting Eddie choose for himself is the best thing for him. Eventually, he sees that cooking makes Eddie happy and Hank wants to support that.

Hank Ogden was played by Mark L. Taylor, who may look familiar to DCOM fans as he played Mr. Fulton, manager of the Lava Springs Country Club, in High School Musical 2 (2007) and was also the dad in The Other Me (2000). Outside of this, Taylor was cast as Don Forrester in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and as Dr. Niles in Innerspace (1987).

On the opposite side, Eddie’s mother, Sarah, is supportive of Eddie’s love of cooking and even helps him properly measure out the ingredients for “Eddie’s Incredible Edible Barbeque Sauce” for the competition. Her and Eddie decide to keep this a secret from Eddie’s father as they don’t believe he’d be very understanding of it. It turns out they were right, and in fact, he seems annoyed that his wife wouldn’t tell him about Eddie’s cooking. Eddie’s mother is proud of Eddie regardless of what he’s doing and doesn’t like how much pressure Hank was putting on him to be a professional baseball player. To be honest, she probably liked being able to talk about something other than baseball at home! Susan Brady was cast as Sarah Ogden, having previously played the part of Astrid Kar, Zenon’s mother, in the DCOM Zenon: The Zequel (2001).

Eddie has three best friends in this movie: Frankie, D.B., and Hannah. They all go to school together and they all play baseball together as part of the Groundhogs. D.B. is the one who is the most against Eddie for liking to cook; he seems to find it weird and thinks cooking is “for girls”. D.B. takes the longest to come round but does eventually realise that he’s been an idiot, basically making it seem like he won’t be Eddie’s friend anymore if he keeps up with his cooking. Frankie, although he hates Home Economics, actually doesn’t seem to care that Eddie likes cooking; he accepts it quite quickly. Frankie likes to eat, so he is probably just looking forward to getting to be the chief taste-tester of Eddie’s new recipes!

Reiley McClendon was cast as D.B., having previously appeared in Disney’s The Kid (2000). McClendon went on to play one of the leads in the DCOM Buffalo Dreams (2005). The part of Frankie went to Orlando Brown, who had a long career with Disney Channel as a child and teen actor, being cast as Eddie in That’s So Raven (2003-07) and voicing the roles of Sticky Webb in The Proud Family (2001-05) and Cornelius Fillmore in Fillmore! (2002-04). In recent years, Brown was cast in Season 2 of the reality show Bad Boys (2022-23).

Hannah is the most accepting of Eddie throughout the movie and that’s because she has a similar problem with her mother that Eddie has with his dad. Hannah lies to her mother that she is a cheerleader because her mother was a cheerleader and Hannah doesn’t want to disappoint or upset her by saying that she is a baseball player. Hannah also says that she only took the Home Economics class so that her mother didn’t get annoyed that she’d chosen Field Hockey yet again. Hannah seems to have decided that her mother wouldn’t be accepting of her without even talking to her about it. It turns out her mum just wants her to be happy, so she had it a little bit easier than Eddie, whose dad basically wanted to disown him for choosing baseball over cooking!

Hannah is played by none other than Rose McIver who, since her teen acting days where she also appeared in the DCOM Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007), has gone on to have a very successful acting career. McIver was cast in the recurring role of Tinker Bell in the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) and went on to star as Liv Moore in the series iZombie (2015-19). McIver also starred in the Netflix Christmas movie trilogy A Christmas Prince (2017-19) as Amber Moore. Currently, McIver is playing the lead role of Sam Arondekar in the US version of the British sitcom Ghosts (2021-present).

Finally, we have the characters of Bridget and Mrs. Hadley. Bridget is, honestly, quite irritating and full of herself. She thinks she’s the best Home Economics student there has ever been and even has her own cooking utensils. She’d rather have all of Mrs. Hadley’s attention on her but she has to share it with Eddie. Bridget is not a nice girl, saying that Eddie’s baseball career is over and not being at all supportive during these after-school cooking lessons they have together, despite the fact Bridget clearly has more knowledge than Eddie does. She’d just rather keep it to herself because she feels threatened by Eddie. I am shocked at the end of the movie when Bridget thinks she should be invited to have Eddie Dogs with the Groundhogs just because she won the Cook-Off – hello, you weren’t nice to any of them so why should they be nice to you? But Eddie takes pity on her, clearly. Mrs. Hadley also has one of the best lines in this movie that knocks Bridget down a peg. Bridget asks Mrs. Hadley if she’s bullied by other kids because she likes to cook. Mrs. Hadley says “oh no, there are plenty of other reasons”, which is so true.

Mrs. Hadley was played by Nancy Lenehan who had roles in movies such as Catch Me If You Can (2002) as Carol Strong and Battle of the Sexes (2017) as Billie Jean King’s mother. Lenehan has had various roles in television series, including recurring roles in series like Veep (2012-19), as Mrs. Ryan, and Bless This Mess (2019-20), as Deb, as well as a main role, Sandy Kelly, in the sitcom Married to the Kellys (2003-04). Bridget was played by Kylie Leydon, who seems to have moved away from acting, but did appear as herself in the miniseries Ben & Kylie’s Brave New Build (2014-15), building a house with her partner.

There is also a cameo appearance by chef Bobby Flay, who first appears on television and then in person when he turns out to be the host of the Scholastic Cook-Off. Flay is a well-known American celebrity chef, restaurateur and food writer, yet I first heard of him from watching Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off because I’m British; we have Gordon Ramsay, Delia Smith, Mary Berry, Jamie Oliver, people like that on our screens. I think I saw Bobby Flay randomly on a Food Network show or something years later and was like “that’s the guy from Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off”! I’m sure it’s one of Bobby Flay’s proudest TV moments still to this day…

MUSIC

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is not a Disney Channel musical, but that doesn’t mean that it is devoid of music; you just might not have heard of the songs before.

One piece that should be recognisable to most is an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite”, specifically “Waltz of the Flowers”, which randomly appears during the first food fight scene in the Home Economics class. I guess the pretty music is meant to be in contrast to the absolute mess the kids are making in the room!

Outside of this, I personally had not heard of the other four songs that appear during Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off outside of watching the film, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like them. In fact, I very much like the song “Grow”, performed by April Start. This song appears when Eddie is struggling to balance his new Cook-Off classes and baseball games. I think “Grow” has a nice message about not giving up on your dreams and to keep going even when things get tough. This song was popularised because of its inclusion in this film.

Then there is the song “Soul Food”, performed by Leon Russell and Marc Benno. This takes place during the scenes of Eddie waiting for his response from the Cook-Off people to see if he got in. It’s got a bit of a country feel to it that I don’t like so much. This track featured on the 1990 CD re-release of Russell and Benno’s album Asylum Choir II.

“Centerfield” is quite rightly used during the scenes of the Groundhogs successfully winning their games so that they can get to the playoffs. This song is all about baseball so it fits in great with Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off. Again, this song is a bit too country for my tastes but I don’t dislike it. This track featured on singer John Fogerty’s third solo album, released in 1985 and titled Centerfield.

One more song is listed in the End Credits of this film and that is “Now We’re Cookin’”, performed by GBonafide and J-Hi, however, I cannot find this song anywhere online and I’m not sure where it appears in the movie. It’s possible it is the music that plays as Eddie makes that fried chicken meal early on in the story, but I’m not sure. There is also a song that is played during the scenes of Eddie being teased at school after getting in to the final of the Scholastic Cook-Off, but I’m not sure what song it is. It has lyrics like “I’m left on the outside, wondering why…”, but I can’t find it anywhere. This is just one of the difficulties of looking into a barely talked about Disney Channel movie; research is hard to do.

I also quite like some of the score within Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off, particularly the music that appears during the opening scene, the Cook-Off scene, and some of the scenes of Eddie’s late-night cooking at home. Since Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off did not have a CD soundtrack released, and the score has not been split into named tracks, I cannot be any more specific than that with this music. David Kitay is credited as the composer of the music here though. At Disney Channel, Kitay also composed the music for other DCOMs, like Cadet Kelly (2002) and Camp Rock (2008), and co-composed for Stuck in the Suburbs (2004) with Jeff Vincent. Away from Disney, Kitay has worked on the music for such non-Disney movies as Clueless (1995); Scary Movie (2000); and Over Her Dead Body (2008).

PRODUCTION

I was surprised to learn that Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off was filmed in New Zealand, specifically West Auckland, not in the US or even in Canada, as many Disney Channel movies seem to be made. I’m not wrong that not too many DCOMs have been filmed in New Zealand, but there have been a few others, such as Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006); Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007); and even Zenon: The Zequel (2001). ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires (2025) was also filmed in New Zealand.

I’m not a producer, I’m not a director, I’m not an actor, so I don’t know why New Zealand specifically was chosen as the primary filming location of Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off. California must have decent enough weather to accommodate the filming schedules, and there are no special sets here, just school buildings and baseball fields. It was most likely for budgetary reasons but who knows. The good thing about filming in New Zealand, or outside of the US generally, is that it can open up the casting pool. In this case, Kylie Leydon and Rose McIver are both actresses from New Zealand, as is Susan Brady.

Some of the most memorable and enticing scenes within Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off obviously involve baseball. I’m just kidding, baseball’s boring. Some have commented that the baseball scenes here aren’t even very realistic. As I know nothing about baseball, I have no further input on that, but I can judge the food and cooking scenes. They are the best scenes in the film. For some reason, I can’t get enough of seeing people throw random condiments on hot dogs, or layer lasagnes – Eddie even makes his own pasta from scratch -or see blenders explode all over the kitchen! If you’re a fan of cooking shows, but don’t want to hear any of the instructions for how to cook it yourself, then Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is perfect. But no problem if you do want to know how to cook some of these dishes for yourself because there are recipes online for Eddie Dogs and the barbeque sauce.

In amongst these beautiful culinary creations though, we get lots of wasted food as Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off has not one, but two food fights. I love how American TV likes to use food fights as key moments in children’s series and films because apparently it almost never happens in real-life! Yet all of us outside the US have been brought up to believe that these are regular occurrences. Some kids seem to love food fights, others hate them. Bridget and Mrs. Hadley seem to be the only two not having fun in the movie, but in behind-the-scenes footage, it looks like nobody is! The actors were excited to film the scenes initially, but by the time they’d filmed it and were covered in food, they said they just felt gross as the food stuck to their clothes and skin. It sounds disgusting. All the cameras and crew members got to be covered up in boiler suits so they were the lucky ones here[1]. 

Paul Hoen directed Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off. Hoen began his over two-decade career with Disney Channel by directing The Luck of the Irish (2001) back when Disney Channel were experimenting with their new way of making television movies. After Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off, Hoen went on to direct many more musical and non-musical DCOMs, including Jump In! (2007), Cloud 9 (2014), and all of the ZOMBIES movies[2].

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off’s teleplay came from Dan Berendsen, who had previously written the teleplays for the movies Sabrina Down Under (1999) and Sabrina Goes to Rome (1998), movies that add to the series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996-2003). For Disney Channel, much like Hoen, Berendsen has a long history of writing for their movies. Some of his other Disney writing credits include Twitches (2005) and its 2007 sequel, Stuck in the Suburbs (2004), and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).

RECEPTION

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off first aired on Disney Channel on 18^th July 2003, as one of their regular Friday Night Premieres. In the realm of Disney Channel fans, Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is generally considered to be one of their better non-musical movies. Some call this movie “wholesome” and “heart-warming”, which I certainly agree with. Taylor Ball and the performances of many of the young actors has also been praised by audiences. Many say this movie is underrated.

Others, though, do not enjoy this movie, saying that it is cheesy and clichéd, dismissing it because it is a Disney Channel movie. That could be because these particular people watched it when they were not the target audience. Sometimes adults watching movies intended for children and teenagers take them too seriously and look at them too critically so their opinions are biased to some extent. Some also said that they knew plenty of boys at school that were interested in cooking and were not teased. I’d say those people were very lucky, because I knew boys at school who were teased for this interest or for being interested in music. There were also girls I knew who were teased for wanting to play rugby, showing that harmful stereotyping goes both ways.

There were plenty of comments on the message within Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off. Looking into it, there are two schools of thought on it. The first is that this is in fact a “coming out” story, all about Eddie feeling confused about his identity. Director Paul Hoen stated this was the case[3]. I like that idea if you purely use Eddie’s story as a metaphor. The trouble comes if you take that metaphor and apply it literally to the events of the movie, because then I feel like the messaging gets confused. What this coming out story would seem to say, in this literal case, is that sure, men can like cooking, but straight men don’t. That’s not the case or the point of Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off.

That brings me to the other way of looking at this movie and that is all about challenging gender stereotypes. This is not only seen with Eddie’s love of cooking, but also with Hannah’s love of baseball instead of cheerleading. It is also shown when the Groundhogs rise up against their coach and tell him to stop making sexist remarks, about the Eagles coach being a nurse, this being an honourable profession regardless of gender, and that using the term “you run like a girl” is not helpful, when you could just say that someone is running badly. I sit within this opinion more so than the coming out story and that is just because I feel it is important for everyone to feel comfortable to pursue the hobbies or activities that interest them without fear that their sexuality will be questioned.

LEGACY

Unfortunately, since Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is over twenty years old, and is unlikely to be popular enough now to be re-run on Disney Channel particularly frequently, it exists only in the minds of people who have already seen it, for the most part. Of course, there are always people that want to watch movies they missed out on during their childhoods and will go back and see though – thank you, streaming.

With those who do remember Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off, many of them continue to love it and it has since made many lists ranking the Disney Channel Original movies. For example, it was ranked at No. 16 on The Ringer’s list of Top 40 Disney Channel Original Movies[4]. It also reached No. 32 on Vulture’s ranking of all the DCOMs that had been released at the time[5].

FINAL THOUGHTS

This shows that Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off may only have a place in the hearts of a few Disney fans, but that it continues to be one of the more popular ones because of its important message.

Eddie is bullied by his peers and disappoints his own father for his love of cooking. Although this is quite a specific example, pretty much everyone will have been bullied or felt weird just for liking something that perhaps other people of the same age did not. When I was at university, I was mocked by my flatmates for liking Disney because it wasn’t “normal” for adults to still be interested in Disney movies. It hurt a bit, and I did keep quiet about it around these few people for a while, but in the end, I decided I didn’t need to change myself – I didn’t have anything in common with them and knew that once I graduated, I wouldn’t be keeping in touch.

Nobody needs people like that in their life and if Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off taught me anything, it’s to never change yourself for anybody and feel free to like what you like. The ones judging you are the weird ones.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Behind the Scenes DCOM: Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-off’, Meredith_Vintage YouTube Channel, 28^th February 2023.

[2] Credit: DCOMers!, ‘A Conversation with the Disney Channel’s Paul Hoen’, Medium.com, 24^th July 2020.

[3] Credit: DCOMers!, ‘A Conversation with the Disney Channel’s Paul Hoen’, Medium.com, 24^th July 2020.

[4] Credit: The Ringer Staff, ‘The 40 Best Disney Channel Original Movies’, TheRinger.com, 18^th April 2023.

[5] Credit: Rebecca Alter, ‘All 105 Disney Channel Original Movies, Ranked’, Vulture.com, 4^th May 2020.