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

BACKGROUND

The humble sports movie, where we get to see the underdog triumphant over the usual victor. Predictable, yes, but still, very satisfying to watch. We all love an underdog, don’t we?

Disney Channel certainly holds a fair share of sports films in their catalogue, going as far back as the late 1990s. We saw kids and teens excel at activities like surfing, baseball, skateboarding, and of course, basketball. There were even some less commonly publicised sports at the heart of these stories, including motocross, drag racing, and inline skating.

Although not everyone will be familiar with every sport in every film, the basic premise of these types of movies is always the same: after much time spent practising and training for a big event, eventually it all comes down to that one moment, where we see if they will excel or falter, but know that regardless of the result, they tried their best.

Disney Channel has not made as many sports films in recent years, but there were a fair few of these back in the 2000s, and just one of these was Full-Court Miracle, released in 2003. This year also saw two other sports-themed DCOMs: Right on Track, which I have yet to see, and Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off, one of my all-time favourite DCOMs.

Full-Court Miracle’s sport of choice was basketball, a common sport in many North American films, since basketball is one of the most popular sports over there. Yet in the UK, basketball doesn’t get much of a look-in on our sports channels, which are mostly dedicated to football, with certain times of the year seeing more focus on tennis, golf, darts, and cricket.

Basketball is not a sport I’ve ever been interested in. Because of this lack of interest or understanding of the rules of basketball, I did struggle to feel fully invested in Full-Court Miracle, although I always like seeing the end results of any sports movie, regardless of whether I like the sport or not. But Full-Court Miracle also had a very important element that distinguished it from other sports movies, and that is the fact it is set during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, or Chanukah. This was considered to be quite progressive at the time, especially as there continues to be a lack of Hanukkah movies on television in the later part of the year because TV schedules are too filled up with Christmas films and specials.

I learnt quite a lot about Jewish culture from Full-Court Miracle, because I did not know very much at all before watching it. I have seen Hallmark’s Hanukkah on Rye (2022), which is one of the more well-received Hanukkah movies that have been released in recent years, and I learnt a little bit then, but Full-Court Miracle gave me some actual history.

PLOT

Full-Court Miracle begins with a teenage boy called Alex, also known as Schlots, because of his surname, Schlotsky, and his friend Julie talking about the misfortunes of Alex’s basketball team. They are about to play their biggest rivals, the Warriors, and both Alex and Julie can’t help but think his team, the Lions, is going to lose…badly.

Schlots then heads to school at Philadelphia Hebrew Academy and meets up with his friends and teammates, where Alex tries to convince them to stay motivated for the game, but they don’t seem that bothered about it. They go to their History class with Rabbi Lewis, where the story of Hanukkah is being taught, since Hanukkah is coming up. The story says that Judah led a group of warriors, the Maccabees, to a great victory over a huge army, after the Jewish people had been banned from practising Judaism. Judah and the Maccabees fought for their religious freedom. This inspires Schlots to believe that if his team can find their own Judah, then maybe the Lions can finally triumph over the Warriors.

At the game later against the Warriors, sure enough, the Lions lose. Schlots talks to his friends, Ben, Joker, Stick, and T.J., about the loss, but they’d rather talk about the presents they think they’ll be getting for Hanukkah. Schlots reiterates that if there’s going to be a time for their team to win, it’s now as the next tournament is taking place at their school gym, so home advantage. At home, Schlots tries to find comfort from his parents, but they don’t understand why he gets so upset about basketball, not seeing an NBA career in his future. His mother would rather he had a stable career, such as being a doctor, like her.

Back at school, Schlots asks Rabbi Lewis if they can find a real coach for their basketball team, as their current coach is the disinterested maths teacher. Rabbi Lewis suggests he discusses this with his mother, as Schlots’ mother is on the Board of Directors. He knows she won’t agree to that, so he drops it – for now. But whilst out playing basketball with his friends on the public court, he sees a man playing on his own, and he’s pretty good. Alex attempts to talk to this guy, but he isn’t interested in talking, and says he is just waiting to get a trial at the Philadelphia 76ers. He has no interest in coaching, and quickly leaves in his van. Luckily, Schlots caught his licence plate number and with the help of Stick, they find it is linked to Virginia Cavaliers Lamont Carr, a former player. They start to find all sorts of links between Lamont Carr and Judah Maccabee, like how his licence plate has the initials “JM”, and his basketball nickname was “The Hammer”, a nickname also given to Judah.

The next day, the group see Lamont playing on the court next to them again. Not wanting to lose the opportunity to get him to coach them, Schlots offers him $40 to coach them for one hour. Lamont is given the hard sell and agrees. However, Schlots comes home to find that his mother wants to sign him up to an after-school program at the hospital where he will shadow a doctor. Schlots doesn’t want to do that, but says he’ll think about it.

The team soon have their first coaching session with Lamont but all he does is make them run and do exercises. He says this is all necessary conditioning, but the others, apart from Schlots, are becoming demotivated. Lamont agrees to come back the next day for a further session, with Schlots asking his friends to chip in for the cost. On that day, Joker, not believing any of this stuff about Lamont being like Judah, attempts to prove to Schlots that Lamont Carr is not Judah Maccabee, however, they find out that Lamont had four brothers, like Judah; and his father is called Matthew, close to Judah’s father’s name, Matthias. After that session, the others don’t have any more cash to spare, so Schlots decides to sell a rare basketball card that was a Hanukkah present, to raise the funds.

Back at home, Schlots is told by his mother that he got a place in the after-school program. He is annoyed but doesn’t feel he has much choice but to do it. He complains about it to Julie, although she is less than sympathetic. She thinks the program would be a great opportunity, which gives Schlots an idea: she can go in his place so he can continue to play basketball; it’s the perfect plan! Except even perfect plans go awry. Schlots finds Lamont struggling to fix his van, and he says he can’t coach them anymore as he needs to focus on his basketball career and earn some proper money. Schlots says he’ll double his fee for coaching them and Lamont agrees to it. Schlots also tells Lamont to ease up with his intense exercise regime, as it is demotivating the others. Lamont does a shooting practice instead, which the others find much more fun. Lamont says the team have potential, but their biggest issue is that they don’t believe in themselves enough.

Later, Schlots and the Lions sell coffee on the street to raise money to keep Lamont as their coach. Their teacher from school, Mrs. Klein, pulls up by their cart and questions them. Schlots lies, and says it is a charity fundraiser. Mrs. Klein is still suspicious though and calls Schlots’ mother. On finding out about his lies, she is furious, and Mrs. Klein shuts down the coffee cart. Schlots tries to convince Rabbi Lewis of the importance of their new coach, but he says lying is never the answer. Rabbi Lewis decides Alex and his family should invite Lamont to dinner with Rabbi Lewis and his wife.

At this dinner, Lamont is slightly out of his comfort zone, as he is unfamiliar with Jewish customs. He soon picks up on them though and Rabbi Lewis warms to him. Schlots’ mother says that the parents are concerned – and rightly too – that this coaching has been taking place outside of school and by someone they don’t know. Rabbi Lewis suggests a perfect solution to this: to hire Lamont as the school’s basketball coach temporarily. Schlots’ mother is horrified as she knows this will only continue to take her son’s focus away from his studies, but the deal is done. Lamont will work at the school until his trial comes through.

On his first day at the school, Lamont doesn’t how to get the Lions to believe in themselves more, so Rabbi Lewis offers some words of encouragement, saying that the best way to defeat an enemy is to identify their weakness and target it. This gives Lamont the idea of implementing the full-court press, where their team will apply pressure to their opposition by aggressively defending against them throughout the entire length of the court. After practice, Schlots follows Lamont’s van on T.J.’s bike and discovers Lamont is living out of his van. Lamont tells Schlots about the family he has, and how this basketball trial needs to happen soon. He says sometimes to achieve a big dream you have to make sacrifices. Schlots can understand that. He promises not to tell anyone about Lamont’s living situation. On the first night of Hanukkah, Schlots gets the basketball card he sold as a gift from his parents; Julie had snitched on him about selling it to pay for Lamont’s coaching!

At school, Mrs. Klein needs Lamont’s address for his employment forms. Lamont makes up a fake address, but this only makes her suspicious and she complains to Rabbi Lewis about it. Not wanting Lamont to be fired, Rabbi Lewis warns Schlots that Mrs. Klein plans to follow Lamont home that evening to check his address. This gives Schlots enough time to come up with a plan. He asks his father if Lamont can stay in the apartment his father is unable to sell. His father agrees. Schlots then puts a note on Lamont’s car, telling him the plan and the address to drive to. At the apartment, the ruse is enough to persuade Mrs. Klein that Lamont has a home and she drives away. But Lamont doesn’t want any handouts, and promises Schlots’ father he will smarten up the apartment in exchange for letting him stay.

Schlots’ mother sees a failed test in Schlots’ backpack whilst this is happening and she goes into the school to discuss his studies. Lamont gives a pep talk to the Lions team before a match, saying that Schlots is off the team until his school work improves. Annoyed, he upsets his friend Julie by telling her she keeps harassing him, and even worse, he is unable to focus on anything other than basketball, so he has no idea how to pass his History test, which Rabbi Lewis is allowing him to re-do. His team come over to help him, using basketball to help him remember key facts. Schlots then takes his test. Meanwhile, the team are being told by Lamont how to act more like a team and what their key role will be.

After practice, Schlots is told that he has passed his test and is back on the team. However, the happiness is short-lived as Lamont soon reveals that he has got a temporary contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. Schlots is upset that Lamont is turning his back on the team, calling him selfish, but Lamont says he’s allowed to have a dream too. Schlots asks his mother if the school can hire a new coach but she says no, wanting him to focus on school. After a further lesson about the miracle oil in the lamp lit by Judah and the Maccabees which stayed alight for eight days instead of just one, Schlots asks Rabbi Lewis for some wisdom, and he tells him maybe they need to look for Judah in themselves.

It is then time for the tournament, where the Lions have to go on without Lamont. Schlots motivates the team, and they manage to win their first two games easily. As they are about to lose their third game, Schlots is fouled at the end of time, so the Lions are awarded two free throws. Schlots sinks both of them and they win, getting through to the Finals. After the match, Schlots sees his mother and tells her about the team’s success. She still doesn’t understand why Alex likes basketball so much, so he tries to explain it to her, saying he wants to have his dream, not spend time working for hers.

The day before the Finals, we see that Lamont is struggling with a previous knee injury and doesn’t seem to be loving playing basketball again. On the day of the final, there is a huge thunderstorm. Schlots and the Lions get pumped up, feeling ready to face the Warriors yet again. Schlots’ mother takes Julie to the game, but goes off to do something. She is actually at the stadium, looking for Lamont. She sees Lamont struggling with his van, saying he has to get to the airport. Schlots’ mother starts to wonder if there could be a miracle on this strangely stormy night and asks Lamont to try and start his van again – and it works. She convinces him to come to the game. During the game, eventually, the power goes completely. Outside, the teams try to work the backup generator, so they can finish the game. With the generator on limited time, the two teams come to an agreement that whatever the score is when the power runs out, that is the winner, regardless if there is time remaining. The Lions try to make up their 18-point deficit, and make a strong comeback. But a timeout is called by the math teacher, and their former coach, Mr. Simowitz, who says there is less than three minutes left on the generator. The Warriors overhear this and call their own timeout, wanting to waste those three minutes so they can win, as they still lead.

Lamont then arrives and tells them all to be more like Judah Maccabee and not admit defeat. Schlots goes back on the court ready to restart, when the generator runs out of oil. And yet, the generator restarts – and seems to want to stay on for the game’s final five minutes, mimicking the Hanukkah story. With five minutes left, the fight is back on. The Lions and the Warriors stay close in score, but with ten seconds to go, the Lions are left with one final chance to shoot and win. Schlots passes the ball to a teammate, who scores just as the timer finishes and the power goes off. The Lions win the Championship and the trophy! Schlots’ mother also arrived in time to see it, as did Lamont’s wife and child, reuniting him with his family. Lamont tells Schlots that he’s giving up basketball, wanting to be their permanent coach. Schlots’ mother is happy for the school to hire him permanently.

The film ends with Schlots and his family celebrating the final night of Hanukkah, before playing basketball together with Lamont’s family, whilst Rabbi Lewis gives a message about the celebration of light, in helping to illuminate dreams and bring hope to the world.  

CHARACTERS & CAST

Schlots, or Alex, is the primary focus of the story of Full-Court Miracle. Schlots is motivated to find his basketball team, the Lions, the best coach possible, since their current coach, their school maths teacher, doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered about whether the team win or lose. Schlots comes up against indifference from members of his own team, who aren’t looking to have a future career in basketball unlike Schlots, as well as exasperation from his mother who would rather her son focused on having a stable profession. But luckily, because of Schlots’ determination, he finds the Lions a brilliant coach, a former player, and the team go on to have all the success that Schlots had dreamt of winning with them. Schlots is a great leader for the team, and a good motivator.

Alex “Schlots” Schlotsky was played by Alex D. Linz. Linz had previously starred as Alex Pruitt in Home Alone 3 (1997), and voiced Young Tarzan in Disney Animation’s Tarzan (1999). He was later cast in the title role of Disney’s live-action film Max Keeble’s Big Move (2001) and appeared as Pete Calcatera in the medical drama Providence (1999-2002).

Lamont Carr is the new coach that Schlots finds for his team. Lamont is very reluctant when Schlots comes to him, wanting him to be their new coach. Lamont has no interested in coaching, and is just trying to keep himself fit and ready for a potential trial with the Philadelphia 76ers team. Lamont even walks away from Schlots the first time, and is not pleased to have him hassle him again the very next day. Lamont does relent though when Schlots offers to pay him for his time, eventually growing to like coaching the Lions. When Schlots’ school gets involved, Lamont is able to coach them properly, and does well with them – except Lamont does get his trial and leaves the Lions just before their big tournament, upsetting Schlots in particular. Lamont struggles with his recurring knee injury during the trial and is coaxed back to coaching the Lions, as a way of having a stable career and being able to spend time with his family once again, as he had sacrificed his time and home life with them to live out of his van, chasing a dream.

Richard T. Jones was cast as Lamont Carr. Around the time of Full-Court Miracle, Jones was playing Bruce Calvin van Exel in the legal drama Judging Amy (1999-2005). He went on to be cast as Governor Sam Denning in Seasons 2 and 3 of Hawaii Five-0 (2010-20). Currently, Jones has a main role in ABC’s The Rookie (2018-present), as Wade Grey.

For the rest of the Lions team, we have the four main members of Schlots’ friendship group, Ben, also known as “Big Ben”, Joker, T.J., and Stick. Ben appears to be the least athletic of the group, struggling with some of Lamont’s intense training regimes, but he becomes an integral part of the team, helping them win the tournament nonetheless. Ben was played by Sean Marquette, who shortly after Full-Court Miracle played Young Matt in the romcom 13 Going on 30 (2004), which starred Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner. Also around this time, Marquette voiced Mac in Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (2004-09). More recently, Marquette was cast in the recurring role of Johnny Atkins in the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs (2013-23) and its spin-off Schooled (2019-20).

T.J. is a bit of a hothead, who has been booked by the referees in multiple matches for talking back to them when results don’t go his way. Lamont teaches T.J. to be calmer, by getting him to think about his crush whenever he’s close to lashing out! T.J. was played by Erik Knudsen. He went on to be cast as Lucas “Crash” Wilson in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), after his role as Daniel Matthews in the horror movie Saw II (2005). Knudsen also appeared as Robbie Mercer in Scream 4 (2011). He was later nominated twice at the Saturn Awards in the category of Best Television Supporting Actor for his role as Alec Sadler in Showcase’s sci-fi series Continuum (2012-15).

Joker is the most cynical one of the group, both about the origin of Hanukkah, which he calls a “fairy story”, and about Lamont being like Judah Maccabee. Eventually, Joker gets on side and is able to help the team to their big victory over the Warriors. David Sazant was cast as Joker. He later went on to have a minor role as the Marymount Captain at the Mathletes competition in Mean Girls (2004). For his role in Full-Court Miracle, Sazant was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special – Supporting Young Actor.

Stick is the smart, studious one on the team, who is also the biggest follower of his faith. Stick is even the one to put forward the theory about Lamont being “their” Judah, and finding lacks to prove his theory. Stick was played by Jase Blankfort, with his character in Full-Court Miracle being his most recent acting credit.

Outside of his teammates, Schlots’ other close friend is Julie. She has followed Schlots’ team, the Lions, through the years and is constantly talking to Schlots about their lack of success and the reasons why they can’t improve. This might occasionally annoy Schlots, but Julie is a loyal friend to go to so many of these games even though the likelihood is the Lions will lose! She later helps Schlots out by taking his place on the hospital program his mother got him a place on, so Schlots can keep playing basketball after school. Later, Julie and Schlots have a falling out after Schlots snaps at Julie for always “harassing him” about basketball. Schlots’ mother helps the two make up as she drives Julie to the final tournament match to go and see the Lions finally win a trophy.

Cassie Steele was cast as Julie. At the time of Full-Court Miracle, Steele was appearing as Manny Santos in Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-15), being on the show from Season 1 until Season 9, which ended in 2010. Steele went on to voice various characters, including Tammy Gueterman and Tricia Lang, in the adult animated series Rick and Morty (2013-present). She is also singer, having released two albums, one in 2005, other in 2009. Apparently, Steele was set to voice Raya in Disney Animation’s Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) but the role actually went to Kelly Marie Tran. Steele was nominated for Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special – Leading Young Actress for her role as Julie in Full-Court Miracle.

Now for Schlots’ mother and father. Neither his father or his mother believe that Schlots is ever going to make it in the NBA, but his father is more inclined to let Schlots figure things out for himself instead of trying to push him towards something else. On the other hand, Schlots’ mother, a well-respected doctor, wants Schlots to follow in her footsteps and focus on becoming a doctor, or at least something a bit more stable, a profession he can rely on for years to come. His mother is quite forceful in her wishes for Schlots, because she gets him a place on a program he doesn’t want to be involved in, and gets him kicked off the basketball team for getting a bad grade on a History test. It isn’t until Schlots’ team gets to the Finals of the tournament and his mother asks him to explain why basketball is so important to him, that she finally understands that she needs to let her dream of her son being just like her go, so Schlots can have his own life, doing whatever makes him happy.

The actor who played Schlots’ mother may look familiar to Disney Channel Original Movie fans, as the actor, Linda Kash, played Samantha, Kelly’s mother, in Cadet Kelly (2002), which starred Hilary Duff. Kash also played Alma Hix in the made-for-television adaptation for ABC of The Music Man (2003), alongside Matthew Broderick as Harold Hill and Kristin Chenoweth as Marian around this time. Kash went on to play the recurring role of Nellie Hebert in the medical drama Doc (2001-04). Schlots’ father was played by Jason Blicker. He had previously been cast as Uncle Heschie on Fox Family and ABC Family’s series State of Grace (2001-02), just before his casting in Full-Court Miracle. More recently, Blicker was cast as Todd in the Canadian comedy series Jann (2019-21).

Then, we have Schlots’ teachers at Philadelphia Hebrew Academy. One of these is Rabbi Lewis, who is also their History teacher. Rabbi Lewis is constantly on hand to advise Schlots on his journey to finding a new coach for the Lions. When Rabbi Lewis discovers that Schlots has been lying to his mother so the team can have coaching sessions with Lamont Carr, he immediately resolves this problem by inviting Lamont to a family dinner and giving him a temporary role as the basketball coach at the school. Rabbi Lewis later gives Lamont advice on how to get the team in a winning position by saying that they need to use their opposition’s weakness to their advantage. This is all done via the analogy of comparing the Lions’ difficulties to that of Judah Maccabee in the Hanukkah story. Rabbi Lewis is basically the voice of reason in Full-Court Miracle. Rabbi Lewis was played by R. H. Thomson, who most recently played Matthew Cuthbert in the Canadian drama Anne with an E (2017-19) based on the Lucy Maud Montgomery novel Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Mrs. Klein is a strict teacher at the academy, always suspicious of Schlots and his basketball teammates. Mrs. Klein doesn’t like how these boys put too much emphasis on basketball and not enough on their studies, a feeling that is shared by Schlots’ mother. All Schlots’ lies unravel when Mrs. Klein sees Schlots and the others selling coffee, not as a charity fundraiser, but as a way of paying Lamont for his coaching sessions. But this ultimately leads to Lamont Carr being hired by the school, something Mrs. Klein is not too happy about, and this is made worse by the fact Lamont lies about his address, as he is living out of his van at that time. Mrs. Klein even resorts to following Lamont home in a bid to catch him out and get him fired, but this plan is foiled by Schlots’ quick thinking – and a tip-off by Rabbi Lewis! Ultimately, Mrs. Klein sees the importance of the school’s basketball team and cheers them on to victory in the final game.

Sheila McCarthy was cast as Mrs. Klein. McCarthy has had supporting roles in movies such as Die Hard 2 (1990), where she played Sam Coleman, and The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as Judith the librarian. She also has some history with the Walt Disney Company and their films. For example, she was cast as Mrs. Gerard in the Disney film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), which starred Lindsay Lohan. In the world of DCOMs, McCarthy was later cast as Angie, Addison’s grandmother, in ZOMBIES 3 (2022). She also played Fran Walker in Cow Belles (2006). Another actor from Full-Court Miracle, who also appears in Cow Belles is Ron Gabriel, who played Mr. Simowitz the former Lions coach here. He played Melvin the accountant in Cow Belles.

Since Full-Court Miracle is a basketball movie, it makes perfect sense that they would have a cameo appearance by a real basketball player. In this case, that player was Jerome Williams, who was active in the NBA from 1996 to 2005, playing for such teams as the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks. At the time of Full-Court Miracle, Williams was playing for the Toronto Raptors. He made two appearances during the movie, playing one-on-one with Lamont at one point in the film, and then speaking to Schlots’ mother outside the stadium as she is searching for Lamont to bring him to the Lions’ game.

MUSIC

Because Full-Court Miracle heavily focuses on its story, there are few songs that appear in it.

The most prominent song that appears in Full-Court Miracle is playing during the warm-up and final match between the Lions and the Warriors and that is “Spin ‘Ya Like A Dreidel”, written by Ray Cham and Rwaana Barnes. It was performed by SoL Survivor, a hip-hop song. It is a good backing track to the Lions’ fight against their arch rivals.

Two other songs are credited in this film, but I have little idea, if any, where they appear. One is “Team Theme”, written by Gary Mrowca and John Hiler, and performed by GBonafide and J-Hi. I think this could be the song that Lamont puts on when the Lions are having a practice session without Schlots. Lamont is telling each member of the team why they are important and how they fit into the game. This is then followed by Lamont leading the Lions in a new team song that is a hip-hop take on the typical camping or Scouts song “Everywhere We Go”, in a bid to further boost their commitment to the team.

The other song is “Monkey Thumbs”, written by Steve Bauman and Robert Willy Wood, performed by Stretch Nickel. I have no clue when this is used in Full-Court Miracle and I can’t find the song online anywhere to try and hear it to work it out myself, nor does anyone else seem to have worked out where it is.

For the score, composer Christopher Brady was chosen. Brady was a frequent collaborator with Disney Channel back in the 2000s, composing the music for other Disney Channel Original Movies like The Luck of the Irish (2001), Motocrossed (2001), The Poof Point (2001) and Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire (2000). He later composed the music for Going to the Mat (2004), another DCOM, and for Season 1 of Phil of the Future (2004-06).

PRODUCTION

Full-Court Miracle came to Disney Channel at a time when Disney Channel Original Movies were starting to have an identity and beginning to attract loyal viewers, with more musicals and films that complemented their series, as well as those that showcased the channel’s biggest stars from their series.

Full-Court Miracle doesn’t fit into any of these categories, meaning that it is one of those DCOMs that has been overlooked, simply due to the fact it came out in 2003, before the Disney Channel boom of High School Musical (2006), and it is not a musical.

Still, Full-Court Miracle saw some previous Disney Channel collaborators involved in the project, trying to make all these movies at least feel similar in style, even if their stories were very different. The director of Full-Court Miracle was Stuart Gillard, who had directed The Scream Team (2002) prior to this, and went on to direct other DCOMs such as the sports movie Going to the Mat (2004) and comedy Hatching Pete (2009). Gillard also directed some episodes of non-Disney television series later in his career, including the reboot of 90210 (2008-13) and the crime drama Beauty and the Beast (2012-16).

The writers involved with this film were Joel Silverman, Joel Kauffmann and Donald C. Yost. Yost and Kaufmann had been the screenwriters on Disney Channel’s Miracle in Lane 2 (2000) prior to working on Full-Court Miracle.

The story of Full-Court Miracle is actually loosely based on a true story, about a real basketball player named Lamont Carr. At 6 foot 7 inches tall, he was recruited out of a Chicago junior college to play for the University of Virginia college team, the Virginia Cavaliers. He helped the team win their first ACC Championship title in 1976. After his basketball career had ended, he later became interested in darts and earnt a law degree, before moving to Florida and becoming a gym teacher and basketball coach, during which time he coached a championship-winning basketball team at a Jewish school, this being the premise for Full-Court Miracle. Carr sadly died in July 2017 at the age of 64[1].

Some changes were obviously made to this story with the most obvious being that the Jewish school in Full-Court Miracle is based in Philadelphia, which has a large Jewish community. Strangely enough, but not so strange when you think about how many movies are filmed there, Full-Court Miracle was filmed in Toronto, Canada, not Philadelphia, with only some of the opening shots actually showing the city itself.

The other part of the story that Full-Court Miracle is based around is the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, Judaism’s festival of lights. For anyone unfamiliar, Hanukkah takes place on eight consecutive nights, where people gather to light a new candle on their menorah. They sing songs, eat traditional foods, and exchange presents too. The dates of Hanukkah vary year-on-year, but they always occur within November or December[2].

Full-Court Miracle frequently references the origin of Hanukkah. A small group of Jewish fighters, the Maccabees, led by Judah, fought against Greek rule and the Hellenists, who had banned their religion and its rituals. In the three-year conflict, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, but over time, it was cleaned and repaired. This long-standing battle is symbolised by the Lions and the Warriors going up against each other, and the Lions, the small, less equipped group, winning. To celebrate their victory, an oil lamp was lit by the Maccabees. They suspected there was only enough oil to burn the candle for one day. It stayed alight for eight days, so this is why a menorah has eight candles and why foods cooked in oil are traditionally eaten at this time of year in Jewish culture[3]. This miracle oil is referenced in Full-Court Miracle with the generator. The backup generator is about to run out of oil, but it miraculously stays on for just enough time for the basketball final to end.

After much annoyance over the lack of Hanukkah-themed movies around the holiday season, some Jewish viewers were very glad to see a positive representation of their Jewish identity in Full-Court Miracle. Full-Court Miracle actually followed another movie about Hanukkah, an animated comedy from Adam Sandler called Eight Crazy Nights (2002). Although it did not receive particularly good reviews, it was an attempt to showcase a culture that is underrepresented on television, and it was appreciated. Full-Court Miracle coming just a year later, and aimed at younger viewers, was a further step in the right direction[4].

RECEPTION

Full-Court Miracle debuted on Disney Channel on 21^st November 2003 in the US.

In 2003, Hanukkah began on 19^th December and ended on 27^th December, so this was a little bit early, but at least the film wasn’t late! No doubt it was re-run on the channel during the actual Hanukkah celebrations. At least, I hope those in Scheduling at Disney Channel had the foresight to do that.

I haven’t been able to find anywhere that specifically states the viewing figures for Full-Court Miracle on its premiere, but it is believed to have been a little below 4.5 million. For some context, the best film premiere of 2003 for Disney Channel was The Cheetah Girls, which gained over 6 million. So, not too bad in comparison, really.

Most DCOMs receive mixed reviews, due to their young casts, simple storylines, and lack of budget, which doesn’t necessarily make a film bad, but it does make them easier to critique. On the negative side here, some said Full-Court Miracle was weak compared to other Disney Channel movies of this era and beyond. Others said it was clichéd and predictable, with the ending of the Lions winning against all odds easily guessed from the outset of the film. There were also comments that the basketball playing in the film was not accurate either, annoying some fans of the sport. Since I am not one, I can’t say I noticed! It was also felt the metaphor of the Hanukkah origin story applying alongside Schlots’ bid for victory with his team and the oil continuing to fuel the generator was a little forced, and not appreciated to be applied to something as trivial as a school sports team.

On the lighter side, some enjoyed the cast, and felt it was an inspirational film for young people. It was appreciated for its representation of Jewish culture, being a good introduction for those unfamiliar with Judaism or Hanukkah itself in particular. Other said the movie was decent, but not amazing. I’m afraid that is the camp I sit in. But others absolutely love this film, and feel it was ahead of its time in terms of depicting Jewish culture.

Full-Court Miracle may not have been beloved by the masses, but it was still nominated for some awards. The movie’s writers were nominated at the Writers’ Guild of America Awards for Children’s Script, but lost to The Maldonado Miracle (2003), a TV movie that starred Salma Hayek. Full-Court Miracle was also nominated at the Humanitas Prize awards in the Children’s Live-Action Category. Disney Channel’s Going to the Mat (2004) was also nominated in this category, but both lost to Crown Heights (2004).

LEGACY

Full-Court Miracle followed a string of sports-themed Disney Channel movies, which went back to 1998 with their first of this kind, Brink!

It would make sense then, that Disney Channel would continue to add more films of this type to their catalogue, although not as many in recent years. Since Full-Court Miracle, we’ve seen figure skating in Go Figure (2005); Double Dutch skipping in Jump In! (2007), and snowboarding skills in Cloud 9 (2014), just to name a few.

The most important part of Full-Court Miracle’s legacy though is that it is one of few movies about Hanukkah, which has made it memorable in the minds of former Disney Channel viewers, particularly those who are Jewish themselves. It was also ranked at No. 11 on Vulture’s ranking of the 105 Disney Channel Original Movies released at the time. The reason for this ranking was that Full-Court Miracle is apparently one of the only movies in American cinema to depict a modern-day Jewish school. It was also a chance for Disney Channel to show that there are other holidays being celebrated around the world besides Christmas[5].

Being remembered for something notable like this is much better than just being remembered for being a popular Disney Channel franchise. Full-Court Miracle might be just one in a list of DCOMs, but for some, it might be the one that represented them the most. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Full-Court Miracle is labelled as a Hanukkah sports movie, showing that the two ideas were meant to blend seamlessly. The success of this can be debated.

Personally, I would say the balance does skew more towards the basketball, but I did also learn plenty about Hanukkah and Jewish culture. Since I’m not Jewish, I hadn’t given much thought to the lack of films on television that celebrate Hanukkah, with festive Christmas films, full of cookie baking and tree decorating, dominating the schedule.

It would seem Full-Court Miracle went some way in trying to accurately reflect the teenage Jewish experience and their family traditions. Although not a perfect representation, Full-Court Miracle was much appreciated by some young viewers for this very reason; it made them feel seen.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Virginia Magazine, ‘In Memoriam: 1970s’, UVAMagazine.org, Fall 2017.

[2] Credit: Giovanna Dell’Orto, ‘When is Hanukkah, and how is it celebrated around the world?’, PBS.org, 30^th November 2023.

[3] Credit: CBBC Newsround, ‘Hanukkah: What is it? How is it celebrated? What do you eat and why?’, BBC.co.uk, 6^th December 2023.

[4] Credit: Will Feinstein, ‘A great Hanukkah movie would take a miracle’, AVClub.com, 11^th December 2020.

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

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

BACKGROUND

My childhood television watching can be split into three stages. The first was Cartoon Network; the second was Nickelodeon, where I watched mostly re-runs of Saved by the Bell (1989-93), and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003); and the third was Disney Channel, which I started watching when I was about 11 or 12, and then watched pretty much exclusively from the age of 13.

I was there for some of Disney Channel’s best programming, like Lizzie McGuire (2001-04); That’s So Raven (2003-07); and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08). From this point, I also found Disney Channel Original Movies. I know I watched a few in the early 2000s, but not many. I’m not actually convinced I watched them on their premiere either. The earliest one I’m fairly sure I watched “live” was Go Figure in 2005.

Go Figure was part of the pre-High School Musical era of Disney Channel. It’s a well-known fact that after High School Musical was released in 2006, Disney Channel began to really focus on their movies, making them higher budget, bigger productions, but that doesn’t mean that the ones that came before weren’t worth seeing.

I loved Go Figure, and I think I can credit it with my love of figure skating. Not actually skating myself, but watching it. Since Go Figure, I’ve seen many films all about figure skating, with Ice Princess (2005); I, Tonya (2017); and Blades of Glory (2007) being my favourites. In another life, I’d like to think I could’ve been a figure skater, or a ballet dancer, or a gymnast. But in this life, I’m too old, not flexible enough, and much too worried about breaking all the bones in my body, or breaking my face.

But Go Figure isn’t just about pretty, little figure skaters. It’s also about a girls’ ice hockey team. Disney had previously made movies like Miracle (2004) and The Mighty Ducks trilogy about hockey teams, but these were not solely for women, with ice hockey primarily being seen as a “man’s sport”. Go Figure explores sexism in sport, showing that just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you have to “skate around in frilly dresses”. You can compete in a different kind of sport, that requires physical strength as well as intelligence.

I’m not a fan of ice hockey, and wasn’t a sporty person at school, however, I have always liked Go Figure, having seen it many times. Although I like the scenes of figure skating the most, I have always enjoyed the overall message, about teamwork, resilience, and determination in achieving your dreams, whatever they may be.

PLOT

Go Figure begins at a figure skating competition where Katelin Kingsford is competing. She tells the audience she has dreams of being one of the best, with a gold medal and her face on a cereal box. Although Katelin loves her current coaching team, Bob and Ginger, she knows they can’t make her a star. For that, she’ll need a Russian: Natasha Goberman.

In this competition, which Natasha happens to be watching, Katelin does not win and actually falls during her routine. Katelin had hoped for some karma points by giving her “lucky” scrunchie to a younger competitor, choosing to tie her hair up with a rubber band in place of the scrunchie, but the rubber band snaps during one of Katelin’s tricks and that is what caused her to lose balance. But it doesn’t matter, because Natasha saw enough potential in Katelin to talk to her, telling her she wants to train her, to make her a star.

To do that though, Katelin has to go to Buckston Academy, where Natasha trains figure skaters. This is an expensive boarding school, and despite Katelin’s begging and pleading, her parents tell her they cannot afford to send her there. Katelin then asks her brother, Bradley, for his signed hockey puck collection so she can sell them to pay for her tuition, but he angrily tells her to get out, having no respect for Katelin’s dream of being a professional “twirl girl”, the name ice hockey players apparently give to figure skaters.

Katelin tells Natasha she can’t afford to train at Buckston, which is disappointing to Natasha who really wants to coach Katelin, but without a scholarship, there is no chance – and Buckston doesn’t have a scholarship for figure skating. No problem, because Natasha has an idea. She goes to the girls’ hockey team coach, Coach Reynolds, and says if he lets Katelin take his final scholarship spot, then he can take Natasha out on a date. Coach Reynolds doesn’t think it’s a good idea since Katelin doesn’t have any experience of playing ice hockey, but he agrees anyway. The man is weak to Natasha’s charms…Katelin is ecstatic to be going to Buckston Academy, but Bradley, a real hockey player, is furious that Katelin can get a scholarship for “his” sport without even knowing how to play. Bradley then gives up hockey and instead starts building robots with one of his friends.

Meanwhile, at school, Katelin is immediately thrown into hockey training and it’s quite clear to the other coaching staff, and the rest of the team, that something is not right here. Katelin is small, weak, and lacks any balance or speed on the ice; she’ll make this team a disaster. Coach Reynolds tries to convince the others that Katelin is their “secret weapon”. Yeah, they’re not buying it! Katelin finds her new roommate is one of her fellow hockey players, Amy Henderson, but everyone calls her Hollywood. The team captain, Ronnie, and another player, Mojo, come in to their room, saying how the team is unlikely to be winning anything this season yet again. Katelin starts to unpack her stuff, but soon learns that the hockey girls hate “twirl girls”, so she hides her figure skating gear in the janitor’s closet and pretends to be somewhere else when she is out at figure skating training. Katelin finds her new school schedule of regular classes, hockey training, and figure skating coaching to be a difficult balance. She isn’t doing well in her classes; the hockey girls don’t like her; and the figure skating girls see her as major competition since it’s obvious to them she is Natasha’s new favourite, this season’s “Sputnik” as Natasha likes to call her.

During the first hockey game of the season, Katelin hopes she’ll remain on the bench because she’s not very good so there’s no point making her play, something Coach Reynolds agrees with. Natasha also doesn’t want her to get injured. However, one of the other coaches, Spencer, reminds Coach Reynolds that Katelin is a scholarship student so she has to play. Spencer does this in the hopes that Katelin will quit the team. Sure enough, Katelin does not do well on the ice, letting Captain Ronnie get pulled to the ground by the opposition team. Ronnie is fuming and goes to fight her. The rest of the team pull her off Katelin, however, Hollywood storms into their room later, telling Katelin she got off easy, considering what Ronnie should’ve done to her would’ve been a lot worse. Hollywood then knocks over a cup of juice on the floor and says she needs to get a mop. Knowing all her figure skating stuff is in the janitor’s closet, Katelin quickly says she’ll go instead. But she must’ve taken too long because Hollywood comes into the closet and sees all of Katelin’s figure skating gear. Hollywood says she knew it all along, but promises to keep it secret.

The hockey girls, apart from Hollywood, continue to view Katelin with scepticism. The only good thing to come from hockey is that Spencer has stopped bothering her after Katelin made a deal with him whilst doing solo training that if she can get the puck past him, he won’t talk to her again. She manages to do so by using one of figure skating tricks to jump over him. Spencer is impressed. However, the figure skating girls are still an issue. Pamela, seeing Katelin getting private coaching with Natasha, wants to ruin all Katelin’s chances of being better than her, so Pamela invites Katelin to a party. Katelin has training at 9pm on Saturday nights but she turns up for a little while. On her arrival, Katelin is asked to go to the supply closet to get more cups. When she gets in there, Katelin picks up the cups, only for purple paint to spill all over her. Pamela then locks her in the closet. At 9:45pm, the janitor opens up the closet, freeing Katelin. Knowing she’s late, Katelin rushes over to see Natasha and is devastated to find Pamela has taken her spot – and what’s worse is that gold medallist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is there. Natasha tells Katelin she brought Kristi here as a reward for Katelin’s hard work, but tells Katelin she obviously doesn’t care enough about skating to show up on time, and sends her away. Katelin sadly sits in the stands watching over Pamela’s session with Kristi as she tries to get the paint off her. Just before Kristi leaves, she has a conversation with Katelin, telling her that Natasha thinks she will go far, something that Natasha doesn’t just say about anyone, but that Katelin needs to decide if she wants to put the extra effort in to make it.

After all this, plus her failing school grades, and her struggles with hockey, one night Katelin gets on a bus and goes home, telling her parents she has quit. At home, Katelin is horrified to find that her mother expected her to quit and that her bed has even been moved out of her room while her mother starts up an online business. Katelin then sees a box with her plushies in there labelled as junk. Katelin carries the box outside and sits on a street bench. Inside, Katelin discovers old medals and photos of her mother, showing that her mother was a brilliant figure skater years ago. Katelin’s mother sits beside her and says how her weak ankles stopped her going far, and that she decided having a family was more important than figure skating. This gives Katelin a renewed energy to achieve the dream her mother couldn’t. She decides she’s going back to Buckston.

Back at school, Katelin puts all her effort in to every aspect of her school experience: classes, hockey, and figure skating. She starts to excel in all areas, and even manages to help the hockey team win their first game of the season. Apparently, the girls’ hockey team hadn’t won a game in three years… That’s a terrible statistic. Katelin motivates the others to aim for the championship win, and starts to help them, by giving them ballet lessons to improve their balance and agility; coming up with tactical ideas using geometry, something Bradley told her about before even getting to Buckston; and by using “colourology”, finding the girls’ power colours, to help them mentally. The team keep on winning.

Within figure skating, Katelin still struggles with competitive girls, but one of them, Shelby, is having a hard time trying to keep up with the younger girls. Katelin goes for a walk with Shelby and tells her that there’s more to life than figure skating, so if she no longer loves doing it, then perhaps it’s time to find something else.

The girls’ hockey team wins their next game and gets to the Championship game; however, Katelin finds that it is on the exact same day as the Senior Nationals for her skating. Hollywood and Natasha try to convince Katelin to choose the Nationals over the Championships, since the team could win without her, but it’s up to her and her alone to compete in Nationals. Katelin doesn’t know what to do, and her parents won’t decide for her. As she ponders what to do, Katelin sees one of her mother’s old skating costumes online and decides to buy it.

On the day of the Championships, Spencer, who has remained fascinated by Katelin’s skills on the ice, is shocked to find Katelin at the hockey game, having worked out that she is a figure skater a few weeks ago and wanting her to go to the Nationals competition instead, because that is where they select the Olympic Team. Katelin ignores everyone trying to tell her she shouldn’t be there and focuses on winning this game. It’s not looking good though as the team are already three goals behind. Katelin gives the team a pep talk during half-time and the team go back out with some motivation to win. They try their best but unfortunately, they do not win. Great, Katelin gave up Nationals for nothing.

Except Spencer answered Katelin’s phone during the game. It was a call from Bradley saying he was going to delay the competition. After hearing his mother say that both him and his sister can be good hockey players, he realises he was being silly giving up hockey and choosing robotics instead. So, Bradley uses his robot to delay the competition, letting the stewards run all over the ice trying to stop it. Eventually, the Zamboni is brought out and it crushes it. But the delay was enough, because Spencer has packed all Katelin’s figure skating belongings and told Katelin they can make it if they go right now.

The hockey girls discover Katelin is a “twirl girl” after her stuff spills out in the hurry to leave, but she rushes off without explaining. In the car, Katelin gets herself together, with Spencer telling her that Pamela destroyed all Katelin’s costumes so he had to grab the one that was in the box. This turns out to be a good move because that costume is her mother’s old one that she ordered. Disaster strikes soon after though as Katelin realises she only has one of her skates. Katelin tells Natasha, who plans to steal a pair from another girl, but Katelin tells her not to do that. Katelin chooses to skate in her hockey boots – which are apparently very different to figure skates, as hockey ones do not have a toe pick.

Katelin begins her routine – and promptly falls down since those skates were not suitable. The hockey girls rush to the ice at that point with her other skate, but it’s too late. The competition has ended and the judges are tallying their final scores. Natasha tries to convince the judges to let her skate again, but they will not. Ronnie then begins a chant of “Let her skate”, which is picked up by the hockey team, then Katelin’s parents, then Natasha, and then the crowd. The noise is overwhelming and the judges allow Katelin another try.

Katelin changes into her proper skates and begins. Her routine is amazing, almost flawless, and the girls rush onto the ice to lift her up in celebration. The judges then name the skaters who made it into the Olympic Team… Katelin’s name is there! All that hard work paid off. Katelin is on her way to getting her face on that cereal box. What a dream…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Katelin Kingsford is a hard worker, wanting to be the best figure skater in the world. She dreams of winning a gold medal. Thankfully, Katelin is spotted by a great coach who wants to get her to the Olympics and hopefully to winning that medal. But the only way to do that is to play ice hockey, something Katelin has never played and isn’t exactly a sport she’s built for. Although Katelin has her struggles at Buckston, finding it wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped, she pushes herself to be the best in all areas. In the end, Katelin finds that she likes the camaraderie of being in a team, whereas with her skating, Katelin has only herself to rely on and has to do that with all the bitchiness of the jealous competitors. Having friends is a new concept for Katelin. Katelin does get the opportunity to fight for that gold medal and the best part is she gets to have her team around her, supporting her all the way.

Jordan Hinson was cast as Katelin. Hinson went on to be cast as Zoe Carter in Eureka (2006-12) and appear as Roxy Daly in the ABC series Kevin from Work (2015). She also wrote and starred in Breaking & Exiting (2018). Apparently, Hinson could not skate prior to her casting in Go Figure, so she had to spend time training. However, Hinson did not do all the skating in the film herself and had skating doubles, which are very obvious at times. One of these was Stephanie Rosenthal, who went on to have a breakout competition at the 2006 Nationals. Another was BreAnn Brown who went on to portray Tinker Bell in Disney on Ice around 2010, with Brown crediting her performance in Go Figure as being a factor in getting her an audition with Disney on Ice[1].

Katelin is pushed hard by her coach, Natasha Goberman. Natasha comes across as being very strict and harsh, coaching Katelin late into that night because her schedule is so full with all that hockey training. Natasha is disappointed with Katelin after she doesn’t show up to her 9pm training because, you know, she was trapped in a closet, so missed the opportunity to train with Kristi Yamaguchi. Natasha did tell Kristi that Katelin was going to be one of the best though, so she has seen the drive and talent in Katelin to believe she’ll achieve. It’s clear from the moment when Katelin gets on to the Olympic team that Natasha is incredibly proud and glad to be on this journey with Katelin.

Natasha Goberman was played by Cristine Rose. Rose is perhaps best known for her role as Angela Petrelli in Heroes (2006-10) and its spin-offs, as well as for her recurring role as Virginia Mosby in How I Met Your Mother (2005-14).

Then, there is Katelin’s primary competition in the figure skating team at Buckston Academy, Pamela. She wants nothing more than to either get Katelin to leave the school, or get her to fall out of favour with Natasha. Pamela’s dirtiest trick is to lock Katelin in a closet and take her place at training with Natasha that evening. Pamela doesn’t actually do all that much after that. I guess she realises that Katelin’s newfound positive attitude after she almost quit is too difficult to try and break down. Pamela appears at the Nationals competition and tries to get the judges to not let Katelin skate, but she is thwarted by Katelin’s hockey teammate, Mojo, who spills marbles all over the floor, tripping Pamela and embarrassing her so much that she leaves. Pamela did not get a place on the Olympic team either, just to make it even worse for her.

Brittany Curran was cast as Pamela. Around the same time as Go Figure, Curran appeared in the recurring role of Chelsea in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08). She went on to be cast as Lucy Tranelli in the series Men of a Certain Age (2009-11). Curran later was cast as Fen in the Syfy series The Magicians (2015-20), and as Katie Nolan in Chicago Fire (2012-present).

For Katelin’s hockey teammates, three of them are the most important to the story. One is Hollywood, Katelin’s roommate as well as teammate. Hollywood is the first one to discover that Katelin is a figure skater, and, although she finds it funny, she isn’t overly surprised and doesn’t decide to tell any of the other hockey players, who wouldn’t have been as understanding. Ronnie, for example, wouldn’t have been very understanding, at least not at the start of Katelin’s time on their team. Ronnie doesn’t think much of Katelin as a hockey player, and, when she tries to give Katelin a chance to prove herself during a game, Katelin doesn’t do what was asked of her and causes Ronnie to be blocked and fall on the ice. This makes Ronnie angry and it takes a while for Katelin to win her trust again. She eventually does so when Katelin helps the team get to the Championships and she thanks Katelin for all her hard work in getting them that far. Then, there is Mary Johnson, also known as Mojo, because she believes in magic, holistic treatments, that sort of thing, and thinks they can help the team win. I’m not sure Mojo’s lucky powder had much to do with it.

Whitney Sloan was cast as Hollywood. Sloan went on to star in stage musicals like West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof. Ronnie was played by Amy Halloran, who went on to star as Heather Posen in the series Unleashed (2011). Mojo was played by Tania Gunadi, who was cast as Cindy in the DCOM Pixel Perfect (2004) prior to Go Figure. Gunadi went on to be cast as Emma Lau in Aaron Stone (2009-10) and voiced Miko Nakadai in the animated series Transformers: Prime (2010-13).

Then there is Spencer, a member of the hockey team’s coaching staff, but also a student at Buckston Academy. Spencer is very sceptical of Katelin’s scholarship to the hockey team and he suspects there is something not right there. Spencer learns that Coach Reynolds agreed to Katelin being on the team only because Natasha agreed to go to dinner with him if he did. Spencer then uses this to, surprisingly, blackmail Coach Reynolds in to letting Katelin play in one of their games. This is after Spencer has been impressed with Katelin’s dedication to the hockey team and seen her incredible improvement in the sport. Spencer seems to be obsessed with Katelin and how she is managing to balance her busy schedule because he follows her – not creepy at all – and sees her skating at one point, so he knows all about her figure skating. This means that Katelin has someone else on her side for when she has to make the quick exit from the Hockey Championships to the Nationals. There is also a blossoming romance between Katelin and Spencer, but it’s a bit awkward with their age gap and lack of chemistry, to be honest…

Jake Abel was cast as Spencer. He went on to be cast as Luke Castella in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), reprising the role in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013). More recently, Abel appeared as Sasha Harrison in Season 1 of Netflix’s Another Life (2019-21), and as Kevin Golden in Season 3 of Walker (2021-24).

Finally, we have Katelin’s family. Her brother, Bradley, is having a difficult time adjusting to the fact that his sister is, all of a sudden, a brilliant hockey player, making his success in hockey pale in comparison. Because of that, he feels he has to quit hockey and find something else. His father, Ed, doesn’t seem to notice any of this, choosing to spend much of the movie either watching TV or betting on his daughter about whether she’ll quit school or go to the Hockey Championships, but his mother, Linda, does. She tells Bradley that he doesn’t need to give up hockey just because Katelin is playing it.

Katelyn’s parents, Ed and Linda, were played by Jodi Russell and Curt Doussett. Bradley was played by Ryan Malgarini who was cast as Harry Coleman in Disney’s Freaky Friday (2003) alongside Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. He is set to reprise this role in the upcoming sequel Freakier Friday (2025). Malgarini also appeared in a couple of television series, including as Tom Brooks in the sitcom Gary Unmarried (2008-10), for which he won a Young Artist Award in the Supporting Young Actor category.

MUSIC

There is a mix of music within Go Figure, with these being mostly either pop music or classical music, with the classical music featuring during the figure skating scenes, and the pop numbers being used during montages or as background music.

I’ll start with the music that is used for the montages as these were the most obvious and recognisable. Two of these come during the “emotional peak” of Katelin’s journey at Buckston Academy. The first is “Crash Goes My World”, performed by Cadence Grace, which is played at the point that Katelin is feeling really low, failing her classes, still struggling with hockey, and trying to regain Natasha’s trust. Katelin quits school and goes home.

But whilst at home, she has a conversation with her mother which motivates her to be successful at Buckston Academy, so she does just that. Katelin focuses on her classes, figures out how to be a great hockey player, and proves to Natasha that she will be one of the best figure skaters she’s ever coached. During this montage, “I Want Everything”, written by Antonina Armato and Tim James, and performed by Hope 7, is played. This is my favourite song in the movie.

Just a little bit later, there is another montage of Katelin helping the hockey team do well and progress through their matches. Here, “Greatest Day”, written by Jaret Reddick and performed by Bowling for Soup, is used.

The only other piece of prominent pop music within Go Figure is the song “Go Figure”. It was written by Andy Dodd and Adam Watts, and is performed by Everlife. The song first appears as background music just before the first hockey game of the season, but it is used as the End Credits song and as the title song of the movie. This is the only piece of music that is credited.

Outside of that, the other songs to appear in Go Figure are mostly just used as background music. For example, you can hear “She Said” at the point that Katelin is in the school cafeteria and Pamela invites her to a party. This song was written by David Frank, Lindy Robbins, and Pam Sheyne, and performed by Brie Larson – yes, as in the Brie Larson who is Captain Marvel; I didn’t know she was a singer. The first and only song we hear at this party is “Anthem” by Superchick. Following on from that, there is the music playing at the hockey team’s victory party. A sort of techno instrumental piece is heard first, before “Life is Beautiful”, performed by Raven-Symoné, is requested by Ronnie as the next song.

Then, there are two songs that you probably wouldn’t be able to hear unless you were looking for them, because these are both played during conversations between the characters. When Katelin asks her brother to give her his signed hockey puck collection to sell for her school tuition, “Life is Good” by Junk can be heard. Later, as Hollywood confronts Katelin about her failure during the hockey match that day, where Ronnie ended up being tackled to the ground because Katelin didn’t do what was asked for her, “I Can Do Anything” is played. This song was written by Bridget Benenate and Matthew Gerrard, and was performed by Caleigh Peters.

All nine of these tracks appear on the Go Figure official soundtrack, which was released in June 2005.

Outside of this soundtrack, I am less confident about the rest of the music that is used in Go Figure. After the first training session for Katelin with the hockey team, Ronnie turns on the stereo and a rap song is playing. Despite numerous attempts to find this song, I can’t figure out what it is. As Katelin meets Hollywood and moves into her new room, some background music is playing, but I can’t hear any lyrics, and again, can’t work out if this is part of the score for Go Figure or is a specific track. I had a similar problem with the other song that I haven’t been able to place. This song comes as Katelin walks past Spencer and his band performing one night. I can hear the song and its lyrics clearly, but I haven’t been able to work out if this is a real track or whether this song was created for the film.

I had more success with the classical music pieces that are played during some of the figure skating scenes. For example, the music that is used for Katelin’s first Skate Club, as the group warm up, seems to be an extract from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550. Then, during the scene of Kristi Yamaguchi coaching Pamela, Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems to have been used. Finally, for Katelin’s final routine which she performs at the Senior Nationals, she begins her routine to a section of Summer from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Her music then turns more contemporary but I don’t know what the other two pieces of music are, unfortunately, or whether they were part of the overall score.

The score for Go Figure was composed by Kenneth Burgomaster, who has composed the score for other Disney Channel projects, including the movies Halloweentown High (2004), Cow Belles (2006) and Return to Halloweentown (2006), and Season 2 of the series Phil of the Future (2004-06). 

PRODUCTION

Disney Channel has always liked to make movies based on sports because it is a shared experience. Everyone has had to play sports at some point in their life. Even if they absolutely despised it. Schools seem to think it’s a good idea to enforce it as part of their curriculum. Mean.

Go Figure is just one in a list of sports-themed DCOMs, but here, they decided to showcase two sports, both of which were popular back in the 2000s. Ice hockey has continued to be listed in the Top 5 sports in the United States in terms of viewership, reportedly being the fourth most popular sport in the world too[2].

Figure skating used to be incredibly popular in the US, especially in the 1990s, but something changed in the early 2000s. Back in the day, the names Tonya Harding, Michelle Kwan, and Kristi Yamaguchi were easily recognised. Let’s also not forget the infamous “incident” between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in January 1994 – further immortalised in the movie I, Tonya (2017) starring Margot Robbie – which led to many viewers worldwide tuning in to watch the two go head-to-head at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, to the point where it became one of the most-watched sports events of 1994, reaching 48.5 million viewers on just the one day of the women’s figure skating short program. Two decades later, the total 11 days of the Olympics figure skating competition in Sochi got less than half of that, reaching 21.4 million viewers[3].

Some speculate that the reason for this is that advancement in skates have led to even quadruple jumps, not just triples, being more common in competition, making nothing seem particularly difficult anymore. There was also the judging scandal of 2002 at the Olympics in Salt Lake City that led to a new, some say complicated, scoring system[4].

Scores used to be awarded in two categories: technical merit and artistic presentation, with both being given a maximum 6.0 score. However, when skaters are close in scores, the judges would rank these skaters against each other, with little to no criteria needing to be met to reach this decision, so it was very subjective. In the case of 2002, the competition was between the Russian pairs team and the Canadian pairs team. Although Russia is well-known for their figure skating history, winning numerous gold medals over the decades, the Canadian pairs team of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were confident. It was almost a home Olympics for them, and they were going to be skating to the theme from the movie Love Story (1970), an American favourite.

During the free skate competition, the Russian team made a few errors, whereas the Canadians responded with a practically flawless routine, although it was less technically difficult than that of the Russians. Still, many in the Canadian camp believed they’d done enough to seal the gold medal. In actual fact, they had not, with the majority of the judges ranking Canada behind Russia, handing the gold to them, and the silver to Canada. This led to claims that the judging was rigged, specifically that one judge had been pressured to vote a certain way. An investigation into the judging panel was launched and a media frenzy erupted. There was a supposed quid pro quo between France and Russia, stating that if the French judge voted in favour of Russia in the pairs figure skating, then the Russian judge would do the same for France in the ice dancing competition. In the end, the French judge was suspended, and Salé and Pelletier were given the gold medal, shared with the Russian pairs team of Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya. Those at the centre of the scandal deny involvement in the fixing[5].

The claims of rigged voting are believed to have tarnished the sport of figure skating forever, in North America in particular. Even with the overhaul of the scoring system, figure skating’s popularity has not bounced back. This might explain why there are fewer screen stories about figure skating nowadays. There was that Netflix series Spinning Out (2020) but that was cancelled after only one series, and obviously we had I, Tonya (2017) but that was a fictionalised account of a well-known figure skating incident from the 1990s. Sadly, in the UK, figure skating has not been incredibly popular since the 1980s when we had Olympics success with Torvill and Dean. We have a competition show with celebrities called Dancing on Ice (2006-present), with Torvill and Dean as coaches and now judges, but that’s got very samey in the last few years. It’s not even close to figure skating either. You mostly just wonder how long it’ll be until someone gets injured, slices their partner’s skin with their blade, or smashes their face on the ice. Not exactly carefree Sunday night entertainment.

Anyway, back to Disney Channel’s Go Figure. The movie was written by Patrick J. Clifton and Beth Rigazio. They had initially tried to sell their Go Figure script to be made as a feature film, however, this was around the same time that Ice Princess was being developed by Disney, so Go Figure as it was didn’t go ahead. Instead, the writers turned it into a kids’ movie and met with Sheri Singer, the producer of Disney Channel’s Halloweentown movies. Singer said she wanted to produce Go Figure for Disney Channel. Francine McDougall came on as the director. McDougall went on to direct the DCOM Cow Belles (2006). Clifton and Rigazio had such a happy time working on Go Figure that when Singer approached them with the novel How My Private, Personal Journal Become A Bestseller, written by Julia DeVillers, they went ahead and adapted it to become the DCOM Read It and Weep (2006)[6].

Go Figure was filmed in Salt Lake City in Utah, as so many other DCOMs have been, such as Read It and Weep; Minutemen (2008); and the High School Musical trilogy. Much like these other DCOMs, a school was used as the filming location for the fictional school within these films. In the case of Go Figure, Westminster College is the real-life school that became Buckston Academy in the movie[7].

Go Figure is not an action-packed movie; however, it is not a normal school drama either, with shots of mostly sitting in class, walking through the halls, or going to a school dance. Here, although doubles were used in some instances, the actors did have to train in ice hockey and figure skating. I’ve already mentioned that Jordan Hinson, who played Katelin, didn’t know how to figure skate prior to her casting in the movie, and since Katelin spends much of her time on the ice in this movie, she had to train. But the hockey players also had train. Before filming, the actors spent two weeks practising with a real girls’ hockey team, being taught the basics of skating, shooting, and stopping to make the hockey matches seem as realistic as possible[8].

RECEPTION

In March 2005, Walt Disney Pictures theatrically released a new live-action movie, Ice Princess, which was about a physics whizz using figure skating to help her college application, before deciding to become a full-time, professional figure skater, going against the wishes of her mother. Ice Princess received mixed reviews and was a box-office flop, however, in the years since, it still has its fans.

So, it is curious that Disney Channel would be competing with the main Disney theatrical division by creating Go Figure, another movie about a young figure skater, and releasing it just three months later. Go Figure premiered on Disney Channel in the US on 10^th June 2005. Like Ice Princess, Go Figure received mixed reviews, but it escaped financial scrutiny due to its television movie status.

However, it did not escape all criticism. In Go Figure, the biggest inaccuracy is around the fact that the audience is told Katelin Kingsford is one of few competitors her age who can successfully execute and land triple jumps. Viewers who have knowledge of figure skating claim there are no triple jumps in any of Katelin’s routines in the movie. I’m not one of these people with knowledge so I’ve had to take their word for it. I do know that a figure skating competition consists of a long program and a short program though. Go Figure instead tells us that the Nationals consist of a single program. Nationals would’ve been a multi-day event, not just the one day. But had it been more than one day, then the whole dilemma over whether Katelin should attend the Hockey Championships or the Nationals would not have as much jeopardy attached to it.

Go Figure might’ve gone some way in inspiring would-be figure skaters to come into the sport, however, it seems to have just annoyed any actual figure skaters. Further negative comments for Go Figure surround the character of Katelin. She isn’t the most likeable main character of a DCOM, being quite bratty and selfish at times, especially when it comes to conversations with her brother and her parents, wanting them to always go along with what she thinks is best for her life. Katelin is also quite pouty when she doesn’t get her way in the early parts of the movie. I should also mention that some of Katelin’s more dramatic moments in Go Figure are not well acted. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about. But to give Katelin some credit, she becomes more likeable by the end of the film, as she realises that she has to work hard to get where she wants in life; she can’t just have it handed to her on a plate. There are also apparently incorrect portrayals of the rules of ice hockey in Go Figure, but I wouldn’t know anything about that either.

On the more positive side, other viewers said this was an enjoyable movie, especially for kids and fans of figure skating, probably more fans like me that enjoy watching the grace and elegance of figure skating rather than the skaters themselves who’d be able to pick out inaccuracies. Some also said they liked the fact Katelin had to make a choice between whether to go to her figure skating competition, or go to the hockey final. To further comment on this point, I think Go Figure goes some way in showing that women don’t have to just do the “girly” sports; they can be tough on the ice rink instead of dancing around it in dresses with sunshine smiles frozen on their faces. 

Although Disney Channel Original Movies, in their most known form, have been developed since 1997, with the first “official” DCOM Under Wraps, they would not properly come into their own until High School Musical premiered in January 2006. The DCOMs that came before have struggled to become part of mainstream popularity, with few exceptions. Go Figure was not one of these exceptions, reportedly reaching around 3.5 million viewers on its premiere date. This is fairly standard for the DCOMs of this decade. DCOMs were not as high budget, or high value, productions at this time, so needed something big to really market them, like an established actor fronting the project. That did not happen with Go Figure, so it has mostly faded into the background.

One accolade Go Figure does have, though, is that it was nominated in the Best Family Television Movie or Special category at the Young Artist Awards in 2006. It did, however, lose out to Hallmark’s Christmas movie Silver Bells (2005).

LEGACY

What happened next for Go Figure? It was set up for us to see how Katelin got on at the Olympics. I for one would’ve quite liked to see this as a sequel.

And yet, no sequel was ever made. Although Disney Channel have made a few sequels to certain movies, these are normally sequels to already popular movies. Go Figure didn’t have extraordinary viewing figures, so spending further time and money on a sequel wouldn’t have made good business sense. I just would’ve quite liked to see it.

However, Go Figure has since been included on lists of good skating movies to watch[9]. Although the heyday of figure skating seems to have been and gone – at least for now – ice hockey continues to be a popular sport in North America, making this a feature within other Disney Channel movies. Two of these include Den Brother (2010) and The Swap (2016). But these are both male characters playing ice hockey, not girls, so Go Figure has them beat in that respect.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Go Figure is a sports-themed DCOM that managed to showcase two entirely different sports: figure skating and ice hockey, with the first primarily being seen as more fitting for girls, and the latter only for boys. Go Figure tries to change all that, in the same way that Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003) told viewers that girls can play baseball and boys can cook. Go Figure shows girls there are no limitations on what you can or should do.

Although I have always liked Go Figure, I should admit that if I could only ever watch one figure skating movie ever again, I’ll choose Blades of Glory (2007) every time. Both have their merits, but only one can make me laugh out loud.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Amanda Mears, ‘Fairy tale: Utahn BreAnn Brown portrays Tinker Bell in Disney on Ice’, Deseret.com, 9^th March 2010.

[2] Credit: Rowan Bissett, ‘The puck drops on the 2025 NHL hockey season on October 8’, AthensOracle.com, 17^th October 2024.

[3] Credit: Ahiza Garcia, ‘U.S. figure skating used to be wildly popular. What happened?’, Money.CNN.com, 13^th February 2018.

[4] Credit: Gitanjali Poonia, ‘America were obsessed with figure skating in the ‘90s. Why aren’t we as enthralled anymore?’, Deseret.com, 4^th February 2022.

[5] Credit: Netflix, Bad Sport (2021) Episode 4: “Gold War”.

[6] Credit: Jean Bentley, ‘What’s It Like to Write a Disney Channel Original Movie? The Duo Behind Read It and Weep Reveals All’, EOnline.com, 23^rd June 2016.

[7] Credit: Jennifer Guzman, ‘Got Disney+? Keep an eye out for these movies filmed in Utah’, KSL.com, 12^th November 2019.

[8] Credit: Disney, ‘Go Figure DCOM Extras Commercial’, Promo Central YouTube Channel, 5^th June 2020.

[9] Credit: Amanda Bruce & Danielle Bruncati, ’10 Best Skating Movies’, ScreenRant.com, 13^th January 2024.

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

BACKGROUND

Disney Channel used to make a lot of great sports movies back in the late 90s and 2000s.

I didn’t watch most of them, probably because I don’t really like sport, but I remember some of them being advertised on the Disney Channel. I’m talking about movies like Johnny Tsunami (1999), Motocrossed (2001), and Going to the Mat (2004).

I did watch Go Figure in 2005 though and it remains one of my favourite Disney Channel Original Movies, strangely enough, even though I had no knowledge of figure skating or ice hockey. For some reason, I just liked it. Maybe I just like winter sports. Except I don’t. Winter means cold, and snow, and ice. Not really my thing.

There was quite a long period of time when Disney Channel did not make any sports movies, instead focusing on musicals or just the challenges of being in high school. But in 2014, they were about to get back to their early 2000s days, by making a new DCOM all about the sport of snowboarding.

I wasn’t watching Disney Channel at this point, and only really cared about the most-anticipated new DCOMs, so I hadn’t seen anything about Cloud 9. At some point, many years later, I must have been trawling Disney+, looking for something to watch and stumbled upon Cloud 9. Dove Cameron was in it, and I’d seen her in Descendants (2015) a bit before then, so I thought it must be alright.  

I did like Cloud 9. I didn’t know what to expect when I first watched it, just a typical DCOM, I guess, and that’s what I got, with the added bonus of watching real snowboarding tricks. Sadly, it was not the first movie I watched about snowboarding.

That was Chalet Girl (2011), which starred Felicity Jones, who has gone on to become a huge star in the acting world. Other big names in that film include Nicholas Braun, from Succession (2018-23), Brooke Shields, Bill Nighy, and British comedian Bill Bailey, just to name a few. It wasn’t a blockbuster, but it was a British comedy that instantly drew me in. It had lots of snowboarding stunts, a message around coping with grief, and it was just generally very funny and sweet to watch. After watching Cloud 9, I knew it didn’t and just couldn’t compete with Chalet Girl in my mind. 

Cloud 9 likely would have appealed to me more if I’d watched it when I was younger. It just found me too late. 

PLOT

The story begins at the Summit Valley Ski Resort, with Kayla Morgan. Her father, Richard, owns the resort so naturally, she lives here permanently, having to go to a regular high school in the day. She is also a part of a snowboarding competition team, the Swift Team, where Kayla is the star women’s boarder, and her boyfriend, Nick, is the star men’s boarder. Nick’s dad, Sebastian, happens to be the team coach.

Whilst life is great for pampered princess Kayla, there are other people making a living at the resort. One of these is Will Cloud and his mother, who run a dog kennel here. It is a struggling new business but they are doing everything they can to make it work, with Will even going so far as to take some of the dogs, who become depressed from spending too much time indoors, out on a sled ride in the snow. Will used to be the best snowboarder around, however, a traumatic accident at a competition stopped him competing again. He is constantly tormented by members of the Swift Team for his “epic fail” wipeout on that day. Will’s friends just want him to get back to boarding, but he won’t.

At a party to celebrate recent Swift Team success, and to hype everyone up for the upcoming Fire and Ice competition, Kayla overhears Nick talking to his dad. Nick’s dad hasn’t been happy with his progress recently and keeps saying something about what Nick needs to do to be a winner. Kayla and Nick go outside to talk, where Nick states that he’ll be learning Will Cloud’s Cloud 9 move, the one that he injured himself doing, for the new competition, knowing that he’ll have to watch the YouTube video of Will’s wipeout in order to learn it, as only Will knows it and no-one has ever managed to do it properly.

Nick is then called over by the rest of the Swift Team to look at Will’s dog sled, which has just been left outside. Nick convinces Kayla to go on it with him. Reluctantly, she does, but soon, they find themselves careening down the slopes with no way of stopping. Nick, being the gentleman he is, bails and leaves Kayla to cope with this runaway sled alone. Sadly, the only way the sled stops is by flying through the iconic, hand-crafted Summit Valley Ski Resort sign, which then crashes to the ground. Kayla is picked up by Security and taken home. At home, her father, being the owner of the resort, is able to calm everything down, and says he’ll get the sign fixed, but he is furious with Kayla, and Will is angry about the damage done to his sled. Kayla’s father tells Kayla she’ll be paying for the sled by working at the kennel every day after school.

On Kayla’s first day working at the kennels, the Hot Doggers Dog Kennel, she is late and not at all happy to be working there. Kayla is then left with her first task, to fill up the dogs’ food bowls, but she gets distracted by a voicemail message. It’s Nick’s dad, telling her she has been kicked off the Swift Team because her little sled ride broke the Swift Code of Conduct. Kayla runs out of the kennel to go and talk to Nick, but it turns out he already knew and won’t help her try and get back on the team by saying the sled ride was his idea. To really kick her while she’s down, Nick also tells her that she has never been a good snowboarder, and the only reason she’s won competitions is because her father convinced his father to rig the competitions, having her compete against lower-ranked boarders.

The next day at the kennel, Will’s friends come in to get some snowboarding advice from Will and he leaves Kayla alone to go to the slopes with them. This should’ve been ok, but one of the most mischievous dogs in the world is currently at the kennel, a little dog called Donald, who decides to get out of his cage and unlock all the others. All of the dogs run riot through the kennels and then out into the resort. Kayla rushes after them, looking stressed, passing Nick and the Swift Team. She stops to talk to Nick, wanting to move past this team issue, but instead, Nick breaks up with her. Kayla is just not winning at life right now! She eventually gets back to the kennel with all the dogs, and proceeds to blub to Will’s mum about how awful the Swift Team are, and how much Donald seems to be out to get her. Will’s mum then tells Will he should never have left Kayla alone with the dogs.

Kayla’s friends later try to cheer her up and they start talking about Will Cloud. They put on the video of his accident and feel sorry for him, as it looks like a very bad wipeout. At school, Kayla then thinks she’s run over Donald on her drive home, but Will comes over to her and says Donald just likes to play dead when he’s bored sometimes. Kayla says they should redecorate the kennels, to make the dogs a bit happier, and that maybe she could help – in exchange for some snowboard coaching from Will. He says he doesn’t want to snowboard again, but thinks about helping Kayla, who wants to enter a new team into Fire and Ice, potentially with Will’s friends, Dink and Sam, to beat the Swifts.

Kayla later sees that she has been replaced on the Swift Team by a real pro boarder, Skye Saylor. Kayla knows she’s in trouble here, so Will encourages her to practise instead of wasting her energy trash-talking with Skye. The coaching begins, as does the renovation of the kennel. After a lot of practice, Kayla gets much better at her snowboarding, and Will and his mother are both impressed with her interior design skills at the kennel, now called The Hot Doggers Dog Spa. Will’s mother thanks Kayla for all her help, not just with the dogs, but with Will, who looks much happier than he has done in months. Will’s mother then sends the two out for ice-cream.

Outside, they talk about whether Will thinks Kayla has a shot at beating Skye at Fire and Ice, before talking about an infamous part of the mountain called Tyson’s Peak. It’s almost impossible to get to, needing a helicopter to get there, and it’s deemed impossible to get down, as nobody seems to have ever done it before. Kayla then tries again to convince Will to join their team for Fire and Ice, but he refuses.

The next day, Kayla overhears her father saying she won’t be able to win against the Swift Team, no matter how hard she practises. Ouch, what a great dad… Kayla asks Will to teach her the Cloud 9, seeing that as her best chance at beating Skye and the Swift Team. He says Kayla isn’t fearless enough for that move, but really, I think he just doesn’t want to relive the bad memories he has of it. Kayla gets really frustrated that all these people don’t believe in her, so she does something a bit reckless. She uses her dad’s helicopter to take her to Tyson’s Peak. Even the pilot isn’t sure about it, but he does as he’s told. Kayla is filmed from the helicopter, to document Kayla’s descent down the mountain, without her knowledge. This is broadcast live on the news. Though it looks difficult and energy-zapping, Kayla boards down the mountain, but when she stops at the end of a ledge, ready to go down again, there is an avalanche right behind her. Kayla tries to outrun it, but, obviously, she can’t. Luckily, Will is watching the news and races over to the spot where she was buried under snow. Using Donald to find her, Will digs Kayla out of the snow. Oh, good, she’s not dead. Phew – that could’ve been really bad. And not very Disney…

Because of Kayla’s stupidity – I mean, fearlessness – Will then decides he will teach her the Cloud 9. Will also finally gets back on his board too, choosing to join their team for Fire and Ice. He crashes out on his first attempt on the half-pipe but he’s ok and knows he needs to trust himself now. Teaching Kayla the Cloud 9 proves to be a difficult task as she continues to wipeout every time, not mastering much of it. As she heads off for a break, Nick comes up to Will and tells him he should stop making her do this before Kayla gets hurt too. This could all be mind games, since Nick is in a relationship with Skye all of a sudden, or maybe he does care about Kayla. Either way, it gives Will something to think about. Nick’s dad has also seen Kayla practising the Cloud 9 and starts to think she could beat Skye.

After Kayla falls trying the Cloud 9 once again, Will says he won’t teach her it anymore because she can’t get it right and there isn’t enough time. The two argue – and then kiss. Not the most romantic of settings for a first kiss, but oh well!  Nick’s dad speaks to Kayla as she heads home and apologises to her, saying she should be on their team tomorrow, inviting her to rejoin Swift for Fire and Ice.

At Fire and Ice, Kayla is late, and Will starts to worry. She soon arrives – but she’s wearing a Swift jacket, much to Sebastian’s delight. As he is about to rub it in Will’s face that their snowboarder has rejoined the “dark side”, Kayla takes off her jacket, saying she forgot to return her gear when she was first kicked off and has no intention of rejoining Swift. Will’s mother then comes over with their new team jackets, their name being the Hot Doggers, sponsored by the kennel, of course. The men get to go first, with Will putting out an impressive first run, not matched by Nick. Nick’s second run is much better and he wins the men’s competition. Now, for the women. Kayla is ahead of Skye after the first run, but Skye brings it back in her second run. No pressure now, Kayla!

Just as Kayla is about to do her second run, her father comes over to her and apologises for underestimating her. Nick’s dad laughs at this, thinking this is no way to keep a clear head before a competition. This angers Nick because he wishes his dad was supportive like that, not even caring that he just won the men’s competition here. Nick tells Kayla, in front of everyone, that the incident with the sled was no accident. It was a deliberate attempt to get her kicked off the team because Sebastian never thought she was good enough and didn’t want her there anymore. This gives Kayla some great motivation to win now and show everyone what she’s made of.

Kayla goes out for her second run, successfully completing the Cloud 9 and giving her a perfect score. This is enough to win both the women’s competition and for The Hotdoggers to become the overall team winner of Fire and Ice. Kayla, Will, Sam, and Dink celebrate their victory along with their families. Even Sebastian has to admit that Kayla is a very worthy winner and is now full of regret that because of his arrogance, coldness, and obsession with winning, his team lost a great snowboarder. That’s karma for you.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Kayla Morgan starts off thinking she’s wonderful and amazing. Her dad owns the resort; she lives in a huge lodge in a beautiful ski resort; she gets to buy what she wants whenever she wants; she has a cute boyfriend; and to top it all off, she’s supposedly the best women’s snowboarder around. Everything is rosy for Kayla, until a stupid stunt-gone-wrong spoils it all. She learns that her father, her boyfriend, and her coach never believed she was a good snowboarder; she has to work in a kennel after school; her boyfriend breaks up with her, and then she is replaced on the team by someone much better than her. Kayla doesn’t think much of Will Cloud initially, but the more time they spend together, at the kennels and on the slopes, the closer they become. Kayla becomes a better snowboarder and a less selfish person because of Will. Let’s face it; she was quite self-absorbed at the start of Cloud 9!

Dove Cameron was cast as Kayla. She was performing the dual role of both Liv Rooney and Maddie Rooney in the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie (2013-17) at the time of filming on Cloud 9. She then starred as Mal in the Descendants trilogy from 2015 to 2019. Since Descendants, Dove Cameron has continued to act on screen, for example in the musical comedy series Schmigadoon! (2021-23), and having a voice role in the animated series Big Nate (2022-present). She released her debut album Alchemical: Volume 1 in December 2023 and her song “Boyfriend” was a viral sensation in 2022.

Will Cloud used to be a great snowboarder, even better than any of the members of the Swift Team. After his accident, which left him scared to ever snowboard again, he pretends that he isn’t bothered by it, despite his friends asking him for advice and being mocked by the Swift Team. Instead, Will throws himself into helping with his mother’s dog kennel, bonding with the dogs, especially Donald, and wanting to make this business a success for his mum. Thanks to Kayla, Will learns that he needs to continue with snowboarding, despite his fear of wiping out again, because he loves it. It’s a shame he didn’t manage to land his Cloud 9 trick himself, but after Fire and Ice, I’m sure Will planned on finally landing it, and banishing those bad memories from his mind forever.

Will Cloud was played by Luke Benward, who had already starred in the films How to Eat Fried Worms (2006) as Billy Forrester; the DCOM Minutemen (2008) as Charlie; Dear John (2010) as Alan Wheddon; and the DCOM Girl vs. Monster (2012) as Ryan, prior to his role in Cloud 9. Benward had also appeared as Beau, Teddy’s boyfriend, in the final season of Good Luck Charlie (2010-14) and as Dillon Sanders in the short-lived Pretty Little Liars spin-off series Ravenswood (2013-14) around the time of Cloud 9’s release. In 2018, Benward was cast as Bo Larson in the Netflix movie Dumplin’.

Nick Swift is the son of the Swift Team coach, so you might automatically assume he gets special treatment and thinks he’s the best snowboarder ever. This is not the case, and that is because Nick’s father, Sebastian, is incredibly hard on him and doesn’t believe in giving praise to his own son, no matter how much Nick works on his snowboarding. Their relationship is quite strained, but Nick constantly fights for his father’s approval, by going along with his plan to kick Kayla off the team with the sled incident, despite him knowing that was not the right way to go about, and by winning the Fire and Ice Men’s Competition. Sebastian still doesn’t seem proud of his son even after all that, instead spending too much time stressing about whether Kayla might beat his new star female boarder, Skye. Though I can’t tell if Nick actually did care about Kayla in a girlfriend-capacity, he clearly cared about her well-being, and didn’t want her to injure himself trying to do a trick just to impress other people, and feels guilty for the part he played in getting her kicked off the team.

Nick was played by Mike C. Manning, who was cast as Caleb McKinnon in the web series The Bay (2010-present) which won numerous Daytime Emmy Awards. Manning himself won a Daytime Emmy for his role here. Manning also went on to appear in the web series Youthful Daze (2012-16), and in Season 6 of This Is Us (2016-22) as The Manny.

Skye Saylor is an amazing female snowboarder, even being somewhat of a celebrity figure when she arrives at Summit Valley to join the Swift Team. She knows all about Kayla Morgan and how she’s never worked hard to be a good snowboarder, just having wins handed to her on a plate by only going up against girls worse than her. Skye doesn’t fear Kayla as a competitor at Fire and Ice at all, actually finding it quite comical that Kayla thinks she would even have a chance against her. Skye then goes out with Nick, Kayla’s boyfriend, probably more as a means to mess with Kayla psychologically before the competition instead of this being a genuine relationship. It’s not until Skye sees Kayla getting down Tyson’s Peak in one piece, barely, and then practising the Cloud 9 with Will that she starts to see Kayla as a threat at snowboarding. Skye tries her best at Fire and Ice, but once Kayla lands the Cloud 9, Skye knows she won’t win – and honestly, I think she’s ok with that. I don’t think Skye wanted to be involved in Sebastian’s plots and schemes to humiliate Kayla any more than Nick did, but they have to listen to their coach, even if he is jerk.

Kiersey Clemons was cast as Skye, having appeared as Kira Starr in the Disney series Austin & Ally (2011-16) prior to her role in Cloud 9. Clemons went on to be cast as Cassandra in the movie Dope (2015), and Beth in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016). More recently, she starred as Darling in Disney’s live-action remake Lady and the Tramp (2019), and then as Iris West in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) and The Flash (2023). She currently stars as May in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023-present).

Some of the actors who played Kayla and Will’s friends were no stranger to Disney at the time of working on Cloud 9 either. Will’s friends are Sam and Dink. They both like to snowboard, but they aren’t as naturally gifted as Will. Sam is constantly getting injured, for example even seeing double at one point after a bad practice session. Dink spends a lot of time talking about the weather, I guess so he knows the best time to snowboard, but it might be a potential career path for him if the snowboarding doesn’t work out! Dink was played by Carlon Jeffery, who played Cameron Parks, Chyna’s older brother, in the Disney Channel series A.N.T. Farm (2011-14). Sam was played by Andrew Caldwell, who I instantly recognised from his role as Thor in Hannah Montana (2006-11). Caldwell has since gone on to appear as Jude in the movie The Matrix Resurrections (2021), and as Harley Johns in Season 3 of iZombie (2015-19). Kayla’s friend Pia was played by Victoria Moroles, who played Andie in Liv and Maddie (2013-17) alongside Dove Cameron. Moroles was also cast as Hayden Romero in Teen Wolf (2011-17) around this time.

Finally, I’ll talk about the dads in Cloud 9. The dads here are much less supportive than the mothers. We’ve got Sebastian, Nick’s father, who cares too much about winning to be a caring and encouraging coach for his snowboarders. He pressures them to do well and seems to be teaching them that it’s fine to play dirty as long as you win, which is the complete opposite of what good sportsmanship should be. Sebastian has no business being a coach for any type of sports team, at least not when children and teenagers are involved! Jeffrey Nordling was cast as Sebastian. He had previously played Coach Orion in D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) and Richard Mackey in TRON: Legacy (2010). On television, he appeared as Nick Bolen in Desperate Housewives (2004-12), and in the recurring role of Gus Easton in So Help Me Todd (2022-24) most recently.

I’d like to say Kayla’s dad, Richard, is a better dad than Sebastian, but he’s really not. Richard has encouraged Sebastian to rig all these snowboarding competitions that Kayla has competed in because neither of them want the team to lose. I think Richard does this, not so Kayla isn’t embarrassed by a loss because losing is a part of life, but so that he is not embarrassed by her, since he is the owner of the ski resort. Richard then tells his wife that despite Kayla practising, she’ll never be able to win against the Swift Team, which is an awful thing to say. If you don’t have your parents in your corner at that age, then who else have you got? Richard isn’t all bad though, as he does apologise to Kayla for underestimating her, and encourages her to smash her second run at Fire and Ice, believing finally that she can win. This is more than Sebastian does for his own child.

Richard Morgan was played by Patrick Fabian. Fabian is perhaps best known for his role as Howard Hamlin in the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul (2015-22), but he also has a bit of history with Disney, having been cast as Thantos in the DCOM Twitches Too (2007). Fabian was also cast as Matt MacLaren in The Other Zoey (2023) recently. But if you’re “cool” like me, you’ll know him as Professor Lasky from Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993-94). You know, the guy who broke up Zack and Kelly, and then broke Kelly’s heart. I remember hating Professor Lasky when I was younger, watching this series when it was re-run on Nickelodeon in the 2000s, but I got to watch it back this year, and he was actually a great character. I can totally see the appeal now…

MUSIC

Despite featuring the talents of Dove Cameron and Luke Benward, who had both sung for previous Disney Channel projects, Cloud 9 is not a musical. That’s perhaps a good thing because singing when snowboarding is probably not an easy, or even safe, thing to do!

There was an original song written for the movie, and it was performed by Cameron and Benward, having been written by Dan Book and Alexei Misoul. This song is called “Cloud 9”, which isn’t a very original title, but it is quite a good song if you like catchy pop tunes. I do, so I quite like it. This song plays during the montage of Will training Kayla and the dog kennel being renovated. It is also the End Credits song, playing alongside a few outtakes. “Cloud 9” was released as a single just before the movie’s release, and it is also a track on the compilation album Disney Channel Play It Loud.

There are also a number of other songs used within Cloud 9 for background music and to accompany the various snowboarding scenes.

During the opening sequence, the song “Fly High” by The DNC is used. Soon after, Nick and Kayla are casually snowboarding as the song “Champion of the World” by Menya is heard. At the party for the Swift Team early on in Cloud 9, the song “Across the Sky”, by Photronique feat. Don Benjamin plays. The song “Wotever Dude” by Robbie Nevil is playing as Kayla begins her second day of work at the kennels. Just before Kayla “hits” Donald the dog with her car, the song “I’m Feeling Good” by Deanna seems to be playing on the radio.

Now to the snowboarding scenes. As Kayla performs for the first time in the movie, in one of those rigged competitions, “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom” by Cut One and Meg Cottone is played. Later, Kayla sees Skye training for the first time and “Cross the Line” by Superchick plays. “Never Too Late” by The PCH Crew feat. Mayru is used for when Will first gets back on his board. When Kayla is practising her snowboarding and the Cloud 9, the song “Feisty” by Shoshana Bean is playing, and later, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” by Michele Vise Maslin can be heard. At Fire and Ice, during the men’s run, “I Want It All” by Krankheadz is heard. For the women’s run, “One Girl Revolution” by Superchick plays. This is such a great song, and for Disney Channel movie fans, you can also hear it in Cadet Kelly (2002).

I could not find the song that is playing as the Swift Team and friends arrive at the party, despite using Shazam to help and the lyrics being clearly audible. This was the same problem I had with the music playing as Kayla sees Skye training for the second time.

PRODUCTION

Cloud 9 was filmed at ski resorts in Utah, with one of those being Park City Mountain Resort. Dove Cameron and Luke Benward were spotted filming the scene of them eating ice cream and walking down the sidewalk in February 2013, this street being Park Avenue. They also filmed at Park City High School in the area. The news report also stated that snowboarding champion and three-time Olympic gold medallist Shaun White was one of the producers on this new Disney movie[1].

Apparently, during filming, the temperature got to as low as -50F, so cold that post-production was used to edit out clouds of breath from the actors. Facial hair was also freezing, and kissing scenes were made difficult by the freezing temperatures!

Filming went on at the ski resort for around two months. There was supposedly a strange rule that the cast and crew had to follow, around toasting marshmallows. They said in an interview that they were only allowed to do this on Wednesdays, and kept getting caught doing this on other days in the week. They claimed they ended up making s’mores for the security guards to get around the restrictions. Random[2].

Since there is a lot of snowboarding in the movie – duh – the cast were given two weeks of snowboarding training with instructors, where they worked on turns, stopping, going down slopes etc., to make them look like natural boarders. They even got to go on the steep half-pipe that is seen in the film, which was scary, even to those who had snowboarded before[3]. I don’t know exactly how many of the cast had snowboarded prior to Cloud 9, but they all looked quite comfortable on their boards, so I’m thinking many of them had already had some experience of it. As I am not a snowboarder, I cannot comment on how difficult the snowboarding in the movie actually is. For the stunts and tricks, these were completed by a team of experienced boarders.

Cloud 9 was directed by Paul Hoen. Hoen began his over two-decade career with Disney Channel by directing The Luck of the Irish (1999) back when Disney Channel were experimenting with their new way of making television movies. After this, Hoen went on to direct many more musical and non-musical DCOMs, including Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003), Jump In! (2007), and all of the ZOMBIES movies[4].

As well as the movie being produced by Disney Channel, Ashley Tisdale is also credited as an executive producer, through her company Blondie Girl Productions, which she set up around 2010. Tisdale liked the mass appeal of the story and thought the message about believing in yourself was important to the usual Disney Channel audience[5]. Tisdale is well-known to Disney fans as the actor who played Sharpay Evans in the incredibly popular High School Musical franchise.

RECEPTION

Cloud 9 premiered on Disney Channel in the US on 17^th January 2014. It then went out to other countries between February and June. It’s winter in Australia in June, don’t forget!

The US premiere date meant that Cloud 9 was released just a couple of weeks before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which, no doubt, was not coincidental in the slightest. It was also a part of the “JaNEWary” event on Disney Channel that seemed to be an annual event at some point, where Disney Channel aired new movie premieres, new series, and new episodes of their popular series[6]. On the day that Cloud 9 premiered, for example, it was followed by the first episode of the new Disney Channel series I Didn’t Do It (2014-15), which starred Olivia Holt, who was cast alongside Luke Benward two years earlier for the DCOM Girl vs. Monster (2012).

Cloud 9 was the day’s most watched cable program on its premiere date, with just under 5 million viewers tuning in to watch the new movie. It became the No. 2 telecast on any network during the winter season, sitting behind Disney Channel’s “Good Luck Jessie: NYC Christmas” episode which aired in November 2013[7].

In terms of reviews, these are usually always mixed for Disney Channel Original Movies. Starting with the more negative reviews, some found the movie to be predictable and plain, following the usual storyline of a sports film, i.e., the main character doesn’t think they are any good and must learn to be great for a competition that they’ll go on to win. Others also said the characters were quite clichéd with the jerk boyfriend and his overbearing father, and the mean girl replacement. I can understand this comment to some extent, but I do think all of those characters have some character development and growth in Cloud 9, as Skye was never really the mean girl, and Nick has a complicated relationship with his father which takes a step to being healthier by the end of Cloud 9.

For positive reviews, there were comments around the great chemistry between the two lead actors of Dove Cameron and Luke Benward, and the acting was deemed pretty good overall. The catchy main song “Cloud 9” was also a pleasant addition to the movie for many, who found it to be generally enjoyable with a good message about believing in yourself and overcoming fear. Others also liked the nice scenery of a snowy ski resort. I was one of those people. Although I don’t want to go out in the snow, I’m quite happy looking at it, preferably through the window of a cosy, warm building.

LEGACY

Cloud 9 did not receive a sequel, which was not unexpected. The movie has a complete plot and there is little room to push the story any further.

Although Cloud 9 went no further, Dove Cameron did go on to become a major star for Disney Channel. Alongside her role as Liv and Maddie Rooney in the popular Disney Channel series, Cameron went on to star as Mal in the DCOM Descendants (2015), going on to work on two further movies for the Disney franchise, alongside other spin-offs. This propelled her into global stardom, as both an actor and a singer.

Sadly, the much-loved DCOM sports movies that were so popular in the 2000s did not continue to be made much after Cloud 9. It had been the first movie of this type since 2007, when Jump In! and Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board aired on Disney Channel. Den Brother (2010) involves ice hockey, but I’d disagree that it is the primary theme of the film.

Since Cloud 9, few DCOMs have involved sports. One that does is The Swap (2016), featuring both ice hockey and rhythmic gymnastics, but again, this is not the main purpose of the story. Back of the Net (2019) seems to be the most recent sports movie from Disney Channel, following a teenager who accidentally ends up at a football (soccer) academy. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Sports movies have been around for decades, whether based on a true story, perhaps of an individual or team wanting to compete at the Olympics, or a fictional story about real sports.

These types of movies remain a good source of inspiration for people who might want to try out a new sport, or could motivate someone to go after the highest possible achievements in their specific discipline.

With Cloud 9 being released around the time of the 2014 Winter Olympics, this timing might have got more young people interested in the global event, which can sometimes be dwarfed by the warmer, more far-reaching Summer Olympics, at least in some countries.

Having a movie like Cloud 9 on Disney Channel would have surely encouraged children and teenagers to try out snowboarding, on vacation or at a local snowdome. Snowboarding is, after all, still considered quite a cool sport.

Personally, I’d be too scared about breaking all my bones, or even my neck, to try it out – but that’s just me. I’m fine just being a spectator to others’ sporting successes.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jay Hamburger, ‘Park City becomes Disney land for movie shoot’, ParkRecord.com, 22^nd February 2013.

[2] Credit: Alex Abel, ‘5 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets From Disney’s New Movie Cloud 9’, Seventeen.com, 17^th January 2014.

[3] Credit: Disney, ‘Cloud 9 – Behind The Scenes – Part 3’, Disney Channel UK  YouTube Channel, 21^st February 2014.

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

[5] Credit: Jake Perlman, ‘‘Cloud 9’ hits the slopes in the world of competitive snowboarding’, EW.com, 18^th December 2013.

[6] Credit: Jake Perlman, ‘Watch Dove Cameron and Luke Benward in Disney Channel’s ‘Cloud 9’’, EW.com, 13^th January 2014.

[7] Credit: Rick Kissell, ‘Disney Channel Takes Gold With ‘Cloud 9’ Movie, New Comedy’, Variety.com, 21^st January 2014.