BACKGROUND
Would you believe that Disney Channel released seven Disney Channel Original Movies in 2002? And that’s not even the most; in 2000, twelve DCOMs premiered on the channel.
What’s my point here? Well, this shows that Disney Channel, from their first DCOM in 1997, had thrown a lot of resources behind telling stories that would represent and relate to kids, tweens, and teens of the day, regardless of their background or personal experiences.
Disney Channel, or The Walt Disney Company in general, or any filmmaking studio actually, don’t always get things right and representation back in the 2000s especially wasn’t great. There were many DCOMs that focused on white people, but what about everyone else, what about their stories?
In 2002, Disney Channel premiered Gotta Kick It Up!, a story centred on a group of Latinas forming a dance team at their school. This was quite progressive and a forward-thinking move from Disney at the time, although looking at it today, it is far from a perfect representation of Latino culture.
What Gotta Kick It Up! got right was that it showcased the talents of many Latina actresses, with just one of these being an 18-year-old America Ferrera, who still remembers her time filming Gotta Kick It Up! fondly as it was her first acting job[1]. It also showed hard-working girls fighting to be taken seriously in a world that had perhaps already discounted them. Gotta Kick It Up! might not go far enough in exploring these girls and their family lives, making the exploration of their culture quite surface-level, but the message of telling yourself that you can do this, even though it may be difficult to achieve your dreams, is uplifting. You also can’t discount the joy of Latino children watching Gotta Kick It Up! at the time and seeing themselves represented on screen, now able to relate to these characters.
I had not seen Gotta Kick It Up! before this week. I was quite young when the movie was released so I wasn’t really watching Disney Channel at the time. I also don’t remember it being re-run on Disney Channel, but whether that was Disney Channel UK choosing not to air it much after 2002, or just me not taking much notice of a movie I hadn’t seen before, I don’t know. Gotta Kick It Up! wasn’t for me; I liked the dancing and the overall message, but it wasn’t the best “dance movie” I’ve ever seen.
PLOT
Gotta Kick It Up! begins with a new teacher, Ms. Bartlett, arriving at Marshall Middle School, having moved into teaching after the dot.com company she worked for went bust.
During her first class teaching Biology, it’s clear that the students are not interested in what she’s got to say, with one of them, Daisy, deciding to express herself by dancing through the classroom. She’s actually really good – but that’s not the point. Principal Zavala comes into the room, takes control of the class, and gives Daisy detention.
We then learn that Daisy’s friends, Yolanda and Esmeralda, are upset that their dance team has had to disbanded. Esmeralda learns by reading Ms. Bartlett’s résumé that Ms. Bartlett has some dance experience, having attended Julliard. She begs Principal Zavala to speak to Ms. Bartlett and try and convince her to become their new dance coach. Ms. Bartlett is not convinced by this, wanting instead to focus on the job she was hired for. Esmeralda then comes to Ms. Bartlett and is able to convince Ms. Bartlett to become their new coach. Meanwhile, Daisy has been given the idea from her high-school drop-out boyfriend, Chuy, that she might be able to swap detention for an extracurricular class instead. Principal Zavala agrees to let Daisy join the dance team, but says that he’ll be telling Ms. Bartlett to check her commitment to the team; any funny business, and Daisy will be back in detention.
Auditions are held for the new dance team, but Ms. Bartlett is late to them. Thinking she doesn’t care about this team, Daisy heads out to leave, but Ms. Barlett arrives just in time to tell her to sit back down. Ms. Bartlett then proceeds to tell the girls that there are going to be some rules to this team, like mandatory uniforms; attending practice on time; no failing grades – at which point, two students leave the room; and no long nails – two more students leave at that rule. Those that are left are asked to perform a one-minute dance to showcase their dancing talents, but just as the team are about to begin, the basketball team enter the gymnasium. They have practice too, and splitting the gym in half doesn’t work as a rogue basketball breaks the dance team’s CD player. They leave and find somewhere else.
Ending up at what looks to me like the Auto Shop classroom, the girls are finally able to audition and show Ms. Bartlett what they’ve got – all except Daisy who already did her “audition” during Ms. Bartlett’s first Biology class! Ms. Bartlett seems unimpressed with the girls’ dancing abilities and with their stamina. At their next practice, they are told to run laps, which annoys the girls who only have two and a half weeks to learn a new routine for their first competition. Ms. Bartlett says they aren’t ready to compete and will just have to keep their routine simple, which further irritates the team.
At their first competition, the dance team do not have team uniforms ready, instead showing up in their gym clothes, and look out of their depth. Things don’t get much better for the group when Esmeralda begins to have a panic attack just before they go out on stage. The team then mess up their routine, causing Daisy to storm off stage, angry that she’s been made to look like an idiot. She promptly quits – although she still has to get the bus back to school with everyone, including Ms. Bartlett. Awkward…
Daisy and her boyfriend Chuy head to the school on Saturday to pick up her backpack, where they see Ms. Bartlett dancing in the gym. This annoys Daisy even more, because she feels that Ms. Bartlett has been holding out on them, not telling them anything about her “dancing career” and not seeming to believe in the team at all. This sentiment is echoed by many of the other girls.
At the next practice, Ms. Bartlett says that she will take this team and the girls more seriously by first teaching them basic eight count steps, to help with their rhythm. Daisy also returns to the team, after being asked by Ms. Bartlett to rejoin earlier in the day. A whole new routine is created and practised. It’s looking great and the girls want to compete in another competition. Ms. Bartlett tells them they aren’t ready and that’s the end of the conversation. But the girls want more opportunities so they come up with a plan to show their routine during lunch at school. It impresses the other students, but Ms. Bartlett is not impressed, and angry at the team’s disrespect towards her. She reiterates that they aren’t going to that competition and then informs them that the old dance team’s uniforms have been found.
As the girls upcycle these old uniforms, they decide that they should just go to the dance competition anyway, without a school bus or their coach, using the phrase “Sí, se puede”, meaning “Yes, we can”, as motivation. The team show up late to the competition, having to rely on others driving them there, and when they do arrive, they are told that their coach has to sign them in. This throws the girls for a second but Daisy quickly makes up an excuse, saying that their coach is in the restroom and had asked for Daisy to sign them in. Apparently, that’s enough explanation and the team go on inside.
The group perform and it is a much better performance than at their first competition. Daisy even grabs the attention of one of the judges, Ms. Elliott, who works at a performing arts school and wants Daisy to join her academy, potentially on a scholarship. The team win third place at the competition and are super excited – until they see one of the team’s – Alyssa’s – parents standing outside the school, furious that some random boys drove them to the competition and that their dance coach is nowhere to be seen. They threaten to tell the principal all about it. Esmeralda has a similar reaction when she comes home to her parents, who are mad that she is late home and that she needed to babysit her brother. They aren’t so sure Esmeralda being a part of the dance team is a good idea for her or the family.
Daisy visits Ms. Bartlett the next day and it turns out she already knows about their trip to the competition without her. Ms. Bartlett demands some respect from the girls, to which Daisy responds saying they want her to believe in them, wanting to know what her problem with them competing is. Ms. Bartlett tells her that she had danced from the age of four, but had never been good enough in her parents’ eyes so she trained and kept going, eventually getting into Juilliard. Seeing the talent of the other students scared Ms. Bartlett and she left the school after only two weeks. Ms. Bartlett said the first competition had brought back all those negative thoughts for her again and that she isn’t ready to go through that all again. Daisy responds by teaching Ms. Bartlett the phrase “Sí, se puede” which motivates her to work with the girls and make this team a success.
Ms. Bartlett finds herself excelling as both a Biology teacher and as a dance coach, where the team successfully get to Regionals. Daisy, however, finds that her boyfriend, Chuy, doesn’t like all her dancing, thinking it takes up too much of Daisy’s time and they break up when Daisy makes it clear she won’t be giving up her dancing, so everything isn’t rosy for her. Ms. Bartlett then learns about Daisy being spotted for her dance talent by Ms. Elliott and urges her to take the opportunity while she has it. Daisy calls up Ms. Elliott and asks for an application to her school.
As the team get ready for Regionals, Ms. Bartlett learns from Principal Zavala that there is no money in the budget to get them to San Diego to compete, even though the team have been working on a new routine that will be inspired by and incorporate many different Latin dance styles. As the girls start to think about how they can fundraise to get the money they’ll need for Regionals, they learn that Ms. Bartlett has interviewed for a new job. They accuse Ms. Bartlett of walking out on their team, just for more money. Ms. Bartlett corrects them, by telling them that, yes, the job offer was good, but she turned it down. Well, I sure hope the girls feel guilty for not hearing Ms. Bartlett out first before accusing her of betrayal!
Anyway, Yolanda also learns that she is failing Math, so Ms. Bartlett makes a deal with Principal Zavala to keep her on the team; if she does all the calculations from their car wash / fundraiser that weekend and does them correctly, then Yolanda will get the extra credit she needs to pass the class and stay on the team. After the fundraiser, they discover that they are $100 short of their total, having enough for transportation and insurance, but not enough for new uniforms. Luckily, a line of cars arrives to be washed. It turns out that Chuy felt bad for not supporting Daisy and pays them $100 to wash these cars.
At Regionals, the group are much more confident. Well, all of them except for Daisy who is having a moment of panic, which is very unlike her. Daisy sees this an audition for her, putting pressure on herself. Ms. Bartlett tells her to forget all that and to dance from her heart. During the routine, Daisy freezes up, before being encouraged by the others to just dance for the love of it. The routine is a crowd-pleaser, and the future is bright for this team. Daisy also reconciles with Chuy, who says he was jealous of her success. We then learn that the team got second place at Regionals and went on to compete at Nationals – though we don’t know where they placed or whether Daisy actually got to go to that school…Mean.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Daisy Salinas is a free spirit. She likes to dance and express herself but initially, she doesn’t have plans to maximise her talent in any way. Daisy isn’t bothered by school, now that her boyfriend, Chuy, seems to have done just fine having dropped out of school and gone straight into work. Daisy only wants to join the dance team so she can avoid detention – or that is what we are made to believe at the start of the movie. As you can see from that first competition, Daisy clearly does want to do well in her dancing because she storms off stage when the routine goes badly, which shows that she does care and wants to succeed. When Ms. Elliott, the dance judge, tells her to apply to a performing arts school, Daisy is hesitant. It’s far from home and her friends, and her boyfriend doesn’t like the idea, but really, Daisy is scared of failing and would rather not try and not expect too much of herself. Ms. Bartlett and the others in the dance team help her understand that if opportunities are given to you, then you should take them because life is too short and Daisy is very talented.
Camille Guaty was cast in the role of Daisy. After this, she went on to act in the series Prison Break (2005-17) in the role of Maricruz Delgado. She later appeared as Donna in the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) and in the recurring role of Megan O’Brien on the action series Scorpion (2014-17), before being cast as Nina Sandoval in Daytime Divas (2017). Guaty will appear in the crime series Duster, co-created by J.J. Abrams, in 2025.
Yolanda Vargas is Daisy’s friend and member of the dance team. Like Daisy, she also is not particularly academic but loves to dance, perhaps being more passionate about it than Daisy, although Yolanda is not as naturally gifted. We don’t get to see much of Yolanda’s background or life outside of school, but she is outspoken, confident, and loyal.
America Ferrera was chosen to play Yolanda, in one of her earliest screen roles. Ferrera went on to star as Carmen in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) and its 2008 sequel. In 2006, she was cast in the title role of Betty Suarez in the sitcom Ugly Betty (2006-10) which catapulted her to mainstream fame and for which she won a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, amongst others. In recent years, Ferrera has voiced the character of Astrid in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and been cast in the role of Amy Sosa in the sitcom Superstore (2015-21). In 2023, Ferrera was talked about yet again for her role as Gloria in the hugely successful film Barbie, where she was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Esmeralda Reyna is another key member of the girls’ dance team. She is passionate about her dancing, even treasuring a ballerina music box that she must’ve had since childhood. Esmeralda takes dancing the most seriously of the others and is the one who proactively looks for a new dance coach, successfully finding one with Ms. Bartlett. Esmeralda has a more difficult home life though, which we do not see with the others. Her parents must work long shifts as Esmeralda is asked to look after her little brother quite often, and the parents, at one point, don’t know if Esmeralda should be dancing as it is taking her away from her home commitments. She doesn’t give up dancing though and helps the team get to Nationals. Sabrina Wiener was cast as Esmeralda.
There are two other members of the dance team that are focused on, those being Alyssa and Marisol. We see that Alyssa’s parents are quite overprotective, accompanying her to their first competition and then not liking the fact she was driven to the second competition by people she didn’t know. Marisol struggles at times with her English, but since dance is the same in every language, it doesn’t hold her back at all. Alyssa Cortez was played by Jhoanna Flores, with Marisol being played by Suilma Rodriguez.
Ms. Bartlett is the new teacher at Marshall Middle School. She’s uncertain of herself, not particularly authoritative and seems to floundering in her new role. This isn’t exactly surprising as she only went into teaching after her dot.com company failed. She isn’t sure about being the new dance team coach, but decides to give it a try. Unfortunately, because of her previous disappointing dance career, Ms. Bartlett isn’t overly motivated to help the team go far; she doesn’t want the stress and hassle of competition as it makes her go back to her days doing that as a child and teenager, where she never felt good enough. Luckily, with help and inspiration from the girls, Ms. Bartlett does finally work together with them to make a team that has come very far since its first competition.
Ms. Bartlett was played by Susan Egan, whose name might sound familiar to Disney fans as she provided the voice of Megara in Hercules (1997). Outside of that, Egan also originated the part of Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast in 1994, before going on to star in numerous other stage musicals, such as the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, performing as Sally Bowles; the 1998 Sacramento Music Circus production of South Pacific, playing Nellie; and as Molly Brown in the 2002 Sacramento Music Circus production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Egan was actually performing in this musical at the time of Gotta Kick It Up!’s premiere date.
Finally, we have Principal Zavala, who is a strict principal having come from a military background. He had a great line early on in the film when he was disciplining one of the students, something like: “Go to class with your pants pulled up. No-one cares about the colour of your underwear”, which tickled me. Though Zavala is a strict principal, he seems to be firm but kind; he allows Daisy to join the dance team instead of having to attend detention, for one thing. He also clearly cares about the welfare of his students, wanting them to divert their excess energy into health pursuits, like extracurricular activities.
Principal Zavala was played by Miguel Sandoval, who is most known for playing the role of D.A. Manuel Devalos in the supernatural series Medium (2005-11). He also appeared in Jurassic Park (1993) as Juanito Rostagno and voiced the character Land of the Remembered Captain in The Book of Life (2014).
PRODUCTION
Disney Channel Original Movies are generally considered to be original stories, some set in fantastical lands with magic at the heart, whereas others are set in contemporary times, based around kids with normal lives and how they cope with their day-to-day struggles.
Gotta Kick It Up! fits into that latter category, but it was actually based on a true story. Meghan Cole, who worked on the story alongside Nancy De Los Santos and was a co-producer on Gotta Kick It Up!, worked at Disney as Director for Creative Affairs at Walt Disney TV Animation. Cole later pitched the idea for Gotta Kick It Up! to become an original movie for the channel based on her real-life story. She had begun working at Nimitz Middle School in Huntington Park, California, as part of the Teach for America program, and had decided to start up a dance program there for the students, who were mostly Latinos.
Cole’s main goal for Gotta Kick It Up! was to finally show some diversity on television, as most shows and movies at the time had featured white children, as well as show a positive portrayal of Latino kids who are hard-working and successful. A secondary objective was also to highlight how important after-school activities are for children and teenagers, to give them a creative outlet outside of regular school work[2].
Ramón Menéndez directed Gotta Kick It Up! Menéndez is best known for writing and directing the movie Stand and Deliver (1988) which starred Edward James Olmos, who was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards in 1989 for his portrayal of the character Jaime Escalante. The movie itself won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Menéndez also directed and wrote the movie Money for Nothing (1993), which starred John Cusack, and co-wrote the story for Tortilla Soup (2001).
It has been said that filming of Gotta Kick It Up! took place in 2001 with one of the filming locations being Verdugo Hills High School in Los Angeles. This building happens to be a popular filming location for movies and television series, including Heathers (1988), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008-13).
MUSIC
Since Gotta Kick It Up! features a lot of dance routines, music is obviously a necessity here.
But before I get to that, I was slightly confused by the fact that Gotta Kick It Up! claims to be about a dance team, but when it came to the competitions, they were wearing cheerleading uniforms and waving pom-poms around. There are numerous articles explaining the differences between cheer teams and dance teams, with one of the more obvious being that dance teams don’t tend to focus on tumbling. That was the case with Gotta Kick It Up! but I still wasn’t expecting the pom-poms; I was expecting a contemporary dance troupe. I guess this was just my misunderstanding as I’m not American.
Gotta Kick It Up! features a lot of music to accompany the numerous scenes of dancing. One of the first cluster of songs comes from the auditions for the dance team, which involves the would-be dancers choosing a song and routine to perform in front of the others. Because of this, both the dance styles and music genres are very different from each other. For example, Marisol chooses to dance to “No Te Rajes”, written by Daniel Indart and performed by Mariachi La Estrella, to make a routine authentic to her culture. In complete contrast, Alyssa auditions to “Rockabilly Rebels”, written and performed by Frank Shelley, and Yolanda auditions to “Take-u-Away”, written and performed by chalk & cheez, therefore having more contemporary routines. Esmeralda goes quite left field and does a ballet-inspired routine to “Candy Love”, by Yan David.
Then there is a lot of competition music. For the schools that compete against Marshall Middle School’s dance team, their music is only credited as Rolling Hills Middle School Medley, from the first competition; Peninsula Middle School Medley, from the second competition; and Los Alamitos Middle School Medley from Regionals. At the first competition, Marshall Middle School appear to dance to “Boom Boom” by Ray Cham; there are no lyrics to match the song to the performance, but it seems to match the movie timing, assuming the credits listed the songs in order. That is how I had to figure out some of these pieces.
At the second competition and at Regionals, the team use the same set of music, which consists of three different songs. The first one is “Do Dat Thang” by Ray Cham, which also features in the movie during a dance practice; the second is “Shake” written by Ray Cham and Charlene Licera. “Shake” also has a Latin Remix, which is the End Credits song. This was the best song in the film for me. The third song in this competition medley for Marshall Middle School seems to be “Electronica” by Ray Cham. There is also a sneaky lunchtime performance that the dance team put on for the Marshall Middle School students, and the song used here is “Shake It” by Pascal Arceneaux.
A few other songs that appear during scenes outside of competitions are “Ready to Party”, written and performed by Cheche Alara, which is played during the car wash and fundraiser scene; “Turn Up the Radio”, written by Ray Cham, Chaka Blackmon, Anson Dawkins and Jason White, and performed by Black Diamond, which is playing on the radio as Chuy picks up Daisy early on in the film; and “You Will Make It Thru”, written by Ray Cham and Charlene Licera, performed by Licera, which plays as Ms. Bartlett dances alone in the gym. This was another song in the movie I really liked. I think “Kick the Beat” is the song that Yolanda and Daisy dance to right at the start of the movie, which was written by Pascal Arceneaux and performed by PBA. There is one final song listed on the End Credits that I couldn’t place because it has no lyrics, called “Tell Me”, written by Chaka Blackman, Ray Cham, Eric Dawkins, and Jason White. Going off the order that this song appears in the list of credited songs, I think it is probably the background music playing as Esmeralda asks Ms. Bartlett to coach their dance team, but I can’t be certain.
There have been comments that the opening music for Gotta Kick It Up! was changed when it was put on Disney+. Looking into this further, I found the song “Bailando en la Ciudad”, performed by Myra, used to appear first in the list of songs in the End Credits; on Disney+, it is not there and I could not hear it in the movie. Based on that, I would assume that this was the opening track for the movie, which was replaced with generic salsa music. It was also the promotional song for the movie.
You may have noticed that the name Ray Cham popped up a few times when discussing this music. Ray Cham was listed as one of the music supervisors for Gotta Kick It Up! – the other was Greg Cham. But this was not the final time that Ray Cham would be involved with a Disney Channel movie. Cham went on to co-write songs for other DCOMs, such as “Girl Power” for The Cheetah Girls (2003); “Dance With Me” for The Cheetah Girls 2 (2005), and “Getcha Head in the Game” for High School Musical (2006).
RECEPTION
Gotta Kick It Up! premiered on Disney Channel on 26th July 2002. I have not been able to find a total viewing figure for this movie’s release, so I am unsure how popular it was on its premiere date. Viewing figures aren’t everything though, and what was important was that Gotta Kick It Up! was Disney Channel’s first Latino-focused Disney Channel Original Movie, so that’s a milestone all of its own without looking to break viewership records.
In terms of reviews for Gotta Kick Up!, they are much more obvious. Many did enjoy this movie, and people are excited to watch the movie today as America Ferrera is in it. Viewers liked the fact that young Latinas were being showcased in a Disney Channel movie, and liked the personal development of the main characters. It also has an uplifting message about motivating yourself to change your life if you want to. Those who grew up watching Gotta Kick It Up! in particular love this movie and it has a group of dedicated fans.
On the other hand, some viewers were quick to point out its similarities to Bring It On (2000) which centres around a high school cheerleading team preparing for competition, although it is also about a rivalry with another school’s team. It is debated whether Gotta Kick It Up! is better or worse than Bring It On, although Gotta Kick It Up! was obviously meant to be more kid-friendly as it was shown on Disney Channel, whereas Bring It On was targeting an older, teenage audience. I have now seen both movies and I personally prefer Bring It On, but then I never watched Gotta Kick It Up! as a child or tween.
Other more negative comments included concerns about how old the actors looked when they were meant to be portraying ninth graders, so 14/15-year-olds, with Chuy apparently looking much older than 17/18. I didn’t really notice this when I was watching Gotta Kick It Up! Some also found the characters unlikeable and selfish. Again, I didn’t feel this way when watching the movie. I did agree, however, that Gotta Kick It Up! is not the worst film about a dance team, but nor is it the best. And there have been many others!
From a contemporary point-of-view with more in-depth analysis into the movie, some writers have commented on the “white saviour” issue that exists within Gotta Kick It Up! as Ms. Bartlett is a white teacher, coming in to “rescue” this dance team. I’m not sure I agree with this comment, as I found Ms. Bartlett to be quite indifferent to the girls; she doesn’t save them from anything, because the girls figure everything out for themselves. They go to competition without Ms. Bartlett to prove to themselves that they are good enough and they have to convince Ms. Bartlett to forget her past trauma and to work with them, more to help Ms. Bartlett than the girls. They only need a coach for administrative purposes, really! It might have been more powerful to have this teacher also be Latina, but as this was based on a true story, I guess Disney decided to stick to the story and to have the Latina girls be the focal point of Gotta Kick It Up!, which they are. I would agree that not enough is made of the girls’ stories and family lives though; these should have been explored more[3].
LEGACY
Unlike Bring It On (2000) which spanned a whole series of films – there have been seven of these so far – Gotta Kick It Up! did not receive a sequel. However, the phrase “Sí, se puede” was launched into popular culture in part as a result of this movie.
Screenwriter Nancy De Los Santos had the idea of using this phrase as the girls’ motto and motivational tool in Gotta Kick It Up! as it was not a part of teacher Meghan Cole’s story[4]. De Los Santos did not come up with the phrase herself, and “Sí, se puede”, meaning “Yes, we can” can be traced back to 1965 and be credited to Dolores Huerta.
Huerta and César Chávez co-led a series of strikes alongside hundreds of agricultural workers from 1965, as these labourers were being subjected to terrible conditions, for example, working long shifts in unbearable heat, not having access to water, and being exposed to pesticides. This motto became a rallying cry for the workers, which aimed to change unfair and unsafe labour practices for these workers. In 2008, Barack Obama would use this same slogan, but in English, for his presidential campaign[5].
As a reference to America Ferrera’s role in Gotta Kick It Up!, her character’s husband in Barbie (2023) says “Sí, se puede” to Barbie at the end of the movie, to which Gloria, Ferrera’s character, responds by saying that is a political statement, with many quick to notice this Easter egg to one of Ferrera’s earliest acting roles. It both serves as a reference to Gotta Kick It Up! as well as harkening back to a historical moment of fighting for basic worker rights for all.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Gotta Kick It Up! might not have been the movie for me, but I did like its focus on friendship, teamwork, and not giving up even when times get tough. I also enjoyed the dance routines, which seem to be a staple focus of quite a few American movies and television shows.
The most important part of Gotta Kick It Up! is that it showed Disney Channel attempting to tell stories that represented the experiences of all children, regardless of their ethnicity or background. Although Gotta Kick It Up! may not be perfect, it led the way for Disney Channel to make more serious movies with more diverse casts.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Glenn Garner, ‘America Ferrera Celebrates 20 Years Since Her ‘First Day as a Working Actress’: ‘We Did It Baby Girl’’, People.com, 24th April 2021.
[2] Credit: Allison Fass, ‘FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; To Be Young, Talented, Hard-Working, and Latina’, NYTimes.com, 21st July 2002.
[3] Credit: Mekia Rivas, ‘I Rewatched Gotta Kick It Up! 20 Years Later & It Hasn’t Aged Well’, Refinery29.com, 26th July 2022.
[4] Credit: Allison Fass, ‘FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; To Be Young, Talented, Hard-Working, and Latina’, NYTimes.com, 21st July 2002.
[5] Credit: Nili Blanck, ‘Why Sí, Se Puede’ Was the Winning Motto for the United Farm Workers’, SmithsonianMag.com, 5th January 2023.
The Disney Purist 