Tag / dcom

by The Disney Purist

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension (2011)

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

BACKGROUND

In amongst all the typical comedy series that air on Disney Channel, there are also a number of animated series that have debuted on the channel.

Some of these animated series are directly based on a Disney animated movie, such as Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003-06), or The Emperor’s New School (2006-08). Other series that premiered on Disney Channel were based on original ideas such as Kim Possible (2002-07) and Phineas and Ferb (2007-15).

I have never been a huge fan of animated television series for some reason. I don’t really understand why as I love animated movies; I think it might have something to do with how silly animated cartoons can be. I liked a few though, don’t get me wrong, especially when I was little. I used to watch Cartoon Network so early in the morning that my parents had to put a parental lock on the TV to stop me waking them up! But as I started watching Disney Channel, the only animated series I enjoyed watching was Recess (1997-2003), which wasn’t a Disney Channel original, choosing instead to watch their live-action shows.

My sister was the one who liked Disney Channel’s animated programming: Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and American Dragon: Jake Long (2005-07). When Phineas and Ferb came out, she loved that show too. If I was being a nice little sister, I’d sit and watch these shows with her without complaining. Though I really didn’t like American Dragon, I was fine watching the other three shows I’ve mentioned.

There were elements of Phineas and Ferb that I liked. I liked Candace, the big sister character, but I think that was purely because she was voiced by Ashley Tisdale, a.k.a. Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise, my favourite character in those films. I also found Dr. Doofenshmirtz very funny, and the songs were pretty good, so it wasn’t too much of a chore to sit through episodes when my sister wanted to watch.

When we found out that Phineas and Ferb’s first movie, Across the 2nd Dimension, was going to be released, I knew I’d have to let my sister watch it whenever she wanted to, and I did; we watched it together, and although it wasn’t my thing, I did quite like it. There were some moments where I laughed out loud, and again, I quite liked the music.

It’s a good movie, though fans of the show will appreciate it more. Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was only Disney Channel’s third animated original movie, after Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama (2005) and The Proud Family Movie (2005).

PLOT

Across the 2nd Dimension begins with a flashforward, as we see Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz in chains, being led towards a huge, fluffy monster. As Phineas says “everything started out so well this morning”, we go back in time to that morning.

Half-brothers Phineas and Ferb are woken up by the sun and the noise of their pet platypus, Perry. It turns out this day is exactly five years since they both got Perry from a pet store, liking the fact that the cross-eyed platypus could look at both Phineas and Ferb at the same time, with the boys seeing this as some sort of sign! The plan was to call him Barthlomew, but in the end, the platypus was renamed to Perry.

Meanwhile, their sister Candace is figuring out what to do with her day and calls up her boyfriend Jeremy. Jeremy is busy, going with his dad to look at colleges, which reminds Candace that Jeremy is a whole year older than her and will be heading off to college soon. This motivates Candace to get rid of all her childish junk and finally act like a grown-up.

Phineas and Ferb have decided to create a huge game of badminton with their friends, Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet, creating two massive Perry-like catapults that will send a shuttlecock from the boys’ back garden over to the park. As they are about to try it out for the first time, they notice Perry has vanished, a normal occurrence, nothing to worry about.

Perry is actually a secret agent, known as Agent P. He is congratulated on his five years with the boys, as he was never just a normal platypus in a pet store but was assigned to this family. Agent P’s boss, Major Monogram, warns him that should his cover ever be blown, he will have to be reassigned. Agent P loves Phineas and Ferb so tries very hard to keep his secret, whilst also saving the world from the evil scientist, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who has grand schemes but is incapable of achieving them. Agent P is told to stop Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s latest invention, some sort of alternate reality device, and is given gadgets to help him on his mission. He is given a magnetic watch that can communicate with Major Monogram, although he is warned not to contact him between 3:30pm and 4:00pm as that is when he takes his shower… Oh yeah, and this watch can give people instant brain freeze!

Back home, Candace is told to look after the boys as her parents are going to see a movie. This gives Candace the opportunity to act like a grown-up and bust her brothers herself, something she has spent all summer trying to do, but at the moment she goes to show her mother the boys’ creations, they always disappear and the boys are never punished. Candace catches a glimpse of the huge “platypult” in the garden, but by the time she gets out there, the boys have been catapulted into the air on a huge shuttlecock and the platypult has vanished, giving Candace evidence that this “mysterious force” that always takes away the boys’ inventions now sees her as the adult, not just her mother.

Phineas and Ferb, on the shuttlecock, accidentally crash into Agent P in his hovercraft, though they don’t realise, and are knocked off course, crashing into Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s lair and into his “Other-Dimension-inator”, the exact thing Agent P was meant to be stopping. As the boys feel bad for breaking this guy’s machine, and don’t know he’s evil, they decide to help fix it, noticing issues with his wiring and his self-destruct button which would have stopped it from working properly. Agent P then arrives soon after, but quickly reverts back to normal Perry the platypus mode when he sees Phineas and Ferb there. Realising that the boys are making this invention work, Perry tries everything he can to stop them, including peeing on Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s sofa – nice… It doesn’t work though and the machine is used to show another dimension.

Phineas, Ferb, Perry, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz step into this alternate dimension and see that the Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is ruler of this alternate Tri-State Area, something that normal Dr. Doofenshmirtz has always tried to do. Dr. Doofenshmirtz heads over alone to meet his alternate dimension self. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz reveals that he turned the Alternate Agent P into a cyborg, who now works as one of his minions, along with his army of Norm Bots, something Dr. Doofenshmirtz has, but his Norm Bot has never shown much capacity for being evil… The boys soon arrive with Perry. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz instantly recognises Perry as being Agent P, however, Dr. Doofenshmirtz cannot see it, as the platypus isn’t standing on two legs or wearing his secret agent hat. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz shows he’s right by having his platypus cyborg attack the boys. Sure enough, Agent P reveals himself to everyone to save Phineas and Ferb. They are attacked by the Alternate Norm Bots and the cyborg, with Agent P having to get the boys to safety. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz then decides to take over the other Tri-State Area.

Phineas is furious with Perry for his deceit and his double life, struggling to move past it. He uses the remote for the Other-Dimension-inator, which he luckily kept with him, but the portal does not show their dimension. They decide to enlist the help of their alternate selves to get home. But Alternate Phineas and Alternate Ferb are not the creative geniuses they are in the “real world”. Instead, thanks to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s iron-fisted rule, the boys live in a grey world full of fear and anxiety. They aren’t going to be much help… A television announcement then plays telling Agent P to hand himself in to save Phineas and Ferb from any further harm. As he is about to secretly leave, Phineas sees him and accuses him of ditching them. Phineas angrily tells Perry/Agent P to go, and he sadly does.

Phineas then says they need to find Alternate Isabella, who the boys in this dimension have never met, but luckily, she only lives next door. As they head over there, a Norm Bot spots them and tries to attack. Alternate Buford saves them, and takes them over to the Resistance, which consists of alternate versions of all their friends, and is led by none other than Alternate Candace! They are told by Alternate Baljeet to picture dimensions as moving in a clockwise direction, with the remote showing the next dimension along from where they are. It is easier to travel in this direction, although the number of dimensions they would need to get through to get home is unknown. The Resistance can redirect the power to open up the portal to their home, however, it is unsteady. As the boys learn that Perry needs saving from Alternate Doofenshmirtz, who now needs the boys to fix his own version of the “Other-Dimension-inator” in order to conquer their Tri-State area, they decide not to go through. Alternate Baljeet says he’ll try to keep it open but it may not last too long. Suddenly, Candace jumps through into this alternate dimension, causing the portal to close. Candace believed this was the “mysterious force” – it wasn’t…

The Resistance then take Phineas, Ferb, and Candace to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters via mine carts in the underground tunnels so they can save Perry. However, when they arrive there, it is revealed that they have walked into a trap. Using some quick-thinking, Perry/Agent P realises it is between 3:30pm and 4:00pm and uses his watch to call Major Monogram, who, sure enough, is in the shower. This holographic image makes both Dr. Doofenshmirtzs avert their eyes, letting the others escape. They are pursued by Norm Bots. A fire begins on one of the mine carts, slowing down the train. Alternate Candace makes the decision to cut lose Phineas, Ferb, and Candace’s end of the train so she can save her own brothers. They are captured.

Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz orders Phineas to fix the “Other-Dimension-inator”. Phineas refuses, even when faced with a hand puppet, which Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz believes should have managed to convince him! Dr. Doofenshmirtz then remembers what the boys told him back home about the wiring and the self-destruct button. Making some changes, the machine now works. As there is no use for the boys, Candace, Agent P, or Dr. Doofenshmirtz anymore, they are sent to their doom. This “doom” consists of being fed to a huge, fluffy monster, as per the opening sequence. Suddenly, Alternate Candace arrives, flying across the room on a giant gnome statue, throwing Phineas the remote that he left back at Resistance Headquarters. He uses the remote just as the group are about to fall, all chained together, and they disappear into another dimension, with the monster following them – though much of its body doesn’t make it through the small portal so it gets freaked out and runs off! They unlock themselves from their chains, however, some of the Norm Bots have followed them through the portal, whilst others have captured Alternate Candace.

The group, chased by Norm Bots, run through multiple dimensions, finally making it home, however, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is already here and has sent his Norm Bots to attack their city of Danville, to make the people conform to his new world order. Agent P runs off to save the day, giving Phineas and Ferb his pet collar first. They go off home, believing there is nothing more they can do. Dr. Doofenshmirtz, meanwhile, tries to get into his penthouse where Alternate Doofenshmirtz is enacting his plan.  

At home, Phineas and Ferb begin to hear noises coming from the collar. They follow the noises and are led to a tunnel in the wall, which takes them to Agent P’s secret lair. They are instructed to open up the collar’s locket and uses it as a key to the supercomputer. After doing this, they then see that all their inventions from the summer are being 3D-printed. Phineas and Ferb enlist all their friends to use these inventions to fight the Norm Bots. Other animal secrets agents, of which Agent P is just one, also get in on the battle. Candace decides she has to show her mother what is going on, as she knows the “mysterious force” will remove all trace of the battle if she does.

Agent P takes Phineas up to battle Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz and close the portal. Agent P fights the cyborg, and Phineas fights Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, but nothing seems to be working. The cyborg is electrified and immobilised, but the portal is still open. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz then gets hold of Phineas’ baseball glove invention, and shoots a baseball right at Phineas. Agent P throws him a bat, and Phineas manages to hit the baseball right into the portal, breaking it and closing it. The Norm Bots fall from the sky and Ferb shows up. But Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz has one more trick up his sleeve, revealing a huge robot version of himself, where he controls it…from the sleeve. As Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is about to throw a punch, Dr. Doofenshmirtz comes in and shows Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz a toy train. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz lost his as a child and this turned him evil. As Dr. Doofenshmirtz hands over his own toy train, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s backstory is finally resolved. He self-destructs all the Norm Bots and goes back home.

Back in his dimension, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is promptly arrested by the Resistance, with Alternate Candace being freed from prison by her brothers and Alternate Jeremy, who she’d never met before. Then, Alternate Candace, Phineas, and Ferb come through to thank everyone for their help, and they also take home the cyborg, who was their pet, and has since reverted back to normal platypus mode. Candace also encourages Alternate Candace to date Alternate Jeremy, something she says she’ll think about.

Major Monogram arrives to say Agent P must be reassigned as his cover was blown today. The boys are devastated over this and wish there was another way. Major Monogram and his assistant, Carl, then remember Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s “Amnesia-inator”, which they can use to wipe their memories of the day. Everything goes back to normal, with only Agent P having fond memories of it, uploading photos of their adventure onto his supercomputer.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Phineas and Ferb are half-brothers who are very close, almost inseparable. They aren’t the type of kids who want to spend their summer staying inside, watching TV, or playing on video games. They want to get outside, be creative, and have some fun. The two are used to creating huge-scale inventions with their friends, but going to an alternate dimension, finding out their pet platypus is a secret agent, and being chased around by weird robots is a little out of even their comfort zone! They tackle this situation with their usual intelligence, loyalty, and quick-thinking and get out of it unharmed, along with all their friends and their favourite sister, Candace. Although Phineas and Ferb are similar in many ways, one big difference between them is the amount that the brothers talk. Ferb rarely says much outside of the occasional clever one-liner, whereas Phineas is the chatty one.

Phineas was voiced by Vincent Martella. Martella is also known for his role as Greg Wuliger in Everybody Hates Chris (2005-09), for which he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and two Young Artists Awards. Thomas Brodie-Sangster voiced Ferb. As a child actor, Brodie-Sangster was cast as Sam in Love Actually (2003), and then as Simon in Nanny McPhee (2005). In more recent years, he is known for his roles as Rafe Sadler in the BBC series Wolf Hall (2015-present); as Jack Dawkins / Dodger in The Artful Dodger (2023-present); and as Newt in The Maze Runner movie trilogy.

Candace is Phineas and Ferb’s sister whose main aim in life is to bust her brothers and get them in trouble for all the things they do during the summer. This has never worked before, because every time Candace manages to drag her mother away from whatever she’s doing to come and see what the boys are doing, the invention magically disappears and everything seems normal. In Across the 2nd Dimension, Candace has decided to be an adult, wanting to bust her brothers herself, but when she tries to, she finds that this “mysterious force” that hides all the boys’ creations has taken it away before even she can see it, leading her to believe that she is actually an adult. But because of her obsession with this force, Candace then jumps through the portal into the next dimension and is stuck in the middle of a battle between good and evil with her brothers – not exactly what she expected! But by working with her brothers, instead of against them, they manage to get home and defeat Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Candace was voiced by Ashley Tisdale, best known for her role as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise, at least amongst Disney fans, reprising her role in the movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011). Also for Disney, Tisdale starred as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08). In more recent years, she was cast as Kayla in the Netflix series Merry Happy Whatever (2019), and was a panellist on The Masked Dancer (2020-21). Tisdale has been an executive producer on some Disney projects, such as the DCOM Cloud 9 (2014) and the ABC series Young & Hungry (2014-18).

Perry the platypus is Phineas and Ferb’s pet, however, he is actually a secret agent, Agent P, something that the audience already knows, but until this movie, the boys had no idea; they just thought Perry wandered off for a nap every day. What Perry, or Agent P, has actually been doing is stopping Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil schemes to take over the Tri-State Area. If Phineas and Ferb hadn’t accidentally ended up at Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters, then they wouldn’t have gotten involved in Agent P’s mission and he would never have had to reveal his secret agent status to them in order to save their lives. It’s quite sad how annoyed Phineas is with Perry for the “deceit” and it clearly hurts Perry quite a lot. Agent P does successfully complete his mission, with Phineas and Ferb beside him, and, ironically, one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s inventions actually help them stay together, as it wipes all their memories of that day, so Perry can still be part of the family.

Perry is “voiced” by Dee Bradley Baker, who has had a long career in voice acting. He has voiced characters in series such as Johnny Bravo (1997-2004); Dexter’s Laboratory (1997-2003); The Powerpuff Girls (1999-2005); SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present); and The Fairly OddParents (2001-17), all non-Disney projects. For Disney, he has voiced the character of Turner for Handy Manny (2006-13), and Tick-Tock the Crocodile in Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011-16), as well as various characters for animated Star Wars series. 

Agent P’s boss is Major Monogram, who is quite formal and serious, but seems to be pleased with Agent P’s work as a secret agent. Major Monogram can make jokes when he wants to, but in Across the 2nd Dimension, the joke is mostly on him, especially when Agent P uses a hologram of Major Monogram in the shower to distract the two Dr. Doofenshmirtzs despite being told not to call him at that time, as that is his shower time. We also see Major Monogram’s unpaid intern, Carl, here, who tries his best to do a good job for Major Monogram, but he is hard to please! Major Monogram was voiced by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, one of the creators of Phineas and Ferb. Carl was voiced by Tyler Alexander Mann.

Now for the best character in the whole show: Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Dr. Doofenshmirtz has some great ideas for how to conquer the Tri-State Area, but due to his ineptness and incompetence, his inventions and various “-inators” rarely work and even when they do, Agent P is a very efficient secret agent, so he manages to foil all of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s plans before they really get off the ground. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is much too funny and lovable to be an evil ruler anyway, so it’s probably for the best! Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, however, is the opposite and has managed to rule his Tri-State Area, with big robots and a cyborg platypus, which makes the real Dr. Doofenshmirtz feel a bit lesser. He is mocked by his alternate self for not recognising Agent P unless he has his secret agent hat on, and is found to be quite annoying by his alternate self, which must really destroy your self-confidence… Dr. Doofenshmirtz normally has some of the best lines in Phineas and Ferb, with my favourite one in this film being: “If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?” That line always makes me laugh; it’s just so random! Dr. Doofenshmirtz was voiced by the other creator of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his voice performance in this movie in 2012.

Outside of these main characters, there are numerous others that appear in Phineas and Ferb and Across the 2nd Dimension. These include Isabella, who has a crush on Phineas and is the leader of a girl scout troop in the real world, and part of the Resistance in the Alternate Dimension, and Jeremy, who is Candace’s boyfriend in their dimension, and a Resistance leader in the 2nd Dimension. Isabella was voiced by Alyson Stoner, who was cast as Caitlyn in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), after appearing as Max in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and as Sarah Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and its 2005 sequel. Jeremy was voiced by Mitchell Musso, known for his role as Oliver in Hannah Montana (2006-11), and as King Brady in Pair of Kings (2010-13).

Two more of Phineas and Ferb’s friends are Baljeet and Buford. Baljeet is intelligent and polite, however this makes him a target for Buford, who is a bit of a bully at times, but sometimes isn’t. Sometimes, he wants to help and be part of the group. In Across the 2nd Dimension, he is much less of a bully and more of a friend, although Alternate Buford is resisting the Resistance group, so he’s not all that helpful. Alternate Baljeet is though, as he figures out two methods for the boys to get back home. Buford was voiced by Bobby Gaylor, who is one of the story writers on the show; and Baljeet was voiced by Maulik Pancholy. Pancholy had previously appeared as Jonathan in the comedy series 30 Rock (2006-13).

Finally, I just want to briefly mention the voice actors of Phineas, Ferb, and Candace’s parents. Phineas and Candace’s mother, Linda, is voiced by Caroline Rhea, well-known for her role as Hilda Spellman in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003). Richard O’Brien voiced Ferb’s father, Lawrence. O’Brien is best known for writing the musical, The Rocky Horror Show, before starring in the 1975 film adaptation. For UK viewers, he is also known as the original host of the game show The Crystal Maze (1990-2020).

All the voice actors here reprised their roles from the main series, and the Alternate Dimension versions of these characters use the same voice actors. Although there is one big name still to mention who only has a small cameo in Across the 2nd Dimension. That is Doris Roberts, best known for her role as Marie Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-05). Roberts voiced Mrs. Thompson, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s elderly neighbour in this movie.

PRODUCTION

The first episode of Phineas and Ferb debuted on 17th August 2007 on Disney Channel, and a second episode was aired on 28th September 2007. The full first season then officially premiered on 1st February 2008, running until February 2009. A second season aired straight after, finishing in February 2011. It was closely followed by a third season which began airing in March 2011, and ended in November 2012.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension premiered on 5th August 2011, partway through Season 3, between Episode 17 “Road Trip” and Episode 18 “Tour de Ferb”. The show does not have a major overarching storyline though, so there is no real need to watch it at this specific point in the season.

Phineas and Ferb quickly became one of Disney Channel’s most popular series, gaining millions of viewers in the years since its first broadcast. Although there was a rumour that spread online a few years ago, saying that the idea behind Phineas and Ferb was based on a true story about a mentally ill girl in Russia, this is not the true story of how Phineas and Ferb came to be.

At the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield in 2013, co-creator of the show, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh spoke about the origins of the animated series. Marsh said that he first got interested in working in animation around his late-20s, becoming a background artist on The Simpsons (1989-present) in the early 1990s. He then went on to work on other series, such as Rocko’s Modern Life (1993-96), moving into writing and directing. This is where Marsh and Dan Povenmire started discussing their plans for a new animated series. Dan Povenmire later worked as a director on Family Guy (1999-present), whilst Marsh moved over to work on King of the Hill (1997-2009).

Around 1993, Marsh and Povenmire had already developed the idea for Phineas and Ferb, after noticing that kids didn’t seem to go out and do anything anymore, this becoming the whole premise of the show. I’m sure the irony of creating a television show for kids, to be watched inside, to encourage them to go outside and do things hasn’t been lost on the creators! The idea was later pitched to numerous networks, including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Fox Kids, before Disney agreed to move forward with it around 2006[1]. As well as using their experience of working on prior animated series, it has been said that the creators were inspired by British children’s shows such as Danger Mouse (1981-92) and Tiswas (1974-82), as well as American ones, like Sesame Street (1969-present) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959-64).

As Disney Channel doesn’t have many animated series, unlike other networks such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, it was felt that Phineas and Ferb would be able to compete with them now. The creators wanted the show to be bright and colourful, and created their characters based on geometric shapes, something they learnt from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, to make them easy to draw. They also loved music, so wanted to put their own songs into the show. These have remained popular with viewers, even outside of the show. I still remember many of them and I didn’t even watch the show all that much! It was also decided that the series should not be set in a school, as so many other animated children’s shows have been[2].

Phineas and Ferb successfully managed to attract major stars to come and voice characters in the show, including Selena Gomez, chef Jamie Oliver, presenter Jonathan Ross, and even Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond from Top Gear, who voiced racing commentators in one episode.

The series won a Daytime Emmy in 2010 for Outstanding Writing in Animation, and three Primetime Emmy Awards to Jill Daniels and Brian Woods for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. It has also been nominated for numerous other awards, including for its music and its voice performances.

It has been stated that this movie was first announced by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh in a January 2010 interview, however, I have been unable to find that interview to confirm that this is when Across the 2nd Dimension was first confirmed to be in development. Regardless, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was a natural way of extending the reach of the already popular show, something that Disney Channel are used to doing with other DCOMs based on series, and gave more opportunity for the visual gags, music, Easter eggs, and clever writing that the show is loved for.

Some of these are running gags that appear in both the series and the movie. For example, in the film, the usual “Hey, where’s Perry?”, and “Oh, there you are, Perry” lines from Phineas, as well as Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil jingle, will be familiar to fans of the series, along with the inventions used during the battle with the Norm Bots, which appeared in previous episodes of the show. There are references to elements of pop culture too, such as the musical scenes parodying other bands such as The Beatles, and Phineas lifting Perry up like Rafiki does to Simba in The Lion King (1994) in the opening musical song.

MUSIC

Since original music is a unique addition to Phineas and Ferb as a series, it only makes sense for Across the 2nd Dimension to feature even more original songs. This movie does in fact feature nine original songs, plus one deleted song.

This deleted song is called “Mysterious Force”, sung by Ashley Tisdale as Candace, where she talks about how she has always failed to bust her brothers, supposedly because this force takes all of her brothers’ inventions away at exactly the wrong – or right – moment[3]. No song in this movie is bad, including this one, but it’s not my favourite.

My favourite song is “Brand New Best Friend” which Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz sings alongside his alternate dimension self, talking about all their similarities. It all seems to be going well, but Alternate Doofenshmirtz ends up getting annoyed with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and their friendship goes downhill fairly quickly…It’s a funny song, as it should be, since it features the funniest character in the whole show.

I also like “Summer (Where Do We Begin?)”, which Phineas sings to their alternate selves, as they have never had a summer in this alternate dimension, thanks to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s rule over the Tri-State Area. Phineas and Ferb are telling them all about how great summer is and all the things you can do. They also start singing part of the series’ theme song, “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day”, during this song. It’s very catchy and parts of it get stuck in my head randomly.

Of the other songs on the soundtrack and in the film, I don’t like them as much but they’re still fine to listen to and add to the story. One of these is “Robot Riot” sung by the in-series rock band Love Händel, but actually by Dan Povenmire and Jaret Reddick from band Bowling for Soup, during the battle against the Norm Bots. Following on from the successful battle and defeat of Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, just before the End Credits, the song “Takin’ Care of Things” is briefly heard as Agent P uploads his photos from the day. It’s a nice, upbeat song to finish the film. It is performed by Dan Povenmire and Danny Jacob.  The End Credits song is “Kick It Up a Notch” sung by Phineas and Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash.

Two more songs in the movie are “Everything’s Better with Perry” and “Brand New Reality”. “Everything’s Better with Perry” is the opening song for the movie, which is performed by Robbie Wyckoff. It plays as Phineas and Ferb look forward to another summer’s day with their best friend Perry. It’s very upbeat and positive, as we should all aim to feel at the start of a new day but rarely manage to! “Brand New Reality” is also performed by Robbie Wyckoff and it plays as the gang race through multiple dimensions to get home as they are chased by Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Norm Bots.

There are two other songs in this movie that I did like but don’t make it on the soundtrack, probably because they are both only heard briefly. The first is “Baljeet Explanation”, performed by Alternate Baljeet, as he explains how Phineas and Ferb can travel back or forward through dimensions. It’s not a song at all, really, but I still like it – it’s funny and so random. Alternate Baljeet is quite right though – it did need a chorus! The other is “I Walk Away”, performed by Olivia Olson. It’s a sad song to match Perry’s sadness as he hands himself over to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz after basically being told by Phineas to get lost and leave them alone. It would’ve been nice to have a full version of this song.

Most of the songs in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension are included in the soundtrack Phineas and Ferb: Across the 1st and 2nd Dimensions, alongside songs from the series. This soundtrack was released on 4th August 2011, a day before the premiere of the movie. “Mysterious Force” is included on the soundtrack, despite being cut from the movie. The soundtrack peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Soundtrack Albums chart; at No. 3 on the US Billboard Kid Albums; and at No. 57 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

All of the songs here were written by Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the creators of the series, at least in part. The two were joined by Slash to write “Kick It Up a Notch”, with composer Danny Jacob also credited. Bowling for Soup’s lead vocalist, Jaret Reddick, whose band perform the Phineas and Ferb theme song, is credited as co-writing “Robot Riot” alongside the creators and Martin Olson, comedy writer and composer. Other co-writers of songs within this movie include Aliki Theofilopoulos, who was a storyboard artist and writer on Phineas and Ferb, as well as an animator on Disney movies such as Hercules (1997) and Tarzan (1999), who co-wrote “Everything’s Better with Perry” with Antoine Guilbaub; Jon Colton Barry and Robert Forrest Hughes are credited on “Summer (Where Do We Begin?)”; and James Bernstein on “Brand New Reality”. Many of these songwriters and composers had worked on previous songs for the series.

RECEPTION

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was promoted in various ways, prior to its premiere date.

One of these was through a promotional tour, which featured Perry the Platy-bus. The tour kicked off in New York City’s Times Square on 11th July 2011, stopping off at cities on its journey to San Diego Comic Con, which took place from 21st to 24th July 2011. At the San Diego Comic Con, the creators and some of the voice cast were on hand to discuss the new movie and even show a sneak preview of it.

The official premiere of Across the 2nd Dimension took place on 4th August 2011 at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, with a small parade and characters of Phineas, Ferb, and Agent P being around to have pictures taken with all the cast and other attendees.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension finally premiered on Disney Channel on 5th August 2011. It then aired a week later on Disney XD, and then on 20th August on ABC, before the movie was rolled out to other countries between August and November 2011[4]. Apparently, this movie was theatrically released in Spain.

Across the 2nd Dimension received some very positive reviews, including receiving 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from official critics’ reviews. Fans of the show were pleased to find that this feature-length episode was full of all the elements from the series that they loved, such as songs, spoofs, Easter eggs, and inside jokes and running gags. Others found the movie to be highly quotable – as I do – and liked the vibrant animation. It was seen to be a very funny family-friendly film.

There were a few negative comments about the movie, though nothing major, but some that I agree with in part. One of these was that Phineas was incredibly hostile to Perry at times during the movie, which is quite out of character for the usually calm, upbeat Phineas. It was strange to see Phineas so angry with Perry for hiding his identity. Has this kid not seen spy films? It’s imperative that spies keep their identities hidden, so I would’ve expected Phineas to have understood that, and be surprised to find out his beloved pet was a secret agent, but not have been so hard on him. Another was that the ending was seen to be a “cop out”, as handily, all the characters’ memories of the day could be wiped away in a second, meaning that nothing had to change. It was quite an easy way to end the movie, but I do understand that more of the series was going to be aired afterwards, so they couldn’t do much in terms of altering the events of the series.

Others also said they were disappointed to find that the character of Vanessa, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter, did not make an appearance in Across the 2nd Dimension. I always liked Vanessa, so I can see why this would be disappointing. Vanessa was included in two different scenes that were dropped from the final cut of the film. Vanessa was going to be teasing Dr. Doofenshmirtz for “playing with his doll”, when she walks in on him explaining his new plan to a stand-in Perry the platypus “doll”, before going home to her mother. Alternate Vanessa would have also made an appearance in a separate scene, arguing with Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz about how he has banished yet another of her boyfriends, before saying she is also going back home to her mother[5].

I think these parallel scenes would have been an appreciated addition to the movie, but for whatever reason, they were not included. Fun fact for anyone that isn’t already aware: the voice of Vanessa is provided by Olivia Olson, who played Joanna, the girl in Love Actually that Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s character, Sam, has a crush on and runs through Heathrow Airport for. Vanessa and Ferb also become a couple as seen in Season Four episode “Act Your Age”, set ten years in the future. This could be disturbing, given their age gap during the main series’ events, or cute, depending on who you talk to!

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was watched by 7.6 million viewers on its premiere date, and later became cable’s No.1 movie of 2011. It currently stands at No. 10 in the Top 10 most-watched DCOM premieres ever.

LEGACY

Phineas and Ferb has continued to be relevant in the entertainment and media industry, with spin-offs or sequels from both the movie and the series having been released.

The series Take Two with Phineas and Ferb was a spin-off short-form series which debuted in December 2010, running until November 2011, where Phineas and Ferb interviewed live-action celebrities, with guests including Miss Piggy, David Beckham, Taylor Swift, and Jack Black. This series only lasted for one season. 

As well as a video game based on the movie, a further direct spin-off from Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was created in the form of the Season Four episode “Tales from the Resistance: Back to the 2nd Dimension”. This episode is set two months after the events of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension. With Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz in prison, Alternate Candace and the Resistance face a new threat in the city of Danville and must work to stop it.

Two crossover episodes of the show were also aired as part of Season 4, with these being called “Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel”, airing on 16th August 2013, and “Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars”, airing on 26th July 2014. These capitalised on the popularity of Phineas and Ferb, as well as Disney’s 2009 acquisition of Marvel, and their 2012 purchase of Star Wars, which led to a new movie in 2015: Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

As mentioned, these were all episodes from Season 4, which aired from December 2012 to June 2015, with this being the show’s final season. The whole series concluded with an hour-long episode entitled “Last Day of Summer” on 12th June 2015.

After the conclusion of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh went on to create the series Milo Murphy’s Law (2016-19) for Disney Channel, which saw “Weird Al” Yankovic and Sabrina Carpenter lead the voice cast. Vincent Martella and Alyson Stoner, voices of Phineas and Isabella respectively, also voiced characters in this series, and some of the Phineas and Ferb characters made appearances in this series too, in a crossover episode.

Moving away from TV, Phineas and Ferb even had a US live tour, entitled Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever. The original tour took place from August 2011 to April 2012, however, due to its popularity, a second tour began in August 2012, running until April 2013. The live shows featured some of the most loved musical numbers from the show with all the characters from the series, live on stage[6].

Phineas and Ferb has also been one of the few Disney Channel properties to have any references at the Disney Parks, outside of a few pieces of merchandise.

At Walt Disney World, in Epcot, there used to be Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, which was an interactive game where gamers could complete challenges in many of the World Showcase country’s pavilions to help Agent P, and it used actual mobile phone devices originally. This is because the original name of this game was Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure, and one of the main features of that show was the “Kimmunicator” flip-phone. The 2000s and early 2010s were not exactly high-tech, but I liked holding the phone and having to secretly place it in a box at the end of the mission so that it could be used by another “agent”. Anyway, Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure later became playable on guests’ own smartphones around 2016, and then was played through the official Play Disney Parks app. The Kim Possible-themed game began in 2009 and ran until 2012, when it was replaced with the Agent P theming. Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure ran until 2020. The game was later rethemed to be DuckTales World Showcase Adventure, beginning in December 2022.

At the Once Upon a Toy store in what was then called Downtown Disney but is now called Disney Springs, Phineas and Ferb, and Agent P met guests here from around 2010. This likely closed when a permanent meet-and-greet experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Phineas and Ferb began in May 2011. The premise was that the boys were spending their time at the park filming a movie, so there were props like blow-up guitars and clapper boards that guests could use in their photos with the characters. It was situated behind the Muppet*Vision 3D exit and near to Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano. Agent P was also spotted here in August 2011 to promote Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension. This meet-and-greet closed in January 2016 to make way for construction work to build Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Also, from September to December 2012, there was an augmented reality attraction based on Phineas and Ferb at then-Downtown Disney. It allowed guests to have random short encounters and photographs with some of the Phineas and Ferb characters. It was called Phineas and Ferb and You: A Brand New Reality.

Phineas and Ferb were also spotted at Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort for Mickey and Minnie’s Surprise Celebration in 2019. At Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland, they could be seen during Phineas and Ferb’s Rockin’ Rollin’ Dance Party from 2011 to 2014. This was a short parade and dance party, and was the same parade that was performed at the Across the 2nd Dimension official movie premiere.

There was even a Phineas and Ferb segment during the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade in 2011, which saw Phineas and Ferb, and the Fireside Girls dance to their song “Gitchee Gitchee Goo”, with Agent P along for the ride too.  

In 2011, shortly after the release of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, there was talk about a new Phineas and Ferb movie being developed that would be theatrically released sometime around Summer 2013. One of the writers of Toy Story 3 (2010), Michael Arndt, was supposedly attached to the film and it was said that the movie would mix live-action and animation[7]. This movie was quietly removed from Disney’s production schedule. It wasn’t until a new movie, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, was announced in 2019 that it was confirmed that this theatrical film was cancelled. At least announcing a new movie would have softened the blow for fans!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Phineas and Ferb was developed to teach children how to be creative over their summer break, and to make the most of their time away from school. Not by watching television, or playing video games, but by getting outside, making up your own games, and just generally having a great time with friends.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was a success amongst fans of the Phineas and Ferb series, probably because it felt very much like an extended episode of the show, just with a more expansive storyline, taking the gang away from their usual setting of Danville, or just the boys’ backyard, and moving them into a whole other dimension, where they encountered alternate versions of themselves.

Although kids can’t go making themselves portals to go to other dimensions in real-life, the movie showed how getting outside your comfort zone can be a fun experience. With Candace’s journey in the movie, another message was also taught: that you don’t get much time to be a kid, so enjoy it while you can. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up, or you’ll miss out on all the fun.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Stuart Dredge, ‘Phineas and Ferb co-creator: ‘children are much more intelligent than people give them credit for’, The Guardian.com, 4th July 2013.

[2] Credit: Brian Boone, ‘The Untold Truth Of Phineas and Ferb’, Looper.com, 31st January 2023.

[3] Credit: Disney, “Phineas and Ferb: Across The 2nd Dimension 2011 DVD Overview”, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 19th February 2024.

[4] Credit: Jon Weisman, ‘First look: ‘Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension’, Variety.com, 6th June 2011.

[5] Credit: Disney, “Phineas and Ferb: Across The 2nd Dimension 2011 DVD Overview”, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 19th February 2024.

[6] Credit: Madeline Roth, ‘Disney’s Phineas And Ferb Live: The Best Live Tour Ever!’ To Adventure To Columbus’, TheLantern.com, 23rd October 2012.

[7] Credit: Steven Zeitchik, ‘‘Phineas and Ferb’ gets the ‘Toy Story’ treatment’, LATimes.com, 27th October 2011.

by The Disney Purist

Cloud 9 (2014)

  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 17th 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.

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by The Disney Purist

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009)

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

BACKGROUND

Being on a long-running television show is said to be steady work to many in the entertainment industry, which can be difficult and fickle at times.

Disney Channel have had their fair share of long-running series, which allow young actors to find their feet and figure out their acting style, ready for when the time comes for them to move on from Disney into more mainstream projects. This is also the same for other children’s networks, such as Nickelodeon or CBBC.

Sometimes, if a television series is popular enough, a television movie, or even a theatrically-released feature film, will be made to extend the reach of the series, push its characters to the brink with a longer, more intricate story, or to wrap up the show after it has ended. I grew up watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003) and re-runs of Saved by the Bell (1989-93) and both of these series had two television movies. Sabrina Spellman went off to Rome and the Great Barrier Reef, and Zack Morris and friends went to Hawaii and Las Vegas. I loved all four of these movies, and enjoyed getting the opportunity to see my favourite characters in a new location, dealing with troubles outside their everyday lives.

Wizards of Waverly Place premiered on Disney Channel in 2007. It followed the life of Alex, a teenager and middle child in a family of three kids. Her and her brothers are wizards-in-training, under the supervision of their father. The Russo family also runs a sandwich shop in New York City. The show ran for four seasons, ending in January 2012.

In 2009, the time came for Disney Channel to extend the reach of Wizards of Waverly Place, a very popular series at the time, by giving it the television movie treatment, and adding it to their never-ending list of official Disney Channel Original Movies.

In this case, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was created to allow the characters to delve further into their magical abilities by making a more complex storyline for them. This feature-length movie also moved the Russos to an exotic location as so many TV series-based movies do. That’s right, the Russos were going on vacation: to the Caribbean.

I watched Wizards of Waverly Place when it first premiered on the channel, but I never finished the whole thing. I think I watched most of Season 1 and parts of Season 2 and 3, but it wasn’t something I avidly followed. Come to think of it, I didn’t “finish” all that many Disney Channel series. I watched Lizzie McGuire (2001-04), That’s So Raven (2003-07) and Sonny with a Chance (2009-11) all the way through, but I think that was it.

So that means I’d never seen Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie before. It was quite interesting to be back with the Russos after so many years, and even though I obviously wasn’t a big time fan of the series, I did still like the movie.

PLOT

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie begins at the Russos’ iconic Sub Station restaurant. Alex has discovered her brother Justin’s bag sitting on a table. She decides to have a sneaky look at what he’s got in there, but soon finds herself being sucked into it. Alex’s parents and Justin come into the restaurant and see Alex in some difficulty. It turns out Justin put a spell on his bag to stop people looking through it when he’s not around. Alex begs him to get her out of the bag, so he does. But Alex reveals the family’s magic wand and the Book of Forbidden Spells in there. She reveals her discovery to her parents. Surprisingly, they aren’t bothered, and that’s because Justin had been given them by their father, to allow for further study, because Justin is the most responsible Russo child. This makes Alex jealous.

Alex’s parents then announce they are going out for the evening. Alex’s friend Harper arrives, giving Alex the opportunity to ask her parents if they go can to a party that night. Her parents say she cannot, and that them allowing Alex to stay with Harper whilst Justin, her parents, and Max, her other brother, go on family vacation means she shouldn’t try to push the subject any further; Alex is told to stay inside.

Well, that works for Alex, because she has magic. Using a spell from the Book of Forbidden Spells, which she did not return to Justin, she enchants the subway cart in their restaurant to go on the actual New York City subway to get to the party, with Harper on board. Harper tells Alex that they are going the wrong way, so she attempts to reverse their direction, but unsurprisingly for Alex, her spell isn’t working out the way she hoped. As they are about to crash with real subway trains, Alex attempts to magic them out of there.

Alex and Harper find themselves back at the restaurant; she did it. Except she didn’t – Justin was the one to return them and the subway car with his own magic. The subway car looks a little worse for wear, and as the parents come back home, the whole thing falls apart. Harper goes home, and Alex is ordered to pack for the family vacation; she’ll be going with them now as her punishment. To make matters worse, Alex’s mother bans all magic from this vacation, telling her kids to leave their wands and spell books at home.

On the way to their vacation in the Caribbean, Alex’s mother bores everyone with her stories about how her and their father met at this exact resort they are going to. When they finally arrive at the hotel, Alex wants nothing more than to escape her family. But she’s not allowed. It’s Forced Family Fun Time! In the day, they spend time at the beach and visit the historic sights, but by night, we learn that Justin brought the Family Wand to the vacation, and Alex still has the Book of Forbidden Spells, breaking the no-magic rule.

The next day, as they are at yet another historic sight, Alex tells her mother how bored and annoyed she is that nobody is asking what she wants to do. Her mother promises her they’ll go windsurfing next like Alex wanted. Alex, Justin, and Max then see a magician attempting tricks in front of a small crowd, but he isn’t very good. Max uses some basic “hand magic” to torment this magician and make him look useless. Their parents discover what they are doing and drag the three away. But the magician follows them. His name is Archie, and he asks if the family are wizards. They won’t reveal anything to him, but Archie says he was a wizard too once, but lost out at the Family Wizard Competition. Each wizard family must do this to decide which person in the family will be the Family Wizard; only one can keep their magic. What a rubbish rule. Archie’s parrot sidekick was also a wizard, named Giselle, who was turned into a parrot for misusing her powers. They plan to get their magic back – by finding the Stone of Dreams, a magical object that grants a wizard’s wish. Justin is intrigued but his father tells him he’s probably a con artist and that no-one knows where the Stone actually is, with tourists being sold fake maps to it all over the place.

Back at the resort, the family finally get to do windsurfing, which pleases Alex as she’s hoping to impress the instructor, Javier, with her mad skills. But she doesn’t have any, and Javier is too busy watching Justin who is a natural at windsurfing. This annoys Alex so she casts a spell on him, hoping to make him fall off. Justin manages to counter her spell using his wand, which makes him look even better. The only problem is he doesn’t know how to stop and he slams into Alex, who falls onto some kids’ sandcastle, destroying it.

Later, Javier invites Alex to a party on the beach. Alex asks her mother’s permission to let her go, but she refuses, saying he’s much too old for her and they don’t even know him. Alex tries to convince her mother using magic, but the spell wears off after only a few seconds. Alex then confronts Justin, knowing he was using the wand during his windsurfing lesson. Justin says he knows Alex still has the spell book. Alex confirms she does and that she needs the wand to cast a six-hour agreement spell on their parents. Justin doesn’t want to hand it over and says he’ll cast it himself, but Alex then reminds him that if he does that and gets caught, he’ll no longer be “the perfect son”. He hands the wand to Alex.

As Alex is about to cast the spell, Alex’s mother walks into her room and discovers that she’s been using magic. The two argue, and her mother walks away, with Alex angrily shouting “I wish you and Dad had never even met” at her departing back. Alex quickly realises something is wrong, and thinks she might have accidentally cast a different spell. Alex runs to find her mother. When she does, her mother thinks she’s the concierge. Alex then runs to Justin, who can’t find their father, and when he does, his father doesn’t have a clue who they are. They learn that Alex has messed up their timelines, so their mother and father haven’t met. They are just Jerry and Theresa now. They see that Jerry has magic, something he gave up when he met Theresa since wizards cannot keep their magic if they marry a mortal. The kids also see that Jerry has the Family Wand and the Book of Forbidden Spells. They try to steal it from him, but he notices. He isn’t angry though and is pleased to see some fellow wizards around. He talks to them about this spell and says that it probably needs to be reversed within 48 hours or the kids will lose their memories and vanish forever.

The next day, Justin and Alex decide they have to talk to Archie, the magician, about the Stone of Dreams as they need the wish to turn everything back to normal. Max is tasked with staying at the resort and ensuring that Jerry and Theresa don’t run off and marry someone else in the meantime. As Justin and Alex sit down with Archie to discuss his original, authentic map to the Stone, Jerry comes over and says he’s got that same map, having bought it from some store. Justin and Alex are about to leave, when Archie shows them an additional unique piece of the map. They head off to the first point.

At the edge of the forest, the map tells them that the path will reveal itself to one whose intentions are pure. Justin takes the lead but no path reveals itself. It does, however, reveal itself for Alex, this time making Justin jealous. They enter the forest along with Archie and Giselle the parrot. Back at the resort, Max tries to get Jerry to talk to Theresa. It works momentarily, and there is an attraction there, but Jerry states that he would never give up magic to be with a mortal. Getting their parents together might be harder than Max thought…

Eventually, Justin and Alex get to the edge of a mountain where the map instructs them to build a bridge of stones to get across to the other side. Justin does so with his wand, however, Alex shows him that his bridge is not as good as it looks, crumbling when she throws a pebble on to it. Alex instead uses a levitation spell with two boulders and Justin’s help to get across. This leaves Archie and Giselle on the other side, but there’s no time to help them; Alex and Justin go on ahead. Archie climbs down the mountain with Giselle.

The next morning, Alex and Justin are spooked by Archie and Giselle finding them. But it now means they can go on together again. Max is starting to get worried about Alex and Justin, and asks Jerry to help him find the Stone of Dreams, as well as Alex and Justin. Theresa overhears this and wants to help too, as she has information they might need to find it; she can also speak and read Spanish, to understand the map, which Max and Jerry can’t. They begrudgingly agree to let her come with them.

Justin, Alex, Archie, and Giselle continue their trek and are then told to find a cave, using “the one who knows the least” to lead the way. Alex attempts to communicate with some local farmers, but they think she’s crazy. Alex then comes across a little girl, who takes her to this cave. Archie lets Justin and Alex proceed into the dark cave alone.

They come to an area with a glowing stone within it. Half the floor of this room is missing. Balancing on breaking beams, with pillars crashing down, Justin makes his way over to the Stone. But it falls down a crack in the floor. Alex climbs down to reach it and manages to get it. Justin pulls her back up. As they are about to leave, the Stone is snatched from their hands by Giselle the parrot. Jerry, Theresa, and Max then arrive, and Alex gets excited thinking the spell has reversed. It hasn’t… Alex tries to tell them that Jerry and Theresa are married, and that she, Max, and Justin are their kids. This comes as a shock to Theresa who can’t wrap her head around it and heads back to their resort.

Jerry sticks around though and tries to help them find another way to reverse the spell. He finds something in his spell book, but it says only a full wizard can enact it. Max then begins to forget his life and is swallowed into a vortex. Jerry calls an emergency Wizard Competition for Alex and Justin. The two must compete to gain the wizard power before the other gets there, using only spells that relate to the four basic elements: water, air, fire, earth. Neither are particularly equipped for this contest and the power keeps flying around this make-shift arena. The two mostly just trip each other up as they fight to get to it first. Eventually, Alex, using a spell that transports her as a flower, gains the power – just as Justin begins to forget his life. Alex tearfully tries to get him to remember her, but he is sucked into a vortex, just like Max. Even with all this power, Alex doesn’t know how to reverse the spell, with all of her attempts not working.

But Theresa comes to save the day. She saw Archie and Giselle, now a human, at the resort. Giselle had the Stone of Dreams around her neck and Theresa confronted her. Archie did too, as Giselle now wants nothing more to do with him. Archie steals the Stone back and makes his wish to turn Giselle back into a parrot and then hands it over to Theresa. Theresa passes the Stone to Alex, so she can make her wish. She wishes for everything to go back to the way it was.

Alex then returns back to her room on that fateful day. Her mother comes in and is surprised to find this sudden outpouring of love from Alex, Max, and Justin, who are happy their parents are back together and that they remember who they are now. Alex also tells Justin that as she wished for everything to go back to the way it was, she no longer has the wizard powers and is not the Family Wizard. They’ll have to wait another day to do the competition for real. The Russos can now continue their family vacation in peace.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Alex Russo is the headstrong teenage daughter of Jerry and Theresa Russo, and the one the main series mostly revolves around. Though Alex loves being a wizard, she isn’t particularly careful or studious around learning magic, so she tends to act before she thinks. This is how her parents end up forgetting all about their children – because Alex was being impulsive and reactive as per usual. Alex also hates the fact Justin is considered to be the “perfect child”, having a good grasp of magic spells and having the motivation to study it properly. Well, if Alex weren’t quite so stubborn and didn’t feel like the whole world was against her, maybe she could’ve been given that title too – but that’s teenagers for you.

Alex Russo was played by Selena Gomez. She has a successful career in both music and acting, going back to her “Disney days”. As a singer, some of her earliest hits were “Love You Like a Love Song” and “Who Says”, with some more recent ones being “Wolves” and “Lose You to Love Me”. Around Gomez’ time acting on Disney Channel, she was cast in the DCOM Princess Protection Program (2009) and was cast in other teen movies such as Monte Carlo (2010), playing the leads of GraceAnn and Cordelia; and Ramona and Beezus (2010) as Beezus. In more recent years, Gomez was chosen to voice the character Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film series and is currently starring as Mabel in the murder-mystery series Only Murders in the Building (2021-present) alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Gomez was also cast as Jessi Del Monte in the Oscar-tipped Emilia Pérez (2024). A documentary about Gomez detailing her struggles with her mental and physical health, titled Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, was released in 2022.

Justin Russo is the most trusted Russo child. He’s very responsible – perhaps a little too much – and likes to stick to the rules his parents have set, although he will bend the rules slightly when it comes to magic. He wants to be the best, he is determined to become the Family Wizard, so when he’s told this is going to be a “magic-free” vacation, Justin doesn’t listen and takes the Family Wand away with him, whilst Alex does the same but with the Book of Forbidden Spells. If both of them had just listened to their parents, then that spell would never have happened. Just saying.

David Henrie was cast as Justin Russo. Some of his earlier acting roles include Luke Mosby in How I Met Your Mother (2005-14); Larry in That’s So Raven (2003-07); and Wheeze in the DCOM Dadnapped (2009). After Wizards of Waverly Place ended in 2012, Henrie then appeared as Frat Boy Zac in Grown Ups 2 (2013) and as Lane in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015). In more recent years, he directed and starred in the film This Is the Year (2020) as Sebastian; this film also credits Selena Gomez as an executive producer. Henrie was also cast as young Ronald Reagan in the movie Reagan (2024).

Rounding out the three Russo kids is Alex and Justin’s younger brother Max. Naturally, he is the furthest behind his siblings in terms of his magic ability, because of his younger age as well as his short attention span! Actually, in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Max’s magic seems to have improved, and he’s even asked by Justin and Alex to use a levitation spell to try and steal the wand and spell book from their father, Jerry, to find a way of reversing Alex’s spell. Max also uses his magic to mess with the magician that they see entertaining tourists; it’s a bit mean, but it was good magic. However, he is not trusted to go on the journey to find the Stone of Dreams by his brother and sister, instead being given the task of ensuring his parents don’t start flirting with other people…Max definitely got the short end of the stick there.

Jake T. Austin was cast as Max Russo. Prior to Wizards of Waverly Place, Austin voiced the character of Diego in the Dora the Explorer spin-off Go, Diego, Go! (2005-09) and voiced Nicky in The Ant Bully (2006). Around the time of Wizards of Waverly Place, he was cast as Bruce in Hotel for Dogs (2009) and as Chris in the DCOM Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007). Austin went on to voice Fernando in Rio (2011) and its 2014 sequel, and appeared as Jesus Foster in the first two seasons of The Fosters (2013-18). He also played Huckleberry Finn in the live-action adaptation of the Mark Twain novels Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2014). In 2016, Austin competed in Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars.

Jerry and Theresa Russo are the parents of Max, Justin, and Alex. Jerry is a former wizard, having given up his magic to marry Theresa, a mortal, so he has been in charge of his children’s wizard training, as well as managing the family’s sub restaurant. Theresa is a cool mum, but she’s also quite strict, not allowing Alex to run off to parties or hang out with much older boys, in the case of the movie’s events – which might seem harsh but it’s really good parenting. After Alex’s spell goes awry, and Jerry and Theresa have no knowledge of each other or their kids, both of them become quite self-absorbed. They spend their time flirting with other hotel guests, with Jerry being kind of obnoxious as well. Whilst Jerry is willing to talk to the Russo kids as fellow wizards, Theresa doesn’t give the impression that she likes the kids at all initially, finding them a nuisance on her lovely vacation. But when Jerry and Theresa spend time together, influenced by Max, it’s clear that they were always destined to be together.

Jerry was played by David DeLuise, son of comedic actor Dom DeLuise, who voiced Fagin in Disney Animation’s Oliver & Company (1988). Early on in his career, David DeLuise appeared as Tony in an episode of Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993-94). I recently watched this back a few months ago for the first time in about twenty years, probably, as it was shown on Nickelodeon when I was younger, and I instantly recognised him! DeLuise also was cast in the recurring role of Bug Pollone in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) and then as Darren Warner in Season 1 of Jesse (1998-2000).

Maria Canals-Bareera was cast as Theresa Russo. Prior to Wizards of Waverly Place, she had voiced the character of Sunset Boulevardez in Disney’s animated series The Proud Family (2001-05). Now she voices the character in its reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (2022-present). Also for Disney, she voiced the character of Paulina in Danny Phantom (2004-07) and was cast as Connie Torres, Mitchie’s mother, in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). Canals-Bareera won an Imagen Award for her performance as Theresa Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, in the category of Best Supporting Actress/Television.

All five of the Russo family were played by the actors from the Disney Channel series. Other than the family, there are few other characters in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie but two worth mentioning are Archie and Giselle. Archie is the magician who Max torments as he’s just trying to do his job, entertaining tourists to try and get some cash. The trouble is Archie isn’t a very good magician so it was only too easy for Max to mess with him. But this meant that Archie managed to find some real wizards on the island. Archie intends to find the Stone of Dreams to help Giselle turn human again, but he needs wizard help, which is why he tells Alex and Justin he knows how to find it. Archie is not the villain here; he is being motivated by his love for Giselle, but knows that the Stone of Dreams can grant more than one wish. Unfortunately, Giselle has her claws in him so deep – or should that be talons? – that she steals the Stone for herself and turns herself human, before casting Archie aside, having used him to get what she wanted. Archie then does the right thing and gives Theresa the Stone so Alex can save her family – but not before turning Giselle back into a parrot with his own wish. That’s karma for you!

Archie was played by Steve Valentine, who went on to appear in other Disney projects: as Mr. Moore in Avalon High (2010) and as Les Camembert in Teen Beach Movie (2013) in two Disney Channel Original Movies, and as Derek Jupiter in I’m in the Band (2009-11). Valentine also has a history in voice work, having voiced the character of Alistair in the Dragon Age series of games; Minister of Spring in Tinker Bell (2008) and its sequel Secret of the Wings (2012); as well as some characters in Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011-16) and Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017-21). More recently, Valentine played Dracula in Monster High: The Movie (2022) and its 2023 sequel. Human Giselle was played by Jennifer Alden, who played Christina Cleary in the comedy film Wedding Crashers (2005).

Finally, one other character to mention, who only appears at the beginning of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie is Alex Russo’s incredibly bubbly and positive friend, Harper. Reprising her role from the series is Jennifer Stone. Stone went on to star as Harriet in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010) and in Mean Girls 2 (2011) as Abby Hanover. After this, she was cast as The Babysitter in the horror-fantasy series Deadtime Stories (2012-14) for Nickelodeon. Most recently, Stone co-wrote and starred in the movie The In-Between, which premiered at the 2019 Twister Alley Film Festival in Oklahoma.

MUSIC

I was surprised to find there weren’t many songs at all Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, despite Selena Gomez’ singing talents.

It was disappointing, for a start, to not hear the original theme song, “Everything Is Not What It Seems”, at the start of the movie, not even an instrumental version of it.

Instead, as the opening song, we hear a section of “Magic” performed by the band Honor Society; the song was originally performed by the rock band The Cars in 1984. I don’t mind it as a song, but I would’ve preferred to have heard the theme song in some form. Around the time of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, in 2009, Honor Society were performing as an opening act for the Jonas Brothers World Tour.

Next, the song “Magic Carpet Ride” performed by KSM plays during a montage of some of the activities that the Russos do early on their vacation, like sightseeing and snorkelling, as Alex frowns and generally looks annoyed at this attempt at family fun! This song is quite nice; it’s a pop version of the original song “Magic Carpet Ride” by the rock band Steppenwolf in 1968. KSM had been one of the opening acts for The Cheetah Girls – One World Tour in 2008; Demi Lovato: Live in Concert in 2009; and even for Honor Society’s Full Moon Crazy Tour in 2009 around this time.

The End Credits song, “Magic”, is a cover by Selena Gomez of the song “Magic” performed by Scottish band Pilot back in 1974. It makes sense to have a song titled “Magic” be used in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, but as much as I like Selena Gomez and her music, honestly, I prefer the original in this case.

All three of these songs can be found on the Wizards of Waverly Place soundtrack, along with others that featured in the series or were inspired by the series. Other artists on this soundtrack include Raven-Symoné, Mitchel Musso, and Aly & AJ. As expected, all the songs have something to do with magic.

The score for Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was composed by Kenneth Burgomaster, who also composed the music for the Wizards of Waverly Place 2013 TV special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex. He had previously composed the score for the Disney Channel movie Halloweentown High (2004) and its sequel Return to Halloweentown (2006), and was credited as the composer on the series Jonas (2009-10).

PRODUCTION

The history of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie begins with the series itself, created by Todd J. Greenwald, which began airing on 12th October 2007, right after the DCOM premiere of Twitches Too (2007).

Disney Channel had released very popular comedy series aimed at children and tweens throughout the 2000s, with shows such as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08) and Hannah Montana (2006-11) preceding Wizards of Waverly Place.

Disney Channel aired two seasons of Wizards of Waverly Place prior to the movie being released, with two more seasons following on from it. However, there is some discussion about where the events of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie fit within the overall series. Given the Russos are on a family vacation, it is assumed that this takes place during the summer. But within Season 2 of the series, a four-episode storyline, titled “Wizards vs. Vampires”, apparently takes place in autumn, after a new school year has already started; Season 2 finished airing before Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie even premiered. If you want to try and stick as close as possible to chronological events when watching the show back, many suggest watching Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie before finishing Season 2 of the series, aiming to watch the movie before any of the “Wizards vs. Vampires” episodes. It’s not entirely clear or obvious where the movie fits within Season 2 though, so you can just watch the movie in between Seasons 2 and 3, as events from the movie are referenced within Season 3.

The screenwriter for Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was Dan Berendsen, who had written for numerous Disney Channel Original Movies prior to working on this film. His previous writing credits include working on Twitches (2005) and its 2007 sequel; Stuck in the Suburbs (2004); Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003); and Halloweentown High (2004). After working on Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Berendsen co-wrote for the Disney Channel’s musical sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).

Wizards of Waverly Place the series, despite its title, was not filmed in the Waverly Place area of Greenwich Village in New York City, but was filmed in Toronto, Canada. It is meant to be set in that location though. The early scenes within Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie also were shot in Toronto, as the same set of the sub restaurant is used here.

The rest of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was filmed in Puerto Rico. Princess Protection Program (2009), another DCOM featuring Selena Gomez, along with her Disney bestie at the time, Demi Lovato, was also filmed in Puerto Rico. The hotel scenes were shot at the Caribe Hilton Resort. For some of the more action-filled shots, the emergency Family Wizard competition is held at Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan, with the cave that holds the Stone of Dreams being Cueva Ventana in Arecibo. Puerto Rico was also the filming location for other movies. Another DCOM that used the beaches of Puerto Rico for some of its scenes was Teen Beach Movie (2013), as well as its 2015 sequel. Big blockbuster hits such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022); James Bond: GoldenEye (1995); Fast Five (2011); and 22 Jump Street (2014) were partially filmed there too[1].

Director Lev L. Spiro loved how they had managed to use a lot of the natural environments of Puerto Rico in their movie, using not only the beach and historical locations, but also the rainforests, which worked well to give Alex and Justin’s quest for the Stone of Dreams some grandeur and a sense of adventure. Spiro had previously directed the DCOM Minutemen (2008) and some episodes of the Disney Channel series Jonas (2009-10). More recently, he directed some episodes of UnReal (2015-18) and Insatiable (2018-19).

To add to this quest, special and visual effects were also used. For the levitating stone “bridge” that Alex and Justin use to get across the two cliff edges, Selena Gomez and David Henrie were jumping across two fake boulders on a golf course, with “movie magic” being used later to make it seem like the rocks were actually floating. Walls of fire, vortexes, and bottomless pits were also created to give a real sense of danger to the mission. It’s also worth noting the effects used in the runaway subway car scene that takes place at the start of the movie whilst the Russos are still in New York.

More gentle actions scenes were also shot, including scenes of windsurfing. Justin is supposed to be struggling against the waves during this scene, however, his scenes were shot on the beach and not in the water, so David Henrie had to pretend to be windsurfing whilst someone threw water in his face. Sounds fun… But the actors were also given proper windsurfing lessons so acting clearly isn’t all bad.

Animal actors were also used here, in the form of macaws. Apparently, there were four different parrots used in total, though Ruby was the friendliest one. Steve Valentine, the actor playing Archie, joked that they had to have four because Ruby needed two stand-ins and a stunt parrot. Though Ruby supposedly liked to snuggle into people’s necks, Selena Gomez and Ruby seemingly did not get on as well as Gomez would’ve hoped; she said the bird freaked her out a bit[2].

RECEPTION

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie premiered on 28th August 2009 on Disney Channel. It did air at a later date on some international channels, but in the US, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie’s summer vacation setting fit well with the US school summer vacation.

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was popular with its target audience and if you already liked the series, the movie was a good extension of it; a feature-length episode set in an exotic location. I liked the fact the Russos went to the Caribbean, instead of just ending up in a European city as so many other American movies do, like going to Paris, or Rome, or Barcelona. Many viewers liked how the movie allowed for some deeper character development. It also allowed for some deeper moments, like when Alex fears she is all alone in the world, without her parents, without her brothers, with no clue how to bring them back; that part actually made me tear up a bit. Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was seen to be superior to Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) which had managed to gain itself a theatrical release in April 2009, just a few months earlier, so some were disappointed that Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie did not get the same treatment.

However, as usual, there were some negative comments. The fact that the movie was seen to be a rip-off of Back to the Future, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones was mentioned frequently. It is unlikely this comment came from the target audience of children and teens who previously liked the series though. I don’t think I would’ve accused anything of being a rip-off of anything when I was “Disney Channel” age; I didn’t have the wealth of film experience or knowledge when I was that young. I see the point here, that the magical elements link back to Harry Potter; the quest feels a bit like Indiana Jones; and making your parents accidentally never meet, threatening your entire existence, is the plot of Back to the Future, but this sort of thing doesn’t bother me. I just think “oh, I see where they got that idea from” and move on with my life.

Continuing with some of the less positive reviews, the visual effects were criticised, despite this being a television movie, and the message about loving your parents was seen to be preachy, which it probably wouldn’t have been if you were the right age when you watched it. Something I did agree with though was that there were few additional characters in the movie, beside the five Russo family members. It was really only Archie the magician who got much screen time. He had enough screen presence to be a really good character, but it might have been nice to see a few other new characters as well, just to liven it up a bit.

Really, I think if you are a fan of the series, you’ll like the movie. I was a half-fan of the series, I guess, when I was younger, so I was happy enough watching the film.

Following on from the premiere and the usual second, third, fourth showings of the film, a “What’s What” Edition, where movie facts are displayed on screen during the movie, was released in October 2009. The Extended Edition DVD was then released in December 2009 in the US. Extended edition DVDs were common for DCOMs around this time, although normally they’d feature an unseen song. In this case, with a non-musical movie, the DVD contained a previously cut scene. It showed Alex, Justin, and Max attempting to use magic to get their parents back together, but the spells go wrong, with Theresa and Jerry magically swapping clothes; Jerry turning into a shark; and them turning into kids. It certainly didn’t add anything to the storyline for me, and seemed like a forced comedic scene.

Around 11.4 million viewers were said to have tuned in to the new DCOM on its premiere date, making it the second-most-viewed DCOM film premiere after High School Musical 2 (2007). Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie went on to win the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2010.

LEGACY

As I’ve previously mentioned, four seasons of Wizards of Waverly Place aired on Disney Channel during its run from 2007 to 2012. Two of these seasons aired before Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, and two afterwards.

Season 4 ended in January 2012, finishing with a two-part finale, which tied up the overall series story of finding out who would become the Family Wizard. The wizard competition that features in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was only held in an emergency situation, so the result of Alex winning did not mean anything for the overall series. She wanted things to go back to how they were, so it was like the whole event had never even happened. So, in “Who Will Be the Family Wizard?”, the real result was revealed to the world. The two-part finale averaged just under 9.8 million viewers[3].

I won’t give spoilers, just in case but also because it’s not relevant here, but me being a half-fan of the series, I had clearly forgotten all about Wizards of Waverly Place at some point in my life and only realised when I was watching the movie that I hadn’t even watched the finale to find out who became the real Family Wizard, so I only watched it this week.

After Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie aired in 2009, a sequel movie was apparently in discussion from 2010, probably because of its amazing viewing figures. It never happened, however, the television special “The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex” premiered on the channel on 15th March 2013. All of the Russo family actors, except David Henri, as well as the actors who played Harper and Mason, Alex’s boyfriend from Season 3 onwards, returned to reprise their characters. It saw them all go on vacation to Tuscany for a family reunion, with Alex accidentally creating an evil version of herself which runs amok and tries to destroy her family and friends. “Alex vs. Alex” drew in 5.9 million viewers, which was less than the series’ finale and nowhere close to the number that watched Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. It did, however, receive more views than some of the then-new Disney Channel Original Movies, like Girl vs. Monster (2012) with 4.9 million, and Let It Shine with 5.7 million (2012)[4]. “Alex vs. Alex” is not classed as an official DCOM though.

After “Alex vs. Alex”, Wizards of Waverly Place was believed to have fully finished. However, on 18th January 2024, it was first announced that a pilot episode for a reboot was being filmed. In March 2024, it was confirmed that a full season of the show would be airing. Named Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, it was soon revealed that the plot would follow Alex bringing a young wizard to her brother, Justin, to train her. Justin Russo had been leading a normal mortal life with his family up until this point. Other members of the Russo family will be returning to the series; however, it is unclear how many episodes they will be in[5]. Two episodes are due to premiere on Disney Channel on 29th October 2024, with two more coming the day after. The first eight episodes will be available on Disney+ on 30th October[6].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie felt both familiar and different to me. As I hadn’t kept up with the series whilst it was on, it was nice to see the Russo family again by watching the movie fifteen years after it had first aired.

It did what movies based on television series should do: it provided fans with a chance to see their favourite characters cope with a new environment whilst dealing with a more perilous, troubling situation than they might normally face in a regular episode. Overall, it was a pretty good movie and I know fans of the show will have liked it.

As Wizards of Waverly Place had been a popular sitcom for Disney, winning Primetime Emmy awards in 2009 and 2012 for Outstanding Children’s Program, amongst other awards including Kids’ Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards, it makes good business sense for a reboot to be commissioned for Disney+, as a way of bringing new content to the platform, as well as allowing former fans of the series to revisit the Russo family years after the events of the original series. New viewers can also be introduced to it.

Time will tell if this new series is as bewitching as the original.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Discover Puerto Rico, ‘Seeing is Believing: Experience Film Locations in Puerto Rico’, DiscoverPuertoRico.com, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Disney, ‘Wizards of Waverly Place – The Movie: Extended Edition 2009 DVD Overview’, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 31st January 2024.

[3] Credit: Mike Reynolds, ‘‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ Finale Conjures 9.8 Million Viewers’, NextTV.com, 10th January 2012.

[4] Credit: Nellie Andreeva, ‘Disney Channel’s New ‘Wizards Of Waverly Place’ TV Movie Draws 5.9 Million Viewers’, Deadline.com, 16th March 2013.

[5] Credit: Briannah Rivera, ‘What We Know About the Wizards of Waverly Place Reboot So Far’, Elle.com, 31st August 2024.

[6] Credit: Disney, ‘‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ Premieres October 29 on Disney Channel, Next Day on Disney+’. TheWaltDisneyCompany.com, 29th August 2024.

by The Disney Purist

Girl vs. Monster (2012)

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

BACKGROUND

Halloween is big business, especially within the movie industry. Whether that is family-friendly entertainment, like Casper (1995) and Coco (2017), or scared-out-of-your wits horror movies like It (2017) or The Shining (1985), Halloween movies are nothing new. These have been coming out year-in, year-out for decades.

I’m not one for scary movies, because I scare very easily and I know I’ll get nightmares from watching stuff like that, so it’s taken me a while to appreciate that there are a number of not-so-scary Halloween movies out there for people like me. Although I still can’t get used to Hocus Pocus (1993). Sacrificing young children for eternal youth is horrifying.

For a while, I wouldn’t go near any of the Disney Channel Halloween movies, steering clear of anything that had a monster or a ghost in it, despite knowing that The Walt Disney Company don’t make a habit out of terrifying children. These movies would be “safe” for me, but I didn’t even watch the Halloweentown series until I was in my late-20s.

The Halloweentown trilogy, and I only say “trilogy” because I know many people don’t like the fourth one, continue to be watched every Halloween season and are fondly remembered by children of the 90s and 00s. This is one of Disney Channel’s most popular movie franchises. Twitches (2005) came along as the Halloweentown series was wrapping up and delighted a new set of children and tweens, but since then, Halloween-specific Disney Channel movies have not been released regularly.

Girl vs. Monster was released five years after Twitches Too (2007) and six years after Return to Halloweentown (2006). In that gap, Disney had seemingly turned away from spooky movies and were diving in to the world of musicals, thanks to the enormously successful High School Musical (2006). Girl vs. Monster was Disney Channel’s first Halloween movie for half a decade.

I hadn’t seen Girl vs. Monster before this week and I didn’t know what to expect. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit nervous about watching it because of the word “monster” in the title. I didn’t know if they’d look horrific or there would be lots of jump scares. Rest assured, I was fine watching Girl vs. Monster and I felt ridiculous for expecting anything terrifying! I was surprised at the amount of music in the movie though, but given Disney Channel’s history with musical movies, I probably shouldn’t have been.

Girl vs. Monster reminded me of lots of other Halloween movies and it clearly borrowed and adapted some aspects of those. It’s not a particularly original storyline but Girl vs. Monster wasn’t bad. Not exactly a glowing review, but like I said, I struggle with Halloween movies; I’m very fussy with them. There were still plenty of things about Girl vs. Monster I did like and can appreciate though.  

PLOT

The story begins in an old mansion, where a group of teenagers are setting up a Halloween party. One of these is a girl called Skylar, who has a crush on the guy whose party this is, Ryan. Ryan has a band that will be performing at the party. Skylar is a pretty good singer, but Myra, Ryan’s on-off girlfriend, as well as lead singer of this band, won’t let Skylar take her spot – in either capacity. Skylar doesn’t feel threatened by her anyway, and she heads home with her friend, Sadie, walking through the cemetery in the grounds of the mansion. Sadie finds this cemetery creepy, but Skylar isn’t bothered by it.

She probably should be though, since some monster was watching her walk through there. Two people arrive and capture this monster, saying that it was “out too soon”, whatever that means. This doesn’t feel like a normal Halloween, apparently. What makes a Halloween “normal” anyway?

The next day, before school, Skylar has an argument with her parents. They are going away for a work event – they study mould for a living – leaving Skylar alone in the house. She wants to go to Ryan’s Halloween party that evening and begs her overprotective parents to let her go, but they refuse. She isn’t allowed to go to parties until she is sixteen.

At school, everyone is getting excited for Halloween, but not Skylar; she’s still annoyed. Myra, trying to keep Ryan’s attentions on her, tries to fix a school banner in the way that Skylar did when they were preparing for the Halloween party; by jumping up really high. But Skylar has had years of gymnastics training and Myra hasn’t, so naturally, she falls and hits the ground hard, injuring her neck. Great, now Ryan’s band needs a new singer…

In the middle of town, a new monster appears, this time disguised as a dog. It scares off a group of trick-or-treaters, before being captured by the same two people from the cemetery. It turns out these monster hunters are Skylar’s parents. OMG, so they don’t just work with mould!

Skylar watches as Ryan’s band practise with Ryan singing, however, he’s not happy with his vocal talents and tries to convince Skylar to sing with them at the party that evening. Skylar can’t bring herself to admit that she’s not allowed to go, and sees the desperation in his face, so she agrees to sing. But that doesn’t change the fact she’s not allowed to go.

Back home, Skylar’s parents are still trying to work out why there are so many monsters around for this time of year – duh, because it’s Halloween! There’s no time to ponder this though as they have to get out there and keep capturing them. Skylar is left locked inside the house, via their fancy security system, with Skylar’s dad’s assistant, Cobb. He is happy to be her babysitter for the evening, or be the “teen social companion” as he likes to call it – because that doesn’t sound creepy at all… Skylar knows the only way she’ll be able to leave the house now is if she cuts the power, so she heads to the basement and does just that, before Cobb can realise what she’s doing. The only problem is Skylar doesn’t know about all the monsters locked up in storage containers. With the power off, these monsters have escaped. Way to go, Skylar – you couldn’t have missed one party and just stayed inside, playing Jenga?

At least Skylar’s out of the house now, as her and Cobb run from these monsters. Skylar’s friends, Sadie and Henry, come to see what’s going on. A trio of monsters faces them: a woman in a red dress, a witch, and a scarecrow.  They vow to come back to get them later and vanish. Cobb has some explaining to do. Skylar learns that the woman in red is an ancient, immortal monster called Deimata. Deimata is Skylar’s monster, who was captured when Skylar was just a baby by her parents. Skylar’s mother is a fourth-generation monster hunter, using her grandfather’s weapons and modernising them so monsters can be captured and stored. This allowed Skylar to go through life without fear, but now that Deimata is free, a lifetime of fear has hit Skylar all at once, and she’s terrified. And in denial, not believing any of this is real. Cobb assures her it is very real.

Skylar’s parents call Cobb and confirm to Skylar that they are monster hunters. But before they can say much else, the line goes dead. Skylar’s parents continue to pursue these monsters that are now all over town. They are later tricked into believing that Deimata has Skylar. As they rush to save her, they are captured themselves, ending up tied to chairs in an attic. Deimata says she plans to scare them to death and she’ll use Skylar to do it.

Cobb believes that Skylar and her friends will be safe going to Ryan’s Halloween party at the old McQuarry Mansion. He arms them with monster-hunting equipment just in case, and sends them all on their way, telling them to remain calm if they see any monsters as they feed on fear. He’ll try to fix the containment unit back at the lab.

In the woods, Skylar learns from Sadie and Henry that they have seen these monsters before. Sadie’s monster is the witch, called Theodosia, and Henry’s monster is Bob the Scarecrow. Trees start to come alive and chase the friends through the woods. None of them can keep calm enough to pacify the ghosts and Henry ends up literally frozen with fear – yes, he’s been petrified, just like in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). Cobb has been watching them all from the lab and realises something is wrong. Cobb meets them in the woods and gets the girls to their party. He then takes Henry back to the lab in a wheelbarrow to try and un-petrify him.

At the party, Ryan is annoyed that Skylar isn’t there to sing with the band, but just as they are about to start playing, she arrives. He calls her on stage, and despite her fear, she gives it a go. However, she soon spots Myra in the crowd and is too scared to continue singing for some reason. Myra then goes up on stage to show Skylar what a real lead singer looks like, performing the song with Ryan’s band instead. Everyone is surprised to see Myra here after getting injured at school. That’s because Myra isn’t really Myra; she was possessed by Deimata at her house so that Deimata could get into the party and scare Skylar, to make herself more powerful.

Skylar doesn’t think she can cope with this evening, but then, her and Sadie come face-to-face with a monster. Sadie convinces Skylar to use their monster-hunting equipment to capture it. Eventually, they succeed and call Cobb to ask for more storage containers as they’ve got many more monsters to capture. Skylar then sees a photograph of her mother in this mansion, realising that this must have been her grandfather’s house. And now it’s a rental venue for parties. How did that happen?

At the lab, Cobb has successfully unpetrified Henry. Henry is too freaked out by all this and wants to quit, but he knows he has to help Skylar and Sadie, so heads to the party. Once again, though, he is confronted by his monster, the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow torments and taunts Henry, who weakens in front of him. He then remembers what Cobb told them about facing their fears, and stands up to the Scarecrow, not allowing himself to feel scared. The scarecrow shrinks in front of him. Ah, so that’s how you defeat a monster.

Henry runs inside to tell Skylar this, however, the party is in a shambles, as Deimata, now free of Myra’s body, has unleashed a frenzy of monsters on all the party guests who are fleeing the mansion in terror. Deimata and the Witch taunt Sadie and Skylar, who are not able to confront them in the way Henry did. But Skylar has another idea. She goes over to Ryan and tells him to follow her outside with his guitar, whilst Henry finds the other band members. As Ryan is about to do this, he is possessed by Deimata.

Outside, Skylar stands in the centre of the cemetery and begins to sing to all the scared teenagers about not showing fear, knowing if they can do that, the monsters will vanish. But Ryan interrupts Skylar, telling her she’s a terrible singer. Skylar knows that isn’t Ryan talking, but is actually Deimata, and continues to sing, regardless. Sadie also confronts her own personal monster, the Witch, and she shrinks to nothing. Skylar then encourages Ryan to do something he’s scared of, to get Deimata to leave his body, so he asks her out; Skylar says “yes”. The monsters start to flee.

But not Deimata. Singing isn’t enough to stop an immortal monster. She goes up to the attic where Skylar now knows her parents are. She follows, but finds her parents aren’t there. Out on the roof, Deimata threatens to drop Skylar’s parents to the ground below. After some attempts to capture her, Skylar, Sadie, and Henry realise Deimata is too strong, as she is feeding on not only their fear, but Skylar’s parents’ fear as they worry about her safety and her monster-hunting ability. She tells them to trust her. Which is easy to say when you’re not the one hanging off roof tiles by your fingertips!

Skylar then says she’ll sacrifice herself to save them. With this trick, and her parents’ trust, Deimata is sufficiently weakened. Skylar, Sadie, and Henry then fire at Deimata and she is finally captured, hopefully forever. Skylar then pulls her parents to safety.

After the events of that night, Skylar sings with Ryan’s band the next day, alongside Myra, who has come to be friends with Skylar. Sadie and Henry also continue their lives, not allowing themselves to be controlled by their fears. A final shot shows the containment unit starting to crack, showing that monsters will never be gone completely. Spooky.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Skylar has managed to live the whole fifteen years of her life without fear, blissfully unaware of the struggles that many others face with their own anxieties. Lucky her… Well, that all changes when Deimata is released, her own personal monster, unleashing all those years of fear on Skylar all at once. That bubbly, confident exterior starts to crumble and she has to cope with that, along with the whole finding-out-your-parents-are-monster-hunters thing, which comes as a total shock. It does explain her parents’ overprotectiveness though; her mother even tries to feed her garlic on toast for breakfast to keep the monsters away. Gross. Eventually, Skylar has to learn that facing your fears, not running from them, is the only way to move through life, as fear never goes away completely.

Olivia Holt was cast in the role of Skylar. She began her career with Disney by starring in the series Kickin’ It (2011-15) as Kim Crawford. She went on to appear in a different Disney Channel series, I Didn’t Do It (2014-15) as Lindy Watson. She also voiced the character of Morgan in Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014). More recently, Holt was cast as Tandy Bowen / Dagger in the Marvel series Cloak & Dagger (2018-19) and as Kate in Season 1 of Freeform’s Cruel Summer (2021-23). Between April and June 2023, Holt made her Broadway debut, playing Roxie in the musical Chicago. Holt is set to star as Sophie in the 2025 Netflix Christmas movie Jingle Bell Heist.

Skylar’s friends, Sadie and Henry, have clearly found school life more difficult than Skylar, as Sadie stresses about school presentations and tests, and Henry finds himself being picked on by bullies. Because of this, they are the ones who manage to calm Skylar down on multiple occasions as she struggles with the whole idea of fear, particularly stage fright, and just how awful it makes you feel. Sadie and Henry also both help with the actual monster hunting like good friends would; Skylar wouldn’t have managed on her own.

Sadie was played by Kerris Dorsey. Dorsey had previously been cast as Paige Whedon in the ABC series Brothers & Sisters (2006-11). After Girl vs. Monster, Dorsey went on to appear as Emily Cooper in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) for Disney, alongside Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner. She was also cast as Bridget Donovan in the series Ray Donovan (2013-20) and its 2022 movie. Henry was played by Brendan Meyer, who went on to appear in the web series Tagged (2016-18) as Eric/Dunbar Rakes and The OA (2016-19) as Jesse Mills, after Girl vs. Monster.

For Skylar’s love interest, Ryan, his main focus is his party and his band during the events of the film, as he is not involved in the monster hunting. But it’s quite clear that he likes Skylar, and thinks she’s a great girl. I have to admit, they do end up being a cute couple. On the other hand, Myra, Ryan’s ex-girlfriend, isn’t so impressed by Skylar, feeling jealous of her for taking Ryan’s focus. Myra does come to like Skylar, and I think that’s because she helps her pick herself up off the floor after Deimata decides to stop possessing her at the party. Or the possessing messed with her brain chemistry…Who knows! Either way, all three of them find they are able to get along by the end of the movie, and find there is room in the band for more than one singer.

Ryan 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; and Dear John (2010) as Alan Wheddon prior to his casting in Girl vs. Monster. After that, he went on to appear as Beau, Teddy’s boyfriend, in the final season of Good Luck Charlie (2010-14) and in the DCOM Cloud 9 (2014) as Will, with Dove Cameron. He also appeared as Dillon Sanders in the short-lived Pretty Little Liars spin-off series Ravenswood (2013-14). In more recent years, Benward was cast as Bo Larson in the Netflix film Dumplin’ (2018).

Myra was played by Katherine McNamara. After Girl vs. Monster, McNamara went on to appear as Sonya in the last two instalments of the Maze Runner film series. She was later cast as Clary Fairchild in the series Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (2016-19), winning a People’s Choice Award and a Teen Choice Award for her performance. McNamara also starred as Abby Walker in the series Walker: Independence (2022-23). 

An element of comic relief in amongst all the threats from monsters comes from Cobb, Skylar’s parents’ assistant. He seems to be quite capable with the technology involved in his work but Cobb is not the best at keeping calm in a stressful situation, as we see during multiple moments in the movie, like when Deimata is first set free; he hardly comes across as a strong protector! That might be a bit unfair; Cobb certainly did help Skylar and her friends deal with this big, life-changing event. Cobb was played by Adam Chambers. For Disney Channel, Chambers had guest roles in Andi Mack (2017-19) and Good Luck Charlie (2010-14). Prior to his casting in Girl vs. Monster, Chambers had been cast in the web series’ My Alibi (2008-09) as Cy Woods, and I ❤ Vampires (2009-10) as Wyatt. More recently, Chambers appeared as Paul in Season 1 of the sitcom B Positive (2020-22), and as Adam in the movie For When You Get Lost (2023), which won various film festival awards. Chambers has also moved into directing work in recent years.

Now, to the monsters. Deimata is the leader of the primary trio of monsters that threatens Skylar and her friends. Deimata is a more powerful monster than the others, because she is an immortal. This means she is not easily captured or easily weakened. She is absolutely determined to ultimately possess Skylar’s soul forever. Nice…Deimata does have her more comedic moments too though, because this is a Disney Channel movie and she can’t only be menacing. For example, Deimata tries to get Skylar’s parents to play charades with her, in order to get them to guess how she plans to destroy them. Oh, what fun! She also has her fair share of sarcastic, witty lines: her opening line is “Hello, world. Mommy’s home!”, for example.

Tracy Dawson was cast as Deimata. At the time, Dawson was performing as Meghan Fitzpatrick in the sitcom Call Me Fitz (2010-13), for which she won a Gemini Award and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. This was her final acting credit, as Dawson then decided to focus on writing instead, having written some episodes of Call Me Fitz. In 2022, she published her first book Let Me Be Frank.

For Deimata’s two “sidekicks”, we have Theodosia the Witch and Bob the Scarecrow These two aren’t particularly threatening and end up being easily defeated, just by having Sadie and Henry stand up to their taunts. The Scarecrow is quite funny as he begs Henry to be scared of him – he sounds so sad – so that’s another element of comedic relief in the movie. I did like all three of them discussing how the world of horror had changed just after Deimata escapes the containment unit, as she wants to know what’s happened in the world in the fifteen years she’s “been away”. The little quip about Twilight (2008) was amusing.

Theodosia and Bob were played by Anna Galvin and Stefano Guilianetti respectively. Some of Galvin’s credits include Gina in Smallville (2006-11); Rachel Young in Mr. Young (2011-13), which also starred Brendan Meyer, Henry in Girl vs. Monster; and Jane Wilkes in Loudermilk (2017-20). Guilianetti voiced the character Bogie in the animated series The Bots Master (1993-94), and he has also made guest appearances on series such as Supernatural (2005-20) and Once Upon a Time (2011-18) in recent years.

Obviously, this being a Disney Channel movie, there is only so much they can do with scary, horror elements in their Halloween-inspired films. I think they got the balance right here, in a similar way to the Halloweentown series, which included monsters and moments of suspense and peril, but dealt with them in a way that is non-threatening and non-traumatising for any small children that may have come across the programming!

MUSIC

Another way the scariness of the plot was toned down was by way of the music, with three original songs being written for the movie. This was a surprise to me as I was not aware that Girl vs. Monster had any original music prior to me watching it.

The song “Fearless” was performed by Olivia Holt as Skylar as she is trying to convince everyone at the party to not show fear so that the monsters will disappear. It was very “Disney” to have the lead character sing away the monsters. Not very realistic – I don’t think that’s a plot point in films like A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or Halloween (1978) – but I quite liked this song actually. A typical pop song, but it was good, and Olivia Holt has a great voice. “Fearless” was written by Jeannie Lurie, Aris Archontis and Chen Neeman.

“Had Me @ Hello” is first performed in the movie by Luke Benward as Ryan, when he’s practising with his band prior to the Halloween party, trying to work out if his singing is good enough. This song is then reprised by Holt, Benward, and Katherine McNamara as Myra at the end of the movie. “Had Me @ Hello” is another song here that I liked. I can see why it won the Best Crush Song at the 2013 Radio Disney Music Awards; it’s cute[1]. The song was written by Dan Book, Alexei Misoul, and Shelly Peiken.

“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” is the other original song written for Girl vs. Monster. It is performed at three different times within the movie. The first is by Skylar when she is helping set up the Halloween party with Ryan and her friends. The second is at the Halloween party, but just as she thinks she’s overcome her stage fright, Myra, possessed by Deimata, shows up to make her stop. Myra then performs the song herself. It’s a song all about moving forward, but I didn’t love either version of it, though Skylar’s more earnest performance was preferable to Myra’s rock version for me. “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” was written by Mitch Allan, Kevin Kadish, Sean Douglas, and Nikki Leonti.

 Another song heard within Girl vs. Monster is “I Got My Scream On”, performed by China Anne McClain. “I Got My Scream On” is being played at the party just before Deimata unleashes all the monsters, causing the party guests to flee. This is not technically an original song; however, China Anne McClain was well-known on Disney Channel at the time for her starring role as Chyna Parks in A.N.T. Farm (2011-14), and was recording music for the company at the time.

There are some less obvious songs here too. One is the End Credits song, which is “Rich & Famous” performed by Joy Enriquez. Another song is playing at the Halloween party before Skylar and Sadie arrive, and that song is Miss Amani’s “Turn the Party Up”. A song called “Superstar” seems to be playing on Myra’s TV as she sits in her room eating popcorn on Halloween night, just before being rudely possessed by Deimata. This is performed by Clooney.

The composer of Girl vs. Monster’s score is Robert Duncan. He previously composed the score for another DCOM, Avalon High (2010), but has also composed music for television series such as Castle (2009-16) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).

PRODUCTION

Girl vs. Monster’s cast was first announced in March 2012, and the premiere date was set to be during the second annual month-long “Monstober” event on Disney Channel[2].

Disney Channel’s Monstober is quite simply their build-up to Halloween, where Halloween DCOMs and Halloween episodes of Disney Channel’s most popular series are shown. The event has changed names throughout its time, but it does still exist in one form or another to get kids excited for Halloween.

Girl vs. Monster was created by a team that had a history of working on Disney Channel series and movies, with many of the crew having direct experience with Disney Channel’s spookier content. The story was written by Annie DeYoung, who had worked on Princess Protection Program (2009) and Return to Halloweentown (2006), with the teleplay being written by DeYoung and Ron McGee. McGee had previously worked on The Nine Lives of Chloe King (2011), an ABC Family production.

Stuart Gillard came on as the director for Girl vs. Monster. Gillard had previously directed three other Halloween DCOMs: The Scream Team (2002), Twitches (2005), and Twitches Too (2007). Executive producers Sheri Singer and Tracey Jeffrey had also worked on Disney Channel movies prior to Girl vs. Monster. Jeffrey had been a producer on The Suite Life Movie (2011); and Singer on Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas (2011)[3].

Singer’s production company had also produced all four of the Halloweentown movies. Singer wanted to work on Girl vs. Monster as it was continuing in the tradition of making Halloween TV movies, and felt Girl vs. Monster was similar to Halloweentown in some ways. One is the fact the main character learns about a big family secret. Singer did say Girl vs. Monster was more expensive, more ambitious, and bigger than Halloweentown[4].

Girl vs. Monster features quite a lot of special effects for a Disney Channel Original Movie. There are obviously the CGI monsters themselves, but there were other effects used. For example, when Skylar cuts the power to her parents’ house, some elements of the basement lab explode. The final battle on the roof of the mansion also required some stunt coordination. A set of the roof was built with a green screen behind it and the actors are on wires. This proves Singer’s point about this movie being more ambitious and bigger[5].

Girl vs. Monster was filmed in Vancouver, with some of the movie’s scenes being shot in the same woods that feature in New Moon (2009), the second movie in The Twilight Saga. Some of the cast members also believed their mansion location, which they thought used to be a convent, was haunted[6].

RECEPTION

A promo of Girl vs. Monster was first aired on 17th August 2012, during “Shake It Up: Made in Japan”, a movie-length episode of Shake It Up (2010-13).

Girl vs. Monster then premiered on Disney Channel on 12th October 2012. 4.9 million viewers on average watched the film during its premiere. It was also the No. 1 scripted cable TV telecast of the night. The premiere of Girl vs. Monster was followed by the premiere of a new Disney Channel series, Dog with a Blog (2012-15).

With this being a family-friendly Halloween movie, the reviews were always going to be mixed, as some think Halloween movies should only be all-out scary. Girl vs. Monster sits very much within the realms of family-friendly entertainment and will never suit those looking for horror movies. I can only hope nobody looking for a slasher film accidentally stumbled upon Girl vs. Monster, expecting something scary.

On the more positive side, viewers felt the movie was fun and an enjoyable movie to come from Disney for the Halloween season. The message about facing and overcoming fear was also considered to be appropriate for the target audience of tweens and teens. The soundtrack was also judged to be pretty good.

However, there were also negative comments, including that it was seen to be simply a way of showcasing Disney actors, although the performances of Luke Benward and Olivia Holt were considered a highlight. Some did not like the special effects for the monsters, finding them to be bad and low-budget. This is a television movie so the special effects wouldn’t have been as good as a Hollywood blockbuster. I thought they were fine.

The biggest criticism came from Girl vs. Monster’s plot being unoriginal. I can agree with this, as the movie’s story felt like a mix of multiple other movies, both Disney and non-Disney, for example, Hocus Pocus (1993), Casper (1995), Ghostbusters (1984), and Halloweentown (1998). With Skylar’s discovery that her parents have quite a cool and dangerous job, it also reminded me a bit of Spy Kids (2001). This didn’t bother me though and I don’t feel the need to criticise the movie for using similar ideas from other places.

Girl vs. Monster received a nomination at the Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directing – Children’s Program, however, Stuart Gillard lost out to Paul Hoen’s directing of the musical DCOM Let It Shine (2012). The movie did win at the Writers Guild of America Awards, awarding the win to Annie DeYoung and Ron McGee in the Children’s – Long Form or Special category.

LEGACY

Girl vs. Monster perhaps could have had a further movie. After all, the movie does end with Deimata seemingly cracking the containment unit, showing that her escape is possible.

But I don’t think Disney Channel could’ve produced a whole series of films based on Girl vs. Monster, like they did with Halloweentown, as I think the concept might’ve felt quite samey after a while. However, a sequel would’ve been interesting, to allow us to see Skylar have the opportunity to finally go monster hunting with her parents.

A sequel was not commissioned, however, Girl vs. Monster still continues to be included in the Halloween Collection on Disney+, although some other DCOMs and franchises, like ZOMBIES and Descendants, also make that list, despite not really being Halloween-y in nature. Disney Channel have continued to make Halloween movies, though not particularly frequently. Under Wraps 2, released in 2022, is their most recent one.

With the current trend of unexpected Disney sequels being announced or at least discussed, such as a sequel to Freaky Friday (2003) and The Princess Diaries 3, the possibility still remains for Girl vs. Monster 2 to become a reality, if a good story can be written and the cast are interested in returning for another outing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m not a big fan of Halloween. I keep saying this and that’s because I know that I am not and was never the target audience for Girl vs. Monster. Clearly, I’m not the right age for it now, but even when I was, I still wouldn’t have watched this movie.

I’ve never been interested in Halloween DCOMs because I don’t like spooky movies. Girl vs. Monster wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, which was good for me, and the music was quite nice. I also thought it was quite funny in places so overall, though I can say Girl vs. Monster didn’t suit me personally, I can’t tell anyone it is a bad movie, DCOM or otherwise.

What I feel I can say is: if you’re looking for a properly scary movie this Halloween, Girl vs. Monster is not the one. If you want toned-down spookiness, it most definitely is.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 9: Halloween Edition (2020), ‘Girl vs. Monster (2012)’, pp. 237-238.

[2] Credit: Nellie Andreeva, ‘Disney Channel Sets Cast of ‘Girl Vs. Monster’’, Deadline.com, 28th March 2012.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 9: Halloween Edition (2020), ‘Girl vs. Monster (2012)’, pp. 237-238.

[4] Credit: Emily Rome, ‘‘Girl Vs. Monster’: Bigger than ‘Halloweentown’ says producer’, EW.com, 12th October 2012.

[5] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Girl vs Monster – Behind the Scenes – Special Effects’, Disney Channel UK YouTube Channel, 5th November 2012.

[6] Credit: Patricia McNamara, ‘Behind-the-scenes scoop: Girl Vs. Monster has a Twilight connection – and more!’, GirlsLife.com, 1st February 2016.

by The Disney Purist

Prom Pact (2023)

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

BACKGROUND

The 80s are having a bit of a moment right now. Whether that’s in movies, music, fashion, whatever, the 80s are back and people are loving it, both young and old-er.

I don’t know what caused this resurgence initially. Perhaps it was the series Stranger Things (2016-present). That’s set in the 80s, isn’t it? I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen it. Much too scary for me. Or maybe it’s just the right time. Every decade seems to become fashionable again at one time or another.

I’ve had my own “journey through the 80s”. It started with music and my dad’s CDs, then I moved over to movies, starting with comedies like ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), before going over to some of the teen movies like The Breakfast Club (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986). I’ll just ignore the fashion; it’s not for me.

Once there’s a new trend afoot, everyone wants a piece of the pie – and that includes Disney. Prom Pact is their tribute to the iconic movies of the 1980s.

Prom Pact was released to Disney+ just a day later than its Disney Channel premiere. It is labelled a Disney Original Movie, and not a Disney Channel Original Movie. Now that many international Disney Channels have since shut down, the humble DCOM title has become something a little bit different as the majority of us have to rely on Disney+ for all our Disney Channel content, making the DCOM name redundant and inaccurate.

Surprisingly, I did watch Prom Pact very soon after its Disney+ release, which is odd for me as most of the time new films just sit on my watchlist and are normally removed a few months later, unwatched. A big draw for me watching Prom Pact was the two lead actors: Milo Manheim and Peyton Elizabeth Lee; both Disney alumni that I know and like. But that wasn’t all. I was also taken in by its 80s references, hoping to see nods to some of the best 80s movies as well as hear some great music. I wasn’t disappointed. I also find the whole American concept of prom fascinating, so over-the-top and everyone’s way too over-excited about it. I’m probably jealous. My prom here in Britain was terrible. My school didn’t even organise it, so everyone ended up at a village hall and just got drunk. Such a waste of time.

Prom Pact happens to be a very funny movie too, and a more adult one from Disney, moving into rom-com territory at times, alongside the usual teenage coming-of-age material. It was so grown-up that two different versions of the film actually exist: one for Disney+, and one for its original Disney Channel premiere, which edits out some dialogue. 

PLOT

Prom Pact begins like so many teen-centric movies: in a high school gym, at a pep rally. Except our main character is not at the pep rally. No, Mandy is sat outside, refreshing her college application status, hoping that Harvard, her top choice school, has accepted her. She is disheartened to find it has not changed and instead turns her attentions to helping those less fortunate, by attempting to take the contents of the Lost and Found bin to donate to the homeless. The school guidance counsellor, Ms. Chen, tells Mandy to stop what she’s doing and orders her to go to the pep rally. Begrudgingly, Mandy does as she’s told.

Inside, she attempts to vent to her best friend, Ben, about how all these basketball jocks are dumb and will never succeed in later life, but Ben actually wants to focus on the pep rally as they are about to announce the theme for their senior prom. Mandy isn’t at all bothered by this, but shuts up so Ben can listen. The theme is announced to be – drum roll, please – the 80s! Almost immediately after this, the student body hears the Ghostbusters theme start up. Oh yes, it’s time for the first promposal of the year. Mandy doesn’t find this at all sweet or cute and basically rolls her eyes at it. I am with you there, Mandy! I don’t like that sort of thing in marriage proposals, let alone promposals. Since when did all special life moments have to be so elaborate and public, full of props and prying eyes? Ugh.  

Ben is struggling to accept that he and Mandy have spent so much of their time in high school missing out on big events and opportunities to mix with others who aren’t just each other, with the two of them spending every Friday at the bookstore, then the movies, then the waffle house. Sounds pretty good to me – apart from the waffles, I’m not much of a dessert person – so I don’t know what Ben is complaining about. Nor does Mandy but she can see how much missing out on parties is bothering Ben so she does something corny that she never expected to do. She writes “PROM?” in ketchup on the restaurant placemat and asks Ben to go to prom with her, as friends. There are some rules though: no limos, no slow dances, none of that naff stuff. Ben accepts the conditions of this “prom pact”.

The next day at school, disaster strikes. Mandy finds she has been waitlisted by Harvard. Distraught, she goes to Ms. Chen and declares that her life is over. Ms. Chen tells Mandy it’s time to think about back-up schools. This is answered with a flat “no”. So, the only other route is to get a really good letter of recommendation from someone. Mandy suddenly has an idea: the basketball captain’s father is a senator, and he also went to Harvard. If she can get a recommendation from him, then Harvard will have to accept her. The only problem is, she’s never actually talked to Graham Lansing before…

With their two friends, Zenobia and Charles, who are much more socially mobile than Ben and Mandy, they discuss how Mandy can get close to Graham. Mandy is told that Graham should be at a party tonight and is currently failing his psychology class, so a plan is enacted. Mandy and Ben go to this high school party to find Graham so Mandy can offer to tutor him, since she did that class last year. The two split up to find Graham, with Ben stumbling upon a conversation with cheerleaders. He happens to have a crush on one of them, LaToya Reynolds, and Ben being the socially awkward person he is tries to include himself in the conversation, only to get nervous and start cleaning up all the empty cups around them. Mandy doesn’t have any luck either, and only finds Graham standing behind her after she basically calls him a grunting neanderthal. They make a quick exit.

Luckily, Ben did overhear that Graham is meant to be going to a community garden project tomorrow so Mandy knows she’ll have to go too. At the community garden, Graham goes over to help Mandy use a nail gun, and she apologises for what she said to him. She then offers to tutor him in his class. Graham is uncertain why a girl he’s never spoken to would want to help him, but he agrees to tutoring sessions.

At their first session, Graham is five minutes late and is too distracted by more promposals going on around him to pay attention. Mandy’s normal teacher approach won’t work on Graham so she uses a language she knows he’ll understand: basketball. This works so well that Graham decides it’s time for him to teach Mandy how to play basketball, with a simple four-letter word: BEEF. Balance, Eyes, Elbows, Follow-Through. It actually works. Graham then takes Mandy to a youth team that he coaches and Mandy learns that she’s the only girl he’s ever brought there, making Mandy feel just a little bit special.

The next Friday night, Mandy tells Ben that she’ll be tutoring Graham at his house so she won’t be able to do their usual Friday night routine, but she’s determined to get there for the movie. However, at Graham’s house, Mandy is invited to stay for dinner and believing that Graham’s father will be there, she stays put, ditching Ben. Ben is about to return her movie ticket when he sees LaToya Reynolds in the queue ahead of him. Ben has recently learned that LaToya does know of his existence and awkwardly invites her to take the spare ticket and watch the movie with him. She happily accepts.

At dinner, Graham’s father is busy with work so isn’t there, but Mandy tells Graham’s mother all about her dreams of attending Harvard. Graham’s mother then invites Mandy to come to a fundraiser event next weekend, so that she can actually talk to Graham’s father about Harvard and get some tips.

But next Saturday starts to roll around and Mandy remembers that Saturday night is supposed to be the night she goes to dinner with Ben for his birthday. Ben is annoyed that Mandy is ditching him yet again, so to soften the blow, Mandy tells Ben he should ask LaToya to go with him. He isn’t sure about that, but he does ask, and she agrees to go out with him. Mandy also tries to make it up to Ben by giving him gifts and balloons whilst at his Saturday job at the grocery store. Everything is still good between them. For now.

At the fundraiser, Graham and Mandy slow dance together and they kiss. Mandy realises that she’s fallen for Graham, so when she gets the chance to talk to Graham’s father and learns that he is disappointed in Graham for being “dumb”, she tells him that Graham is a very special person and that actually she doesn’t need anything in return for her tutoring. But as she’s about to find Graham, she overhears his brothers talking about a girl who was over at their house earlier that day. Graham’s brothers think he’s only brought Mandy here to impress their dad. Mandy is humiliated and runs out of the room. She didn’t bring her phone though so uses the venue’s phone to call Ben, the only number she knows – you don’t know your home landline, Mandy? – and interrupts his date. As she sounds so upset, Ben rushes out of the restaurant, leaving LaToya with the bill and the humiliation of having her date run out on her. What Ben should’ve done here is ask to pay the bill now, and then offered to walk LaToya to her car or take her home first. Come on, Ben – use your brain, dude!

Ben picks Mandy up from the fundraiser and she apologises for ignoring him and missing his birthday. Ben’s ok with it and they still have prom anyway. The next day at school though, things aren’t ok between Mandy and Graham, or Ben and LaToya. Ben says sorry to LaToya and says he shouldn’t have just left her. She forgives him for that and then asks him to go to prom with her. Torn between friendship and the girl he likes, Ben has to refuse LaToya’s invitation and say he’s already going with Mandy. Unsurprisingly, that doesn’t go down too well. Mandy, meanwhile, is asked to prom by Graham, who says that the girl his brothers were talking about was just helping him plan his promposal to her. Mandy seemingly forgets all about her “prom pact” and says she’ll go to prom with Graham. Mandy excitedly tells Ben, but again, unsurprisingly, that news doesn’t go down well with him. Ben angrily calls Mandy out in the school car park, saying she was only using Graham to get that recommendation letter. This bust-up happens to have been recorded by some other student, so naturally, Graham sees the whole argument, and breaks up with Mandy – before handing her the letter of recommendation his dad wrote for her. Ouch.

Mandy doesn’t know what to do with this letter, as it’s exactly what she wanted but now she just feels guilty. She returns the letter back to Graham and knows she has to make things right with everyone. Luckily, it’s prom day. Mandy drives to see Ben first and does a poorly choreographed dance on his driveway, which makes Ben feel uncomfortable enough to accept her apology just to get her to stop! Mandy tells Ben to get dressed because they have some stops to make before prom: the bookstore, the movies, and the waffle house. They eventually make it to prom – and discover that no-one else is dressed in 80s-style prom outfits, making them feel awkward once again. They try to ignore that and enjoy the dancing regardless.

Soon, it’s time for Prom King and Queen to be announced. LaToya is announced as Prom Queen, and Prom King goes to – Ben?! The Prom King and Queen have to dance together but obviously with everything that went down between them, it’s a little awkward. Ben publicly apologises to LaToya once more and they finally kiss.

Mandy catches up with Ms. Chen at prom and thanks her for rigging the vote for Ben to win Prom King. She tells her to never speak of it again. LaToya and Ben then order Mandy to check her Harvard application. Mandy reluctantly does so and is surprised to find she’s been accepted! It turns out Ms. Chen wrote her a letter of recommendation; it might not have been from a fancy Senator but it still worked out.

At graduation, Mandy gives her Valedictorian speech – oh sorry, I mean, Salutatorian speech; Mandy only got a 94 in P.E. so I guess that’s not good enough for Valedictorian? I don’t know; I’m not American. That’s besides the point anyway. Mandy publicly says how much Graham helped her that year and then proceeds to give everyone the same piece of advice he gave her: BEEF. Make sure your life is balanced, you keep your eyes open, keep your elbows safe, and follow through with your actions and promises.

At the end of graduation, Mandy says goodbye to Ben as she will be spending the summer at Harvard, but that’s ok because him and LaToya are now an official couple. Graham also comes to talk to Mandy, telling her he’ll be attending a college chosen for him by his dad. The two leave on good terms.

Some time later, Mandy is in a bar on campus and surprisingly sees Graham there. He tells her he decided to take a year out to do some non-profit work in the city instead of going to college. Mandy is overjoyed to see him and they reconcile with a kiss.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Mandy Yang doesn’t care about high school and spends her senior year only thinking about getting into Harvard, the only college she’ll even think about going to. Mandy doesn’t care about prom, or sports games, or parties. Her focus is on Harvard and only Harvard. Although there’s obviously a determination to achieve a dream here, which is admirable, Mandy’s life is completely out of balance, forgetting that life doesn’t only start when you get to college and that she’s actually missing out on some big life moments during high school in her pursuit of Harvard. It’s not until she discovers that Graham, part of a group Mandy likes to call “The Everests” because their life has supposedly already peaked, is actually a good guy and much more ambitious and kind than she expected does Mandy let her guard down a bit and start to enjoy life. But she only fully accepts that she needs more in life than college after she’s lost all of her friends and has to spend her day at prom making amends with everyone. And then karma strikes in the best way and she gets accepted to Harvard anyway! Mandy’s a tough cookie, and she represents the pressure that so many high schoolers put on themselves to get accepted to “the best” colleges. It’s not worth the stress and there are so many other options. When you’re 17, 18, it’s never the end of the world; it just feels like it.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee was cast as Mandy. Lee said that, since she had been acting since the age of 10, she understood Mandy’s drive to succeed and her ambitious nature, but Lee tries to find a good balance in her life between her career and having fun, so she’s different from Mandy in that way. Lee is well-known for her portrayal of the titular character in the Disney Channel series Andi Mack (2017-19). She also voiced the recurring character of Rani in The Lion Guard (2016-19) and then starred in the Disney Channel-aligned movie Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020). Lee also starred as Lahela Kameāloha in the Disney+ series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (2021-23).

Ben Plunkett is a bit socially awkward and resentful of the fact he hasn’t been brave enough to experience all that high school has to offer. Ben has felt comfortable and happy in his friendship with Mandy but as the end of senior year approaches, he realises that Mandy will be going off to Harvard and he’ll be left in this town with the fellow high schoolers who either ignore him or vaguely pick on him – he was given the unfortunate nickname of “No Nuts” Plunkett after an allergic reaction on a school trip…Kids can be so cruel. Ben wants to experience the last few moments of high school with everyone else, by going to parties, going to prom, and maybe, just maybe, finally talking to his crush, the popular cheerleader LaToya Reynolds. Luckily, Mandy going off and tutoring Graham gives Ben just the push he needed to get out there and live his own life.

I can totally see Peyton Elizabeth Lee being similar to Mandy – ambitious, driven, strong, and opinionated, just perhaps a bit less judgemental! On the opposite side, Milo Manheim, who played Ben, does not strike me as the awkward and shy type. In fact, Manheim stated that he had first auditioned for Graham, which would have matched Manheim’s previous “leading man” roles, but was cast as the best friend[1]. This didn’t hold him back though, I don’t think, and Ben turned out to be a sweet guy and a loyal friend, as well as the funniest character in the film. I laughed out loud multiple times during Ben’s embarrassing interactions with LaToya. Milo Manheim is best known to Disney fans for playing Zed in the Disney Channel musical franchise ZOMBIES. He also competed in Dancing with the Stars (2005-present) in 2018 and came in second place. Recently, Manheim secured the role of Wally on the Paramount+ series School Spirits (2023-present) and was cast alongside Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Nico in Season 2 of Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (2021-23), which arrived on Disney+ on the same day as Prom Pact.

Graham Lansing is the “dumb jock” who happens to not be so dumb after all. Mandy judges Graham based on his popularity and his basketball skills, but when she gets to know him properly as she tutors him in psychology, Mandy learns that there’s much more to him. He likes to do basketball coaching for one thing, and he actually struggles to fit in with his academically-focused family. Graham’s father is a senator, and he judges his sons on their academic abilities and nothing else, so for Graham to be the popular, sporty one in the family, that stands for nothing. Graham’s father doesn’t think his son is smart and thinks Mandy is doing a huge favour by taking time out of her day to tutor Graham, as it must be a tough job. This shows how difficult Graham’s home life must be, especially when we learn that Graham’s father has selected an “appropriate” college for Graham to go to, so as not to embarrass the family.

Graham was played by Australian actor Blake Draper in his first major film role, after having smaller roles in series like Clickbait (2021) and the Aussie soap Neighbours (1985-present) in 2018. Draper was recently announced as the star of the upcoming biopic A. Rimbaud about the French poet Arthur Rimbaud.

So that is the three main characters of Prom Pact, but there are definitely some more to mention. One is the school guidance counsellor Ms. Chen, who is less empathetic than you might expect a guidance counsellor to be, being quite direct and blunt with some of her advice! Ms Chen is also quite happy to rig the vote for Prom King just because Mandy asked her to do it to help fix Ben’s relationship with LaToya. Margaret Cho was cast as Ms. Chen. Cho started out her career in stand-up comedy before moving into acting roles. Some of these include All-American Girl (1994-95) as Margaret Kim; Drop Dead Diva (2009-14) as Teri Lee; 30 Rock (2006-13) as Kim Jong II, for which Cho was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series; Good on Paper (2021) as Margot; and as Charlie Utada in Season 2 of The Flight Attendant (2020-22).

For the students, LaToya Reynolds, the cheerleader who isn’t snobby and stuck-up like so many are on screen, was played by Monique A. Green. One of Green’s earliest roles was in An American Girl: Summer Camp, Friends for Life (2017) as Jordan. She went on to be cast as Olive Cooper in Season 1 of the Disney+ series Big Shot (2021-22) prior to her casting in Prom Pact. Green also appeared in a few episodes of Black-ish (2014-22) as Niecy. Mandy and Ben’s two other friends at school, Zenobia and Charles, were played by Arica Himmel and Jason Sakaki. Himmel is most known for her role as Rainbow “Bow” Johnson in the Black-ish spin-off Mixed-ish (2019-21).

Finally, I’ll briefly mention Mandy’s supportive but outspoken parents, Tom and Alyssa. David S. Jung was chosen for the part of Tom Yang. He had previously been cast as the recurring character Rip Tide in Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., alongside Peyton Elizabeth Lee. Wendi McLendon-Covey was cast as Alyssa. She is well-known for her roles as Rita in Bridesmaids (2011) and Beverly Goldberg in The Goldbergs (2013-23). I also know her from the sitcom Rules of Engagement (2007-13) where she played Liz, and McLendon-Covey also voices the character of Nancy Green in the Disney Channel series Big City Greens (2018-present) and its subsequent movie.

MUSIC

The soundtrack for Prom Pact consists of a lot of songs, some are modern hits, others are 80s songs and 80s movie themes.

Some of these 80s movie themes were easy to place as they were mostly used for the various promposals that took place throughout Prom Pact. These include the Ghostbusters theme by Ray Parker Jr.; “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger from Risky Business (1983); and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes from Dirty Dancing (1987).

At the prom, we also hear numerous well-known 80s songs, since it is an 80s-themed prom after all. A cover of “Love is a Battlefield” from Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim; “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie; “Mony Mony” by Billy Idol; “Only You” by Yazoo; and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston are clearly heard during these scenes. Just before prom, to make amends, Mandy also does a promposal-redo for Ben, whilst dancing awkwardly on his driveway, to the song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.

Another 80s song that is heard briefly is “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer. I think a student is singing it as part of a promposal whilst Mandy and Ben are at the waffle house. The final piece of 80s music to make its way into Prom Pact is “The Promise” by When in Rome, used in the final scene of Graham and Mandy reuniting at a bar near Harvard.

Of the more modern tunes, Ben and Mandy can be seen and heard rocking out to “Believer” by Imagine Dragons in Ben’s car. Milo Manheim has confirmed that he was not driving in this scene, but that the car was being towed[2]. That’s good because it’s quite clear that neither of these two are focusing on the road during this scene! Another contemporary music hit played during Prom Pact is “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish which is used during a montage of Mandy’s tutoring sessions with Graham. Just after, when Graham takes Mandy to see the basketball team he coaches, “Shooting Star” by Michelle Lewis, Randall Cooke, and Mia Bojanic can be heard.

At the party that Mandy and Ben attend to try and talk to Graham so Mandy can offer to tutor him, a few modern songs are heard: “Art of the Strike” by Numbs; “Coincidance” by Handsome Dancer; and “Like Dat” performed by Marquise Butcher. The song “Reinvent Urself” by Robbie Nevil features as Mandy and Ben mess about looking for prom outfits. This song is also used in the End Credits of Prom Pact.

You’ll also hear “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction during Graham’s promposal to Mandy, along with the song from Risky Business, as Mandy was a childhood fan of One Direction, though she doesn’t like to admit it. The song “Fall on Me”, performed by Great Big World and Christina Aguilera is used as the slow dance song at Graham’s father’s fundraiser where Mandy and Graham have their first kiss. As Mandy is getting dressed for the fundraiser, “Feeling Butterflies”, by Meaghan Smith is playing. Mandy’s life soon starts to fall apart after the fundraiser, and the song heard as Ben drives her home is “Don’t Cry”, originally performed by Seal, but performed by Alice Lee here. As Mandy realises that Graham and Ben are both annoyed at her and she debates what to do about Harvard, Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” also performed by Alice Lee can be heard.

Then there is the song “Bulldogs United” by The Newton Brothers, which I can only assume is an original song, written to be the school song and used in their pep rally. Only four songs are credited in Prom Pact with “Bulldogs United” being one of those. The other three are the two Alice Lee songs mentioned above and Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim’s cover of Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”.

There were apparently plans to have many more songs included in Prom Pact, however, there was not enough movie to fit them all in so compromises had to be made[3]. I have probably missed some because there were so many, or ones that I simply couldn’t place – like two pieces of jazz music playing at the fundraiser, for example – but this is the majority of the Prom Pact soundtrack. I am quite disappointed that “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” by John Parr from St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) didn’t make it though. I love that song.

PRODUCTION

The idea for Prom Pact came from a story written by Anthony Lombardo with input from Julie Bowen and Rachael Field, who were executive producers on this film.

Julie Bowen is well-known for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom Modern Family (2009-20), winning the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in both 2011 and 2012 for this role. Bowen was also Adam Sandler’s “leading lady” in the Halloween comedy film Hubie Halloween (2020) and is set to appear in Happy Gilmore 2 (2025). Bowen had met both writer Lombardo and producer Field whilst working on Modern Family.

They all worked on the premise for Prom Pact together, wanting to make a modern twist on the 80s teen movies. Bowen stated that she had grown up watching John Hughes movies so wanted this to be a tribute to those, whilst also acknowledging the more outdated themes within them and find a way of correcting them in this new movie. Some of these are discussed in one scene where Ben, Mandy, Zenobia, and Charles are talking about the problems with certain 80s movies during lunch. For example, The Breakfast Club (1985) might be about being yourself, but suggests that you have to look a certain way to get a guy to like you, and Weird Science (1985) is about two guys creating the perfect woman on their computer who is basically a pin-up model, showing that 80s movies were very sexist at times. Mandy also mentions how disappointed she is that her parents treasure a picture of her dressed up as Tom Cruise’s character Joel in Risky Business (1983) when she was little, despite that movie being about a teenager running a brothel from his parents’ house, which isn’t exactly inspirational – or shouldn’t be anyway.

Lombardo pitched the idea of a feminist senior being more obsessed with Harvard than prom and parties, so this character would be pushing back against the common 80s movies tropes. It was also important to the group that they showed the importance of purely platonic friendships between girls and boys, instead of just focusing on romance, as many 80s teen movies do.

Prom Pact was first announced by Disney Branded Television in February 2022. Melvin Mar was named as one of the producers, having previously worked on Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. and Fresh Off the Boat (2015-20). Anya Adams was announced as the director, having also worked on Fresh Off the Boat. A brief description of the plot was given, and Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim were listed as the two leads[4]. 

Bowen stated that she had never been to a prom before, as she went to a small boarding school in Rhode Island which did not have a prom. She was obsessed with the idea of prom being this huge rite of passage because she had never experienced it[5]. But she was certainly not the only one on set who had never been to a “normal” high school prom. Peyton Elizabeth Lee, having worked on Disney projects for so much of her childhood, didn’t get the chance to go a normal prom either. During the premiere of Prom Pact, some of the cast did discuss the “Disney Prom”, which appears to be an annual event held for all those child and teen actors who work for the company. Lee said she went to three or four of these proms but never went to a real one. Milo Manheim said he first met Lee at one of these Disney Proms with the prom that year being named The Emerald Ball[6].

Prom Pact was filmed in Vancouver and there were a variety of different measures taken on set to make this production more sustainable, which would’ve matched Mandy’s environmentalist nature. These included reducing emissions and minimising waste to make a greener production. Electric vehicles were provided for crew and refillable water stations were available for use. Electric generators were used at times instead of just diesel-powered ones too. In catering, plant-based options were available and compostable food ware was provided. Signage across the set detailed small actions that anyone could take to reduce their environmental impact[7].

RECEPTION

After Prom Pact’s initial details and some cast and crew members were announced in February 2022, Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim then attended the 2022 D23 Expo in September of that year to give fans a closer look at the new movie.

The Hollywood premiere was held on 24th March 2023, complete with a pink carpet – not red – to match the Prom Pact movie poster and the 80s movie Pretty in Pink (1986), I presume, before the first five minutes of Prom Pact were revealed on Disney Channel’s YouTube channel early on 30th March.

This led to the official premiere of Prom Pact on Disney Channel on 30th March 2023. 182,000 viewers are said to have tuned in for the actual premiere, which pales in comparison to some of Disney Channel’s other movies, but Prom Pact was still the highest-viewed kids’ television broadcast on that day. It’s likely that more and more people are moving away from cable TV and exclusively using streaming services now so that is potentially why the viewing figures may seem lower than usual.

Because of this, it made good business sense for Disney to release Prom Pact on to Disney+ just a day later on 31st March 2023, to give the movie a much larger audience. However, this did require two different versions of the movie. For anyone who has watched Prom Pact on Disney+, you’ll have noticed that there are some comments made around sex, as well as some scenes of underage drinking and small uses of swear words. This isn’t a big deal for teenagers or adults, obviously, but it’s not exactly child-friendly in places. This is why the Disney Channel version edited out some scenes and dialogue to fit their usual target audience. This “other version” may have come as a surprise to parents who might have only had access to the Disney+ version of Prom Pact but had still expected to see a typical DCOM. Apparently, Prom Pact became Disney Channel’s first TV-14 rated original movie with this Disney+ edit of the film. It is unclear how well Prom Pact did on Disney+ in terms of viewing figures, although some media outlets have stated that Prom Pact was the fifth most-watched film across all platforms in the US during its first week of release. Prom Pact later aired on Freeform on 4th May 2023.

Reviews for Prom Pact were generally positive, although the Disney+ version of the movie was a bit of a shock to some. I was surprised at some of the content, but it didn’t bother me. Prom Pact felt more like a Netflix teen coming-of-age movie, on the lines of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018) or The Kissing Booth (2018) rather than something like High School Musical (2006), which isn’t a bad thing but it did feel different.

Some of the more negative reviews focused on the fact that the character of Mandy was quite off-putting and unlikeable and that the movie itself felt a bit clichéd. Others also said it was odd to be aiming a movie at tweens and teenagers who have probably never seen any of the John Hughes movies it was trying to represent. I don’t think that necessarily matters because the nostalgia of the decade is not being aimed at them; it is being aimed at the adults or parents that may have chosen to watch it. The whole point of Prom Pact was to make a movie that is a tribute to 80s movies but felt contemporary and realistic.

Another big complaint was in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot. Quite close to the beginning of Prom Pact, during the pep rally, rows of students on bleachers can be seen. The front row are real human extras, however, in the row behind, a line of expressionless CGI characters can be spotted clapping. I personally did not see this whilst watching the movie, although looking at it online, these characters do look quite disturbed and some quite rightly likened their appearance to Sims 2 characters. It’s quite funny but probably not for the filmmakers. Many were quick to point the finger at Disney for using AI, but it is actually just low-quality CGI being used here[8]. The AI debate strengthened online though due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes that were ongoing at the time, with just one area of discussion being around the use of AI in the entertainment industry and the lack of protections for actors and writers. This caused many to label Disney as hypocritical. But they weren’t because, again, this was CGI, not AI. Bad CGI characters will always be a thing as long as the technology exists. I’d be more afraid of these CGI babies coming to the new live-action Rugrats film[9]…

On the positive side though, many felt Prom Pact was cute, entertaining, charming, and light-hearted fun. These viewers also liked this more mature movie from Disney. Looking at reviews of other teen-centric Disney Channel Original Movies, teenagers felt that those movies were too sanitised and did not reflect a true high-school experience. No doubt Prom Pact was at least a step closer to creating a more accurate account of school life in the US. The chemistry between the three lead characters also did not go unnoticed.

Prom Pact went on to be nominated for Outstanding Fiction Special at the 2nd Children’s and Family Emmy Awards. It lost to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), also from Disney. It’s a shame for Prom Pact but I don’t even like Marvel movies and I liked that Guardians Holiday Special a lot!  Prom Pact did, however, win the Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie in the Tweens/Teens Programming category at the Kidscreen Awards.

LEGACY

Since Prom Pact was a standalone story that ended with a definitive conclusion, it should not be a surprise that a sequel has never been released. 

But if viewers wanted more from Milo Manheim and Peyton Elizabeth Lee, they didn’t need to look far because they were both in Season 2 of Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., which will suit anyone who was hoping for those two to get together in Prom Pact.

Despite Prom Pact specifically being about platonic friendships and not romance between the two characters, because they arrived to prom looking like Duckie and Andie from Pretty in Pink (1986), some viewers might have been hoping for Mandy and Ben to suddenly end up together – though I accept that this was not the point and wouldn’t have made much sense given the events of Prom Pact.

But I did really want Duckie and Andie to get together in Pretty in Pink and I was so sad when they didn’t. And then I was even more sad when I found out that the original ending had the two together, but then test audiences booed and complained about it, wanting Andie to end up with Blane, so that’s what they got. Way to bow to peer pressure, John Hughes.

Anyway, what was I talking about?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Oh yeah, Prom Pact.

I liked Prom Pact even more the second time I watched it. It was funny, it was sweet, it had some very likeable characters, and everything was tied up nicely in a little bow by the end of the film. Mandy got the guy and the college, and Ben got his girl too.

I also enjoyed the references to 80s movies, which I had thankfully seen so I understood some of the Easter eggs and nods to these films. I don’t think I would’ve felt particularly out-of-the-loop if I hadn’t anyway.

The 80s as a trend are still not going away with many more television and film reboots in the works to keep the masses satisfied. I’m not a fan of reboots so Prom Pact was good because it was a love letter to the 80s without feeling like a rip-off of some other film.

This trend will likely dissipate soon enough, making way for some other decade, but as long as we have high school and prom, the quintessential teen movie will still be around.  

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Alex Reif, ‘The Making of Disney’s “Prom Pact”’, LaughingPlace.com, 30th March 2023.

[2] Credit: Shine on Media, ‘PROM PACT Cast Share Favorite Memories & Dance Moves at Premiere I Interview’, Shine on Media YouTube Channel, 26th March 2023.

[3] Credit: Rania Aniftos, ‘‘Prom Pact’ Soundtrack Jam-Packed with 80s Hits From David Bowie, Whitney Houston & More: Exclusive’, Billboard.com, 28th March 2023.

[4] Credit: Nellia Andreeva, ‘Peyton Elizabeth Lee & Milo Manheim To Headline Disney+ Movie ‘Prom Pact’ From Julie Bowen & Melvin Mar’, Deadline.com, 6th February 2022.

[5] Credit: Dana Rose Falcone, ‘Julie Bowen Says Disney’s ‘Prom Pact’ Is ‘Not a Movie About Dresses and Limos’ – See the First Trailer’, People.com, 24th February 2023.

[6] Credit: Shelby Stivale, ‘Exclusive: Is Disney Channel Prom Real? Milo Manheim and Peyton Elizabeth Lee Spill the Tea on ‘Great’ Memories’, J-14.com, 28th March 2023.

[7] Credit: Disney, ‘Sustainability on Set: Behind the Scenes with Disney Original Movie “Prom Pact”’, Disney.com, date unknown.

[8] Credit: Inga Parkel, ‘Disney Plus viewers notice ‘horrible CGI’ in new movie Prom Pact: ‘They look like Sims 2 characters’, Independent.co.uk, 5th April 2023.

[9] Credit: Rebecca Rubin, ‘‘Rugrats’ Live-Action Movie in the Works at Paramount With CGI Babies’, Variety.com, 2nd October 2024.

by The Disney Purist

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020)

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

BACKGROUND

In 2020, something monumental happened in the world. Nobody likes talking about it, nobody likes thinking about it, but it was a shared experience for everyone. I am, of course, talking about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic shaped our lives in different ways, but I’m not about to get into how it affected people and the devastating consequences it had. What I’m talking about is how the pandemic shaped our viewing habits and what the consequence was for the media companies, and television and film industries.

We were all told to stay at home in 2020. Some people lost their jobs, children were being homeschooled, and there were no diversions outside, like cinemas, shopping centres, or restaurants, available to us. So, we all turned to our televisions and our phones, relying on technology to get us through the never-ending days inside.

The Walt Disney Company had, luckily, launched Disney+ in November 2019 in the US. It came to the UK in March 2020. Disney+ allowed a huge catalogue of Disney movies and series to be included on one app. It was popular from its very first day, but the time was about to come when it would be a vital part of keeping people sane, and to stop them climbing the walls or feeling trapped in their houses.

Having Disney+ as a platform to release the movies that Disney had been actively promoting for months or years, but now would not get to the cinemas, was very fortunate. Some of these movies included Mulan (2020) and Artemis Fowl (2020).

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, however, was not going to be theatrically released. It was produced by Disney Channel. You’d think that these types of movies would not have been affected by the pandemic and should have just aired on the channel as normal. I would have expected that, but having a huge number of subscribers on Disney+ of a wide range of ages meant that releasing Secret Society of Second-Born Royals on to the streaming platform gave the movie a larger audience because we were all desperately seeking new content to enjoy.

I did add Secret Society of Second-Born Royals to my Disney+ watchlist in September 2020, when the movie first came to the service. This might suggest that I would’ve watched it at the time, but I did not. Unfortunately, my streaming watchlists is where things usually go to die, especially movies. I will always prioritise documentaries, especially Netflix ones – I love a good Netflix documentary – but rarely movies or series, especially if they are not based on a franchise I know or feature actors that I’m interested in.

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals happened to be just one of those, so after a few months of sitting in Disney+ watchlist limbo, it was removed from my list. I didn’t expect much when I watched the film this week, but, despite the negative reviews I’ve seen from others, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not a new favourite or anything, but I quite liked it.

PLOT

We begin in Illyria, being told that what is to come is not the usual princess-falling-in-love-with-her-prince-type of story, although it is about a princess, Princess Sam. She is a bit of a rebel, and apparently an anti-monarchist, despite the fact her mother has dutifully ruled Illyria for the last ten years since Sam’s father and uncle both died in a plane accident when Sam was just five-years old. Queen Catherine has been teaching Sam’s older sister, Eleanor, the ways of being queen since she will be formally named as ruler during the Coronation Ceremony on her 18th birthday, which is not far away.

Sam hates being a royal and despises being the second-born royal, “the spare”, as her future is supposed to be all about smiling, cutting ribbons, and hosting tea parties, nothing that Sam wants to do in her life. Instead, her and her friend, Mike, son of the castle groundskeeper, have a rock band, called Misfit Hemingways. On this day, they play their music in front of anti-royal protesters, are caught by the police, and are taken home.

Queen Catherine is exasperated with Sam’s constant resistance to royal life. Nevertheless, Sam is dragged to the Person of the Year event, with that person of the year just so happening to be Sam’s sister, Eleanor. Sam feigns illness and leaves, planning to attend a concert with Mike at the Velvet Underground Club. Since the two do not have IDs, they are turned away. However, Sam sees a back door into the club and the two head for it. The door is locked with a security code, but Sam manages to see what some guys keyed in from yards away. This confuses Mike but they go in anyway. As the band get playing though, Sam starts to feel strange, with her senses heightening and everything feeling weird. She pulls the fire alarm to get everything to stop, but once again, Sam and Mike are caught by the police and put in a jail cell overnight. Sam is worried about what could be wrong with her.

After a night in jail, Sam and Mike are free to go, with Sam furious that her mother would leave her in their overnight. Queen Catherine ignores Sam’s protests and tells her to pack for summer school as punishment for her behaviour.

Meanwhile, a dangerous prisoner has managed to escape his cell, though we don’t know his relevance yet, only that a secret operation took place to sneak a small pin into the cell by way of a red apple. This pin is used by the prisoner to create some sort of electronic device that unlocks the cell door. He flees the prison, and plots his revenge on Queen Catherine for putting him there, with Sam seeming to be the prisoner’s target.

At summer school, four other students, all royals, join Sam: January, Matteo, Tuma, and Roxana. January is an eager-to-please princess from Luxembourg; Roxana is a princess-turned-social media influencer; Tuma is the prince that is full of himself; and Matteo is the socially awkward royal. Soon, their teacher, Professor James Morrow, arrives and quickly informs them that they are not attending summer school for the reasons they think they are. In fact, this is a training programme, as these five are all second-born royals. Second-born royals all have superpowers and when the time is right, they are recruited to the Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, an operation that protects the kingdom. Queen Catherine is the head of this society, much to Sam’s shock, and has the power of teleportation. They are then told that, should they be unsuccessful in training, their memories will be wiped and their powers removed for ever. No pressure there, then.

The recruits are taken to a training course, complete with booby traps, laser beams, and uneven flooring. They are tasked with getting to the other side, where a small pyramid sits. The five jump right in, and some of them discover their powers. Roxana has the power of invisibility, which she figures out after her thumb randomly disappears; Tuma has the power of persuasion, making anyone follow his orders; and Sam has that heightened sense thing. Despite this, nobody makes it to the other end of the course. As they sit and wait for further instruction, Matteo learns that he can control bugs – woo – and January figures out she can take someone else’s powers for a period of time.

Their next stage of training is all about learning to control their powers. Tuma is tasked with training an unruly dog; January must learn to extend the length of time she can have someone’s power for, working alongside Princess Anna, who can breathe underwater; Sam has to listen to multiple conversations at once; and Matteo has to work with his bugs, obviously. Roxana is put on an exercise bike whilst simulated weather is thrown in her face. Whilst everyone else figures out their powers, Morrow learns this method is not working on Roxana and threatens her, saying he’s about to go live on social media and everyone will see her looking a mess. This threat instantly makes Roxana disappear. Seems a bit cruel, but I guess it worked! Sam is later taken to see the society’s headquarters by her mother and given the master code to any door or lock in the castle as a way of motivating her to continue with the training. Sam is also told that a former member once betrayed them, so in amongst all the portraits of famous previous recruits, including Prince Harry, the most famous royal second-born in the world, is a black space, to remind everyone of this.

As Sam is about to leave the training camp to attend her band’s gig with Mike, an emergency alarm goes off and the recruits are called to a break-in at the Royal Treasury, with thieves looking to steal the Crown Jewels. The five are left to stop the thieves. Sam runs off to find them, and tasks the others with guarding the jewels. All five end up following the thieves and although they catch one, the jewels are still stolen. It turns out this was all a test and the recruits failed. Morrow gives them a day off to think about that.

On this day off, instead of wallowing in misery, the five have a fun day together in Illyria, giving them a chance to bond. Sam invites the others to her sister’s Coronation which is happening that Saturday; they happily accept. Later that day, January says she wants to see the castle, so her and Sam sneak their way to Sam’s room. As January plays on the keyboard, Mike arrives and accuses Sam of starting another band without him. She says she isn’t but can’t tell him what’s been going on with her and the society. He walks away, angry. To make things worse, when Sam and January get back to camp, they are attacked by an intruder. The other three arrive to fight him off and the intruder flees. Morrow tells them to go to their rooms because this guy is dangerous. But Sam doesn’t listen and follows him into the forest. This guy really isn’t someone you want to mess with because he is telekinetic and begins using his mind to throw objects at Sam, with a tree branch pinning her to the floor. She learns that this man is the prisoner who escaped jail and that he is her uncle who she thought was dead. Morrow comes to rescue Sam, using his power of multiplying himself to fight Sam’s uncle, but he is knocked out. January then comes to the rescue.

As Morrow is taken to hospital and training is suspended, Sam confronts her mother about her uncle, Edmond. She tells Sam that Edmond murdered Sam’s father so that he could take over as King of Illyria; the Queen had no choice but to imprison him. Sam demands a chance to talk to Edmond herself. Reluctantly, she is allowed to, with Edmond saying all he wanted was to abolish the monarchy, something Sam agrees with. Sam has a heart-to-heart with Eleanor, who says it hurts her that Sam is so against the monarchy, this being something Eleanor and Catherine have sought to protect. Sam then goes to see Morrow in hospital to apologise for what happened; he tells her she’s meant for great things.

Then it’s Coronation Day. Tuma, Roxana, and Matteo all arrive but where is January? Oh yeah, it turns out January is a villain, working with Edmond to destroy all royals in Illyria so that he can help her murder her brother so January can be queen. What a twist! January has also stolen Tuma’s power so everyone has to do what she says. Edmond is freed from his cell, and January puts the three recruits in there. Luckily, thanks to Sam’s sense power and a spy fly from Matteo, she sees Edmond in the castle grounds and knows something is wrong. She runs to Mike’s house and begs him to help her, revealing the society to him in the process. As Sam is cornered in a barn by January, she finds she can’t fight back, having to listen to January’s orders. January reveals Edmond’s plan to Sam but before she can do anything else, Mike drops a bag of grain on January and knocks her unconscious.

Sam and Mike head to the society headquarters and free the others. They learn that Edmond has taken a DNA device from the base and will use it to wipe out all the royals at Eleanor’s Coronation. The ceremony is already going on, so there’s not much time. They plan to lure Edmond to a room and use power-dampening collars to trap him there.

Sam finds Edmond on the castle roof and with help from the others, manages to grab the device from him. She jumps off the building, being carried to safety by Matteo’s butterflies. She runs to her room, and Edmond follows her. Luckily, their power-dampening trap works and he has no access to his telekinetic power. It leaves him with Mike who holds the DNA device. The recruits have reprogrammed the device so that it will only go after Edmond, but instead of “wiping him out”, the device basically sucks Edmond into it. The Coronation goes on as planned and Eleanor is crowned as Queen. Illyria is safe.

Eleanor then talks to Sam, saying that their mother told her about the society and thanks Sam for what she did. Eleanor also says that she plans to set up a parliament to work alongside the monarchy, to make Illyria more democratic, which pleases Sam. Sam, Matteo, Tuma, and Roxana are inducted into the Secret Society formally, with Morrow having fully recovered. Their first official order of business is to fly to Geneva, where January, having escaped Illyria, has robbed a bank vault, seemingly to fund a coup against her brother. The four members fly off to stop her.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Sam, or Princess Sam as she should probably be known, is the daughter of Queen Catherine and sister of Queen-to-be Eleanor. Despite being royal, Sam does not enjoy her life, feeling that being a princess isn’t a fulfilling life and wants more for herself. I think she also feels some guilt for the privileged life that she’s had, and believes that the kingdom of Illyria should be monarchy-free, to make life fairer for everyone. Sam continues this rebellious nature by forming a rock band with her friend, Mike, played by Noah Lomax, where they express their anti-royal beliefs in public. As Sam starts to fear her future of shaking hands and hosting parties, she is called up to the Secret Society, after realising that her sudden heightened senses are actually her superpower. Sam is uncertain about joining the society, but soon realises that it gives her the self-worth and purpose she has needed, and learns to understand the importance of her family. It also allows her to meet a group of people who turn out to be great friends. Well, all but one, anyway.

Sam was played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee who was no stranger to Disney at this time. Lee is well-known for her portrayal of the titular character in the Disney Channel series Andi Mack (2017-19). She also voiced the recurring character of Rani in The Lion Guard (2016-19). After her role in Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, Lee went on to star as Lahela Kameāloha in the Disney+ series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (2021-23), and then as Mandy in the Disney Original Movie, Prom Pact (2023).

Sam is the odd one out in her family as Eleanor and Catherine have accepted their royal standings. Queen Catherine has had to rule Illyria for ten years in place of the rightful king Robert, her husband, who died in a plane crash. She has had to not only lead the kingdom but also train her daughter Eleanor in how to be queen so that she can be coronated and take over when she reaches the age of 18. Eleanor has not had the luxury of being a rebel like Sam, as she has had to take her future position very seriously ever since their father died. She can’t understand Sam’s hatred of the very monarchy that they were both born into and that Eleanor and Catherine have had to fight to keep steady. It’s frustrating for both of them, which is why Catherine, head of the Secret Society, decides that Sam must join sooner rather than later so that Sam can finally realise how important all of them are for Illyria – or Sam just happened to be the right age for it; I don’t know the rules.

Élodie Yung was chosen for the part of Queen Catherine, who was known at the time for her role as Elektra Natchios in the Marvel series Daredevil (2015-18) and The Defenders (2017), as well as appearing in The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) as Amelia Roussel. Yung is currently starring as Thony De La Rosa in the thriller series The Cleaning Lady (2022-present). Eleanor was played by Ashley Liao, who was cast in Fuller House (2016-20) as Lola Wong prior to this movie. Liao went on to appear in Season 1 of the AppleTV+ series Physical (2021-23) and voice the character Jun Wong in DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021-23). She was also recently cast as Clemensia Dovecote in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023).

Princess January of Luxembourg is the big traitor of the Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, in a twist that many saw coming, according to reviews and comments online, but I didn’t – I get so invested in movies that I rarely think ahead to try and guess the plot. Anyway, January seemed very kind, sweet, and earnest at the start of the society training. She wanted everyone to be friends, work together, and harness their powers. January’s power is all about stealing from others so that ought to have given me a clue about her intentions towards the group, but it didn’t register. January uses Sam to gain access to the society headquarters so that she can enact her evil plan with Edmond, to destroy all those of royal blood in Illyria, in return for Edmond destroying January’s twin brother, who was only born a minute or so before her and is apparently an incompetent leader. Although January might have a point there about her brother – we don’t know for certain as we never see him – she should’ve learnt to fight her own battles and stayed in her own realm. I generally like the villain in movies though, so I did quite like January as a character.

January was played by Isabella Blake-Thomas, who had previously played Young Zelena in a couple of episodes of the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) and played Ella in the mystery drama film Kepler’s Dream (2017) alongside Holland Taylor. Edmond, the uncle who “came back from the dead” after murdering his brother in order to usurp the throne, was played by Greg Bryk, who had previously portrayed Joseph Seed through motion capture in the game Far Cry 5 (2018) and two of its sequels, and been cast as Weston Field in the series ReGenesis (2004-08) and as Cobbs Pond in Frontier (2016-18).

For the rest of the society, the remaining three recruits in Sam and January’s intake are Princess Roxana, Prince Tuma, and Prince Matteo. Matteo is initially very shy and unsure of himself amongst this group as he admits that he struggles in social settings. He’s not too impressed with his powers of bug control either, because admittedly it is a bit lame, but he comes to embrace it and use it to his advantage. Tuma, on the other hand, is very sure of himself and quite cocky. He has one of the best powers in the group, basically being able to control other people, which only makes the arrogance stronger, at least initially. Tuma does learn to respect the others in the group and work as a team by the end of the movie though. Roxana is a typical pampered princess, caring about her looks, social media, and her phone more than anything else. Her skill of turning invisible is quite a contrast from her constant online presence, although it is clear that without her fame, Roxana feels like a bit of fraud and not sure of her purpose. The society is good for her for this reason, just like Sam.

Roxana was played by Australian actress Olivia Deeble, who had been cast in the Aussie soap Home and Away (1988-present) as Raffy Morrison prior to her casting here. Deeble went on to write and star in the drama series More Than This (2022). Niles Fitch, who played Tuma, was known at the time for his role as Randall in the acclaimed drama series This Is Us (2016-22). Fitch went on to be cast in The Fallout (2021), alongside Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler. After having appeared in a few episodes of Raven’s Home (2017-23) as Miles, Faly Rakotohavana was chosen for the part of Matteo. He recently was cast in the series UnPrisoned (2023-24) as Finn Alexander.

The final member of the society to mention is Professor James Morrow, their teacher and trainer who has the power of multiplying himself. He’s a good mixture of fun and serious to make the training less tedious. But he is also capable of making the group feel guilty when they’ve done something wrong, like when they fail their mission to protect the Crown Jewels, or when he gets beaten up by Edmond in the woods because Sam didn’t listen to orders and ends up in hospital… Morrow was played by Skylar Astin who is well-known for his role as Jesse in Pitch Perfect (2012) and its 2015 sequel, having also originated the role of Georg in Spring Awakening on Broadway. Astin was cast as Max in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (2020-21) and went on to star as Todd in the series So Help Me Todd (2022-24).

MUSIC

When I learnt that Sam was in a band with her friend, Mike, I was suddenly concerned that Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was a musical. Not because I don’t like musicals – I do – but because I thought this film was already trying to be a comedy, science-fiction, and a spy thriller, and I felt that making it a musical was going to be a step too far!

Luckily, this movie is not a musical, and only features three original songs. One of these is “The Pressure”, performed by Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Sam on her electric guitar and Mike on drums. It’s not a bad song, but it’s a bit loud and shouty for me. I think it’s meant to be the ultimate show of teenage angst and of Sam’s anti-monarchist views. “The Pressure” is played early on in the movie, in front of a group of anti-royal protestors, so it’s a call to arms to them as well.

Then there are two songs by the in-movie band Bramblebone. At the concert that Sam and Mike attend, where she freaks out and pulls the fire alarm, they perform “Kickin’ In”, until they are rudely interrupted by the sprinklers going off. “Music is My Weapon” is the other, although it is an End Credits song, so Bramblebone are not seen here. Crista Russo is the credited performer of the Bramblebone songs, the lead singer of the band. All three of the movie’s original songs were also written by Crista Russo. None of the original songs in Secret Society of Second-Born Royals are to my taste as I’m not a huge fan of rock music.

I also found a few songs within the movie that are uncredited. One of these features during the scene of Sam attending the Person of the Year event. It is “I’m Good” by Australian singer Wafia. Shortly after that, the song “Deceptacon” by Le Tigre can be heard briefly as Sam rushes to the Bramblebone concert to meet Mike.

Another uncredited song is played during the recruits’ day off at the beach and that is “Worlds Collide” by NERVO, an Australian DJ duo. They co-wrote the David Guetta hit “When Love Takes Over” alongside Kelly Rowland, who also provided the song’s vocals. “When Love Takes Over” won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording. January also plays a small section of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” on the keyboard in Sam’s room when they sneak up there after the day off.

Next, the song “Soldier”, written by Lauren Strahm and Tommee Profitt, performed by Strahm under her stage name Fleurie, can be heard as Sam exits the hospital after seeing Morrow in the hospital and as the sun rises on Coronation Day. Fleurie’s music has featured in series such as Pretty Little Liars (2010-17) and The Originals (2013-18) as well as her song “Hurricane” being used for the trailer of Disney’s Black Beauty (2020).

Finally, the chorus of the song “young” by Meekha is used as the Coronation is successfully completed and Queen Eleanor is presented to the people of Illyria. I probably would’ve liked to hear a bit more of that song in the film, to be honest.

The score for Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was composed by Leo Birenberg. As a full score was not released, I cannot name specifically which musical segments I liked, but I can say I liked the music that played during the recruits’ training sessions and montages, as well as the music during the Coronation and final battle. Birenberg worked alongside composer Christophe Beck on some of his projects including the Disney films Frozen (2013), The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014).  Recently, Birenberg composed the score for the series Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny (2018-19) and co-composed the series Cobra Kai (2021-present) alongside Zach Robinson.

PRODUCTION

The story of Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, and presumably it’s oh-so-catchy and rolls-off-the-tongue title, is an original idea from Alex Litvak, Andrew Green, and Austin Winsberg, with the screenplay being written by Litvak and Green, and Winsberg coming on as a co-producer.

Anna Mastro, the director, was interested in this story as she felt it was a mixture of a coming-of-age story and an action movie. Action movies have had somewhat of a revival in recent years, for example with all the Marvel movies and series that Disney have been churning out. Secret Society of Second-Born Royals is clearly inspired by these sorts of movies, with many pointing out that this movie seemed to be taking some of its plot points from the X-Men. Mastro thought this project had a lot of potential and was excited to be working on an original IP for Disney. Mastro had previously directed episodes of series like Gossip Girl (2007-12) and Jane the Virgin (2014-19) before working on this film[1].

With Secret Society of Second-Born Royals wanting to throw itself into the action movie genre, stunts were going to be a necessity and the cast were eager to be involved, despite most of them having little to no experience with them. Skylar Astin was one of these people, who had to do a whole fight scene as different versions of himself. The teen actors were not discounted from stunt training either, with the training room sequence being a particularly fun scene to choreograph. It looked like a big playground to me[2].

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals is set in Illyria, the smallest country in Europe, situated between Denmark and Germany, according to the map at the opening of the movie. It was not filmed in Europe though, with Toronto, Canada being chosen as the filming location. Some viewers complained that Illyria didn’t look at all European, but as it’s a fictional place, I don’t think anyone should really be commenting on this. So many movies are filmed in Canada when their stories are set in Europe; it’s never really bothered me.

Specifically, the University of Toronto Mississauga was a regular location used during the production of Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, this being the setting for the Strathmore School scenes. The archway that is seen a couple of times in the movie was actually Princes’ Gate and areas of Downtown Toronto were used as well. Filming was still ongoing in the area as the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals in June which was exciting for the cast and crew to experience[3].

RECEPTION

Although Secret Society of Second-Born Royals feels like a typical Disney Channel Original Movie, it isn’t exactly labelled in that way.

The movie was produced by Disney Channel, and features one of its biggest stars, however, it did not premiere on Disney Channel; it premiered on Disney+. This has started to become the norm and I believe the simple reason for this is because many of the international Disney Channels have since shut down. Nowadays, it seems that Disney Channel-type movies premiere on Disney+ first and air at a later date on the US Disney Channel, making the label Disney Channel Original Movie inaccurate.

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was originally set for a Disney+ release on 17th July 2020, which would’ve been two weeks after the widely popular Hamilton (2020) hit the platform. However, Disney announced in June 2020 that the release of Secret Society of Second-Born Royals had been postponed until September, with the movie finally airing on 25th September 2020. No reason for the postponement was given.

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, since it was produced by Disney Channel, was always going to have a US Disney Channel premiere, yet this did not happen until 26th February 2023. A reason for this was also not provided.

In terms of audience reaction, the movie received mixed reviews. Some felt that the movie was good for teens and children, who were probably needing something to watch to distract them from the upheaval that was going on in the world. The message of friendship and belonging was also perceived well by these viewers who went in to Secret Society of Second-Born Royals expecting a typical but enjoyable Disney movie.

But there were also negative reviews. Some felt that Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was trying too hard to be like X-Men and that it failed to do this. Many found numerous plot holes that were not addressed throughout the events of the movie, such as how did January meet Edmond as their paths were unlikely to have ever crossed? I can understand that, but a discussion on how the genetic-based powers work only on second-born royals is a little too much overthinking in my opinion. By 2020, Disney+ had already released some exciting projects and this did not measure up in some people’s opinions.

For me, I enjoyed Secret Society of Second-Born Royals enough not to be bored by it and actually found the whole battle between Edmond, January, and Sam to be quite good. As I was watching, I felt like the film was a mixture of ideas from Disney’s Sky High (2005) and Princess Protection Program (2009), both films I liked and about superheroes and royalty respectively. I didn’t think Secret Society of Second-Born Royals warranted the amount of negativity it received and if I’d been in the target age range for the film and had known more of the lead actors, I might have really loved it. The only thing I would say is that perhaps the balance between seriousness and comedy was not quite right; it did feel too serious at times. Disney Channel movies are meant to be light-hearted entertainment and not trying to be like blockbuster movies of the same genre.

Regardless of the audience’s comments, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals became the most-watched movie on Disney+ on its weekend release. It was the second-most watched content on the platform behind The Simpsons (1989-present)[4]. The film also received nominations at the inaugural Critics’ Choice Super Awards in 2021 in these categories: Best Superhero Movie; Best Actress, for Peyton Elizabeth Lee; and Best Actor, for Skylar Astin.

LEGACY

As the ending to Secret Society of Second-Born Royals left us on a bit of a cliffhanger, with January in Geneva trying to enact a coup over her brother, and the recruits being sent to stop her, it would seem that Disney had always intended for a sequel to be made.

Director Anna Mastro said herself in an interview that there were two more chapters to this story, and the whole idea of this being a new, original live-action IP for Disney should’ve meant that this was a definite plan of action[5]. The cast also said they wanted to continue with the story and were excited to see what would happen to their characters.

However, a sequel has never been ordered or greenlit. This is likely because of the negative reaction that the original film received, with some reviews being quite brutal in their commentaries, pointing out everything “wrong” with the movie.

It is a shame that this cast will seemingly never take part in a sequel to Secret Society of Second-Born Royals. Four years have since passed, so a continuation of the first movie story is not really possible with these same actors and they have moved on to other projects in recent years. I wouldn’t have been counting down the days or anything should Secret Society of Second-Born Royals 2 have happened but I would’ve happily watched it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The reviews for Secret Society of Second-Born Royals were not so great but I disagree with them for the most part.

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals is exactly what I expected to see; it feels very Disney, and very much like a DCOM and there’s nothing wrong with that. It was never meant to compete with Marvel or DC Comics. It was meant to be a wholesome movie, about teenagers finding where they belong in this world, and coming together to defy expectations, and that’s what it did.

I think putting Secret Society of Second-Born Royals on Disney+ meant that more adults without children saw it, who potentially would never have found it had this only aired on Disney Channel, so they were going to be harder to please. This opened the movie up to a level of criticism it may never have received.

In my view, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was simply a victim of pandemic boredom. If people don’t have much else to do other than watch television and streaming, then their expectations and viewing needs are higher than usual; they want something good to watch and they need it now. And if it’s not good, well, then they have all the time in the world to air their frustrations and spend hours picking holes in storylines.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Christina Radish, ‘‘Secret Society of Second-Born Royals’ Director Anna Mastro on the Possibility of Two Sequels’, Collider.com, 1st October 2020.

[2] Credit: Disney, ‘Character Powers and Stunts Featurette I Secret Society of Second-Born Royals I Disney+’, Disney Plus YouTube Channel, 26th September 2020.

[3] Credit: Brea Cubit, ‘Disney’s Secret Society of Second-Born Royals Found Its Fairy-Tale Location in Toronto’, PopSugar.com, 26th September 2020.

[4] Credit: Scott Mendelson, ‘In ‘Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals’, The Disney Princesses Are Superheroes Too’, Forbes.com, 29th September 2020.

[5] Credit: Christina Radish, ‘‘Secret Society of Second-Born Royals’ Director Anna Mastro on the Possibility of Two Sequels’, Collider.com, 1st October 2020.

by The Disney Purist

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010)

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

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

by The Disney Purist

Lemonade Mouth (2011)

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

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

The soundtrack for Lemonade Mouth consists of ten original songs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by The Disney Purist

Gotta Kick It Up! (2002)

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

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 (2006), 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.

by The Disney Purist

Adventures in Babysitting (2016)

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

BACKGROUND

In 2016, just under two decades after the first official Disney Channel Original movie, Under Wraps, premiered in 1997, Disney Channel released their 100th DCOM. What a milestone.

This 100th DCOM was Adventures in Babysitting, which just so happened to be a remake of an 1980s movie of the same name, released by Disney in 1987 under the Touchstone Films label. When Disney release a movie under Touchstone Films, historically that has meant the movie contains more mature themes and content than the average Disney movie. This was the case with the PG-13 rated Adventures in Babysitting (1987).

After years of speculation around a sequel, and then a remake, of the 1987 movie, Disney delivered with their own Disney Channel movie of the same name, which featured a few stars of Disney Channel at the time, including singer Sabrina Carpenter.

I’d only vaguely paid attention to Adventures in Babysitting previously, when I randomly caught it on the Disney Channel. I didn’t think much of it; I don’t believe I even got to the end of it. I have never seen the 1987 Adventures in Babysitting, so I didn’t have that previous interest to get me motivated to watch it properly. But now I’ve decided to go back and review every DCOM, I had to go back and see it.

Sadly, I still wasn’t that impressed after re-watching it. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything bad about Adventures in Babysitting, and the two lead actresses of Sabrina Carpenter and Sofia Carson, of Descendants fame, were very likeable and easy to watch. But the overall plot of two babysitters getting into various scrapes in the big city with the five children in their care didn’t feel particularly original or unique to me. Honestly, it bored me after a while because it all felt very samey. Bad guys were chasing them, then there was some misunderstanding that led to a moment of humour, then they were chased again, another misunderstanding, and so on. I just couldn’t stay interested, and after an hour, I really just wanted the movie to end.

Perhaps that is from my lack of understanding of the original, or it might be because I’ve never been a babysitter – I’m not a huge fan of kids, actually – and big cities scare me, especially at night. These elements are kind of key to the story of Adventures in Babysitting, so it was never going to be a film for me, unfortunately.

PLOT

Adventures in Babysitting begins with two girls heading to an interview for a photography internship. Jenny is quite high-strung and uptight, with everything in her life neatly organised and painstakingly planned out; she has her whole future lined up. We also have Lola, who is around two years older than Jenny and is a bit messy and wild. Lola doesn’t have her whole life planned out but she loves photography and desperately wants this internship.

At the interview, the girls are told to go away and find some inspiration for photographs over the weekend, with the actual interview now being moved to Monday. At the same time, the girls accidentally swap phones when both are knocked to the floor, but neither are aware of this. Going back to her car, Lola finds she’s being given a parking ticket for $80. “Lola’s” phone then rings and she answers; it is Zac, Jenny’s crush, inviting her to a concert. Lola realises this is not her phone but turns Zac down anyway, without explaining that she isn’t Jenny. Why you wouldn’t just say “Jenny’s not here right now, but I’ll tell her to call you back”, I don’t know. But Lola is attempting to flirt with the officer writing her ticket, so she’s obviously got other things on her mind instead of common courtesy! Now she needs $80 but luckily, she answers another of Jenny’s calls. Her teacher needs a babysitter for the evening so Lola, pretending to be Jenny, says her reliable friend Lola can babysit tonight.

Meanwhile, Jenny has arrived at her own babysitting job at the Coopers, looking after their two daughters: the glamorous little Katy, and the rebellious teen, Emily. At this point, Jenny then notices that she has Lola’s phone and not her own. Seeing as young people are meant to be constantly attached to their phones, you’d think Jenny would’ve noticed this a little bit earlier… Anyway, Jenny then calls her actual phone, hoping to speak to Lola. The person who picks up is AJ Anderson, one of Jenny’s teacher’s kids, who says that Lola is currently dealing with a fire in the kitchen so can’t come to the phone right now. Jenny immediately drives the Coopers over to the Anderson’s house to figure out what is going on.

At the Anderson’s, Jenny learns that Lola was too busy trying to relax in the hot tub to worry about the three kids she was meant to be looking after, leaving Bobby to mess up the kitchen and cause this fire. Emily Cooper then discovers that Trey, the eldest Anderson kid who was meant to be grounded, has snuck out to go to a Psychic Rockets concert in the city. Jenny freaks out and says she’ll drive there and get him home. The kids blackmail Jenny into taking all of them to the city, saying that they’ll tell their mum that Jenny doesn’t even know Lola if she doesn’t, so all of them go. But Jenny’s car isn’t big enough so they take the Anderson car instead, with Jenny driving slowly so it doesn’t get a scratch, dent, or mark on it whatsoever.

In the city, Jenny parks up by a pawn shop where they believe Trey bought his concert tickets from. The owner of the dark, dingy shop points them to the back, where the ticket scalper is playing with a sword. Lola, with Jenny hiding behind her, asks if a kid bought tickets from him this evening. He finally says that one did and that the kid said something about going for pizza. Emily pipes up that Trey probably went to Mario’s, his favourite pizza place; she has a crush on him so naturally, she’d know these things. As Jenny readies everyone to get back in the car to go to Mario’s, a purple weasel is let loose in the shop, thanks to Bobby. As the pawn shop owner rushes to catch it, Lola takes a photo with her camera, as she looks for spontaneous moments for her art. As everyone tries to get back to the car, they see it being towed away. They are told to come to the tow yard with $100 by midnight if they want to get it back today. Where are they going to get $100 from?

The group then finds that the owner and scalper are chasing them, as apparently that ferret was stolen and they don’t want evidence that they have it. Lola and Jenny hurry the kids onto a city bus and because of their arguing in front of the driver, they get away with not paying the full fare. They eventually get to Mario’s where they find Trey and confiscate his concert ticket. To get the $100, Lola thinks they should resell Trey’s ticket; it’s the only plan they’ve got. Meanwhile, Jenny overhears some girls from her school saying that Zac has decided to take some other girl to the concert and is devastated, not knowing that Lola rejected him on her behalf. Emily has also gone and got herself a sneaky henna tattoo having asked Lola – not Jenny – for permission first. Jenny is horrified and starts to shout at Lola, but they are interrupted by those two guys chasing them again. The group find themselves cornered in some sort of warehouse that washes uniforms and boiler suits. To escape, Lola comes up with a plan of hiding themselves in the suits and being carried up and over the heads of those two guys. It works and they escape via the laundry shaft.

The group then head to the concert venue, with Lola going off to try and resell Trey’s ticket, however, it turns out that this is illegal and Lola is arrested. At the police station, Lola explains that her and her friends are being chased by two men, but the officer is reluctant to believe her. Luckily, the officer who gave Lola a parking ticket at the start of the movie, Officer James, seems to work here and talks to Lola. He tries to tell her how much trouble she’s in, but she pleads with him, saying she doesn’t want to go to jail. Lola is released, and who should be waiting for her but Jenny and the kids. Jenny has just discovered that Emily has dyed her hair green, who, in a fit of teenage rebellion, walks away and calls her mum, leaving a message about what’s been going on, and AJ has met her roller derby idol at the police station. Lola and Jenny continue to argue about Lola’s irresponsibility.

As the two are arguing, the two men come back and see AJ holding Lola’s camera; she is chased down the street by them, with Lola stealing their car to chase after her. AJ manages to outrun and outsmart both the guys, and when the group catches up, they run into a building which turns out to be a rap club. The DJ won’t let them leave without rapping something, so after a brief, but pretty awkward, rap battle between Lola and Jenny, they are free to go. But outside, they see the Cooper parents nearby. It turns out they were worried after hearing Emily’s message on their phone and have gone to the police station to try and find her. The police officers laugh at the suggestion they’ve got their kids locked up here, and the parents head back to the party, believing it was just a prank.

Emily has to admit that she called her parents, which annoys everyone but there’s nothing they can do about it. Katy reminds everyone that her mother keeps a $100 bill in her purse, so they can sneak into the party and get that to pay to get the car back. At the party, which is in a planetarium, Jenny and Lola manage to blag entry by saying this is a field trip – even though it’s late and there is a private party on at this venue… They get to the cloakroom and discover that the Cooper mother’s coat is not there. Meanwhile, Bobby gets distracted by the kitchen at this venue and starts making dessert. The Head Chef is only too pleased to have some random kid in his kitchen, licking and touching all of his ingredients without washing his hands first. Where are the health inspectors when you need them?

To get to the Cooper mother’s coat, Lola is dressed up like a British socialite and takes a seat at their table. She successfully grabs the $100 bill from the mother’s purse and leaves. The scalper and the pawn shop owner have also entered the party but the ferret gets free, causing a panic amongst the party guests. Security is called to detain them and the police arrive to arrest them, with the ferret being taken to an animal shelter.

Lola and Jenny learn that they actually make a good team, but Lola admits that Zac had invited Jenny to the concert that evening and implied Jenny wasn’t interested as she was distracted by Officer James. Jenny is furious, but Lola wants to make it right and gets them all over to the concert venue. To get in to the venue, Lola has to part ways with her special camera, which the security guard wants as payment. Inside, Jenny is given a quick makeover and told to talk to Zac. The concert has just ended but Jenny wades through the crowd to get inside. She runs onto the stage and shouts Zac’s name. She tells him that she would’ve said yes to his invitation to the concert and the two reconcile.

But more trouble is brewing. The Andersons have found that their house alarm is going off and nobody was answering the house phone so they are heading home. The group quickly rush to get the car back from the tow yard and Lola speeds back to the Anderson’s house. They beat the parents there but the house is an absolute mess: Trey is tasked with cleaning the car; Emily with cleaning the dog; whilst everyone else cleans up the kitchen and laundry room. Jenny then takes the Cooper kids home, so Lola can wait for the Andersons to arrive. They are none the wiser, so they get away with their little escapade. At the Coopers, Jenny is about to head home when Zac arrives and asks her out on a date. She gladly accepts. Heading home herself, Lola is pulled over by the police. It’s Officer James and he has her driving license which she left at the police station. He also asks her out; she accepts.

On Monday, Jenny arrives – late – for the internship interview to find Lola already there. She actually tells Lola that she’s turning down the chance to interview for the internship so Lola will get it as she wants and deserves it more. The movie ends with Lola sending her pictures from that night – having remembered to remove the memory card from her camera before parting ways with it – to Jenny, Emily, Katy, AJ, Bobby, and Trey. But she also accidentally sends them to the Anderson mother as well who is horrified to learn what went on that night – oops…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Jenny is the classic example of a “goody two-shoes”. She is the perfect babysitter, the perfect student, and has never done anything wrong in her life, apparently. But that doesn’t mean that Jenny thinks she’s amazing. In fact, she’s quite shy around guys and clearly feels a bit inadequate compared to others her age, but she’s always been organised and is being given the opportunity to attend college early. We don’t get to meet Jenny’s parents but I think it’s probably their influence which causes her to be uptight and stressed all the time! What’s important is that Jenny learns, from Lola, that being perfect all the time is tiring, not worth it, and not all that fun, so it’s nice to see her freeing herself from all that expectation by the end of the movie and getting to live life like a normal teenager for once.

Jenny was played by Sabrina Carpenter, whose breakthrough acting role came from starring as Maya Hart in Girl Meets World (2014-17), the Disney Channel spinoff of the series Boy Meets World (1993-2000). She went on to appear in a few movies such as Tall Girl (2019) and its 2022 sequel, as Harper, as well as Work It (2020) as Quinn, all for Netflix, but nowadays pretty much everyone in the world now knows Sabrina Carpenter as one of the next biggest singing sensations. She has been releasing music since 2014, however, shamefully, I’ve only heard Sabrina Carpenter’s music recently. Sorry, Sabrina… And that was just the one song, “Espresso”, which I love after having heard it about three times on the radio during one car journey earlier in the year! It’s a great song, reaching No. 1 in the UK, Australian, and US Pop Charts. Some of her other more recent songs include “Feather” and “Please Please Please”, with her new song “Taste” released in August 2024.

Lola is not at all like Jenny. For one thing, Lola is about two years older than Jenny and has no plans to go to college. She wants to get the photography internship because she is passionate about it and sees a future career, whereas Jenny wants it for her college application. Lola is clearly talented, but she’s also quite chaotic, both in her art and her life. Lola has managed to accumulate numerous parking tickets, only wants to babysit to get money to pay for those tickets, and doesn’t plan anything; she just barrels into situations and hopes for the best! But Lola is a caring person; she wants the kids to be able to express themselves and do what’s best for them and she also wants to help Jenny with the situation she got them into by choosing to go in the Anderson’s hot tub instead of looking after the children… Lola learns from her mistakes though, apologises for them, and it turns out that Jenny and Lola become good friends because of everything they went through.

Sofia Carson was cast in the role of Lola, having just starred as Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen, in Descendants (2015). After the Descendants trilogy, Carson received a main role in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019) and went on to appear in multiple Netflix films including Feel the Beat (2020) and Purple Hearts (2022), where she also wrote, and performed on, the soundtrack. Carson also performed at the Oscars in 2023 alongside Diane Warren, singing the song “Applause” from the movie Tell It Like a Woman (2022), which was up for Best Original Song that year.

Now to the kids. Let’s start with the Cooper girls. The oldest is Emily and she is a bit of a rebel, initially wanting to shave her hair off at the start of the movie before deciding just to dye it with green streaks. She later gets a henna tattoo as well and is generally not in a good mood because she has a crush on Trey Anderson who seems to be too obsessed with Jenny to notice Emily. The youngest Cooper is Katy and she is a bit of a princess. She likes to wear her mother’s make-up, clothes, and expensive jewellery, even taking her mother’s earrings all the way into the city – luckily, she doesn’t lose them or she’d be in big trouble because those earrings are one of a kind, you know! Katy uses her fashion expertise in two notable occasions during Adventures in Babysitting; the first to disguise Lola as a socialite to sneak into the parents’ party and the second is to make Jenny look more like a concert-goer – and less like a “stick-in-the-mud” – to impress her crush. I like the Cooper sisters, with the girls’ opposite natures balancing each other out.

Emily Cooper was played by Nikki Hahn. She had played Bianca Russo in the Wizards of Waverly Place television special Alex vs Alex in 2013. After Adventures in Babysitting, Hahn appeared in the recurring role of Gina Tuscadero in American Housewife (2016-21). Mallory James Mahoney was cast as Katy Cooper here, before going on to star as Destiny Baker in the Disney Channel series Bunk’d (2015-24) from Season 3 onwards.

 For the Anderson kids, let’s talk about the surly teenager, Trey. He is the reason why Jenny and Lola’s “easy” babysitting jobs become huge disasters. Because Trey is moody about being grounded, he decides to sneak out of the house and go to a concert with his friends, assuming that the babysitter won’t possibly notice that he isn’t there. And if Lola hadn’t been called by Jenny to get her phone back, then he might have just gotten away with it. But he didn’t so everything that happens to the group in the city is all Trey’s fault, really. It’s also his fault that Emily is starting to go off the rails since he won’t pay any attention to her. He finally does near the end, but if I was Emily, I’d be telling him “too little, too late, pal”.

Then, there are the other two Anderson children, Bobby and AJ. Bobby is the cooking fanatic, who is concerned with finding the perfect ingredient for his baking competition through the events of Adventures in Babysitting, with this ingredient turning out to be crushed seaweed. I might have blamed Trey for everything that happens in Adventures in Babysitting and that’s still mostly true, but then again, Bobby does cause the purple ferret to escape from its cage in the pawn shop and let the group in on the fact that this ferret is in fact stolen, so having these two men chasing them is Bobby’s fault. AJ is the youngest Anderson kid who loves roller skating, even getting to meet her roller derby heroine at the police station of all places. So, what I’ve learnt here is that boys are trouble and girls aren’t!

Max Gecowets was cast as Trey Anderson, going on to appear as Jonathan in the mini-series Dreaded Rose in 2017. Bobby was played by Jet Jurgensmeyer, who has voiced characters in children’s series such as Bubble Guppies (2011-23) and T.O.T.S. (2019-22). He later went on to appear as Boyd Baxter in Season 7 and 8 of sitcom Last Man Standing (2011-21). AJ Anderson was played by Madison Horcher.

Speaking of boys, Jenny and Lola have their own distractions to deal with alongside all the shenanigans going on in the city. Jenny’s love interest is Zac. Zac is clearly interested in Jenny because he invites her to the concert that evening but Lola being Lola makes the mistake of turning him down as Jenny. Luckily, Jenny is able to correct this miscommunication and the two begin dating shortly after. Young love, isn’t it sweet? Zac was played by Kevin Quinn, who had starred as Xander in the first two seasons of the Disney Channel series Bunk’d before going on to appear in Hallmark’s A Christmas Love Story (2019) as Danny and Netflix’s A Week Away (2021) as Will.

Lola has her sights set on the officer who gives her a parking ticket at the start of Adventures in Babysitting, even trying to claim that she’s a fan of classical music just to impress him, though Officer James quickly realises that she isn’t! Officer James later appears at the point that Lola has been arrested for attempting to resell the concert ticket and then shows up to return her driving license on her way home. I find their relationship a little bit random, a little bit unrealistic, and a little bit forced, but perhaps it wouldn’t have been fair for Jenny to get her man and for Lola not to? Officer James was played by Max Lloyd-Jones, who was cast in the role of Tom Thornton in When Calls the Heart (2015-24).

Finally, I’ll just quickly mention the two men chasing the group through the city: the Scalper and Tiny, the pawn shop owner, who I didn’t know even had a name – I clearly wasn’t paying much attention to them to notice anyone saying his name! These two are meant to be threatening but they are actually just two buffoons who don’t have a clue what they are doing, easily being outsmarted by these kids all because they want Lola to delete the picture of them with the stolen ferret. It wouldn’t have been too much to ask Lola nicely to delete the photo and frankly, Lola should’ve done because it’s not nice to take pictures of people without their consent. So, the whole evening would’ve been a lot easier had all of them just opened their mouths and communicated! Scalper was played by Ken Lawson and Tiny was played by Michael P. Northey.

MUSIC

The first song to appear in Adventures in Babysitting is “Wildside”, at the start of the movie, as Lola and Jenny are preparing for their photography internship interview. It also plays during the End Credits. “Wildside” was performed by Sofia Carson and Sabrina Carpenter, with Carpenter also co-writing the song. The music video was released on 10th June 2016, two weeks before the premiere date of Adventures in Babysitting, and shows clips from the film. It’s a good song and I enjoy it; but if I think about Adventures in Babysitting, it’s not the song I’m going to remember the most…

That would be the song “We’re the Babysitters”, which was also performed by both Sofia Carson and Sabrina Carpenter, and written by Brandon N. Caddell. Unfortunately, the reason it is so memorable is because of its cringey rap battle. It was obviously the point for Jenny to feel awkward about rapping, as it’s not her style and she’s never done it before – she’s also being forced to do it, or she can’t leave the rap club – but the whole scene is a bit embarrassing to watch, even when it becomes less of a rap battle and more of a hip-hop song. This scene is an updated, more modern version of the Blues singing that is performed by the babysitter during the 1987 Adventures in Babysitting.

Sabrina Carpenter herself has stated that she is embarrassed by her performance during this rap battle, as it resurfaces online occasionally. She was not a fan of this scene and would rather nobody mentioned it anymore[1]. So, let’s keep this between us and not torture her with the memory of it all over again, ok? She needn’t feel embarrassed by it anyway; pretty much all DCOMs have a cringey scene or some awkward line in it somewhere so she’s not alone in feeling this way!

The other credited song is “Put Your Hands Up”, also written by Brandon N. Caddell. I have no idea where this appears in the movie; skipping through it didn’t give me any hints either, so I am uncertain what this song actually is, but it’s listed in the End Credits so I thought I’d better mention it anyway. It could be a song without lyrics, making it hard to distinguish amongst the rest of the instrumental background music.

There is also the song that plays as Jenny, Lola, and the kids rush to clean up the Anderson’s house before the parents come home. This is “You Ain’t Never Seen It Done Like This” by Photronique. This song is uncredited in Adventures in Babysitting.

Two other pieces of music that are uncredited are Lola and Jenny’s ringtones. Seeing as the music only plays for a few seconds at a time, this is understandable, but for anyone who is interested, Jenny’s ringtone is “Für Elise” by Beethoven, as stated by Officer James, and Lola’s is “Rule the World” by Anabel Englund.

PRODUCTION

As I’ve already mentioned, Disney Channel’s Adventures in Babysitting is not an original idea; it is a remake of the 1987 film of the same name.

With the 1987 Adventures in Babysitting being a PG-13 rated movie, there were many scenes that would’ve needed to be changed to fit the target audience of a DCOM. Some of the scenes that appeared in the 1987 film and not the 2016 film include the group seeing evidence of car theft, gang fights, going to a fraternity party, as well as guns and even a Playboy magazine being frequently seen. Adventures in Babysitting reached ninth place at the box office on its opening on 3rd July 1987 but became a “sleeper hit”, which is still watched decades later.

Star of Adventures in Babysitting, Elisabeth Shue, said that she had not seen the 2016 film, but that she had seen a picture of Sabrina Carpenter wearing the same coat as her character had in the original movie. Shue also stated that she felt remaking the movie in present day wouldn’t feel the same since having mobile phones makes everything a lot easier for people, so they can just call someone and fix the problem. Phones don’t make a big difference to the plot of the 2016 movie but I can see what Shue means there[2].

The 1987 Adventures in Babysitting is still available to watch on Disney+, however, it has been noticed by viewers that actually two lines that both use “the f-word” have been edited out of the Disney+ version, annoying some fans[3]. It now says “don’t fool with…” and it’s only too obvious that these lines were changed!

But back to the 2016 Adventures in Babysitting. It had been announced years before that Disney were going to be making a remake, however, it had been so long since that announcement that many believed the remake had been scrapped. Raven-Symoné was once linked to an early version of the film which was being worked on around 2006[4]. It wasn’t until 9th January 2015 that Disney Channel officially announced they would in fact be making a remake of Adventures in Babysitting, with Sabrina Carpenter and Sofia Carson confirmed as the stars of the new movie, playing two different babysitters. The first official trailer for the movie was released in February 2016.

The DCOM Adventures in Babysitting was filmed in British Columbia, Canada, however, it is unclear where exactly the movie is set, with the 1987 film being set in Chicago. Some have stated that it is supposedly meant to be set in Chicago as well, but with no specific filming locations linking the 2016 movie to Chicago, it actually just becomes an undetermined big city to me. I assumed it was meant to be New York City originally, but if that had been the case, I’m sure specific locations would have been used. I read one review that said they thought the film was meant to be set in Seattle, others said Vancouver, where it was filmed. It’s probably safer to just say it is a big city, and not be specific about it.

Adventures in Babysitting was directed by John Schultz, who had also directed A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018), the second instalment in Netflix’s A Christmas Prince trilogy, and Like Mike (2002) amongst others. The screenplay for the movie was written by Tiffany Paulsen, who went on to write Holidate (2020) and About Fate (2022).

RECEPTION

In order to properly celebrate the huge milestone of Disney Channel releasing their 100th Disney Channel Original Movie, in the lead up to Adventures in Babysitting’s premiere date, Disney Channel aired ALL their previous DCOMs from Memorial Day Weekend in May 2016 through to the premiere of Adventures in Babysitting. The most films – 51 – were shown during that four-date weekend[5]. I wish I’d seen that!

When Adventures in Babysitting did premiere on 24th June 2016, it reportedly reached 3.45 million viewers on that one day. However, seven further showings of the movie in the couple of weeks that followed, saw the viewer total reach 15 million, where it became the top cable TV movie of 2016 to that date[6].

It also received a nomination for an Imagen Award, which supports Latino talent in the entertainment industry, in 2017 for Best Primetime Program: Special, Movies, & Mini-Series, but lost out to ABC’s American Crime (2015-17). John Schultz was also nominated at the Directors Guild of America Awards in 2017, in the category of Outstanding Directing – Children’s Programs, losing out to An American Girl Story – Melody 1963 (2016).

Adventures in Babysitting received a bit of a mixed reception though. On the positive side, many felt that the lead characters of Jenny and Lola were very likeable and that in general, the movie was fun, exciting, and light-hearted entertainment. On the other hand, those who had already been a fan of the 1987 film had a lot of negative comments on Disney Channel’s new remake.

They felt that this was a “sanitised” version of the original film, that the remake doesn’t capture any of the magic or energy of the original, and that too much of the story had been changed. The 2016 Adventures in Babysitting also happened to come at a time when reboots and remakes seemed to be the only thing that film studios and television channels were capable of making, with many viewers already upset or annoyed even just hearing the word “remake”, feeling that creativity is being wiped out by laziness.

I do agree with this general point but as I’ve never seen the 1987 Adventures in Babysitting, I cannot comment on how Disney Channel handled the remake’s story compared to the original. I can understand fans of the original wouldn’t be happy with the DCOM version though, having read some plot points and seen a few clips of it; the two movies are quite different.

For me, I just felt that it was bit long and a bit samey to keep me particularly interesting. It also doesn’t seem to have much of a message, unlike many other Disney Channel movies, apart from maybe don’t lie to your parents. Or don’t sneak out of the house in case you come across illegal activities and end up being chased around a big city at night by two criminals… But that’s a bit too precise for most kids to relate to.

LEGACY

As for what happened next for Adventures in Babysitting, well, there was no sequel. There is ample inspiration and opportunities for another remake to be made, as the story is quite flexible and it’s easy to inject humour and peril into the general idea of kids running around a city without their parents knowing, but the reception to the 2016 film has probably said that the people didn’t want this version, let alone another one, so it’s unlikely to happen from Disney. Perhaps from a different movie studio though.

However, Adventures in Babysitting will always be the 100th Disney Channel Original Movie, so that’s something that cannot be taken away. Although from this point on, the number of DCOMs reduced to only around two per year, whereas “back in the day”, in the 2000s, Disney Channel released 8 to 10 movies in some years, Disney Channel have continued to make television movies that have resonated with the young people of the time and launched the careers of many of their stars. Just look at Adventures in Babysitting – Sabrina Carpenter has become a global superstar since her “Disney days”.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Adventures in Babysitting wasn’t for me. I didn’t find the overall premise entertaining and sadly the lead actresses of Sofia Carson and Sabrina Carpenter couldn’t keep me interested either, although I did like their characters, Lola and Jenny.

It also doesn’t look like I would’ve enjoyed the original 1987 film either – it has some quite intense moments from what I have seen – so it’s not like being a fan of that has clouded my judgement of this DCOM. 

Perhaps if I’d been a more rebellious, outgoing, extroverted kid, or even just a babysitter, I might have been able to relate to some aspects of Adventures in Babysitting but I was not ever that, not even close. I’m not even like that now as an adult – I still can’t lie to my parents, or run around a city at night without feeling terrified! 

Should I get out more and be more adventurous? Maybe – but please don’t make me go out with a group of kids and two babysitters; I don’t think my nerves could cope. 

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Cosmopolitan, ‘Sabrina Carpenter Is Haunted By This Scene and Asks Us to “Burn It”’, Cosmopolitan YouTube Channel, 27th March 2024.

[2] Credit: Mara Reinstein, ‘Elisabeth Shue Answers Every Question We Have About Adventures in Babysitting’, Vulture.com, 3rd September 2021.

[3] Credit: Noah Dominguez, ‘Fans Notice Disney+ Edits Out Elisabeth Shue’s Iconic Adventures in Babysitting Line’, CBR.com, 14th January 2022.

[4] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ‘Adventures in Babysitting trailer: Disney’s ‘80s revival exclusive’, EW.com, 12th February 2016.

[5] Credit: Nicole Nalty, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Disney Channel’s DCOM Marathon’, D23.com, 27th May 2016.

[6] Credit: Tony Maglio, ‘Disney Channel’s ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ Is Top Cable TV Movie of 2016’, TheWrap.com, 11th July 2016.