18th Oct 202430th Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

Girl vs. Monster (2012)

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 17^th 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 12^th 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, 28^th 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, 12^th October 2012.

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

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

11th Oct 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Prom Pact (2023)

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 24^th 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 30^th March.

This led to the official premiere of Prom Pact on Disney Channel on 30^th 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 31^st 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 4^th 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 2^nd 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, 30^th March 2023.

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

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

[4] Credit: Nellia Andreeva, ‘Peyton Elizabeth Lee & Milo Manheim To Headline Disney+ Movie ‘Prom Pact’ From Julie Bowen & Melvin Mar’, Deadline.com, 6^th 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, 24^th 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, 28^th 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, 5^th April 2023.

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

4th Oct 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020)

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 18^th 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 17^th 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 25^th 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 26^th 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, 1^st October 2020.

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

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

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

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

27th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010)

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

20th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Lemonade Mouth (2011)

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

The soundtrack for Lemonade Mouth consists of ten original songs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6th Sep 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Gotta Kick It Up! (2002)

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

30th Aug 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Adventures in Babysitting (2016)

BACKGROUND

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

This 100^th 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 10^th 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 3^rd 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 9^th 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 100^th 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 24^th 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 100^th 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, 27^th March 2024.

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

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

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

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

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

23rd Aug 202430th Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

Cow Belles (2006)

BACKGROUND

In January 2006, Disney Channel released the biggest hit within their Disney Channel Original Movie collection: High School Musical. Because of the success of High School Musical, Disney Channel had a revival of sorts.

Think of the DCOMs that came out before High School Musical. The majority of people are likely to remember the bigger franchises, like Zenon, Halloweentown, and The Cheetah Girls. But there were so many more between 1997, when the first official DCOM was released, and 2006 that have been forgotten or never reached mainstream fame.

After High School Musical, DCOMs suddenly became bigger budget projects, with a more professional image to them. The DCOMs that came after High School Musical have been mostly remembered, perhaps also thanks to their casting of actors from Disney Channel’s most beloved television series, but regardless, it seems that High School Musical catapulted not just itself and its cast into the mainstream, but the humble DCOM as well.

I’m not saying every DCOM that came out after High School Musical was successful or that all of them are loved in the same way, but this was the point when I started to watch the majority of Disney Channel Original Movie Premieres.

Luckily for Cow Belles, it was released a couple of months after High School Musical and had an actress from a Disney Channel series in it, so it has been remembered almost two decades later. I am one of the ones who first watched it at this time and still remember it.

It might not have aged particularly well, with its focus on two spoilt heiresses who are so rich they have no concept of what life is like for the majority of people not sitting well with the people of today who are very quick to point out when “someone’s privilege is showing”. A phrase I find particularly patronising, but it seems fitting to state for this specific movie.

The world has also been through a huge recession and economic crisis since 2006, and some countries are currently in the midst of other economic issues, so watching two girls frivolously spend all their father’s money may not be to everyone’s taste. But I’ve always enjoyed Cow Belles, even if, now I’m older, it involves a lot of eye-rolling and tutting at the spending and the actions of these two teenage girls. It’s not their fault they’ve grown up rich, I’ll accept that, but money certainly doesn’t buy common sense!

PLOT

Cow Belles is about the two teenage daughters of Reed Callum, owner of Callum Dairy, which seems to be a big employer for those living in the area.

As Taylor, the eldest Callum daughter, is taking her driving test, she finds herself distracted by a call from her sister, Courtney, telling her that she’s found the perfect dress for her Cotillion party. Taylor pulls over for this call, before passing the phone over to her examiner to finish up the conversation. Strangely enough, Taylor passes her driving test despite this call, by using emotional blackmail – Taylor says she’ll keep coming back, asking for the same examiner if he doesn’t pass her. Wow, I wish I’d known it could be that simple…

This shows how easy Taylor has had it all her life. Courtney also doesn’t bat an eye at paying $1,000 for this “perfect” dress. Their father seems to accept that this is just how they are, and gifts Taylor her mother’s red Mustang as a present for passing her test, but it’s a stick shift so she’ll be getting lessons from the son of one of the dairy’s milk suppliers. Jackson Meade is not a fan of this “spoilt princess” and Taylor doesn’t want to be spending time with this “farm boy” so as you’d expect, it doesn’t go well. Taylor learns the basics of the stick shift but at one point forgets to put the handbrake on, so Jackson’s truck, which they were practising on, rolls into a lake. Taylor says her father will pay $2,000+ for the damages.

Reed is shocked by Taylor’s carelessness – though I don’t know why; I don’t think any of us watching were – and tells the girls they need to cut back on their spending, especially as he is soon to be out of the country, on a trip abroad gifted to him by his business partner, Bob. The next day, it’s clear this warning fell on deaf ears. Although the girls attempt to make their own lunch, as it is their housekeeper, Corrine’s, day off, they get distracted by shopping and rush off to go to the mall, leaving the stove on. That may have been alright, but Courtney absent-mindedly threw a tea towel onto the stove, setting it and the kitchen on fire. They get home to find the fire department there. Their father is furious and tells them that they aren’t getting any more allowance, aren’t allowed to use their credit cards, and are getting summer jobs at the dairy. Their lives are ruined.

The next morning, nice and early, Reed sees his girls off on their first day at work, telling them not to get into trouble because he’s travelling today and to a remote area, so he is going to be without cell service. They tell him not to worry. I’m sure that set his mind at ease… At the dairy, they report to “Uncle” Bob who passes them over to Fran to give them a tour of the factory. Courtney and Taylor expect to be sitting in the office, making coffees and doing accounts or something, but Fran tells them their father specifically wanted them on the production line. Worst dad ever.

Once Taylor and Courtney are in their hairnets and coveralls, they are tasked with putting lids on yoghurt pots. Courtney starts messing about with her phone, trying to take a picture of Taylor “looking ugly”, but the phone flies into a pot of yoghurt. The line has to be halted, though Taylor calls Courtney’s phone and selects just the right pot so the whole run doesn’t need to be scrapped, thankfully. At lunch, everyone has heard about the production slow down and aren’t friendly to the girls. Only the father of their friend Heather is willing to talk to them, but even he finds it funny that the girls expected there to be a catered lunch, pointing them to a vending machine instead. It’s clear the girls don’t fit in here.

In the afternoon, Taylor and Courtney are given another task, of simply carrying tubs of blueberries over to the right area of the line, but because they stupidly wore high heels to the factory – why they weren’t given some other shoes, I don’t know – they slip and the blueberry pulp spills all over them. This does give the girls the opportunity to do their own laundry though – yay! Then, it’s the end of their first day of work and they head home.

With friend Heather in tow, Courtney comes up with a plan to get a date for her Cotillion. She has her eye on a guy called Phillipe, who happens to be a foreign exchange student and a dairy worker, so they go over to invite him to the party and ask Phillipe to be Courtney’s date. Meanwhile, Taylor is getting ready to see Jackson, with a cheque for his truck’s repairs, but she falls asleep after her tough day. Jackson thinks he’s been stood up.

The next morning, Taylor is horrified to find she slept through her “date” and what’s worse is they have to go to work again! On this day, the dairy employees are complaining because all their pay checks bounced. Bob tells everyone that it seems that Reed, Taylor and Courtney’s dad, took all the money before he went away. Taylor and Courtney don’t believe that so go to Bob’s office, where they see a smashed picture of Bob and their father and the office empty. They suspect Bob took the company’s money. They go to Fran’s house after work and tell her their suspicions. Her and her husband, also a dairy employee, believe that is most likely the case.

Later, Courtney is at Cotillion planning with three other super rich girls. She is trying to get them to stick to their budget by making sacrifices, but apparently $25,000 each just isn’t enough for a one-night party! Courtney asks them to pass her all the figures and she’ll talk it over with her sister, since Taylor is good with money, apparently. Taylor hasn’t got any money-saving ideas, but she’s worried about the dairy workers’ salaries. Taylor wants to use Courtney’s Cotillion money to pay them so the dairy doesn’t have to close. Courtney is furious that Taylor would even think to suggest that, believing that Taylor only doesn’t care about Courtney’s Cotillion because Taylor had her own fabulous one last year. They don’t discuss it any further, but Courtney believes her money is safe.

At a meeting the next morning, the dairy workers demand to know when they’ll be paid because they have bills and rent to keep up with. Taylor sends Courtney out to get her phone from her car, giving Taylor the opportunity to announce to everyone that she can get them the money for their pay checks to keep them working. They agree to keep working, but don’t believe Taylor has the money lying around. Taylor doesn’t but Courtney does, and Taylor’s father gave her the access to Courtney’s Cotillion money, so Taylor withdraws $20,000 of it – without telling Courtney. When it is announced to the workers that their pay has been secured, Courtney knows it was her party money Taylor used. The girls fight and Courtney refuses to talk to Taylor as she will now be kicked out of the Cotillion. Taylor goes to make amends with Jackson and gives him his cheque. Jackson forgives her and is impressed with Taylor as she makes a suggestion that helps one of their cows give birth. They both find they were wrong about each other.

But nothing is right with her and Courtney. Courtney doesn’t want to talk to Taylor and is so distracted by her party date that at work, when the yoghurt tubs need a new expiry date, she accidentally sets it to that day but doesn’t realise. She then promptly quits. Another crisis ensues when the dairy finds their milk refrigeration unit lost power so their milk has gone bad. To get the money for more milk, Taylor agrees to sell her car, the Mustang, to an employee at the dairy for only $9,000. Courtney learns this and is shocked to find that Taylor would do that, but she has also learnt that she’s been acting like a spoilt princess and wants to help. They still need $6,000 more for the milk so Courtney hands over the last of her party budget and returns her party dress. This secures more milk for the dairy.

Courtney then tells Phillipe that he doesn’t need to be her date anymore because there won’t be a party. He doesn’t care and invites her to the Country Club for dinner with his exchange family. But at the club, Courtney encounters her Cotillion “friends” who say they’ve managed to get everything they wanted even without her money and know their party will be amazing. Courtney doesn’t care and enjoys the evening with Phillipe. At the same time, Jackson has visited Taylor and they kiss while watching a movie together.

At work the next day, Courtney has returned and the girls are invited by Fran to a party at her house to celebrate the end of this awful work week. They gladly accept, but at the party, more disaster strikes when the news comes that their deliveries are being turned away because the wrong expiry date was stamped on their products, today’s date. Courtney realises it was all her fault and says they should all try to do a new run. As they’ll need more help, Courtney, Taylor, and Jackson go to the Cotillion to ask for help. They are flatly ignored.

Returning to the dairy, the run is about to be cancelled as they don’t have the workers they need, but then, the girls’ father arrives with people from the party. He had gone to surprise Courtney at her party when all these people rushed over to tell them there was a problem at the dairy and they wanted to help. The run is completed and the dairy is saved from closure once more. As a special gift of thanks, Courtney is given a “spotlight dance” with Phillipe, one that she should’ve had at her party, in front of a van’s headlights.

The next day, the girls are told by their father that they’ll survive but it’ll be hard. He is surprised to learn that the girls want to keep working at the dairy, feeling they belong there. It also means eight hours less at the mall so it’ll stop them spending money – that’s the spirit!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Taylor is the eldest of the Callum girls so naturally is the more mature one of the two, even though Taylor does still like to shop, wear expensive clothes, and generally feel like a princess! But she is more aware of the world around her, and catches on quite quickly that should the dairy workers not be paid, then they could lose their houses. She realises that it’s up to her to pay attention to this problem and figure out a way of fixing it, since Courtney is too caught up in her Cotillion planning to care about anyone else.

Courtney, on the other hand, takes a while to come out of her “rich girl bubble” and step into the real world. She just wants to get through her day-to-day job at the dairy factory like her father wanted, and any spare time she has after that will be going into her Cotillion party. She is younger than Taylor so it’s only natural that she wouldn’t want to take responsibility for anyone else’s life. When Taylor takes the money for the Cotillion without telling Courtney, it causes a huge rift between the two sisters, but ultimately, this rift needed to happen because it makes Courtney take a good long look at herself and her lifestyle. She realises that not everyone’s life is like a fairy tale, and, given her more privileged position, she should be helping the dairy workers instead of whining about trivial things, like parties.

Taylor and Courtney were played by Alyson Michalka and Amanda Michalka respectively, more commonly known as Aly and AJ. Individually, Aly has appeared in movies such as Bandslam (2009) as Charlotte; Easy A (2010), in the role of Rhiannon, alongside Emma Stone; and Grown Ups 2 (2013) as Savannah. In more recent years, Aly was also cast in iZombie (2015-2019) as Peyton Charles. On screen, AJ was cast as Lainey Lewis in the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013-23) and reprised her role in the spin-off Schooled (2019-20). AJ also provided the voice of Catra in the animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-20). Together, Aly & AJ are a singing duo who released their debut album Into the Rush in 2005. They released their most recent album With Love From in 2023.

Taylor doesn’t seem to have any of her own friends in Cow Belles, which is fine and that’s probably why she feels more able to talk to the adults at the dairy factory. Courtney, however, seems to have much more of a social life away from her sister. She has her best friend Heather, whose father also happens to work at the dairy. Heather is nowhere near as rich as her friend Courtney, and feels like she has to hide that fact from Courtney, as we see when her mother is altering a dress for her, despite Heather telling Courtney she was going to buy a dress from some shop they’d been to. The moment when Heather tells Courtney that it’s not her fault she’s been able to have everything in life but that she should really think about how other people feel around her when she’s just going off spending money, it helps Courtney understand that she needs to help Taylor sort out the money situation at the dairy. Heather was played by Christian Serratos. Serratos actually began her acting career on that “other channel” that Disney don’t want you to know about – Nickelodeon – in the recurring role of Suzie in Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide (2004-07). After Cow Belles, Serratos went on to play the role of Angela, one of Bella’s fully human friends, in The Twilight Saga (2008-12). In more recent years, she was cast as Rosita Espinosa in The Walking Dead (2010-22) and portrayed singer Selena in Selena: The Series (2020-21).

As well as one good friend, Courtney also has “frenemies” with the worst of them being the stuck-up Sarah. She is one of the four girls planning the Cotillion, and is the only one not willing to compromise on anything to fit their budget; she wants what she wants and is going to get it regardless of how much it costs. Once Courtney’s money is taken to secure the payroll for the dairy, Sarah kicks Courtney out of the Cotillion and then brags to her later that they begged their fathers for more money and are going to get everything they wanted. Sarah is also the only one of the people at this party not to follow Taylor and Courtney’s father back to the dairy factory to help with their new product run, so that shows what kind of person she is. Maybe she was too busy trying to get all that chlorine out of her hair after falling into the Country Club fountain…Paula Brancati was cast as Sarah, and she went on to play the part of Gina, another “mean girl” if I remember rightly, in the DCOM Jump In! (2007). Brancati was also cast as Jane Vaughn in Seasons 7 to 9 of Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-15).

Outside of that, along with the distraction of their father’s dairy factory going bankrupt, the teens are distracted by boys – typical. Taylor surprisingly starts to fall for “farm boy” Jackson Meade, son of one of the dairy’s milk providers. Jackson thinks Taylor is stuck-up and she thinks he’s common, but eventually, after spending time together, they realise that their first impressions of each other were wrong. Jackson was played by Michael Trevino who went on to be cast as Tyler Lockwood on The Vampire Diaries (2009-17) winning two Teen Choice Awards, in 2011 and 2012, for Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer. Recently, Trevino was cast as Kyle Valenti in Roswell, New Mexico (2019-22).

Meanwhile, Courtney becomes quite taken with a French foreign exchange student who has been given a summer job at the dairy, seemingly working alongside the delivery drivers. His name is Phillipe and despite not having a clue what a Cotillion is and only meeting her briefly, he is happy to be Courtney’s date for her party. Although they don’t actually get to go to the Cotillion together, they still get to have a literal “spotlight dance” in front of the headlights of one of the dairy vans. How romantic… Chris Gallinger played the role of Phillipe here, going on to be cast as Demitri in Twitches Too (2007).

For the adults in Cow Belles, the one we see the most is Fran. She shows the girls around the dairy factory on their first day. She is accepting of Courtney and Taylor for the way they are, despite the fact they are not used to this type of work. Everyone else in the factory seems dismissive of Taylor and Courtney, but not Fran. She listens to their theory about Bob being the one to steal the company money, not their father, which turns out to be correct, and is pleased to find Taylor wanting to help with some of the dairy’s financial struggles, listening to everyone’s comments and coming up with solutions that work out. Fran was played by Sheila McCarthy, who has performed both on stage and screen. On stage, McCarthy appeared in productions such as Little Shop of Horrors in Canada in 1985, playing the role of Audrey. On screen, McCarthy had supporting roles in the movies Die Hard 2 (1990), as Sam Coleman; The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as Judith; and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), as Mrs. Gerard. In more recent years, McCarthy was cast as Agnes in The Umbrella Academy (2019-24) and appeared as Angie in ZOMBIES 3 (2022).

Lastly, we have Reed Callum, Taylor and Courtney’s father and owner of Callum Dairies. Although Reed moans at his daughters for being careless and reckless with their spending, which I completely agree with, I actually have a bone to pick with him. Reed uses his employees to help his daughters on two different occasions: the first is when one of the drivers is asked to fix up the red Mustang for Taylor, and the other is Jackson being made to teach Taylor how to drive stick, after his father is asked to do this as a “favour” for Reed. It’s a bit rich to start talking about his daughters being too privileged when Reed uses his employees to do things for him. I’m sure they seemed like they were willing and happy to do these tasks for the Callum family, but Reed should know that when an employer asks an employee for a “favour”, the power imbalance means that the employee is obligated to do this, regardless of how they feel about it for fear of getting fired. So, Reed, you might want to deal with that hypocrisy first before talking to your daughters! Jack Coleman was cast as Reed Callum. After Cow Belles, Coleman appeared in the main role of Noah Bennet in Heroes (2006-10); and in the minor recurring roles of State Senator Lipton in The Office (2005-13) and William Bracken in Castle (2009-16).

MUSIC

Having Aly & AJ, a recognised singing duo, involved in this Disney Channel Movie, you’d think that plenty of their songs would be included here, wouldn’t you?

In actual fact, only one of their songs was used: “On the Ride”. Luckily, it’s a very good song, and probably the most recognisable one in the movie. It is used when Taylor is getting ready to see Jackson that evening she falls asleep. A music video was released containing clips from Cow Belles. This song comes from their debut album Into the Rush.

Outside of this, there are three songs that feature in the movie that are performed by the dairy factory employee band. The best of these is the song “All Good Now”, which is sung during Courtney’s “spotlight dance” after they’ve completed the new dairy product run and is in the End Credits. It’s a sweet song, signalling the end of that terrible, stressful week they had. The song was written by Jeannie Lurie, and performed by singer Blaire Reinhard.

Another is performed during Courtney and Taylor’s first lunch at the factory and seems to be called “Together at the Creamery”. The other is played at the workers’ party that Fran and her husband organise for everyone and is called “Beat of the Band”. It was written and performed by Blaire Reinhard. “Beat of the Band” is the only one of these two songs to be credited as part of the soundtrack in Cow Belles, but I wanted to mention them both because I like them, even though country music isn’t my favourite.

Another song that is not credited here is the song that is performed by the band at the Cotillion party. That song is “Don’t Wanna Grow Up” by the band Willknots. This number later appeared in the DCOM 16 Wishes (2010). It’s a good pop/rock song, even though it’s only heard for about twenty seconds before the song ends and Courtney takes the mic!

The score for Cow Belles was composed by Kenneth Burgomaster, who has composed the score for other Disney Channel projects, including the movies Halloweentown High (2004), Go Figure (2005) and Return to Halloweentown (2006), and Season 2 of the series Phil of the Future (2004-06).

PRODUCTION

Apparently, the story of Cow Belles was inspired by the reality series The Simple Life (2003-07), which centred around Paris Hilton and her best friend Nicole Richie having to do low paid jobs out in the real world. I’m not a big fan of reality shows – I only like a few – so I have never seen The Simple Life but I can see the premise of the show being the inspiration for Cow Belles. Except in this case, the girls are being made to work in the dairy by their father so that they can become better people and understand the “value of a dollar”, whereas I’m sure Paris and Nicole not only got paid big bucks to do The Simple Life, but then managed to get incredibly famous off the back of it and no doubt learnt pretty much nothing at all from the experience… Am I making it clear that I’m not a fan of these types of programmes?

Anyway, Cow Belles has also been linked to the movie Material Girls, which also came out in 2006, just a few months later; features two sisters in the lead roles, Hilary and Haylie Duff; and is about two wealthy teenagers who lose all their family wealth, but these two are cosmetics heiresses, not dairy heiresses. I have seen Material Girls, but it must have been so good that I’ve since forgotten almost all of the story, whereas I’ve watched Cow Belles plenty of times. Cow Belles, probably because it was a television movie, escaped some of the same criticism that plagued Material Girls with this movie only having a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Duff sisters received Razzie Award nominations for Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple for this movie too – ouch…I didn’t think it was that bad…

Cow Belles was filmed in Canada, as so many movies and series are. Cow Belles isn’t set in any specific, exotic location, so it makes sense to film it in Canada; as most of the movie takes place in a dairy factory, with some farmland and houses thrown in, it didn’t need to be filmed somewhere with particularly good weather or amazing views.

Although a movie set in a dairy factory might not sound like a lot of fun, apparently filming the production line scenes was. Aly and AJ also enjoyed doing their own “stunts” too, like spilling the blueberries all over themselves and being sprayed with milk. That doesn’t sound like my idea of fun but whatever! The only downside was having to wear those hairnets in these scenes, which the girls didn’t like so much. They did, however, like the cool outfits they got to wear outside of that, even though they weren’t suitable for the type of work their characters would be doing in a dairy factory[1]!

There are also a couple of other more interesting scenes within Cow Belles that aren’t just factory work or sitting in people’s houses. One of these is swing dancing. AJ and Chris Gallinger were taught the basics of swing dancing by a choreographer just for their one dancing moment in the Country Club. Another is the scene of Jackson teaching Taylor how to drive a stick shift. Aly had only just got her permit so that she could actually drive a car in Cow Belles like her character does. She was only taught how to drive stick just a few minutes before shooting the scene, and it was the first scene that was shot on the movie[2]. No pressure there then!

RECEPTION

Cow Belles premiered on Disney Channel on 24^th March 2006, where it was watched by 5.8 million viewers, which is pretty good for a DCOM. High School Musical had been released just two months earlier, on 20^th January, and reached 7.7. million viewers. Whether Cow Belles benefitted from an increase in DCOM viewers after the release of High School Musical is difficult to judge, but I’m thinking the popularity of High School Musical as a television movie probably helped Disney Channel and therefore any of its subsequent Disney Channel movies, to some extent.

Or perhaps Cow Belles was popular because it was elevated by the casting of Aly & AJ, an already known singing duo amongst teens and tweens after their debut album was released just a year earlier, as well as Aly being a cast member on Phil of the Future (2004-06), where she played Keely Teslow, also helping Cow Belles reach a wider audience, potentially. Not that that made a difference to me; I didn’t like Phil of the Future, so I guess I liked it for the sister comedy angle.

Many did enjoy Cow Belles for its relatable characters, who I’m guessing were anyone other than the Callum girls, and its message about money not being everything, or being enough to make you happy. Cow Belles seems to be considered to be a bit better than the “average” Disney Channel movie, and is still remembered to this day whereas many others are not. That’s probably because Aly and AJ are still working actors and still perform regularly together, making albums and touring.

But not everybody viewed Cow Belles positively. Some say the movie is cringey and don’t like the overused trope of rich girls going broke; I have seen that idea a few times. I suppose. London Tipton going broke in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08) is one Disney example, or there’s Princess Protection Program (2009), which is a similar idea, although not exactly the same. There’s also the movie From Prada to Nada (2011), which is a similar concept to Material Girls, with these two movies stating that their basis for their stories comes from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, or even Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) to some extent. There are also plenty of real-life examples, and if you already don’t enjoy seeing materialistic people on screen or in real-life, I can see how this story idea can get old, tired, and boring really quickly. Unless schadenfreude is your thing.

LEGACY

Not too many Disney Channel Original Movies have managed to generate enough popularity and acclaim to warrant a sequel. Many non-musical DCOMs do not achieve this feat, with Cow Belles being just one of those.

However, in the 2020s, and even late 2010s, we saw a boom in reboots and remakes coming to our cinema or television screens – whether they were asked for or not. Aly and AJ Michalka discussed the idea of making a sequel to Cow Belles back in 2019, believing that the up-and-coming streaming space may be the place for this type of content but did stress that discussions were still in very early stages[3]. Later interviews in 2021 stated that the storyline could be based around one of the girls having been recently divorced and coming back to keep the family business going, making “Cow Belles 2” more of a typical romantic comedy that is geared towards the adults who grew up around the time of Cow Belles’ release. This doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but Aly and AJ were unsure if Disney would allow this “more adult” version of one of their own television movies[4].

With all that being said, discussions around this sequel have not been reported on since 2021, and in 2022, Aly and AJ said during an interview that they thought the writing in Cow Belles wasn’t great and that their acting was cringey. Aly also said that her first boyfriend broke up with her whilst she was filming Cow Belles so it wasn’t a great experience overall[5]. That’s fair enough to say, but these – slightly critical – comments may mean that a sequel to Cow Belles is not going to happen and that perhaps Aly and AJ are not interested in the idea anymore.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Although Cow Belles might be cringey in places, feel outdated, and focus on two quite unlikeable, at least initially, main characters, I’ve always liked Cow Belles and it’s one of the DCOMs that I like to rewatch when I have time. Granted, there are quite a few of those, but still, Cow Belles is a DCOM that I just like.

In today’s world, with the advent of social media, many of us are inundated daily with pictures of beautiful places that are expensive to travel to, high-fashion items that are expensive to buy, and stunning houses that are expensive to own. This “Instagram lifestyle” is one that many wish for, or even actively strive for. I’ve heard stories about people getting themselves into debt trying to keep up with this way of life, and although those may be in the minority, I think it’s safe to say that social media has made others feel less worthy as a person for not being able to achieve that specific lifestyle, even though it’s not likely or sustainable for the majority of us to live like that.

I wish more people would turn away from this idea of “get rich quick” just so you can have more stuff, but it is ingrained in our society now, and it is troubling. Money cannot buy happiness, and I know lots of people like to say “that might be true, but I’d rather cry in a Ferrari” or whatever, but that’s not a healthy mindset to have. As we see from the Callum girls in Cow Belles, having lots of money can do more harm than good, by messing with your psyche or your self-worth, not to mention what happens when suddenly that stream of wealth comes to a halt, or seizes to exist entirely; then what do you do when you’ve built your whole world around it?

It would be better if everyone accepted that being comfortable and secure financially is the aim in life, not being rich. It might make you feel inadequate in the short-term, but you’ll be much happier in the long run – even without that Ferrari.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Cow Belles 2006 DVD Overview – The Making of Cow Belles’, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 26^th January 2024.

[2] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Cow Belles – Behind the Scenes with Michael Trevino and Aly and AJ Michalka (2006)’’, Michael Trevino Source YouTube Channel, 2^nd March 2016.

[3] Credit: Avery Thompson and Lanae Brody, ‘Aly & AJ Michalka Are Totally Down For A ‘Cow Belles’ Reboot: ‘We’ve Talked About It’’, HollywoodLife.com, 5^th July 2019.

[4] Credit: JJ Staff, ‘Aly Michalka Opens Up About Doing An R-Rated ‘Cow Belles’ Movie Reboot’’, JustJared.com, 27^th June 2021.

[5] Credit: Morgan Murrell, ‘‘Aly & AJ Got Real Honest About Their Disney Channel Movie “Cow Belles”, And I Really Hope Disney Isn’t Listening’, BuzzFeed.com, 1^st June 2022.

16th Aug 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003)

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

FINAL THOUGHTS

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

2nd Aug 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

BACKGROUND

For anyone who stopped watching the Descendants series after Descendants 3 (2019), you can be forgiven for assuming that this whole Disney movie series was done, completed, and finished. For those who stuck with it and watched the animated short film Descendants: The Royal Wedding (2021), you’ll have noticed that Disney were toying with the idea of expanding the series, looking to Alice in Wonderland (1951) for inspiration.

I did watch Descendants: The Royal Wedding, but I didn’t think they would be making another movie based on Wonderland and its characters. I thought it was just there to say “look what we can do”, assuming that not many people were going to be asking for a further movie, so it wouldn’t be made. I was wrong.

I forgot that Descendants as a franchise was a big property for The Walt Disney Company and that, to them, it would make perfect sense to make a fourth Descendants movie. To the rest of us, maybe a “Descendants 4” didn’t make sense.

Without a key member of the cast, Cameron Boyce, as well as seeing the effect his passing had on the rest of the cast and crew, it seemed unthinkable for Descendants to go on without him. I wasn’t happy with the idea of this new movie; others felt the same way.

I can’t say I kept up with any further news, other than to hear that Descendants 4 was in the works. I didn’t know when the release date was, I didn’t know who the cast were, I didn’t know what the plot was, and frankly, I didn’t care. As 2024 began, and trailers and interviews started popping up online, I paid a slight bit of attention. I knew that if I wanted to review the Descendants original trilogy, I couldn’t just ignore Descendants 4 – which came to be known as Descendants: The Rise of Red, to distance itself from the original films.

It is only fitting for Descendants: The Rise of Red to not be numbered, as it is not a sequel to Descendants, but a spin-off, with just two original cast members returning: Fairy Godmother, and, thankfully, Uma. When I heard Uma was back, I was vaguely intrigued.

Yet I still wasn’t excited. I only watched the movie this week, not being enough of a fan to watch it on its premiere date or even its premiere weekend, so by the time I got round to watching Descendants: The Rise of Red, the reviews were already circulating and the results were mixed.

After watching Descendants: The Rise of Red, I felt that the music was comparable to Descendants, as was the talent of the main cast, however, what really let it down was the story. Ten minutes before the end, I felt like the plot was leading up to something, and then – nothing happened. It was disappointing, because I thought so much more could’ve been done with the storyline, but the character development did not allow it to happen in the way I’d hoped it would. More on that later. On a more positive note, if you disregard the Descendants trilogy, which you can do here, Descendants: The Rise of Red is a pleasant enough movie, still full of colour and clever ideas. In the context of the Descendants series though, it fell a bit flat for me.

PLOT

Descendants: The Rise of Red begins with a voiceover from the one and only Uma, who says that Ben and Mal, now King and Queen of Auradon, along with Evie and Jay, have sailed away to other realms to promote harmony and peaceful relations with Auradon. Mal has named Uma as Principal of Auradon Prep in their absence.

Uma arrives at Auradon Prep and is welcomed by Fairy Godmother, who is also moving on to a new role as President of Auradon University. As her first order of business, Uma says she plans to invite Red, daughter of the Queen of Hearts, to come from her home of Wonderland to Auradon Prep, as part of the Villain Kid initiative that Ben started all those years ago. Fairy Godmother is uncertain by this addition to the school, as Wonderland is a hostile land, and its leader never wanted to join Auradon, therefore, the rabbit hole, the portal to Wonderland, was walled off, so no-one could enter Auradon from there. Uma says that the VKs would’ve wanted this, especially Carlos, who is no longer with them but had always believed other VKs would get their second chance in Auradon like he had. The invite is sent.

In Wonderland, we see that Red is actually quite the rebel. She doesn’t like her mother’s tyrannical way of ruling, has no desire to grow up to be like her, and just wants to get out of there – except the Queen of Hearts won’t allow it. Dodging the guards after vandalising the Wonderland Plaza, Red is rescued by her friend Maddox Hatter, son of the Mad Hatter. He tells her that perhaps someday she’ll be able to have a new life somewhere else, showing her a project he’s been working on: a pocket watch, which is actually a time machine. But Maddox quickly pulls it away from Red, telling her it’s much too dangerous; altering the fabric of time can lead to disastrous consequences. Red is then sent back home, sneakily taking the pocket watch with her. The next day, Red meets with her mother, the Queen, who is just about to punish her Army Captain, the Jack of Diamonds, for not finding the criminal who vandalised her plaza – not realising that the criminal was in fact her daughter! The Queen then tells Red to decide how the Captain should be punished. She isn’t able to do it, disappointing the Queen of Hearts, but the disappointment is short-lived, as Maddox arrives with a letter. It’s the letter from Auradon. Red doesn’t believe her mother would ever let her go to Auradon Prep, since the Queen despises Auradon, but surprisingly, the Queen readily accepts the invitation, telling Red to pack. She obviously has a plan…

Back in Auradon, we meet Cinderella and King Charming’s daughter, Chloe, sister of Chad Charming, who is practising for the Auradon Swords and Shields team with her dad. She is very excited to be heading to Auradon Prep, and her parents are very proud of her, so much so that she gets a gift of glass sneakers. Chloe and Cinderella head to the welcoming ceremony at Auradon Prep for the new students, with King Charming going to see Chad at college instead.

The Queen of Hearts drives Red through the rabbit hole over to Auradon for this same welcoming ceremony. Their car is thoroughly inspected by security and they able to proceed inside the castle. The two soon come face-to-face with Cinderella and Chloe. The Queen of Hearts and Cinderella clearly have some bad blood between them, with Cinderella referencing some sort of prank that happened to the Queen when they were at school together. We also learn that the Queen’s name is apparently Bridget. Chloe tries to be nice to Red, but Red has no time for “goody-goodies”.

At the welcoming ceremony, Fairy Godmother introduces Uma as the new principal of the school, but as Uma is giving her speech to the new students, she becomes distracted by the Queen of Hearts shuffling a deck of cards. Uma asks her to stop, but the Queen refuses, throwing the cards into the air. The cards then transform into soldiers from her army. Uma is captured, Fairy Godmother’s wand is broken, and everyone runs in terror – though the Queen of course blocks off all the exits. The people have no choice put to bow to the Queen of Hearts, the new ruler of Auradon. Except Cinderella will not kneel to the Queen. The Queen of Hearts tells her daughter to punish Cinderella for this act of treason, reiterating to Red that her plan is for the two to rule side-by-side, with the Queen’s hand-held looking glass even showing this future. Red, in a moment of weakness, sentences Cinderella to be beheaded. Seeing what she’s done, Red then pulls out Maddox’s time machine/pocket watch and plans to go back in time to fix this, except Chloe tries to attack Red at the same time, to stop her mother being taken away, and touches the pocket watch. The two go back in time together.

Confused as to where – and when – they are, since Red was never given instructions on how to use this pocket watch, Chloe and Red find themselves in an empty part of what they assume is still Auradon Prep. It’s not. It turns out instead of going back two minutes, like Red planned to just take her mother’s cards off her to stop the coup, they have actually gone back two decades, and this isn’t Auradon – it’s Merlin Academy, the school that existed prior to Belle and Beast’s creation of the United States of Auradon. Red and Chloe come up with a new plan to stop the Queen of Hearts’ takeover of Auradon; perhaps they can stop the prank that made the Queen so bitter in the first place.

Merlin, the Headmaster of Merlin Academy, obviously, finds the two girls and assumes they are transfer students, immediately taking them to his Alchemy class. The security here is much more lax than at Auradon Prep; apparently, anyone can just walk in! At Alchemy class, Red and Chloe are assigned mentors – their mothers. Well, the teenage versions of their mothers, known here as Bridget and Ella. Bridget and Ella don’t exactly fit in with the rest of the students, but Bridget tries to be kind to everyone – even the Villain Kids. Yes, more VKs – and some of these happen to be the teenage versions of the VK parents from the first three Descendants films! The leader of this VK group, which includes Captain Hook, Maleficent, and Hades, is actually Uliana, Ursula’s younger sister, so Uma’s aunt. She doesn’t like Bridget or Ella, tormenting them constantly. But as Bridget hands out cupcakes to everyone, complete with flamingo feathers, Uliana decides she wants some of the feathers and starts to eat them. Bridget warns her she shouldn’t have too many, but Uliana doesn’t listen and promptly turns into a flamingo. Despite falling into water and the spell wearing off, Uliana wants revenge on Bridget and starts to plan with her evil sidekicks.

Red and Chloe know that this act of revenge is due to take place at the Castlecoming dance – see what they did there? – and follow the VKs to find out exactly what it will be. They go to Ella’s house to get some advice, and find that she is being used as a servant by her stepmother. Ella informs them that Uliana is trying to live up to her sister’s meanness and that she picks on Bridget because she’s weak and won’t stop trying to be friends with them. Ella then tells Red and Chloe that the VKs normally hang out at the Black Lagoon. Red and Chloe go there, where they overhear their plan: to make a cupcake from the Sorcerer’s Cookbook that will turn Bridget into a monster in front of the whole school. No, there aren’t any buckets of pig blood here like in that infamous prom scene from Carrie (1976), so if that’s what you were hoping for, well, then you’ve got some major issues!

Since Bridget is a keen baker, Red and Chloe ask if she happens to own the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, but she does not, saying it is likely banned for student use, with Merlin probably having the only copy hidden in his office. Red knows to stop the prank they have to get that book before the VKs do; Chloe thinks they should just tell Merlin. Red goes alone to steal the book, with Chloe going to Ella for more help. Ella tells her that sometimes you have to cross that line between “good” and “bad” to do what’s right. Chloe goes to Merlin’s office to help Red. The VKs see the two go into the office and watch them. Red and Chloe fight off the magical defence systems in Merlin’s office, with some struggles, but the VKs enter at the last moment and grab the book. They are then frozen because the book can’t fall into the wrong hands, i.e., a villain cannot open it. Chloe tells Red to open it, to prove that she isn’t evil, and sure enough, the book opens for her. They hear Merlin coming to the office and escape through a window. Merlin sees the frozen VKs and gives them detention.

Red and Chloe hide the book, stopping the prank on Bridget. They then go back to the present, though Red is scared they haven’t done enough to change events. As they approach the ceremony in Auradon again, Red hears the Queen of Hearts refuse to stop playing with her cards during Uma’s speech, just like the first time. Red braces herself for the coup all over again, but it turns out the Queen is actually just excited for her daughter to be in Auradon and throws heart-shaped bubbles into the air. She is also wearing a white and red dress, not just red, as more evidence that she has changed.

And that’s the end of the story. Or is it? In typical Descendants fashion, we are then told by Uma that this isn’t the end of the story, and that we’ll have to wait and see whether Red and Chloe’s time-travelling escapades have actually done more harm than good…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Naturally, Descendants: The Rise of Red focuses on the new Villain Kid, Red. Although she is the daughter of the oppressive Queen of Hearts, Red is not evil. She doesn’t want to rule Wonderland, or want to be remotely like her mother. The only thing Red really wants is to get out of Wonderland and live her own life, where she doesn’t have to feel like a big disappointment. Red is a bit of a rebel though, even if not villainous, and doesn’t spend her time being sweet and kind to everyone. She breaks the rules, pushes the boundaries, and yet, she is still caring. She wants to change her mother’s past so that she doesn’t need to feel angry and hateful towards everyone. She is devoted to her mother both in the past and the present, despite herself, protecting Bridget from bullies in the past, and relenting to her mother’s wish for Red to be a strict ruler at times. Red is a complicated girl, figuring out everything as she goes along, but her heart is in the right place most of the time.

Kylie Cantrall was cast in the role of Red. Cantrall began her career online, singing and performing on YouTube, later releasing her own music. She gained a presence in acting from Disney Channel roles, like Raven’s Home (2017-23), in the role of Jasmine in 2018, and the lead of Gabby in Gabby Duran & the Unsittables (2019-21). In 2023, Cantrall was cast as Dani in Season 4 of the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-23). She also provided the voice of Savannah in the movie Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021). Cantrall had a link to Descendants prior to her role as Red, appearing alongside Cheyenne Jackson in the TV special Descendants Remix Dance Party (2020).

Chloe is the daughter of Cinderella and King Charming, so she has been brought up to be kind, selfless, hard-working, and loyal – which is quite amusing since her brother, Chad, turned out to be a bit of a jerk! Chloe is intelligent and athletic, so would easily thrive in a school like Auradon Prep. She behaves like a princess should, however, she soon finds that this annoys Red, who isn’t your typical princess, villain or hero, and learns through their time-travelling journey together that it isn’t always so easy to determine what a “good” person or a “bad” person is, realising that she needs to decide what are the right and wrong actions for her, not just fitting everything and everyone into a simple category.

The part of Chloe went to Malia Baker. She began her acting career with a few small roles in series like The Flash (2014-23) and The Twilight Zone (2019-20), before starring as Mary Anne Spier in the Netflix series The Baby-Sitters Club (2020-21). After this, she appeared in the second revival series of Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019-22), in the role of Gabby Lewis for its second season.

For their parents, we have the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella. In the present day, the Queen of Hearts is hard-to-please, easy-to-anger, and generally unlikeable. She rules Wonderland with an iron fist, everything being exactly to her satisfaction. On the other side of that, we have Cinderella. She is kind, caring, and the epitome of goodness. Despite her difficult upbringing, she has come out of it unscathed and unresentful, whereas the Queen of Hearts seems to blame everyone else for how she is feeling, turning her back on anyone who was cruel to her. They are the polar opposites of each other at this stage, with Cinderella trying to get the Queen to forget whatever prank was played on her at school, when they used to be friends, and let go of some of that hatred. It doesn’t work.

The Queen of Hearts was played by Rita Ora here. Rita Ora is best known for her singing career, where she has had such hits as “How We Do (Party)”, “R.I.P.”, “Anywhere”, and “Lonely Together”. She has also featured as a judge and host on talent shows such as The Masked Singer and The Voice. On screen, Ora was cast as Mia Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and its two sequels, and later appeared as Dr. Laurent in Detective Pikachu (2019). She also voiced the character of Sir Luthera/Wandering Blade in the animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022-23).

Making a surprise appearance as Cinderella in Descendants: The Rise of Red was actually Brandy Norwood, who was cast in this same role for the 1997 live-action television movie Cinderella, which was produced by Disney but was based on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, not their animated movie. Although an unexpected casting choice, it was welcomed by many fans of the 1997 movie. Paolo Montalban, Brandy’s co-star, also returned to his role of Prince Charming, though now a king, for this Descendants movie. Brandy was originally known for her singing career though, releasing her debut album in 1993. She won an American Music Award in 1996 for Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist, a Grammy for her song “The Boy Is Mine” in 1999 for Best R&B Performance, a Teen Choice Award in 1999 for Choice Female Artist, and a Kids’ Choice Award in 1996 for Favorite Singer, amongst many accolades. Brandy was also a judge on the first season of America’s Got Talent (2006-present), was a contestant on Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars (2005-present), and has acted on various series including Zoe Ever After (2016) in the lead role, and Queens (2021-22) as Naomi Harris-Jones. Rita Ora was a big fan of Brandy when she was younger, so was so excited to be acting alongside her[1].

We also get to see the teenage versions of the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella, and their characters might surprise you. In actual fact, the Queen of Hearts, or Bridget as she is known at this point in time, is very kind, wanting to be friends with everyone, even the villains. It’s quite a shock for Red when she finds out that her mother changed so much just because of something that happened to her at school. Cinderella, or Ella as she is known, is not as nice and sweet as you might expect either. She is best friends with Bridget, and has a crush on Prince Charming, but despite Cinderella in many adaptations of the story not being angry with the fact she is treated as a servant and not seen to match up to people’s ideas of royalty, in this movie, Ella does seem to feel she has been treated unfairly and holds a grudge against the princesses, as we see in some of the scenes of Ella talking to Chloe. Ella tells Chloe “her princess is showing”, which isn’t the kindest thing to say to someone who has lived quite a sheltered life; there are better ways of voicing this! It’s also odd to hear Ella say her best friend is “weak”, when she talks to Red and Chloe about why the VKs pick on Bridget. It’s a very strange take on the character, but I guess it is more layered than many other versions. It is just at odds with Brandy’s portrayal of Cinderella, I think.

Bridget was played by Ruby Rose Turner, with Ella being portrayed by Morgan Dudley. Ruby Rose Turner had previously been cast as Cami in the series Coop & Cami Ask the World (2018-20) for Disney Channel before Descendants: The Rise of Red. Morgan Dudley recently appeared in the Netflix movie A Tourist’s Guide to Love (2023) as Robin.

Now, for the VKs. The leader of this new group is Uliana. As Ella says to Chloe and Red, she is trying to “out-mean” her older sister, Ursula, by bullying many of the royals. She has a group of sidekicks around her, including the mistress of all evil, Maleficent, and God of the Underworld, Hades, which is a little bit weird, seeing as I highly doubt those two would be anyone’s sidekick, but never mind. To be honest, I find the whole concept of these particular villains being at school odd, and it’s very hard not to get confused by all the multiple storylines from the animated films, as well as those in Descendants. Even though Descendants clearly has its own story, and is not related to the animated films, I can’t forget the canon of the animated films when it comes to the villain parents in Descendants.

Anyway, Dara Reneé was cast as Uliana, having been cast as Kourtney Greene in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. She had also appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie Freaky Friday (2018), and, alongside Kylie Cantrall and Cheyenne Jackson, was a part of the TV special Descendants Remix Dance Party (2020). Reneé is very much the star here, with the rest of VKs not making a big impression on me.

There are only two returning characters and cast members for Descendants: The Rise of Red, and they are China Anne McClain, returning in the role of Uma, and Melanie Paxson, returning as Fairy Godmother. Although the movie does not revolve around them, and they are minor, supporting roles this time around, it felt comforting to have these two back. It made me settle into the story a bit easier, knowing those two were there, even if Mal, Jay, Evie, and Ben were not.

MUSIC

The music of Descendants: The Rise of Red, on the whole, is decent. I do like the first song of “Red”, performed by Kylie Cantrall. This is our first introduction to the character of Red, and it’s a strong, powerful song, where we see that she is not her mother’s daughter and wants nothing more than to escape her. She also gets a kick out of destroying her mother’s castle grounds and dodging her guards apparently! On 21^st June 2024, “Red” was released as the second single from the movie, and it was performed by Cantrall as part of “NerdNite” at Vidcon in Anaheim on 28^th June[2]. Alex Boniello also performs on this song as the Jack of Diamonds, Head of the Queen of Hearts’ army. Boniello had previously performed the roles of Moritz and Connor Murphy in the Broadway productions of Spring Awakening, from 2015 to 2016, and Dear Evan Hansen, from 2018 to 2020, respectively.

Red then gets a duet with her mother, performed by Rita Ora, called “Love Ain’t It”, when they arrive at Auradon, as the Queen of Hearts tries to convince her daughter to rule Wonderland just like she does. This is also when we see the hostility between the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella. Honestly, I didn’t like this song much at all, and probably even found it worse than the duet Mal has with Hades in Descendants 3. It doesn’t match my style or taste in music and is nothing to do with the singers. I’m a big fan of Rita Ora’s music normally. Malia Baker, as Chloe, also gets to have a duet with Cantrall as Red, and that is “Fight of Our Lives”, when the two figure out how to work alongside each other, despite their differences, so they can fix everything and get back to Auradon. I don’t mind the chorus too much on this one, but I don’t love the rap portions particularly.

Chloe later has a duet with her mother, performed by Morgan Dudley, but when she’s younger. This is the song “Get Your Hands Dirty”. They are actually cleaning up Lady Tremaine’s courtyard together, though this is all about Ella telling Chloe that life isn’t always “black and white”, when Chloe isn’t sure what to do about stopping the villains; she knows breaking into Merlin’s office is wrong, but should she do it anyway “for the greater good”, to stop the VKs? This is quite a pleasant song, and I like the melody.

Now for the big group numbers. There are two of these. The first one is “Life Is Sweeter”, where Red and Chloe are introduced to all the students at Merlin Academy, as Bridget hands out cupcakes to everyone. This is my second favourite song in the soundtrack, after “Red”. It’s a hopeful, positive song with all the heroes, showing everyone in harmony – until the VKs come along. But that makes it all the more fun! It also gets a reprise at the end of the movie, performed by Ora and Cantrall. The other group number is just for the villains, and it’s called “Perfect Revenge”, whilst they are discussing the best revenge plan for Bridget. Again, it’s a bit too “rappy” for me, but Dara Renée is very good here as Uliana. I also liked the “poor unfortunate soul” line. Clever.

We also have three shorter songs that appear in the movie. One of these is “Shuffle of Love”, performed by Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget. The full version of the song appears on the soundtrack, but it only appears briefly in Descendants: The Rise of Red, when Red and Chloe are talking to Bridget in her room, and she mentions a new dance she’s created. It would’ve been a good song to use if they’d had the Castlecoming dance scene… It is played during the End Credits too. Then there is a brief version of Cinderella and Charming, performed by Brandy and Pablo Montalban, singing “So This Is Love” from Cinderella (1950). But the best one is “What’s My Name (Red Version)”. Uma performs this during the Welcoming Ceremony at Auradon Prep, just her and her pirates, which I very much enjoyed. The full version was actually the first single from the soundtrack to be released, on 26^th April 2024, and features Kylie Cantrall as Red too.

Another song that appears on the soundtrack is a remix of “Life Is Sweeter”. Finally, a cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” is also listed on the soundtrack, performed by Cantrall, along with “Descendants: The Rise of Red Score Suite instrumental”, composed by Torin Borrowdale. The song “Bad Reputation” might sound familiar to anyone who likes 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Shrek (2001), or Red, White & Royal Blue (2023).

Much like its predecessors, the soundtrack for Descendants: The Rise of Red topped the US Billboard Kid Albums and US Soundtrack Albums charts, however, it has so far only peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard 200 chart, whereas the previous three Descendants soundtracks had reached No. 1, No. 6, and No. 7 respectively on that same chart.

PRODUCTION

Although a potential new Descendants movie exploring the realm of Wonderland was teased at the end of the animated short film Descendants: The Royal Wedding in 2021, it wasn’t for another year that this movie would be announced.

At the D23 Expo in September 2022, a new Descendants film was officially confirmed as being in production, under the working title Descendants: The Pocketwatch, clearly referencing the pocket watch that Red uses to go back in time. This title was perhaps a bit too “on the nose” so in March 2023, the official movie name was announced as Descendants: The Rise of Red. It would also seem that Disney were careful not to refer to it as Descendants 4, not wanting to annoy original Descendants fans any more than they already had! It also makes it clearer that this was going to be a spin-off, not a sequel. It was also said that Descendants: The Rise of Red would premiere on Disney+.

In March 2023, it was also confirmed that the original VKs would not be returning but that Uma and Fairy Godmother would be. Other casting news at this time was that Brandy and Paolo Montalban would be reprising their roles of Cinderella and Prince Charming from Disney’s live-action 1997 film Cinderella. Rita Ora was named as the Queen of Hearts, Kylie Cantrall was named as Red, her daughter, and Malia Baker was cast as Chloe, Cinderella’s daughter, alongside a list of teen actors who would be portraying students at Merlin’s Academy, like Villain Kids and Princes and Princesses. One of these was going to be a younger version of Rapunzel, named Zellie, whose scenes ended up being cut for time.

It was also believed at this time that the basic plot would be that Chloe and Red would be using the magical pocket watch to go back in time after chaos breaks out during the celebration of a new royal baby. This got fans very excited over the possibility of this being the announcement of Mal and Ben’s baby, even though they weren’t scheduled to return, as well as speculation over who else in Auradon might be having a baby[3]. This storyline was still being written in articles talking about Descendants: The Rise of Red as close to the premiere date as May 2024. This idea was clearly scrapped, for unknown reasons. All I can say is that I’m glad Disney couldn’t write a storyline of Mal and Ben having a baby, despite some fans clearly wanting this. Ben and Mal must still be in their early-20s at this stage. Come on, give them a chance to live their own lives first!

This new movie meant new characters to the Descendants franchise, and as per usual, their costuming did not disappoint. Much like the earlier Descendants films, there is still the same emphasis on characters having signature colours. In this case, Red and the Queen of Hearts, obviously, wear red, with Chloe and Cinderella wearing the expected blue. Bridget, a kinder version of the Queen of Hearts, wears pink, and Ella actually has more turquoise than blue in her costume, probably to distinguish between her and Chloe. Because Ella has turquoise in her clothes, it means that Uliana has a mixture of colours, like purple, to reference Ursula, and turquoise, to reference Uma, so the family colour chart is still the same. Unlike the Descendants trilogy though, we don’t see nearly as many princes and princesses wearing pretty dresses and tailored suits. The “VK look” of leather trousers, boots, and jackets certainly seems to have caught on, even in the past! Chloe isn’t even wearing a dress in present day Auradon, whereas Audrey, Mulan, Chad, and Ben are all costumed in typical royal and aristocratic fashion in their pastels and soft fabrics in the earlier movies. Tony Award-nominated costume designer Emilio Sosa took over the costume designs from Kara Saun for Descendants: The Rise of Red. Like Saun, Sosa was also on Project Runway, becoming the runner-up in Season 7. He went on to design costumes for various musicals and plays, such as Porgy and Bess, for which he received his Tony Award nomination in 2012, Sweeney Todd, and Annie Live! (2021).

There were also all new sets, like Wonderland. Wonderland is set in picture-perfect landscaping, with perfectly manicured gardens, a huge red castle, and many references to their “wonderful” queen. It is a much better version of Wonderland than what we see in the ABC spin-off series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013-14); also Disney, also live-action, but with the benefit of ten more years of CGI development. Anyone who has seen this series will know exactly what I’m talking about! Later, we get a brief look at the Villains’ hangout of the Black Lagoon, where they actually go inside an old, dead anglerfish… Eww. It might not even be dead, which makes it even more gross!

Again, similarly to the Descendants trilogy, the cast were put through tough training schedules, for dancing and sword-fighting. The dance routines aren’t quite as big as those in the first three Descendants movie. Although there are some ensemble dances, they don’t open and close the movie, and don’t feel like big celebratory moments with all the young cast, but the choreography is just as complicated and contemporary as you’d expect.

RECEPTION

Descendants: The Rise of Red held its red carpet on 10^th July 2024 at the Disney Studios in Burbank, which the cast attended, before premiering on screen on 12^th July; however, this was not on Disney Channel as you might expect. It was first shown on Disney+.

After Disney’s streaming service became such a huge success on its debut in the US and Canada in November 2019, before hitting the global markets in 2020, it was decided that Disney Channel would shut down in certain countries, the UK included, in the early 2020s, with content moving online instead, although Disney Channel does remain in America. Descendants: The Rise of Red will have a Disney Channel premiere on 9^th August.

Luckily, having its release on Disney+ only increases a movie’s chances of having high viewing figures, and Descendants: The Rise of Red was no different. It became the most viewed Disney Channel Original Movie premiere in Disney+ history – though in all fairness, I don’t think there have been too many of those so far – having 6.7 million views in its first three days on the platform. This is comparable to Descendants 3, which was viewed by 8 million total in the three days after its premiere date[4].

However, high viewership does not always correlate with audience reaction. In this case, Descendants: The Rise of Red suffered more negative reviews than those within the original Descendants trilogy. Some of these opinions were established from the point that production of Descendants: The Rise of Red was confirmed, due to the fact that making a new Descendants movie without Cameron Boyce was seen as an insult to his memory by a small proportion of fans. The fact that some of the original cast members confirmed they would not be returning to this “sequel” as well, having moved on to other projects since, made this original opinion even stronger, as these fans felt that the original cast were also against a new Descendants film. Some of these fans even debated “boycotting” Descendants: The Rise of Red for this reason, but whether they did or not, I don’t know.

Others were excited by this movie, and were quick to point out that Descendants: The Rise of Red was not being promoted as a sequel, and is in fact a spin-off. These fans liked the idea of new universes being explored outside of Mal and her friends in Auradon.

This was prior to the movie’s premiere, and yet even after the premiere, the reviews seem to fit into two different camps once again. The more positive camp say that the movie does feel like an extension of the Descendants franchise, with some great music, costuming, and set pieces, and just said that it was not better than the original trilogy because it was different, so perhaps shouldn’t be compared to the original movies anyway. It was deemed “good enough” but not exactly special.

The more negative side said that there was some confusion over the characters, especially as the original actors from the 1997 Cinderella film were brought back for Descendants: The Rise of Red, even though their backstory wasn’t going to be the same as the 1997 film. I will admit this did take a bit of time for me to get my head around. I had to basically forget everything that I had seen in Cinderella (1997) and adjust to the fact that Cinderella and Prince Charming actually met at school here. I have only recently watched Cinderella, so it wasn’t too difficult for me to do, but had you been a huge fan of that movie, watching it multiple times throughout your life, I can understand this new backstory being too much to get on board with. Others also felt that the story was rushed, and full of plot holes, which is a typical comment with many time-travel-based movies; everyone gets confused.

So, what did I think of Descendants: The Rise of Red? I thought it was alright, but I won’t be rushing back to watch it. Some of the music did feel similar to the Descendants trilogy; I liked Uma returning, if only for a few brief scenes; and I found many of the new characters quite likeable and well-acted, such as Red, Chloe, and Bridget. But parts of the story did confuse me. The biggest issue I had was that it felt to me like the story had been leading us in a new direction, a big twist, which never came to pass. Instead, we got the ending we’d all been expecting, which isn’t new or exciting. This relates to the “prank” that is played on Bridget. Although Red and Chloe believe the VKs would be carrying out this prank on Bridget, I thought that this was going to be red herring, and that Ella was going to have played the prank on her. I felt this because Ella wasn’t overly nice about Bridget, saying she was “weak”, and not accepting Bridget for the nice, sweet person she was. I wondered if maybe Red and Chloe would have stopped the VKs in their tracks, but then at the dance would come to find that Ella, Chloe’s mother, had actually done something to hurt or embarrass Bridget there, perhaps to try and impress her Prince Charming. This might have explained why Cinderella seemed to feel guilty over Bridget’s past in the present time, and why she became so kind and good, as a way of righting her past wrongs. This would have also fixed the “plot hole” of the VKs being frozen by touching the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, which would have surely happened in the original timeline, since Chloe and Red didn’t put magic on it, so they couldn’t have even carried out their plan. Anyway, we got what we got, and it was a predictable ending, which felt like a big let-down and a missed opportunity.

LEGACY

Much like the first three Descendants movies, clothing, novels, and toys were available to purchase around the time of Descendants: The Rise of Red’s release date. Some of these toys included dolls, produced by Mattel, of the new characters, like Uliana, Red, Chloe, and Bridget. Some of these dolls were also produced with a version of the Sorcerer’s Cookbook[5].

It would also seem like Descendants: The Rise of Red was made with a sequel already in mind. Uma’s voiceover at the end of the movie suggests that Chloe and Red have messed up the timeline by going back in time, and that the consequences of this have yet to be discovered. This turned out to be exactly the set-up for another movie that it intended to be, with “Descendants 5” first announced in February 2025. An official title for the movie was announced on 6^th May 2025: Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, signalling that this movie will take place in Wonderland.

Furthermore, at the D23 Expo in August 2024, it was announced that some of the cast of Descendants: The Rise of Red would be reuniting for a concert tour in Summer 2025. But this isn’t just a concert for Descendants fans, because this concert tour also involves cast members from the ZOMBIES franchise, making this the Descendants/ZOMBIES: Worlds Collide Tour. From Descendants: The Rise of Red, fans can look forward to seeing Kylie Cantrall, Dara Reneé, Malia Baker, and Joshua Colley on stage, alongside stars of ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires Freya Skye, Malachi Burton, and Mekonnen Knife. The tour kicked off in San Diego on 17^th July 2025, and will end in Fort Worth, Texas on 16^th September 2025.

Within the Disney Parks, costumes and props from Descendants: The Rise of Red have been spotted at the attraction Walt Disney Presents at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. Costumes of Red, Chloe, Bridget, and the Queen of Hearts, along with a replica of the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, are currently on show in one of the exhibits, as promotion for the new film. These exhibits swap out constantly, so it will likely only be around until hype for the film has died down.

This Halloween season, a new version of the DescenDANCE party that first debuted in 2019 after the release of Descendants 3 played at the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween parties in 2024 at Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, this time using music from Descendants: The Rise of Red[6].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Descendants: The Rise of Red received mixed reviews on its release. This may have surprised those at Disney, but it really shouldn’t have done. It was always going to be difficult to follow something as popular as the first three Descendants films, especially when Descendants 3 and Descendants: The Royal Wedding tied up everything pretty well. Without Cameron Boyce, it didn’t seem right to some fans to continue the franchise, so selling Descendants: The Rise of Red on this loyal group had to be tough.

I didn’t think Descendants: The Rise of Red was a bad movie, and if it hadn’t been linked to the Descendants franchise, I might have liked it more. It reminded me a little bit of The School for Good and Evil (2022), which I very much did like, probably more so because it wasn’t linked to Disney animated films. Having characters go back in time to see these great villains of Disney Animation just seemed strange; seeing them in the future is much easier to accept than seeing them in the past, when we already think we know what they’ve done from some of the best Disney animated movies ever made. It didn’t work so well.

The time-travel angle does give Disney some scope to rectify some of the viewer complaints and comments, such as around character development and predictable storylines, but it remains to be seen whether Disney can live up to this potential.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Entertainment Tonight, ‘Descendants: Rise of Red: Go Behind the Scenes of Brandy’s Cinderella Return! (Exclusive)’, Entertainment Tonight YouTube Channel, 7^th July 2024.

[2] Credit: Disney, ‘Kylie Cantrall Paints Wonderland “Red” In New Music Video From “Descendants: The Rise of Red”’, DisneyPlus.com, 21^st June 2024.

[3] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Descendants 4: The Rise of Red – what we know about the new Disney film’, BBC.co.uk, 27^th March 2023.

[4] Credit: Phil Wood, ‘‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ Breaks Three-Day Disney+ Viewership Record’, WDWNT.com, 17^th July 2024.

[5] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Celebrate the Release of Descendants: The Rise of Red with New Products and Soundtrack!’, D23.com, 12^th July 2024.

[6] Credit: Cade Handley, ‘New ‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ Exhibit at Disney’s Hollywood Studios’, WDWNT.com, 12^th July 2024.