Tag / Prom

by The Disney Purist

Bad Hair Day (2015)

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

BACKGROUND

Not to brag or anything but I’ve never had a bad hair day. That’s not necessarily something I’m proud of because it’s more my hair isn’t capable of doing much at all. It’s just straight, nothing very exciting.

However, having a bad hair day can cause others some real anxiety and panic, especially if you’re a teenager and have to go out or go to school that day. This is the focus of the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Bad Hair Day, and, because it’s a DCOM, this girl’s very bad hair day just happens to be on the same day as prom. Oh, say it ain’t so!

But this movie isn’t just about a trip to the hair salon. That would be too simple and much too easy. Bad Hair Day also manages to include a whole other storyline about a jewel thief and a stolen necklace in amongst the usual prom-themed activities.

It’s a pretty random story and not one I was mad about, though many do like Bad Hair Day, this being seen as a return to DCOMs after a few years without many at all. 2013 only had one, Teen Beach Movie, and there were only three new movies in 2014.

Bad Hair Day features well-known names from two different Disney Channel series in the leading roles, a pretty typical move from the company. But instead of this being just a movie for teenage actors, this DCOM is the first to feature an adult lead.

Bad Hair Day would later be overshadowed by none other than Descendants (2015), the first instalment in what would become another smash-hit musical, and later franchise, for Disney Channel. Descendants premiered in October 2015, a few months after Bad Hair Day.

Yet Bad Hair Day remains as a more interesting DCOM, full of action and comedy, not just high school troubles, something that those who watched it in childhood still remember today. That was not me, which is probably why I didn’t like it so much.

PLOT

Bad Hair Day begins with Monica, a teenage girl, looking to get everything organised for her prom. As well as wanting to be prom queen, Monica is also a tech whizz, so she has devised a way of tracking the most likely candidates to be prom queen, and has a blog where she allows people to vote on different aspects of her prom outfit. The dress has been agreed, as have the shoes. Now for the hair. Monica styles her hair in a variety of ways, putting photos online, and waits for the votes to come in. The side ponytail wins, completing her prom look. It’s time for a good night sleep ready for prom day tomorrow.

When Monica wakes up the next morning, to a call from her friend Sierra, she is horrified to find that her hair is an absolute mess, sticking up all over the place, and is so crispy that pieces of it start breaking off! It turns out Monica did not read or follow the instructions on all her hair products carefully so the combination of chemicals has caused this disaster. To make this day even worse, Monica finds that her prom dress has melted after being steamed; her shoes are broken; and she is now no longer on track to become prom queen. A girl called Ashley is in line for the crown. Monica then gets a call from the DMV saying there is no availability for a driving test until April next year. She needs to pass her test soon so Monica pleads for an earlier time. The only time available is 2pm that same day. Monica isn’t happy, but agrees to it.

To get to the DMV for her afternoon test, Monica will have to get a ride there. She calls her boyfriend, Kyle, who claims to be busy today, doing charity work with orphans, but he’ll see her later for prom. Monica then talks to her dad, who is an ER nurse but says he’ll take the day off to help Monica fix her hair and get her driving test done. Monica tells her father not to worry and that she’ll figure something else out. Luckily, one part of Monica’s prom outfit is still ok; a necklace she bought from a pawn shop, something she did not get anyone to vote on. As Monica figures out what to do about her plans for the day, there is a knock at the door. Monica goes to answer it, wondering how her day can get any worse.

At the door is a woman called Liz claiming to be an FBI agent. But Monica is smarter than that; she won’t just let anyone walk into her house. Monica asks to see a warrant. There isn’t one so Monica says the “agent” cannot come into her house. Liz then shows Monica a photo of a necklace, which just so happens to be the one she bought from the pawn shop. Monica lies, claiming to have never seen it before. Liz then says she is actually a private investigator, looking for the necklace on behalf of a client. Monica sees that the woman has a car, which gives her an idea. She allows her to come inside to talk further. As Monica gets dressed, Liz walks around the house, taking in all the details. When Monica returns downstairs, Liz has already deduced lots of information about Monica: like how she lives here with only her father, because her mother left them. She also knows Monica does have the necklace. Monica admits to this, and says she’ll hand the necklace over, only if Liz drives her to all of her appointments today. Liz reluctantly agrees.

In the car, which is full of surveillance equipment, Monica tries to figure out just what Liz actually does, but she gets few answers, only learning that there is a signal jammer in the car, meaning Monica cannot campaign online for prom queen votes, and that Liz has named her car Brando, after Marlon Brando. The two pull up next to a car full of young boys, blasting loud music out of the window. Liz uses a megaphone to tell them to turn the music down, but the boys ignore her – before realising Monica, who goes to school with them, is also in the car. The boys drive off, throwing litter out of the window. Liz chases after them, putting a siren on the roof of the car to get them to pull over. She says she’ll report them if they don’t go back and pick up their trash. Liz and Monica drive away, leaving the boys confused, and Monica embarrassed.

In town, Liz sees Monica acting weird with other students, seeing that Monica is desperate for prom queen votes. She also overhears Monica talking to Sierra about college. It turns out her friends are all going to the same college, but Monica got in to MIT, though she doesn’t know whether she’ll go there because she doesn’t want to be away from her friends and her father. Liz doesn’t understand Monica’s obsession with how she looks to people – but her focus is on the necklace, not Monica’s prom.

At the salon, Monica is a few minutes late and is told her appointment was given to someone else. She is given a beeper by the rude receptionist and told to return when the beeper goes off. Monica and Liz head to the store where she bought her prom dress instead. They discuss the point of super expensive sunglasses before talking to a shop assistant. Monica asks to return her dress; however, it is quite clear Monica has ruined the dress herself, by steaming it, something Liz makes only too clear to the assistant. The assistant refuses to refund Monica. Monica angrily tells Liz to stop interfering. The beeper then goes off for the salon, so the two rush out of the store. Since Liz has been dragged out of the store, she still has those expensive sunglasses on her head. She is about to be taken away by a security guard until Monica says it was just a mistake, not a deliberate action. Liz is given a warning. Liz then tells Monica that she is not an FBI agent or a private investigator – no duh. She is an ex-police officer looking for the necklace because it is actually very valuable. At the same time as all this, a man has been looking all over town for this same necklace, trying the pawn shop and then breaking into Monica’s house to search for it.

Back at the salon, Monica is once again late for the appointment and is turned away. Monica plans to wallow in self-pity in the food court. She gets a call from her father, saying one of his colleagues has dresses she could look at, and that there is a sale going on at a shoe store. Monica isn’t happy with either of those options, and then to top it all off, she sees that she is continuing to lose ground in the prom queen votes to Ashley. But once again, things have to get even worse when Liz points out that Monica’s boyfriend is sat just behind them, flirting with another girl – and that girl happens to be Ashley. Monica confronts him and learns the truth. She retreats to the restroom to talk with Sierra about it. Liz instead wants to really humiliate this kid, as payback for embarrassing Monica. Liz pretends to be mall security, accusing him of behaving lewdly in a public place. She opens up his bag, telling everyone about the embarrassing stuff he has in there, like back hair removal cream, before the real mall security stop her. She is taken to the local police station, with Monica following.

At the station, Monica learns that this was Liz’s police station. Liz’s former police partner, Ed, manages to get the charges dropped but tells Liz the Chief wants to speak with her. After Monica and Liz are allowed to leave, Liz says she was actually fired. It was her job to protect a museum exhibit of a 21-carat diamond necklace worth $7 million, the very same necklace Monica has in her possession. It was stolen by a well-known jewel thief called Pierce. Liz’s work began to suffer as she obsessed over getting the necklace back and arresting Pierce so she was fired. But that didn’t stop Liz working on the case. She discovered that Pierce had mistakenly given the necklace to a random passer-by instead of his buyer. The necklace was traced from place to place before making its way to the pawn shop and then to Monica, where Liz tracked it down. Monica then tells Liz that she tries so hard to be perfect all the time because she believes she was a disappointment to her mother and that must be why she left her and her father….

But there’s no time for more heart-to-hearts, because Monica is about to be late to her driver’s test, which she’ll have to take in Liz’s car, much to Liz’s dismay. The test soon takes a disastrous turn as Liz finds that Pierce is following them. She uses the nitro boost that she’s had fitted on her car, still with Monica in the driving seat and the examiner next to her, to get away from Pierce. They eventually get away, but Monica has failed her test. The car is also impounded. Monica is furious with Liz for ruining her day and walks away.

Shortly after the two separate, Monica gets a call from Pierce, who sends a photo to prove he has abducted her father. Pierce orders her to come to an abandoned warehouse with the necklace or something bad will happen to him. Monica jumps in a taxi and picks up Liz for help, who is struggling to order her own cab, not having a smart phone because she “doesn’t trust them”. First things first, they’ll need to get Liz’s car back because the necklace is in Monica’s bag which she left in there.

At the lot, Monica and Liz are simply told to fill out forms and wait their turn, but there’s no time for that. Monica wants to hack into their IT system, but she can’t get to a computer without the man on the desk seeing. Liz says she’ll distract him, by attempting to flirt. Despite Liz’s flirting being awful, the man responds to it, giving Monica enough time to guess his password – the name of his dog, which is proudly displayed in a photo on the wall – and hack into the system to get the car immediately released. The man apologises for the delay and asks Liz to give him a call sometime. Yeah, I’m sure that’s top of her list…

Back in the car, Monica sees that the necklace is not where she left it – and that is because she has mixed up her make-up box with Sierra’s when they were still in town. She locates Sierra to the park, using a locator app, but the park is huge. Liz and Monica rent a bicycle to find her. Monica then runs into her ex-boyfriend, Kyle, who asks to still be her date for prom, seemingly not having a nice time with Ashley, who is right next to him, having their prom photos taken! Monica refuses and Liz manages to intimidate Ashley and Kyle so much that they stumble backwards into the pond. Monica rushes over to Sierra to swap make-up boxes back. Great, she has the necklace. They go to the warehouse to meet Pierce.

Here, Monica learns that the Chief is actually Liz’s mother, giving her additional pressure with her job. She tells Monica that it is always better to be yourself than to be perfect, and that those who are worth being around are the ones who are always there. The two enter the warehouse and come face-to-face with Pierce. Liz tells Monica to hand over the necklace, with Pierce saying once he is safely away, he’ll let Monica know the location of her father. Except Monica already knows where her father is, thanks to locator apps. She walks up to a store room and frees him. Pierce is about to make a quick exit when Monica tells him that this time, Liz called for back-up so there’s no way he can escape now. Pierce tries to escape through the roof but Liz uses a taser on him. Liz exits the warehouse with an apprehended Pierce and the necklace. The Chief returns her badge to her, saying she can have her job back. Monica then has a conversation with her father, who tells her she should go to MIT if that’s what she wants to do; he’ll be fine while she’s away.

To top off this bad-day-turned-good, Monica realises that she doesn’t even care about her hair or about prom anymore, ignoring the latest beeper from the hair salon. Liz tells her that she should go to prom and she can even help with the dress. Liz takes Monica to the evidence room at the station, telling her to take her pick. Liz even allows Monica to wear the necklace – providing she has a police escort. Really, Liz just wants to go to prom too! The two get all dressed up and go to prom, with Liz having cut Monica’s hair to fix the bad hair situation. At prom, Monica discovers she was voted prom queen, after Ashley and Kyle’s secret affair came to light. In her speech, Monica talks about her day with Liz and how she’s learnt to be herself. She also announces to her class that she’ll be going to MIT. As music starts up, Liz tries her bad flirting skills on her ex-police partner Ed, who doesn’t seem to mind, and they all dance at prom together.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Monica Reeves is the teen lead of Bad Hair Day. Although she starts the day obsessed with prom and her appearance, she soon realises that the reason she is desperate to please people is because her mother left her and her father. She just wants to be perfect all the time to avoid disappointing anyone. After meeting Liz, she learns that being perfect is exhausting and that it’s much better to just be yourself and do what makes you happy, not anyone else. Instead of Monica being the typical ditzy prom queen that might’ve been normal in earlier teen movies, Monica is incredibly intelligent as well, especially when it comes to technology, with her place at MIT evidence of that. It’s good to see a teen lead in a DCOM being not just pretty and friendly, but also smart and driven.

Laura Marano was cast in the role of Monica. At the time of Bad Hair Day, Marano was already a leading figure on Disney Channel, having played the part of Ally in Austin & Ally (2011-16) since 2011. I never actually watched Austin & Ally but I know it was a popular series; it was the number one series for tweens in 2013 and 2014[1]. Since Marano’s departure from Disney, she has been frequently seen in Netflix productions, such as The Perfect Date (2019), playing Celia, opposite Noah Centineo; The Royal Treatment (2022), as Izzy; and as Cami in the “choose your own adventure” film Choose Love (2023).

Instead of being a teenager, the other half of this DCOM duo is Liz Morgan, an adult former police officer, trying to make things right again after she failed in a key security role. Liz tries to use her surveillance and interrogation skills on Monica to make it an easy task to simply get the diamond necklace back, but Monica isn’t having any of it. She wants to make the day work to her advantage as well, so she uses Liz to give her a ride to all her prom-related appointments. Liz only wants to do this as a means to an end, but eventually, her and Monica start to bond during their strange day together. Liz becomes a sort of maternal figure to Monica, telling her to not worry about what other people think too much.

Liz was played by Leigh-Allyn Baker, known on the channel at the time for playing Amy Duncan in the series Good Luck Charlie (2010-14) and its DCOM Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas! (2011). Prior to her Disney Channel roles, Baker appeared in the recurring roles of Hannah Webster in Charmed (1998-2006) and Ellen in Will & Grace (1998-2020). Baker later voiced characters in Disney animated series like The 7D (2014-16) and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (2017-21). Baker was also an executive producer on this film.

Then there is the jewel thief, Pierce, who apparently, as this is a villainous role, had to adopt a British accent and walk around in a suit like he was an evil James Bond… It was a strange choice for the character; I don’t know why any of that was necessary. Although Pierce seems to be skilled at the whole Mission Impossible thing, of using harnesses and wires to get in and out of buildings, he isn’t so good at the exchanging of his stolen goods as he mistakenly gives a $7 million necklace to a random person. This sets Pierce on the same task as Liz: to track this necklace down. Pierce is even so “bad”, he breaks into a teenage girl’s house, chases her during her driving test, and ties up her father in a store room just to get it back! In another circumstance, like a real thriller or action film, Pierce might have been a scary guy, but for Disney, it just felt odd.  

Christian Campbell was cast as Pierce. Also in 2015, Campbell appeared in the recurring role of Richard Brune in Season 2 of True Detective (2014-present). He also appeared as Greg Ivey in the HBO series Big Love (2006-11) prior to his casting in Bad Hair Day. On stage, Campbell starred as Jon in the 2003 US Tour and 2005 London production of the musical tick, tick…BOOM! and workshopped the part of J.D. during the development of Heathers: The Musical in the late 2000s.

Apart from these three characters, which most of the movie revolves around, there are some supporting characters, like Monica’s kind and caring father. He works as an ER nurse, clearly working long hours, but it is clear his daughter is his priority, especially now that it is just the two of them. Monica’s dad strangely enough doesn’t even seem too concerned about what his daughter has got herself mixed up in on her prom day, only caring that she is happy and that she makes a decision about college, making sure she chooses MIT, because it’s a great opportunity for her. Monica’s father was played by Alain Goulem who appeared in Canadian series such as 18 to Life (2010-11) and The Tournament (2005-06). Goulem has also voiced the character of Willis Huntley for the Far Cry game series.

In the police department, we have Liz’s colleagues, who she hasn’t been speaking to much since her departure from the force, obviously. Ed is Liz’s former police partner, who she has a jokey/flirty relationship, which makes it only too obvious to Monica the first time she sees them together that the two like each other. Ed and Liz seemingly get together at the very end of the movie. Ed was played by Christian Paul. Paul was the narrator for the true crime series Broken Trust (2018) and voiced some characters in the Assassin’s Creed game series. There is also Liz’s mother and police chief, Chief Morgan, who seems quite harsh on Liz initially, however, when Liz apprehends Pierce at last, the Chief is proud of her and returns her badge. Susan Almgren played Chief Morgan. Almgren was cast as Dr. Karen Cabot in the 1990s Canadian series Lassie (1997-99). More recently, Almgren made appearances in the movies Moonfall (2022) and Best Sellers (2021).

Finally, we have Monica’s friends and classmates, who we don’t get to see too much of. Sierra is Monica’s best friend, who is around to deal with the fall out from her hair and her boyfriend’s cheating, but she doesn’t spend much time with Monica during the events of the film. Sierra was played by Kiana Madeira, who previously was cast as Rachel in the Disney Channel-affiliated movie Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010) and as Sassy in the DCOM The Swap (2016). More recently, Madeira appeared as Nora in the After film series.

Kyle is Monica’s lying boyfriend, who pretended to be doing charity work when he was actually spending the day with mean girl Ashley. Later in the day, Kyle wishes he hadn’t been caught out because Ashley is too full-on for him, but Monica does the right thing and refuses to go back to him. Kyle was played by Jake Manley. Manley went on to be cast in movies like Infamous (2020), alongside former Disney star Bella Thorne, playing Dean, and as York in the Netflix movie Holidate (2022). He also appeared in the recurring role of Brad in the spin-off series Heroes Reborn (2015-16). Ashley was played by Zoé De Grand Maison, who went on to appear as Evelyn in Riverdale (2017-23).

PRODUCTION

Bad Hair Day began development in the usual way. The story was pitched to Disney and they decided to go ahead with the project. Leigh-Allyn Baker acted as an executive producer for Bad Hair Day so she was able to see the full creative process.

Initially, the reason that Bad Hair Day was so interesting to her specifically was because it featured an adult lead, something that DCOMs had never really done before. Sure, there are roles in those movies to be parents or bad guys, but they are not normally leading roles. Those roles would always go to a teen star, usually from the channel.

In the case of Bad Hair Day, the original story reportedly was meant to star a male adult lead, however, it was eventually decided to make the character female[2]. I feel like this was a good choice, as it meant that the comedic back-and-forth between the female adult and teen characters was more natural, and it allowed them to have deeper chats like a mother and daughter would. It’s also good that they chose to have the female adult character be a police officer, as it is still more normal to see male actors playing police officers on screen. Bad Hair Day ended up as more of a buddy action-comedy than a typical Disney teen comedy-drama, although some aspects of teen life were still included.

Bad Hair Day was filmed in Montréal, Quebec around July and August 2014. The movie was directed by Canadian director Érik Canuel, who also directed the 2011 movie Barrymore, which starred Christopher Plummer. The story was written by Matt Eddy, Billy Eddy, Eric M. Gardner, and Steven H. Wilson. Matt and Billy Eddy have both co-written the teleplays for other DCOMs, including Zapped (2014), Teen Beach 2 (2015), and Invisible Sister (2015). More recently, the duo wrote for the Nickelodeon and Paramount+ productions Monster High (2022) and Monster High 2 (2023).

In behind-the-scenes footage, Marano displayed her “bad hair” wig that she has to wear for the majority of the film. The wig was all tangled and even had pipe cleaners inside of it to make it a real mess. The technology within Liz’s car, Brando, included all real technology, like the video surveillance and 16-channel radio[3].  Laura Marano was very excited to be in her first DCOM, saying that the shoots were long and crazy, but fun. Marano and Baker enjoyed working together as well[4].

MUSIC

Bad Hair Day features quite a lot of pop music, although during the main portion of the story, this is limited to background music in shops and in cars, with the opening sequence and ending scenes having the most recognisable songs.

The song used for the opening sequence of Bad Hair Day is “Rooftop”, performed by Skylar Stecker, or Skylar Simone as she is also known professionally. Skylar also appeared in a couple of episodes of Austin & Ally (2011-16) around this time. This song is from her debut album This Is Me, released in 2015. In this first scene, we see Monica’s room and her chosen prom outfit, before she moves on to what prom hairstyle she should have, using an online vote to decide. It’s a pretty good pop song, matching Monica’s happy, carefree mood.

The next piece of music used is the one playing in Monica’s classmates’ car when they pull up beside her and Liz. Liz proceeds to harass them about their loud music and littering with a megaphone. I believe the song that was used in a “sneak peek” of the movie, using this same clip, was “Nuthin’” by rapper Lecrae, which featured on Lecrae’s seventh album Anomaly, released in 2014[5]. However, it would appear that at some point during post-production, this song was switched out for another rap song. I couldn’t find this song though.

There actually isn’t another obvious “song break” until after Pierce has been arrested. This next song is “Colorful World” performed by Shayna Rose, which can be heard briefly as Liz and Monica go “dress shopping” in the police station’s evidence room, and then again as Monica gets to prom with her police escort. I actually really liked this song when I found it again after watching the film. It’s another upbeat, pop song. Shayna Rose is both a singer and an actress, having appeared as Stephanie Johnson in the soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965-present) in 2006 and 2007, and as Marina the drummer in Seasons 1 and 2 of the Nickelodeon series The Fresh Beat Band (2009-13).

As the final scene of Bad Hair Day takes place at Monica’s school prom, there has to be more dance music. The first of these songs is “All Over the World” by the Swedish pop band the Fooo Conspiracy, as they were known at the time, but they have since changed their band name to FO&O. This song is played during the final scene in the movie where everyone, including Liz and Ed, dance with Monica and her school friends. This scene then moves straight into the End Credits where the song playing is actually performed by Laura Marano, the star of the movie in a typical Disney move. This song is “For the Ride”, written by Dan Book, Shelly Peiken, and Laura Marano. This is the only credited song.  

The composer for Bad Hair Day was Michel Corriveau, who had worked with the director of Bad Hair Day, Érik Canuel, on Canuel’s other movies, like Barrymore (2011) and Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006). Corriveau also won Gémeaux Awards for his music in the French-Canadian series Les Pays d’en Haut (2016-21), also known as True North.

RECEPTION

Bad Hair Day premiered on Disney Channel on 13th February 2015. It was also made available a whole week early on the WATCH Disney Channel app on 6th February.

From only the app views, Bad Hair Day amassed 435,000 viewers. On its Disney Channel premiere, it averaged around 4 million viewers[6]. This was slightly below average for what you might expect from a new DCOM premiere, and it would easily be beaten later in the year when other DCOMs were released. Teen Beach 2 (2015) was released in June that year, reaching around 5.8 million viewers, and then in October 2015, Descendants reached an even bigger audience, of 6.6 million.

Outside of viewing figures, Bad Hair Day surprisingly had fairly positive reviews for the most part. Many felt that Laura Marano and Leigh-Allyn Baker were cast well and that they had good chemistry, bouncing off each other well. Others also felt Monica was a good role model for tweens of the day. It was a fun, entertaining action-comedy film that Disney Channel weren’t always making.

On the negative side, some felt the characters were annoying and that the story was boring. I did agree with this in part. I didn’t particularly like either Liz or Monica. They were slightly better towards the end as they started to get along and I felt sorry for Monica not having her mother around, but I never really warmed to them. I also felt the story was boring, at least in places. The initial premise of Monica needing to run errands was quite boring and not all that funny. The whole diamond heist plot was slightly more interesting but I didn’t feel like it mixed well with the overall prom plot of the film. Some viewers were harsher in their reviews than I was. They felt the whole concept of someone pawning a multi-million-dollar necklace was implausible and that any pawn shop owner would know if they’d been given something valuable. Some felt the ending was bad too, though I’m not sure why as it was not mentioned specifically. The movie had to end with the prom scene and it did, so I don’t know what more needed to be done. There were comments about the particularly bad hair cut that Monica was given at the end though. It didn’t suit her but I wasn’t going to mention it!

LEGACY

Bad Hair Day was one of four DCOMs released in 2015 and it was not the biggest in terms of popularity or viewership, which means it did not get a sequel. Not that I know where they could go with Bad Hair Day, apart from have Liz and Monica solve more crimes together, but Monica is meant to be heading off to MIT so I doubt she would’ve had time for that! Musical DCOMs are much more likely to get sequels, and that was the fate of Descendants (2015).

Laura Marano wanted to be involved in another DCOM after Bad Hair Day, but after one more series of Austin & Ally, and a couple of guest star roles on other Disney Channel series, Marano moved away from the channel and did not star in a further DCOM. Leigh-Allyn Baker also did not return to film another DCOM, however, she did voice characters animated Disney series after Bad Hair Day was released.

Bad Hair Day did recently celebrate its 10th anniversary, something that Disney Channel’s official social media accounts referenced, allowing those who watched it when they were younger to revel in the nostalgia.

Although Disney Channel’s Bad Hair Day didn’t span much of a legacy, bad hair days will continue to be a thing as long as people have hair, and there are many sites, and no doubt many TikTok videos – though I wouldn’t know, I’m not on TikTok – that tell the public how to fix their own bad hair days! Bad hair days were also featured in other Disney Channel series, including the Season 2 episode of Recess (1997-2001) where Mikey gets gum in his hair and Vinny cuts most of it off, creating a new playground trend, or the Bizaardvark (2016-19) song “Bad Hair Day”. I’d probably advise you turn to social media in this case for once; all TV seems to tell you is that you have to cut most of your hair off…

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, what did I take away from watching Bad Hair Day? Well, I learnt that some people take prom incredibly seriously, and that jewel thieves really ought to be more careful when exchanging stolen goods. Rookie error.

The message that came out of Bad Hair Day, about being yourself and not trying to be perfect all the time, is a great one, and something that children and tweens probably responded well to. DCOMs always like to teach kids some sort of lesson.

For me, though, I was not the target audience for Bad Hair Day so I didn’t take much from the movie. I didn’t like it at all, because the comedy and prom aspects of the story were completely at odds with the whole diamond theft. It was strange, and to be honest, having the adult lead actually made me less interested in the film, not more, despite Liz being closer in age to me than Monica. I didn’t like Liz’s character particularly and I was never close to being prom queen – not that we really have that in the UK – so I couldn’t relate much to Monica either. Bad Hair Day just wasn’t for me.

But I know that many people found Bad Hair Day to be better than the average DCOM and liked the different take on the usual plot of a Disney Channel movie. If you need a family-friendly action-comedy movie, this is probably one for you.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Variety, ‘‘Bad Hair Day’: Laura Marano, Leigh-Allyn Baker to Star in Disney Channel Original Movie’, Variety.com, 8th July 2014.

[2] Credit: Ruth V, ‘An interview with Leigh-Allyn Baker from Disney Channel’s Bad Hair Day’, VivaVeltoro.com, 11th February 2015.

[3] Credit: Disney, ‘Behind the Scenes Bad Hair Day 1 and 2’, Disney411Vids YouTube Channel, 11th January 2015.

[4] Credit: Elizabeth Wagmeister, ‘Laura Marano & Leigh-Allyn Baker Preview Disney Movie ‘Bad Hair Day (Exclusive Clip)’, Variety.com, 2nd February 2015.

[5] Credit: David Daniels, ‘Video: Lecrae’s ‘Nuthin’ to be featured in Disney movie ‘Bad Hair Day’’, Rapzilla.com, 29th January 2015.

[6] Credit: Rick Kissell and Variety, ‘Disney Channel’s ‘Bad Hair Day’ Has Good Ratings Night’, Yahoo.com, 18th February 2015.

by The Disney Purist

Prom Pact (2023)

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

BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS & CAST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRODUCTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECEPTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LEGACY

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

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

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

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

Anyway, what was I talking about?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Oh yeah, Prom Pact.

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

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

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

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

REFERENCES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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