Let’s discuss Disney Channel Orignal Movies! So how many do you know about? How many have you watched?
There’s waaaaayy more than modern Disney Channel would bother to promote (I’m serious, nowadays Disney Channel is mostly seeking to bury their past as if it never happened! They’re not even on the website!).
There’s more than the first ones that come to mind. There’s more than: Jump In, High School Musical 1/2/3, Cheetah Girls 1/2/3, Camp Rock, Dadnapped, Princess Protection Program, Minutemen, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, Cowbelles,Hatching Pete, Twitches 1/2 (btw what’s so cool about mispelling “Two” in the sequel title? And did they even credit the author of the series Twitches?), etc, etc. (don’t worry if you like any of those movies- I’m not hating them).
Who remembers the old Disney Channel? Who knows what I’m talking about if I mention Brink or Northern Lights (two of the first DCOMs). Actually, I didn’t see those two said movies, but it’s because I didn’t get the chance. Disney Channel never mentions it. I’m upset that more than twice I had to stay up until 2 AM to see their old movies, and fell asleep at the climax because I was too tired!
Now, in my opinion, I think they worked harder on their movies in the past. The newer movies are using plots that have been used before- the older ones are more original and creative. I think the movies are more meaningful.
For example: which ending song do you think would touch you more- one called “Teardrops and the Rain” or one entitled “We Rock”? If you chose the first one, you’re feeling the same thing I’m feeling. If you chose the second one, ah, well, at least you still see my overall point anyway.
Here are some that might interest you and/or bring back memories (depends on if you know them or not):
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Pixel Perfect
Plot: A computer whiz kid named Roscoe creates a holographic rock star with perfect qualities to help his friends’ band become successful. However, conflict rises when one member of the band is jealous of the hologram’s flawlessness, Roscoe begins to fall in love with his own creation, and the hologram itself, named Loretta, seeks to be a real person. (to be her own master, like the Genie in Aladdin).
-You Wish!
Plot: Alex’s little brother is ruining his life. In all the anger, he wishes that he doesn’t have a little brother. Thanks to a strange coin in his coin collection, his wish is magically granted. Alex is getting everything he ever wanted because of the absence of his brother. But by his life being better, the lives of the people he knows are worse. And, of course, he begins to miss his little brother.
-Now You See It
Plot: Alison is competing for a reality TV. show that involves being a kid producer and seeking the best kid magician. Alison finds Danny, her last hope after countless failed wannabe magicians, and Danny’s different. It turns out that this awesome magician she’s discovered is actually a young wizard who can’t control his powers and wishes to be a normal kid for once (reminds me of Violet from The Incredibles a little).
-A Ring of Endless Light
Based on a novel
Plot: A girl realizes she can communicate with dolphins. During the summer, she tries to change the mind of two people: first, her boyfriend’s father, whose illegal nets hurt dolphins, and second, a new friend who would only look at things for scientific reasoning, including her amazing ability to hear what dolphins are saying/thinking.
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Smart House
Plot: A family lives in a cool house rigged with gizmos everywhere and connected by a program called P.A.T. Things go riskily too far, however, when the oldest kid in the family programs P.A.T. to do more, and P.A.T. develops the idea that she is their mother.
-Don’t Look Under the Bed
Plot: Strange, outrageous, anonymus pranks are all over town, and Frances is being blamed. Frances later meets Larry, someone whom only she can see, who tells her she’s being framed by the Boogeyman. Frances finds it hard to believe, because she’s left behind such unlogical ideas of childhood behind (like Jane did in Disney’s Return to Neverland). Later it is revealed that as a kid grows up and leaves imaginary friends behind, the forgotten imaginary friends never disappear, but rather, transform into monsters like the Boogeyman, that adults cannot see but children can. (Which, by the way, I found to be an ingenius, brilliant, creative, spooky idea)
-The Thirteenth Year
Plot: Cody Griffin faces the strangest puberty: he grows scales and fins when he touches the water. This leads him to seek help from a school science geek (whom he befriends later by doing so), and to also seek who his birth parents were (he’s adopted). His parents don’t know what explanation to give, because they’ve only found him as a baby, without anyone else (like in Hercules). Cody begins to discover that he’s a merman.
-Quints
Plot: Jamie Grover used to be an only child, and get sometimes too much pressure and attention from her parents. But when her mom gives birth to quintuplets and her parents are too busy to notice much about her, Jamie begins to miss the attention. However, the challenge of having five new babies in the house help Jamie to realize her potential, prove to be more responsible, and discover new talents such as art can make her feel better.
-Motocrossed
Plot: A teenage girl takes her injured twin brother’s place in a motorcrossing competition behind her father’s back. (sounds like Mulan, but the story’s still good).
-Tru Confessions
Based on a novel (and I read the novel- really excellent book!)
Plot: Trudy, nicknamed “Tru”, wants to have her own TV show. She dislikes her life, and is embarrassed by her twin brother Eddie, who has a mental disability that causes him to act like a little kid. Tru enters a video contest and wants to send a video about her life, but since it is so boring, she makes a video about her brother’s life instead. Thinking her mother doesn’t understand her, she is comforted through tough times by an online friend named Deedee. [spoil]Deedee, however, to her surprise, is the same person as her mother[/spoil]. Going through all this helps Tru form a stronger bond with her family.
-The Poof Point
Plot: A supposed time maching malfunctions and makes the inventors grow younger overnight. The kids of the family must hurry to get things back to normal, before their parents disappear altogether in a “poof point” just like the goldfish they tested on.
-The Scream Team
Another cool Halloween DCOM. Saw it last October. But from midnight to 2 AM. Disney Channel just won’t show it any other time.
Plot: Two children move into a town where their grandfather just died. They later realize that a spirit society called “Soul Patrol” that search for lost ghosts and help them move on in the afterlife, is looking for their grandfather’s soul. It turns out that he’s been stolen by a mad, evil ghost. The children and the Soul Patrol try to defeat him. In the end it turns out that the evil ghost is actually [spoil]just a misunderstood inventor whose wife was killed in an accident when inventing something, and everyone thinks he’s a monster who’s murdered his own wife. The ghost is haunting the town angrily because he won’t rest while everyone remembers him as such a terrible killer.[/spoil]
-Phantom of the Megaplex
Plot: Peter, who works in a movie theater, is getting ready for a big event at the theater. However, chaotic problems arrive as things get out of control in the different movies (as if the movies’ chaos come to life in horrible practical jokes). His little brother, an enthusiastic movie geek [like me XD], helps him solve the problems and catch the culprit.
What other DCOMs do you know? Have you seen any of these? What do you think?
