Starring Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Hayley Kiyoto, and Naomi Scott
Directed by Patricia Riggin
Music and Lyrics by various
We finish up Back to School week in high school with this Disney Channel original movie. Based after the 2007 teen novel of the same name, this look at four misfits who start a band wound up being one of their most popular films of the early 2010's. Even the soundtrack was a top 4 hit on the Billboard Pop charts. How does this look as more students struggle with self-expression, stricter rules, and the loss or cutting of many programs besides athletics? Let's begin with Lemonade Mouth as they become famous, then learn how it all began...
The Story: It all started when Mo Banjaree (Scott), Charlie Delgago (Blake Michael), Stella Yamada (Kiyoko), Olivia White (Mendler), and Wendell "Wen" Gifford (Hicks) land in detention on their first day of school. Music teacher Ms. Reznick (Tisha Campbell) have them clear out the classroom for a music room. They get so into tapping out a beat and playing the instruments in the room, an impressed Ms. Reznick suggests they should become a band and enter the Rising Star competition.
The kids think that's a great idea, especially since they all want to give local band Mudslide Crush some competition. Tough, outspoken Stella is shocked when she learns that the organic lemonade machine they're all addicted to is going to be replaced by an energy drink that sponsors their athletics teams. After helping shy Olivia with her stage fright, they're a hit at the school's Halloween Bash...until Olivia protests the replacement of the lemonade machine and their inability to express themselves.
The kids are now banned from playing at school, but their classmates hang posters supporting them and their cause. They grow closer together when they cheer up Olivia after the death of her beloved cat and their song from the Bash hits the radio, but then they get hurt or sick, and they seem to grow apart. Mo breaks up with her boyfriend Scott (Nick Roux) after she catches him with a cheerleader, too. It takes their arrest after a protest for them to understand that they have a lot more support than they believe.
The Song and Dance: This is a bit gritty-feeling for a Disney Channel musical. No fairy tales, candy-colored horror, or time-travel here. Everyone has realistic issues, from Mo trying to live up to her immigrant father's wishes to Wen being upset over his father dating a younger woman. The kids all play well off each other, especially Kiyoto as rebellious Stella and Mendler as sweet Olivia. The catchy music is some of the better pop to come from the Disney Channel musicals, with "Determinate" deserving of the radio air play it gets. Given the real-life protests in many high schools over the last few years, the theme of self-expression, standing up for what you believe in, and supporting the arts and other activities besides athletics may be even more important over a decade after this film's release.
Favorite Number: Our first genuine number is "Turn Up the Music." It starts off with the kids drumming their pencils and writing utensils in unison and ends with them playing instruments and dancing together as they clean up the music room. Their rehearsal song is Olivia hoping to be "Somebody." Stuck up Ray, the obnoxious lead singer of Mudslide Crush, assumes "And the Crowd Goes" wild over him at a local concert. Lemonade Mouth's dance jam "Determinate" at the Halloween Bash is even better-received, at least until Stella encourages the kids to ignore the school rules about dress and be themselves and insist that the lemonade machine be retained.
"She's So Gone" is Lemonade Mouth's number at their local pizza shop, with Scott getting her only solo, playing it rather sexy for high school as she lays seductively on tables and proudly proclaims how much she's changed. "More Than a Band" is the touching ensemble number the kids sing to cheer up Olivia after her beloved cat dies. It gives us a great montage of the kids goofing off and pushing each other into the pool at her house. "Here We Go" is the number that ends with a riot at the pizza parlor after the jocks start a food fight. "Don't Ya Wish U Were Us" is Mudslide Crush's self-satisfied rap routine at the Rising Star contest. Lemonade Mouth falls apart when Olivia can't sing "Breakthrough"...but the school ends up singing it with them. It ends with the band onstage at Madison Square Garden performing "Livin' On a High Wire" to thousands of fans.
Trivia: There was to have been a sequel, but Disney decided the story was fine as-is and canceled it in 2012.
What I Don't Like: Though slightly dark for a Disney Channel Original musical, this still follows all the standard beats of a high school coming-of-age film. It's not really all that far-removed from High School Musical. The kids and the wackier adults around them are pretty standard, too. The kids' issues are also apparently different from the book. Both of Olivia's parents are alive, but her mother abandoned her. Charlie never got over his twin brother's death at birth, and Stella has a learning disability. In the book, the kids also play the strange instruments they found in the music room, like ukuleles and trumpets. They play ordinary guitars and pianos here.
I wish they'd let Mo end up with Charlie as in the book, too. Charlie really appreciated her. I suspect Mo went back to Scott because he was probably the bigger hunk at the time. Scott's change of heart feels sudden, and he's not all that interesting before he switches sides. The finale, with the band on Madison Square Garden, also seems rather ridiculous compared to the relatively realistic drama that came before it.
The Big Finale: One of the better Disney Channel Original musicals is worth checking out with your pre-teen if you're also a fan of rock or coming-of-age stories.
Home Media: On Disney Plus and DVD in an "extended edition."
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