Lemonade Mouth

Disney high school band movies was trending in the late 00s. This was one of them, and in my opinion, it was the best. You know the story. Some high school kids inadvertently find each other and they realize they have a great band together. There are hurdles along the way, but at the end they're a great band, and the movie also includes some great music. They enter a competition; maybe they win; maybe they lose; but at the end they realize they're great friends. And there's a romantic component thrown in there.

What I like about this movie, and it speaks to contemporary politics, is one scene with a girl in a wheelchair. They band plays at a school dance or something. I don't know. But the band is playing an awesome song, and shown are people in the crowd dancing and smiling and having a good time. A girl in a wheelchair is shown, and she is smiling and dancing as best as she can in her wheelchair. What that tells us is that first of all a kid in a wheelchair felt comfortable enough to go to the high school dance. Second of all she was having a good time.

Years ago that kid in the wheelchair may have just stayed home. But now we're all one. We're all together. Whether we're black, immigrant, handicapped, gay, whatever.. We're all going to accept you, and whoever you are you can enjoy the band, dance however you want to dance, and you're part of us and accepted in the group. That says a lot.

This movie has heart, good characters, and some catchy songs. Better than most DCOMs!

Five disparate high school kids are sentenced to detention in the basement. Principal Brenigan (Christopher McDonald) uses corporate sponsorship to support only the sport teams. He relegates all the other groups into the basement. Miss Reznick (Tisha Campbell-Martin) is the music teacher who is facing funding cuts. Stella (Hayley Kiyoko) is the rebellious new girl who is the least successful of her family. Olivia (Bridgit Mendler) is the awkward loner who is hiding some devastating family secrets. Mo (Naomi Scott) is dealing with a selfish boyfriend and her conservative East Indian father. Charlie (Blake Michael) is the drummer forced to live up to his soccer star older brother. Wen (Adam Hicks) is angry that his father is moving on with a young girlfriend. The five new friends form a new band to compete in the local talent contest.

I like all five young actors and their characters. With that, the movie can survive the cheesiness and the standard tropes. The music from the five is good enough. The story is hitting all the traditional kiddie movie ideas of rebelling against the system. Christopher McDonald and Tisha Campbell-Martin fall victim to the need for adults to act wacky in kiddie movies. The young actors and their characters' journeys save this from being a bad Disney TV movie.

Lemonade Mouth gave me hope for future Disney movies. With the recent Disney movies that we have been getting lately, none of them good, Lemonade Mouth stands out being one of the best DCOM, ever. I know that's a big statement but I truly believe it. It was never as successful as say, High School Musical but it was still good and deserved more recognition. This movie came out when I was 10 (I am now 16,) and I still enjoy watching it.

A lot of the actors were relatively new in 2011 but everyone did a decent job. I'm not going to lie some of the actors weren't as good as others and there were moments where the acting wasn't the greatest, but it's not like it's trying to win an Oscar or anything. If you watched Disney Channel or Disney XD then you would of noticed familiar faces like Bridget Mendler (Good Luck Charlie, Wizards of Waverly Place) and Adam Hicks (Zeke and Luthor,Pair of Kings.) There were also some new faces like Blake Michael who would later go on to star in the Disney Channel show Dog With a Blog. Naomi Scott was also new back then but has made a bit of a name for herself starring in the 2017 movie Power Rangers. Haley Kiyoko was very good as Stella and you may also recognize her from Wizards of Waverly Place. All of the main actors had great chemistry and you could really see that in the film. They truly made you feel how close they are as a group.

I'm not going to lie the music in this movie was actually very good. I didn't expect to enjoy the songs as much as I did.She's So Gone, sung by Naomi Scott, was probably my favourite song in the whole movie her vocals are incredible.

The story line is what really makes this movie incredible. I always like a story about the underdogs coming out on top. I love how they had the school treat athletes like they were better because that is how high school is. I liked how each of the characters had there own story line and we got to see each of them develop. The friendship between the five though was what really made this movie great. Unlike this movie they focused mainly on the actual friendship between the five and less on relationships. Sure there was obviously something between Wen and Olivia and Mo and Scott but it never overshadowed the friendship between the band.

Overall this movie is a must see and is enjoyable for all ages.

As many of you know, in the past years, Disney channel is known for releasing films such as "High School Musical", "Camp Rock" and the "Cheetah Girls" franchises, all of which were popular but corny in some way, especially the disastrous "Camp Rock 2". I gotta say that for a Disney Channel Movie, in my opinion Lemonade Mouth was just a sweet knockout!!!!!!!!! It's the best musical movie that Disney Channel has ever made, and I'm hooked on it. The actors in the movie did a great job, each character was given a great amount of significance, and best of all, all 5 of them are really talented not only as actors but as musicians. I'm amazed that Adam Hicks wrote his own rap lyrics for 3 songs in the movie because it allowed him to showcase his true musical talent, and even though all 5 actors were great, I feel that he and Hayley Kiyoko are the 2 strongest actors in the movie. Also the movie was great on character development, and the filmmakers didn't make 1 character feel more important than others, and it was almost completely unpredictable because I had no idea what would happen throughout this movie, though I will say that the only predictable thing about it was that after Charlie(Blake Michael) flipped the coin, it would land on heads, other than that, completely unpredictable. Even Chris Brochu's character Ray wasn't entirely annoying, but he was a jerk. The soundtrack's amazing, you'd actually want those type of songs on your Ipod, and they're genius. Finally, Lemonade Mouth actually has a strong morale, and it's the kind you can take seriously, unlike corny stupid lines like "This is our summer"!!!!! I can also praise this movie for presenting a realistic plot, and it proves that Disney finally learned from all the mistakes they've previously made with past DCOMS. PS: All 5 members of the band can sing, not just 1 person, who wouldn't want that in a band(which by the way they should be a real-life band)?!?!? Here's 1 character I didn't really talk about and that's Scott Pickett, lead guitarist of Mudslide Crush. Scott is played by Nick Roux, and while he's a nice guy, he can be a little selfish, and I don't think anyone expected him to end up joining Lemonade Mouth by the end of the movie, but it was best that he did. I will say that it was unnecessary for Mo to get jealous of Scott for simply talking to a girl named Jules, it's not like he was making out with her. Also how the mural of the band had ended up on the pizzeria billboard was never explained, so therefore it didn't make sense. Something else I should add is that there was a review saying that the music continuity was an issue, and I'd just like to say that 1st of all, that's not something to complain about, 2nd of all, of course you're still gonna hear keyboards in the background while Wen's rapping because he's not really playing, so that's not really an issue. Also during "Breakthrough", Scott had already joined the band, and he's the one who played guitar for that song so it doesn't matter if Stella's not playing guitar, but you're right about "She's So Gone", Bridgit should have been playing bass instead of a 2nd guitar, and in "Breakthrough", and Highwire, Naomi's not playing bass which is odd. Overall,This movie couldn't have been done in a better way, it deserves a sequel but I'm afraid it'll be a disaster like Camp Rock 2. Well done Disney, keep this up, your coolest musical film yet. I give it a perfect 10. Rock on, Lemonade Mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!