Lemonade Mouth

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.

I found most of Disney Channel's original movies to be abysmal, cheesy messes with so-so acting and plots that could make Inspector Gadget: The Movie look like Shakespeare in comparison. But I found Lemonade Mouth to be an organic, well-acted, clever movie. It has some thought-provoking, inspiring themes that puts it aside from pretty much every other DCOM out there. The songs are catchy and pretty well-performed. And let's not forget the teen actors that all give likable, believable performances. I'm a musician in real life, and though my school has an incredibly well- funded music program, the thought of losing it still lurks and chills me to the bone. This movie suggests that music programs are important and allows us to express creativity and self-expression and that being yourself is the most important thing you could ever do... And though that seems to be the theme of many Disney Channel movies, it rings true to all of us. This is, in my humble opinion, the very best Disney Channel original movie, and I will keep watching it whenever it comes on.

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

With the kids from High School Musical now grown and some of them even leaving the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney Studios had to get a fresh group of musically talented young folks for a new musical film. The result is Lemonade Mouth.

Which is the band that a group of kids who serendipitously sent to the same detention for violating one of martinet principal Christopher McDonald's dumb rules at the same time. That kind of coincidence would tell most people including these kids that there is some karma at work here and that they've got to form a band.

The main thing that Lemonade Mouth is supposed to do it does well, that is give Bridgit Mendler a showplace for her singing talents. I guess it's kind of a tossup between Mendler and Demi Lovato to see who will be the next Miley Cyrus for Disney. Lovato has some great comic ability, but as for singing I think Mendler has it over her. In any event she's also got a nice wholesomeness about her that I hope she neither loses and that just might give her career some staying power.

The songs aren't bad either and Christopher McDonald who usually does quite serious roles shows some hidden talent for comedy. The kind of principal you love to hate. Maybe Lemonade Mouth might just get a few more viewers than those who normally frequent the Disney Channel.

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.