Let It Shine

The plot follows 16-year-old Cyrus DeBarge (Tyler James Williams), a musician with a gift for creating rhymes but lacking the self-confidence to take the stage. After participating in a songwriting contest alongside his best friend Kris McDuffy (Trevor Jackson), Cyrus is named the winner. Due to her fear of the spotlight, Cyrus panics and allows Kris to take credit for her heartfelt lyrics, and while he is in anonymity, Roxie (Coco Jones), Cyrus' crush, begins to fall for Kris.

It started as a simple-minded, very musical rap battle, which was considerably boring, progressed to a teenage "change of characters", and gained more dramatic and critical contours as it went along... Ending with a scathing critique of traditional-conservative-religiousness. Extreme, message of vivacity or individuality, with its differences and freedom of choice, requests for forgiveness, reconciliation, all packed with lots of music, and rap battles... Gostoso...

I liked how this movie was different by making all the main characters black. That was a good change considering how many Disney Channel shows and movies starred white characters.

However, other than that the plot was too predictable. When you watch the trailer and/or the first part of the film you'll immediately know how it ends. Because of that, I was barely able to watch the whole movie.

My 11 yo daughter loves this movie. It is entertaining with solid acting performances that even kept my husband and I engrossed. I was puzzled by one reviewer objecting to the cast's ethnicity. Given the usual fare offered at Disney, I can't see why one movie with a majority black cast would rattle the viewer. But given the reviewer's odd orthography, I can only imagine what s/he would consider appropriate viewing material. It is stunning that this family-friendly flick wouldn't rank higher. It presents a nice spin on hip hop music; there is no violence, nothing illicit or morally compromising. We will be adding this film along with other Disney greats to our daughter's collection of Netflix favorites.

My rating of 9 out of 10 may seem extreme, however, for what it's intended to be, this movie was very successful. My rating has a lot to do with the music from this movie, and the diversity this movie adds to Disneys offering. This movie has some of the best music and best raw talent ever produced by Disney. CoCo Jones is an amazing talent and I hope her race doesn't hinder her popularity and/or ability to shine on Disney (or anywhere else). Tyler is also talented. He has a fun actor to watch and has great voice for rap. As a 29 year old, I would definitely listen to songs from this movie outside of watching it. The writing, especially the rap, was pretty impressive for Disney. As someone who is typically 100% NOT a fan of rap, I liked the rap in this film, because the message was clean, and thoughtful and the beats were hot.

I was thrilled to see Disney encourage it's minority viewers with this film. I think it says a lot about how far television has come in terms of diversity. I hope America as a whole will support this movie as well.

Of course the movie is a bit cheesy at times, but it's intended to be for kids. I believe cheese and clichés in kids movies are totally fine. After all, whats cheesy and cliché to an adult is often a first time experience for a kid.

The movie progressed at a decent pace, and was entertaining and engaging the whole way though.

My only complaint with this movie is the church scenes. Without getting into too much detail, I would have preferred for the dad/preacher and the church scenes overall to have been a bit less nonsensical. Although I understand that again, this is for kids, so the point often has to be a bit more expressed.

Overall, I am proud of Disney for making this film. I think they did a great job all around. As someone who considers themselves a connoisseur of children's film and television, I recommend this movie to any kid or family looking to have a fun, clean, yet contemporary, heartwarming musical experience. .

I was really skeptical about the movie. Being a African American male, i pride myself on listening to music that is mainly "Real Rap". When i watch the previews of them using those two words, i was like "Pssh, yeah right.". I was wrong. The lyrics had a lot of realism within them along with a positive message, CoCo Jones had a great debut in the film, she is a very talented artist. She reminds me of a young Jennifer Hudson, looks like her as well. I love the message of the movie, "Stand up for what you believe in." Though it is a bit of a cliché' I find it to be a great message for kids that watch Disney Channel.

I found the acting to be good, but there was something i was skeptical on at the start. Being how CoCo Jones is Fourteen, and Tyler James Williams is nineteen, i was really wondering if they was going to make them kiss. I did not really find it that acceptable if so, then again. That 70's Show had a fourteen year old Mila Kunis kiss a 20 year old Ashten Kucher, so they say. Still did not seem right if so.

To some it up, the music was good, and the movie was overall very good. It is a movie you should watch, though i know a lot of you may be older than twenty, you may have a low tolerance for movies with cliché's, i recommend you to ease up. It's a Disney movie, not a Academy Award Winning movie. Its main base is for kids and teens, don't be so critical.

Thank You for reading.