It’s the beginning of July, and that means that, for some of us, summer is just around the corner. As a recent university grad, I feel as though it would be accurate to say that my entire life has suddenly become one giant summer vacation. But, since I am on a bit of a nostalgia trip right now, I thought it would be fun to look back on o🍒ne of my favorite aspects of summer vacation from th♌e sunshine filled days of my youth. No, it’s not beach days, trips to the amusement park, or evenings spent watching fireworks.
In the eyes of all of the introverted couch potatoes of the world, the absolute greatest aspect of summer vacation was when the Family Channel reorganized their daily schedule in order to make room for a double dose of back to back Disney Channel Original films. During the school year, those films could only be seen on the weekends, but during those two sweet summer months, those films were scheduled to play twice a day all week long. These are the films that shaped our generation. They taught us that honest communication solves all of our problems, that we should always look over our shoulders before talking trash about someone, and emphasized the💮 importance of never pretending to be someone or something you’re not in order to get people to like you.
Here’s to you, Disney Channel Original Movies. Now, wit🃏hout further ado, I present the readers of the world with twenty-five little-known facts about these classic made for TV fil🧸ms.
25 🐼 Moto And Gender-Crossed
Shakespeare is one of those authors whose work simply transcends time. Themes, plots, and intrapersonal issues that are prevalent in his most classic works are still applicable to the lives and films of our modern era. During the surge of classically inspired teen films that overtook the world in the late 90s and early 2000s, Disney decided to dip their toes into the lake of adaptations with Motocrossed.
This film, which follows the story of a girl who pretends to be a guy in order to prove her biking chops, was based on the play Twelfth Night (this play also inspired the Amanda Bynes film She’s The Man).
24 💝 ♊ Clue: The Original Mystery
Though modern Disney Channel films tend to focus on uplifting and family-friendly topics, older Disney Originals never used to shy away from the nitty-gritty aspects of life. And the film Get A Clue is no exception. This film foll🉐owed the efforts of a group of prep school teens who break numerous laws in the at🐷tempt to track down their missing teacher.
Even when juxtaposed against the darker themes of older DCOM films, Get A Clue stands out. And that is because the film was based on a 1993 Woody Allen film, which followe♛d a couple who believed that someone had off’ed their neighbor's wife. Screenwriter Alana Sanko loved the film and thought that adap𝕴ting it for children would be a fun twist on a classic plot.
23 ཧ Camp Rock's Two Endings
I am about to admit a major Disney Channel sin. Alright, here it goes. I have never seen Camp Rock 2. I have seen and thoroughly enj🍒oyed the first film, but I never got around to seeing the highly anticipated sequel. In fact, the sequel was so highly anticipated that the cast and crew did everything they could to safeguard the film against the possibility of leaks and spoilers making their way online.
Since fans of the franchise were used as extras on the set, the crew de꧃cided to film two separate and complete endings to prevent extras from leaking details of the plot once returning home. The true ending was only revealed when the film finally aired.
22 🌱 Giving The Fans What They Wꦇant
One of the coolest ಌthings about the Disney Channel is the fact that it allows their viewers to maintain a certain level of involvement in their favorite franchises. Nothing is cooler than turning on a film and seeing somet🔯hing onscreen that you made happen.
After the massive success of the first High School Musical film, the studio allowed the fans of the series to influence some of the smaller aspects of the film. For example, every single slogan-bearing shirt that Chad wo♛re in the second film was chosen by the viewers. Fans also got to pick the contents of the picnic shared between Gabriella and Troy as well as which Disney Channel star would make a guest appearance in the film (Miley Cyrus was chosen).
21 𒉰 Color-Changing Lemon♚ade
One of my favorite things to do is to analyze the different aspects of the meౠdia in which I consume and costuming is one of the most fascinating things to break down. Every single piece that a character wears was chosen for a reason. The color, fabric, shape, and texture were all intentional.
In the film Lemonade Mouth, all of the main characters (save for Mo who joins the color scheme later on) are dressed in shades of orange or violet at the beginning of t✅he film. Since violet and orange are opposite on the color wheel, this combination symbolizes the fact that their opposing characteristics are the source of their strength.
20 𒅌 🍃 Double Teamed: Off And On The Screen
Double Teamed is a lot more than a film that you should not Google without including the words “Disney Channel” in the search bar (unless you want to be utterly scared for life). It is also, surprisingly enough, based on the true sto♔ry of two real-life sisters! While it is true that the girls ended up playing for the WNBA (Heather for the Sacramento Monarchs and Heidi for the LA Sparks) after discovering their love for the sport while playing the sport in high school, it is important to note that the girls did not play for the teams simultaneously as presented in the film.
19 🦄 High School Lipౠsynchers
I am sorry to burst the internets High School Musical bubble but Zac Efron’s beautiful pipes are not the ones that tickled our ears in the musical numbers that filled the first film of the franchise. Though this tidbit has been circling the interwebs for a while, it is important to꧙ note that the reason for this switch is rarely stated.
Drew Seeley’s voice was used in the pl✃ace of Efron’s in the first film because Efron’s voice was simply too low for the music they had already written for his character. Thou🐲gh Efron did sing without assistance for the rest of the franchise as they adjusted the music to fit his natural voice (I wonder why they didn’t just do that from the beginning).
18 🗹 The Even St🧸evens Lawsuit
Since The Even Stevens Movie premiered over a decade ago, the details of the plot may be a little rusty for some. So allow me to briefly refresh your memories. Louis Stevens, the resident prankster of the Stevens family, ruins his neurotic sister's graduation with a poorly conceived prank and ends up having to take up a summer job to make 🎉up for it (which is cut short when they win a fake all expenses paid vacation to a fictional island).
But the initial prank almost went awry in more ways than one as the spaghetti which Coach Tugnut (Jim Wise) was pelted with was far denser than expected. Jim Wise revealed in an inter🦹view with Seventeen magazine that he nearly blacked out after having the heavy spaghetti unleashed upon him.
17 𝄹 ꧃ Descended From The Worst
It’s no secret that not everyone was born into a family that fully appreciated them. Some people are born into families that make them feel like they are a constant source of disappointment. Take Mal from Descendants, for example. Though it is true that not all villains are outright evil as some are simply misunderstood or the victims of circumstance, some villains are simply the worst. And with the case of Maleficent, the latter is true. She is such a piece of work that her teenage daughter 💫is forced to go by a nickname because she has yet to “earn” her full name. I’m 💧sorry, what?
16 𓆉 Wish Upon A Dancer ಞ
For those of you who have not seen the made for TV classic that is Wish Upon a Star, allow me to summarize the plot as quickly as I can. Nerdy awkward teen switches bodies with her dumb yet popular older sister, Freaky Friday style. While the older sister is in the younger sister's body, she dons a dress that can only be described as leather saran wrap and dances on a cafeteria table in a way 𝕴that would have outraged parents had the film aired today. The dance made actress Danielle Harris a bit of a nervous wreck, so, in order to calm her nerves, she asked for that only those who were uncomfortable with the performance to sit at the table she would be dancing on. This would prevent her from feeling ogled or on display.