Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Disney Channel Musical Month - Camp Rock

Are you ready to Rock?!!

I said ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!!

Yeah, me neither, next up is Camp Rock!

You remember the Jonas Brothers? You might do because they reformed and released tracks as recently as last year. You might remember Nick Jonas from the awful song Jealous and his appearance in the Jumanji sequels. But before all that they were in a Disney sitcom called Jonas.

Meanwhile we have then up-and-comer Demi Lovato, who was the guilty pleasure of one of my old uni friends. She’s gotten onto Disney’s radar through a short series As the Bell Rings, she later got roles in Sonny with a Chance and of course, Camp Rock.

Camp Rock was released in 2008 and according to Wikipedia, source of only the most reliable of information, is the third most watched Disney Channel Movie behind only High School Musical 2 and Wizards of Waverly Place, the movie. Is it worth the hype? I think my intro joke kinda spoiled that it isn’t.

Camp Rock is a summer-camp where budding musicians can explore their musical talent and perform for each other. Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato) is not rich enough to attend camp until her mother manages to secure a job as the camp’s caterer with Mitchie getting entry into the camp at a discounted rate.

Unfortunately, Mitchie finds that most of the other campers have connections in the industry and to try and fit in tells the popular mean girl, Tess (Meaghan Martin) that she has royal connections to get into her circle.

Meanwhile Shane Gray (Joe Jonas) of the band Connect 3 is sent to be a Camp Tutor as punishment after being involved in another scandal. And yes, there is a teacher student love thing that’s super uncomfortable and I really want all studios to cut it out with this idea.

This film is really cliché, I had this issue with Let it Shine but it’s another generic liar revealed story with all the trappings that come along with it. A lot of these characters are enigmas to me. Mitchie’s self-confidence issues permeate the entire film but she’s also loud and occasionally rude when the plot demands it. They hope that giving Tess an absent parent figure helps explain her constant need for attention to the detriment of everyone around her but it feels tacked on, and she’s mostly this cartoonishly evil villain who’s also inexplicably popular. Sure, she’s well-connected but so is everyone else. At least Sharpay had money.

If I haven’t made it clear, I think the excuse behind the lie, and the nature of the lie she ended up telling is quite weak, and of all the people to be able to see past that lie, you’d think Shane, as a camp tutor would but he doesn’t, and her truth being revealed causes a rift between them.

Speaking of Shane, and I was, he’s pretty boring. He’s involved in a scandal but we don’t know any details so it’s hard to determine his personality other than simply lazy and entitled. That being said, if he really does have allergies, any decent caterer would have to cater for them, giving him food not tuned to his allergies could be catastrophic.

His hardship, if you can call it that, is that he wants to put out more ‘real’ music and not just what the label wants. Take that corporations… like the one financing this film. It’s another ‘you need to be yourself’ plotline.

Positives, the mother character is awesome… The music is… a distraction from the boring as hell plot, that’s about as nice as I can be about most of it… How is this the third most popular Disney Channel Film? Is it because of the Jonas…? It’s because of the Jonas Brothers, isn’t it?

Camp Rock is boring, the cliché story it tells is a worse liar revealed story than Let it Shine as the justification for the lie makes no sense and the end result of the lie isn’t all that appealing. I get the positive message of ‘be yourself’ but it’s execution is so bland any child over the age of 7, especially now when the Jonas Brothers aren’t as well known, will probably fall asleep.

Rating 40/100


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