Well, seeing how last year, everyone seemed to enjoy seeing me get tortured with the Disney sequels, this year,
I'm gonna do something kind of similar. At least, I think it's similar, in that I haven't seen any of the subject matter
I'm gonna review this month. I'm talking about the Disney Channel original movies now seeing how they started in 1997
I'm not gonna lie they were a little past my time, so I didn't grow up with any of these
Why are they worth talking about then?
Well because the Disney Channel Original Movies got so popular that almost helped define a whole generation okay not
define, but it was a big part of it
it was too many kids would say Ninja Turtles was to me or he-man or
Transformers or any of these other silly things that a lot of people my generation grew up with yeah, they were ridiculous
But they also left an impact for some reason well all through the month of December
I'm gonna take a look at these films and tried to figure out why they were so popular if they deserve to be so popular
And if they hold up as an adult or were they only meant for kids and even if so were they really any good for
Kids now if you take a look you quickly realize there are a ton of these movies that go way
Beyond how many days there are in December so I'm only gonna try and do the most popular ones and if there were ever any
sequels to did they deserve the attention the popularity well
There's only one way to find out I have no idea if I'm in for something great or something terrible or both
I'm curious to see what a generation under me grew up with and it actually holds up at all
Some of these are even movies based on shows. I'll get an idea
What kind of shows kids were watching - am I in for a wild adventure or nothing?
But pain there's only one way to find out this is Disneycember the Disney Channel original movies
Let's do this
So the very first film to ever premiere was in 1997 called under wraps, I'll admit
I don't remember people really talking about this
But it is the very first one so I think it figures to
Talk about it now from the story under wraps sounds like the most phoned in Disney Channel movie
You can imagine
Three quirky friends get together and break into an old creepy house
They discover a mummy's tomb
And inside it a mummy and the mummy comes alive and starts running through suburbia not knowing where to go or what to do
Wouldn't you know it a little friendship starts up?
but some evil mobsters want them for themselves and yet this sounds really friggin stupid, but
surprisingly for such a lame and overdone setup this can really be
Funny creative imaginative and even have kind of a dark sense of humor. Yeah, no joke don't believe me
Just look at how it opens a family is arguing around a dinner table
The little boy calls his sister a cow it already starts of so delightfully mean-spirited the father goes to do the dishes
But then a knife falls in the garbage disposal
Spinning around when a monster breaks through the window grabs his head and stabs it on the spinning knife in the garbage disposal
holy shit
I can't believe this is a Disney Channel
orginal movie starting off this way now of course it goes the direction you think it's going. It's not really happening
It's a movie. They're watching, but even in the movie the whole entire theater goes red like the gore happens
They're just not showing it
And that's a really creative way to kill somebody this film starts off with already a really original way of killing somebody off
But it doesn't just stop there the kids in this movie are super cynical the lines
They say to each other are almost like Simpson lines even though they can't swear or do anything that wrong
There is kind of this edge to them that reminds me a little bit of Monster Squad
It's hard to explain is kinda like this natural mean-spiritedness that most kids have at that age
But for some reason aren't really shown on screen that much
Kids do throw insults at each other and they try to see if they can one-up one another they talk about
sleeping in the nude
they want to go inside this house where somebody died just because they can they discover later that there's a key to get into the
House and when they asked why they didn't use it, they're like what's the fun in that breaking is much more cool?
It's that bizarre kind of kid logic. I strangely enough kind of remember at that age
theirs this line where one of the boys asks what does celibacy mean and the girl says it means no chicks
He says he could never do that and she says trust me you'll get used to it. Okay
It's not shocking
But it's just that little extra that separates it from a generic Disney film and on top of that all the characters are strange like
Really weird odd people. There's a guy who owns the weirdest bookstore
That's covered in skulls and gore and he answers the door by pretending
He has a knife stabbed in his back, and he falls to the ground
How would that keep any customers that would scare everybody away?
But that's more important to him than actually selling anything even the characters at the fast-food
Joints are kind of weird and odd they all have distinct characters and a lot of them just focus on hurting this poor mummy
every other second
he's either being smacked or pulled or even burned look at this his nipples are on fire and this is that a hospital too
everything is just out to hurt those poor guy speaking of which this is the same guy who is from coach and
Gargoyles and he actually has two roles than this he plays the mummy who sadly doesn't have much talking or expression
But he still does okay
And he also plays the guy who's dating the main kid's mom he doesn't like him very much despite him being very nice
and yeah
They're kind of doing like a Captain Hook thing aren't they were both the father or father to be and
supernatural character kind of represent that fear of what's coming forward
But then you see he gets used to the monster as he'll get used to the dad and yeah
You know what this actually kind of works
It's been done, but I think a lot of the stuff in this movie's been done
But they kind of playfully acknowledge it even when it's really stupid at the end where they have to fight off the phony gangsters
How do they do it they pretend like their eyes are gushing out of their heads?
And then they knock the person out and tie them up with intestines
I love this kind of stuff you would never see this in a Disney movie
This kind of just barely g-rated humour tickles me in just the right way
It's not overly dark and aggressive to a point where it becomes awkward
But it's just enough the downside is the second half does slowed down a little bit and some of the laughs go a little quiet
But I thought the whole thing was gonna be like that for a good. I don't know two-thirds of the movie
I was surprisingly kind of enjoying it okay, not loving it, but there was some laughs here in there. I don't know
I'm not gonna act like this is anything great, but for a little Disney Channel movie
I thought it actually had more to it than it needed if you're looking for that little kid
Halloween movie that goes a little further than it needs to with some memorable characters weird scenes and
Surprisingly funny lines. I say this is actually worth checking out
in the same way a kind of self-aware
B-movie is worth checking out take a look for yourself and see if it's worth getting wrapped up in