What do you do when you’re Disney and you’re about to lose your most marketable movie stars? Create a new movie with your freshest faces that will leave fans saying, “High School Musical Who?” Tonight, the Disney Channel debuted its latest original movie, Camp Rock, starring The Jonas Brothers. Singing, acting, and dancing alongside them were some of Disney’s best and brightest from stars of As The Bell Rings to Wizards of Waverly Place to Phineas and Ferb. Despite a typical storyline and main characters that aren’t that likable, the movie somehow ends up coming out okay. There’s only one explanation. Disney must have sprinkled some magic fairy dust on it.

Demi Lovato (As The Bell Rings) plays Mitchie Torres, an aspiring single from a humble background. Her father owns a hardware store and her mother is a cook. At first, Mitchie didn’t think she would be able to afford attending Camp Rock until her mother gets them both a job working there so that she can attend a discounted rate. Once she arrives, Mitchie meets Caitlyn (played by Alison Stoner of Phineas and Ferb). Caitlyn is talented and genuine, the kind of girl that Mitchie should be friends with. Unfortunately for Caitlyn, Mitchie is much more interested in Tess Tyler (Meaghan Jette Martin) and the cool crowd.

Mitchie lies to everyone at camp, telling them that her mom is a famous music television producer in China. She spends more than half the movie ignoring Caitlyn in favor of Tess and her followers. Mitchie also meets Shane Gray (Joe Jonas), a spoiled rock singer who is forced to attend the camp as an instructor. The two begin to fall for each other until he finds out that she’s been lying about who she is.  In the end, she comes clean and sings the song that she wrote about just being who she is.  Margaret, one of Tess's friends, ends up winning the contest (and deservedly so, her song was great), which was the only unpredictable part of the movie.

The Jonas Brothers may be a group but it’s pretty obvious that everyone markets Joe as the main and most marketable member. Nick and Kevin play very small, secondary roles but do a fairly respectable job. Alyson Stoner, an outstanding hip hop dancer, is underutilized and did not show what she is truly capable of.  There's no denying that Camp Rock will be wildly successful, just the way High School Musical was.  The songs were catchy and the plot moves along enough to keep little ones watching over and over.


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of Disney)