So the Disney Channel will be premiering a new Disney Channel Original Movie this Friday called "Teen Beach Movie," and I have to say I'm pretty excited about it. It must be the maternal/family cues kicking in, because it's been a minute since I've watched or even really thought about any of those Original Movies. (Can you believe it's been 7 years since the "High School Musical" phenomenon took off?) The Disney Channel, in the late '90s and early '00s, used to produce about 7 of these movies during the year, but that number's since dropped to about 4 a year.
So, as a child of the '90s, I'm here to dredge up some of your best childhood memories ... let's get started, shall we?
10.
Princess Protection Program (2009)
Okay, so maybe it hasn't been so long since I last saw a Disney Channel Original Movie. I was well into my 20s when I saw this, but I thought it was the sweetest little movie I'd seen in a long time. The movie's basically about an endangered princess (Demi Lovato) who needs to masquerade as a normal American teenager, so she takes up residence with a normal American teenager (Selena Gomez), and they become close before the entire plan is foiled. This was back when Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato were still the best of friends, and you could really see their chemistry on screen.
9.
Wish Upon A Star (1996)
Once upon a time, I had ambitions of growing up a girly girl. Those ambitions died sometime between middle and high school, but wow, did I want Katherine Heigl's wardrobe from "Wish Upon A Star." This is your typical "Freaky Friday" kind of story, in which two sisters who just can't seem to get along somehow swap bodies and learn to love one another again. You know the drill. There are some shockingly provocative scenes, considering it's a Disney movie, like the scene when Danielle Harris' character Hayley's body is being inhabited by her sister Alexa, who wants to ruin Hayley's reputation and turns up to school in a borderline S&M-type outfit. It's brainless, it's pretty, and it's got a sweet ending -- what else do you need?
8.
Smart House (1999)
Oh, Disney and its visions for the future. "Smart House" is a movie about a family who wins a "smart house" named Pat which has a bunch of really advanced built-in functions, like being able to whip up whatever you want to eat within seconds. As all things technological do, Pat eventually begins to get out of hand and traps the family inside. But not before everyone learns to love one another, natch.
7.
Brink! (1997)
Classic Disney. This was the fourth movie Disney made under the "Disney Channel Original Movie" title, and the one that started the obsession for me. Oh, Erik von Detten, with that oh-so-cool skater look that was so popular during the time ... that luscious dirty blond hair ... Anyway, the movie is about a group of friends who call themselves "Soul Skaters" and skate for fun, and their "rivals," a semi-professional (a.k.a. corporate sponsored) team called "Team X-Bladz," led by evil Val. After Andy Brink (Erik von Detten)'s father loses his job, he decides to pick up some extra dough by sneakily joining Team X-Bladz without telling the Soul Skaters. As you can imagine, this story has a happy ending, but not before friends feel betrayed and "bad guy" Val makes you shudder and want to punch him in the face.
6.
High School Musical 2 (2007)
This was the quirkiest, most self-aware Disney Channel Original Movie I've ever laid my eyes on. Where the first "High School Musical" movie faltered in its inability to decide whether it wanted to be serious or camp, the sequel soared. Bright colors, coordinated dance moves, catchy tunes, puppy love, a sinister subplot, summertime, Zac Efron's overacting, veiled homoeroticism, no real adult supervision ... yeah, you've got the elements of a great made-for-TV movie.
5.
Stepsister From Planet Weird (2000)
I'll bet this is an oft forgotten Original Movie. I watched this movie over and over back in the day ... I couldn't get enough of the improbability of it all, of the rainbow colors, and the quirky eccentricity. The story goes: Mom invites eccentric Cosmo Cola and his daughter Ariel (Tamara Hope) to move in with her and her kids, Megan (Courtnee Draper) and little brother Trevor. The more Megan gets to know Ariel, the weirder Ariel seems ... until she discovers that her new stepsister and stepfather are actually aliens hiding from their kind. The dialogue in this film, particularly Ariel's, stood out to me as kind of forward-thinking and really different.
4.
Rip Girls (2000)
Oh, Camilla Belle, this was the only time I ever liked you. Little Camilla Belle played a girl (Sydney) who is visiting her deceased mother's homeland of Hawaii. She's inherited a plot of land that a hotel chain wants to commercialize. But as Sydney gets to know the locals, she becomes torn between selling the land to the hotel chain and preserving it for the locals. This movie aired a year after I'd first visited Hawaii, and it instilled in me an even greater desire to learn how to surf (which I attempted 5 years later). And although Camilla's Sydney seems kind of feeble, the movie has an overall message of girl power that I really appreciated at the time.
(unfortunately not in English)
3.
Genius (1999)
I saw this movie on TV about a year ago and had to clear my schedule for it. I thought "Genius" was smart and funny, and like most Disney movies, had a lot of heart. Charlie (Trevor Morgan) is a hockey-loving preteen physics genius who's enrolled at college, but decides to go undercover as a slacker at the local junior high after falling for Claire (a young and equally insufferable Emmy Rossum). Claire eventually uncovers his secret and helps Charlie develop his particle accelerator and put it to "good use" during a hockey game. Sounds boring, but it's cuter and sweeter than that.
2.
Tru Confessions (2002)
This movie was among the best Disney's ever created, and would be in the number one spot if the number one movie hadn't begun a craze that us 20-something girls are still nostalgic for to this day. "Tru Confessions" is, again, about two siblings who can't seem to get along ... except this time, it's because one of them has a developmental disability. Tru (Clara Bryant) decides to enter a video-making contest and decides to focus her video on her developmentally disabled twin brother, Eddie (Shia LaBeouf). This movie made me laugh, it made me cry ... and it produced some of the best acting I've seen in a Disney Channel Original Movie. This was the movie that convinced me Shia LaBeouf's career would be one worth following in years to come.
1.
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1998)
If you haven't already guessed, "Zenon" is my number one choice for best Disney Channel Original Movie. It spawned a bit of a phenomenon (2 follow-up movies and a slew of teenage girls using "futuristic" vocabulary, like "zetus lapetus") that was a precursor to the "High School Musical" craze. Zenon (Kirsten Storms) is sent to Earth after having misbehaved on an orbiting space station in the year 2049. Before landing on Earth, Zenon had won a contest to see her favorite rock band, Proto Zoa, and she wants nothing more than to get back to the space station in time to see them live. As she adjusts to life as a teenager on Earth, she discovers that a space station investor is plotting to more-or-less destroy the station, and rounds up her space and Earth friends (including a very young Gregory Smith and Raven Simone) to help her stop the plot and save the station in time for the Proto Zoa concert. Easy peasy. Girl power at its best, especially when you've got a 13-year-old at the helm! So captivating is the storyline (and ensuing romance) that I didn't even mind the "futuristic" spandex outfits in bright colors more suited to the early '90s than 2049. But you never know what'll come back into fashion ... zoom zoom zoom, you make my heart go boom boom.
