Camp Rock, on Disney Channel
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This came out in 2008, but I didn't see it until 2024. I suppose you would call it a backstage musical, because all the songs in the movie make sense in-universe, so I'm not going to list it on my musicals page.
The main character is a teenage girl named Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato), who is super eager to go to Camp Rock for the summer. At first, her mom says she can't go, but then tells her she can, because her mom got a job as the camp's cook. I must say, for someone so excited to go to this camp, Mitchie's shyness about performing was a bit surprising to me. Like, if you didn't actually want to sing, why did you even want to go? But of course she eventually gets over that. Um... she befriends a girl named Caitlyn (Alyson Stoner), but then falls in with a trio of girls named Tess, Ella, and Peggy. Tess is the queen bee of the camp, and doesn't treat anyone, including her friends, with any respect. And she only lets Mitchie into the group because Mitchie makes up a bunch of lies, centering around her mother being the president of a music channel in China, or something. So of course she has to prevent anyone from finding out that her mother is actually the cook, which is made harder by the fact that Mitchie is required to help her in the kitchen.
Meanwhile, there's a famous boy band singer named Shane (Joe Jonas) who is the nephew of the camp's director, and is forced to teach a class at the camp to improve his PR reputation. At first he really doesn't want to be there, but eventually he gets into the spirit of things. He also overhears Mitchie singing, but doesn't see who it was, and becomes obsessed with finding the "girl with the voice". He also befriends Mitchie, unaware that she's the girl he's searching for.
That's pretty much all the plot set-up, and I don't feel the need to go into more details. I'm afraid it was kind of hard to root for Mitchie, given all her lying. Oh, there's also a subplot about Tess being sad that her mother never has time for her, but it was hard to feel too sorry for her, considering all the mean stuff she did. Still, it wasn't a bad movie, I guess. And as is often the case, I don't blame anyone else for liking it a lot more than I did. At least it had some good songs, and a happy ending. And I'm glad there wasn't a romance between Mitchie and Shane. And I don't know what else to say.
Followed by "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam"