Lemonade Mouth, on Disney Channel
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Caution: potential spoilers.

This is based on a book I haven't read. The movie first aired in 2011, but I didn't see it until 2025, as part of my Summer of DCOMs. I'm sure I wasn't expecting it to turn out to be one of my favorite DCOMs, but somehow it did. I really liked all the music, and it had some good characters, and the overall story was pretty good.

It starts with some narration from one of the characters, Olivia White (Bridgit Mendler), talking about how successful her band, Lemonade Mouth, had become. The story then flashes back to how the band members first met, in detention, then back even further to see how each of them ended up in detention. Then back to detention itself. It was in their high school's basement, where Principal Brenigan had relegated all the school's extracurricular clubs. Detention is being overseen by Miss Reznick, who wants to turn the detention room into a music room. She leaves briefly to complain to the principal about the noise from the new gymnasium. The gym had been sponsored by some soda company, which required the school to replace all its beverage vending machines with only the brand that sponsored them. This later becomes a problem, because part of how the kids in the band first bonded was because they were all drinking lemonade from a vending machine in the basement. But that's getting ahead of the story.

Anyway, while Miss Reznick was out of the room, the five kids in detention start playing instruments, with Olivia being the lead singer. The other kids include Mohini "Mo" Banjaree (Naomi Scott), who plays bass guitar (though she was unfamiliar with the instrument at first, having been trained in violin); Charlie Delgado (Blake Michael) on drums; Stella Yamada (Hayley Kiyoko) on lead guitar, Wendell "Wen" Gifford (Adam Hicks, whom I knew from Zeke and Luther) on keyboards. They'll all eventually do some singing, as well, and Wen raps. But I don't really remember if they were all actually playing instruments until later on, after they formed a band. When Miss Reznick comes back and hears them, she thinks they're great, and encourages them to form a band. Which they don't want to do, at first. But later, Stella convinces them to do so, apparently because she feels like an underachiever compared to the rest of her family.

All the kids in the band have stuff going on in their lives. Olivia has to deal with stage fright, but aside from that, her mother died long ago, and her father is absent (for a reason I won't spoil), so she lives with her grandmother. She also has a very old, sickly cat that she's worried about, particularly because it's all she has left from her mother. Mo has parents (especially her father) who expect her to be the "perfect Indian daughter". So she's a bit rebellious, but only while at school. She's especially not going to let her parents know she's dating a boy named Scott Pickett, who is the guitarist for a band called Mudslide Crush. The lead singer of that band is Scott's friend Ray Beech, who is a major jerk. And everyone in Mudslide Crush (and all their fans) get upset when Lemonade Mouth is given part of their time playing at the upcoming Halloween dance. At first, Scott is somewhat dismissive of Mo's band because of this, and later, Ray tricks Mo into witnessing Scott with another girl. So she breaks up with him. But when he finally hears her band play, he realizes they're good, and wants to make up with Mo. But once again, I'm getting ahead of the story. Um... Charlie's parents want him to play soccer, like his older brother who is now in college did, but he isn't any good at it. Still, he tells them he made the team, to cover for the time he spends practicing with his band. He's also got an unrequited crush on Mo. Stella, aside from wanting to prove herself to her family, also wants to protest some of Principal Brenigan's rules, such as the "unwritten" dress code, and the removal of the lemonade machine. And Wen is upset that his divorced father is dating a somewhat younger woman, whom he eventually proposes to. Also, it seems that Wen and Olivia begin developing feelings for each other.

Well, everyone who attends the Halloween dance ends up really liking Lemonade Mouth, though Stella uses the opportunity to stage an impromptu protest, which gets the band in trouble with Brenigan. They're no longer allowed to play at school, but they soon get a regular gig at a pizza parlor. They're also supposed to compete in an upcoming battle of the bands called "Rising Star", where another competitor is Mudslide Crush. But things start going wrong for the members of Lemonade Mouth. Mo seems to get sick, though she says it's probably just allergies. I really thought that would end up becoming a bigger, more serious problem, but it didn't. But all the problems they each have (Charlie hurt his hand, Wen hurt his eye, Olivia lost her voice, and Stella gets them all in trouble by once again protesting the removal of the lemonade machine) lead to a breakup. Then, of course, the band eventually gets back together, but their physical problems persist for awhile, which leads to difficulty with their performance at Rising Star. But luckily, their fans in the audience have their backs, which was pretty cool. And Scott steps in to play guitar for Lemonade Mouth, angering Ray. Also, all the kids resolve their various problems with their parents. This includes Olivia, whose narration turns out to be from a letter she writes to her father. And as we saw at the beginning of the movie, the band goes on to great success.

Well, I feel like I've said too much, but I also think I've left out a fair number of details. I think the movie could have been pretty formulaic, but I feel like it sort of wasn't. I liked that we got to know each of the band members fairly well, and I cared about their issues. And as I said, I really liked the music (even Mudslide Crush's songs, though I thought Lemonade Mouth was better). And all in all, I just think it's a really fun movie.