Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph

As soon as I found out about this movie I wanted to watch it. It was a video game geek's gold mine of nostalgia. Add to that a compelling story about a man wanting to be a hero, loads of humor, and an awesome voice cast, and you get the superb movie that is Wreck-It Ralph.

I can't even wait, let's get right into the movie.





We meet Ralph, a 9 feet tall man who is a character in an arcade game called Fix-It Felix, Jr. For 30 years he's been the bad guy, always wrecking the apartment building Niceland and trying to stop Felix from fixing it with his magic hammer. When the player wins the game by getting Felix to the top of the building all of the apartment residents come to the roof and give Felix a medal and throw Ralph off the roof to land in the mud. After the game is over Felix gets congratulations from the Nicelanders, but Ralph has to go live in the dump where the broken pieces of the building get sent. Ralph wishes he could be a good guy and get the adoration that Felix gets. Then we see that the voice-over that Ralph was giving was him speaking at a group therapy called Bad Anon, full of video game villains. Their slogan is "One game at a time." The others tell Ralph that it is important that games had bad guys and it is not a reflection of their true selves. Ralph still wishes he could stop being a bad guy. The other villains are afraid he's "going Turbo" which is a reference that is explained later in the movie.
The reason all of these villains can gather together is that characters can take transportation through their power cables to the central power box called Game Central Station and travel to other game environments at night when the arcade is closed. While traveling back to his game from the Bad Anon meeting we hear a PSA from Sonic the Hedgehog that warns characters to be safe when traveling outside their games because if they die while not in their own games they don't respawn.
Ralph sees Qbert and other characters from his game with a sign saying that their game was unplugged. They get to live on because they had made it to Game Central Station before it was unplugged, but they have no home now. Ralph game them one of the cherries he picked up in Pac-Man which is where the Bad Anon meeting was held.






When Ralph gets back to Fix-It Felix, Jr. he finds that everyone is having a party for the game's 30th anniversary in the penthouse of Niceland, including Pac-Man who is not even a part of their game. He is upset that they didn't invite him. He goes up and talks to Felix who is too nice to turn him away and goes inside to have cake. The cake was designed to look like the apartment building with all of the Nicelanders and Felix at the top and Ralph in the mud at the bottom. Ralph wants to be included with the group but can't really bring himself to ask them so he instead says that the figure of Ralph on the cake should be at the top of the building too. One Nicelander, Gene, says that there is no room so Ralph suggests that the Ralph figure and the Felix figure can take turns being in the mud so there's more room at the top. Gene dismisses this idea since Felix has to be on the roof to get his medal. Ralph says that maybe the Ralph figure should get the medal instead. Gene says that if Ralph ever got a medal they would invite him to live in the penthouse, but bad guys don't get medals. Ralph insists that he is not a bad guy and Gene points out that he is because all he does is wreck the building. Ralph is upset at this and slams his fists down which destroys the cake, proving that he wrecks the apartment building.
Ralph leaves the party vowing that he'll return with a medal so awesome all of Felix's medals will wet their pants.






Ralph goes to the local Root Beer bar game, Tapper, where a lot of characters hang out at night and asks the bartender if he knows where he can get a medal. The bartender suggests the lost and found and while looking through it he runs into a soldier from the game Hero's Duty, a 1st person shooter where you destroy creatures called Cy-Bugs on an alien world. The solider is a little shell-shocked. He tells Ralph all they've been doing for the week they've been plugged in is climb the building and fight Cy-Bugs. And for what he asks, a stupid medal. Ralph asks about the medal, the Medal of Heroes, it's shiny and it says Hero on it, perfect for Ralph. The soldier sees a cockroach and freaks out and runs into the wall and knocks himself out. Ralph takes his outfit and heads on over to Hero's Duty before the arcade opens, hoping to get the Medal of Heroes for himself. He runs into Qbert along the way to the game.
Ralph joins the game Heroes Duty, led by Calhoun, a no nonsense female soldier who guides the player in the game. Ralph is unprepared for the Cy-Bugs, thinking they were little things, but no, they are as big as Ralph himself and they can become whatever they eat, as evidenced when one ate Ralph's gun and then grew guns itself. They also lay eggs at an alarming rate. Ralph messes up the game and gets the player killed trying to save himself from a Cy-Bug. After the game ends a huge bright beacon goes up and all the Cy-Bugs go towards it where it fries them like a bug like. Ralph decides that instead of playing the game as normal, he will instead climb the outside of the research tower and bust his way in to the chamber where they give out medals.
Back in Fix-It Felix, Jr. a player starts a game but is confused that Ralph is not there. When Felix shows up to fix the broken building he finds that it is not broken at all. He sneaks off the side of the screen and tries to find Ralph in his dump, but Ralph is not there. The player goes to tell the arcade manager and he puts a sign on the machine saying it is out of order. The characters know what this means, if the game isn't working soon they will be unplugged. They need Ralph to save them.
Qbert shows up to tell them that he saw Ralph headed to Hero's Duty so Felix goes there after the arcade closes to find Ralph. He is shot at by Calhoun when she thinks he's a Cy-Bug, but he is quick enough to stay safe until she realizes he is not a bug. He starts to tell her what he is doing there but finds himself entranced by her beauty. She doesn't respond to flattery, though. Felix asks her if she's seen Ralph but she didn't know that she had and says that nothing gets past her. Just then they hear the sound of broken glass coming from the top of the tower where Ralph has finally broken in to the chamber with the medal. The floor is covered with Cy-Bug eggs but Ralph is able to move around them. He walks up the stairs to the platform with the medal and the game is on autopilot and awards him the medal. Ralph fantasizes about how much better his life will be in the penthouse of Niceland when he inadvertently steps on a Cy-bug egg, activating it. The bug latches onto his face and he trips over most of the other eggs. He then lands in an escape pod which launches itself. The pod goes towards the exit of the game to Game Central Station, right past Felix and Calhoun. Ralph bounces around Game Central Station before heading down the tunnel to another game where everything is made of candy and cotton candy clouds get stuck in the intake for the escape pod and it crashes. Ralph and the now fully grown Cy-bug are launched by the ejector seat and Ralph grabs the trunk of a candy cane tree while the Cy-bug hits another tree and sinks to the bottom of a taffy pond.
Ralph is glad to be rid of the bug, but then notices his medal is no longer around his neck.






Ralph sees the medal hanging off the branch of another tree and starts to climb it. On the way up he meets a little girl with candy in her hair who also sees the medal but thinks it's a gold coin. She is quicker than Ralph and gets it first. He begs her for the medal back because it will change his life. She says it will change her life too, as she pixelates and gets blurry for a moment. She then runs off while he falls into the taffy.
Felix and Calhoun find out that Ralph went into Sugar Rush, a candy-themed racing game. Calhoun tells Felix that they have to track down the Cy-bug that was with Ralph and stop it before it multiplies. Cy-bugs, she explains, do not know they are characters in a game and will only kill, eat, and multiply unless they see a beacon that will attract and destroy them. Felix remarks that she's very intense and her second-in-command says that it's not her fault, her backstory is that the one day she didn't do a full perimeter check was her wedding day and her groom was eaten by a Cy-bug in the middle of the ceremony.
Felix insists that she take him with her since it is his job to fix whatever Ralph breaks.
Back in Sugar Rush the regular characters are getting ready for their nightly event. Everyday 9 racers are available for players to choose from, but everyday the 9 that are available are different. All of the racers race every night and the top 9 are the ones playable for the next day. The cost of entry into the qualifying race is one gold coin. King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush, is a jolly man who's catchphrase is "Have some candy." He officiates the races as well as races himself. All of the usual racers throw a coin into the pot for their spot in the night's race. Then the little girl who got Ralph's medal throws it in and the game accepts it as a coin and she gets onto the roster as well, Vanellope von Schweetz. Everyone is upset when they find out that she is in the race, they call her a Glitch (referring to the moments when she pixelates). Her go cart doesn't even have an engine, it is pedal powered, she made it herself. Just then Ralph comes on the scene, but he is covered in taffy and looks like a green monster. He wrecks the stands trying to get to Vanellope, not knowing that she already used his medal to get into the race. When she did that the medal disappeared like all the coins do when a racer puts it in the pot, so he can't get it until after the race.
Ralph end up stuck in a cupcake as well and the cops (a donut and an eclair) beat him instead of the thief he is chasing.

Ralph gets away from the police and out of the taffy and finds Vanellope being taunted and bullied by the other racers. He stops hating her for stealing from him when he sees her being treated like a glitch the same way he was treated as a bad guy in his own game. The other racers had destroyed her cart, but she figures Ralph can help her get a new one so she makes a deal with him that if he does she will give him back his medal when she wins.
Calhoun and Felix and on Ralph's trail when Felix remarks that he never thought Ralph would go Turbo. Calhoun doesn't know what that means since her game is new to the arcade so Felix explains it for her. When the arcade first opened there was a racing game called Turbotime. Turbo was the star racer of the game and loved the attention. When a newer racing game showed up and got all the attention from the players Turbo was jealous and left his game and tried to race in the new one and ended up getting both games shut down for good.





Vanellope needed Ralph to get a new card because the bakery where the real carts are made was locked. He was strong enough to break through and help her make a real cart. When they finish the cart the police and King Candy show up, determined not to let Vanellope race. They chase Ralph and Vanellope (who doesn't actually know how to drive) around until Vanellope tells Ralph to go through the rock on Diet Cola Mountain. It was a secret entrance and Vanellope lives in the mountain next to the diet cola hot springs. The ceiling of the mountain is covered in Mentos so when they fall they cause a reaction that shoots up streams of the boiling hot cola. Ralph helps Vanellope learn how to drive and she is a natural.
King Candy decides to take matters into his own hands and goes into the code of the game. He is able to get the medal out of the code for the racing winnings and give it to himself. As he leaves the code we see Vanellope's code separated from the rest of the game and looking broken, kind of like someone did that to it intentionally.
Felix and Calhoun have a moment in the escape pod he fixed and he calls her a dynamite gal. That reminds her of her lost fiance, he called her the same thing, so she kicks out Felix who then goes to the castle and gets put in the dungeon for being associated with Ralph.
King Candy talks to Ralph while he's alone and explains why Vanellope can't race in exchange for Ralph's medal. If Vanellope wins she gets to be one of the 9 racers for the day. If she is and she glitches while being played the players will think the game itself is broken and it would get shut down. All the citizens of Sugar Crush would then leave to Game Central Station except Vanellope can't because glitches can't leave their games. The game would be powered down and she would go with it.
When Vanellope comes back she gives Ralph a cookie medal she made where she wrote that he is her hero. He destroys her cart for her own good, doing the one thing he is good at, wrecking things. She can't understand why he's doing it until she sees he has his medal back and realizes King Candy got to him.
Ralph then leaves to go home, sad about breaking Vanellope's heart, but at least he has his medal.







Ralph gets back to Fix-It Felix, Jr. and finds it all but deserted. Only Gene is left, who tells Ralph that everyone left after Felix didn't come back since the game will be unplugged in the morning. Ralph then throws his medal at the screen and the out of order sign falls and he can see Sugar Rush across the way. He then notices on the side of the machine Vanellope's picture. That's weird since everyone said she was a glitch since she wasn't supposed to exist. He goes and finds Sour Bill, a living sour ball who works for the king and is cleaning up the pieces of Vanellope's cart. Sour Bill reveals that King Candy didn't want Vanellope racing because if she crosses the finish line the game resets. He doesn't know why, though since the king had locked away everyone's memories.
Ralph frees Felix who is mad since he has been rejected and treated like a criminal today. Ralph says that he knows how that feels, that is everyday for him, which helps Felix understand why Ralph did what he did. Felix fixes the cart and they both get Vanellope out of the dungeon and get her into the race. Vanellope does really well and gets to second place behind King Candy when Calhoun shows up and says that the game is about to be overrun by Cy-bugs. The Cy-bugs are now candy themed since they've been eating candy in the game, but they are just as deadly as ever. The citizens of the game make a run for the exit to Game Central Station while Vanellope and King Candy still fight it out for first place, literally. King Candy rams Vanvellope's cart and starts to hit her with the stick that he broke off his car. Vanellope grabs the stick and starts to glitch and the glitch spreads to King Candy and he starts to transform into Turbo. Turbo didn't die when his game was unplugged, he got out and got into Sugar Rush when it came online. He reprogrammed the game and himself so no one would know he was Turbo. He is trying to crash Vanellope into a column when she realizes her glitch helps her move a little bit, so she can teleport by intentionally glitching, which she does. She gets out of the tunnel and then Turbo heads straight into the mouth of a waiting Cy-Bug, getting eaten.
Vanellope is ready to cross the finish line but the Cy-bugs eat the finish line so she can't. Ralph and Felix get her to the exit of the game but she reminds Ralph that she can't leave. He tries to take her anyway but a forcefield prevents her from leaving. Calhoun says that they'll have to blow up the exit and that Sugar Rush is lost since it doesn't have a beacon. Ralph then gets an idea. He takes Calhoun's hover board and flies to Diet Cola Mountain, planning on doing what he does best, wreck something. He starts to pound on the Mentos formation from the top of the mountain and it begins to loosen. Just as he's about to give it the final blow he get's intercepted by Turbo who is now part Cy-Bug. When the bug ate him he became part of it and says he is now the most powerful virus in the arcade and can take over any game he wants. He grabs Ralph and flies him high up into the air so Ralph can watch Vanellope get eaten by Cy-bugs at the barrier. Turbo says it's game over for Vanellope and Ralph and Ralph says, "No, just for me." He breaks out of Turbo's grasp and aims himself toward the Mentos below. As he falls re recites the Bad Guy Affirmation, "I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There is no one else I'd rather be than me." I cry every time he does this. Here is a bad guy, giving his life to save a little girl. He can do it because he's about to wreck something, that is his skill. Vanellope sees Ralph falling and starts to teleport in short jumps around the Cy-Bugs to try to get to him. Ralph lands on the Mentos and they all start to fall together. Vanellope had gotten back to her cart and is driving it while glitching to move even faster and around obstacles and goes into the mountain just in time to catch Ralph and glitch through the walls before the Mentos land in the cola and create a boiling hot geyser a couple hundred feet tall. The Cy-bugs are attracted to the geyser like it's a beacon and they all go towards it and are destroyed, even Turbo.
Felix fixes the finish line and Vanellope crosses it and turns into a princess and the whole land is restored. Everyone gets their memories back and realize that Vanellope was their princess the whole time. She'd rather be a racer, though, so becomes president instead of princess.
Ralph goes back to Fix-It Felix, Jr. and is glad to be the bad guy again. With all the characters back the game is not unplugged. They even invite homeless characters in for bonus levels and make the game very popular again. Felix makes a real home for Ralph next to the dump along with apartments for all of the transplants from old games. The best part of Ralph's day is when he is lifted up by the Nicelanders to throw him off the roof at the end of each level, because when he's up there he can see Sugar Rush and can see Vanellope racing. Her Glitch makes her popular since she can teleport at random. She will notice Ralph looking at her and she smiles. Ralph's final line is, "If a little like that can like me, how bad can I really be?"
I tear up again.

Awesome movie, and I can relate to the character well, despite not being a bad guy. All of the geek references make it even better.

Stardust

Stardust

Stardust is a great movie. It has romance, action, magic, and some humor. All of those things are great to me. It's the story about a young man who is kind of an outcast in his hometown in England before the Industrial Revolution. He sees a falling star and offers to retrieve it to impress a girl he likes and journeys to a magical land where the fallen star is not what he expected and he isn't the only one after it.

The movie starts with a letter from a young man named Dunstan Thorne from a village called Wall in England. He wrote to a scientist at the London Royal Academy asking if another world could exist beside our own. The scientist explained that such notions were poppycock, so the boy set out to find out if it was true. Their village was called Wall because of a wall that ran beside it which was said to divide their world from another one. One night Dunstan was arguing with the old man keeping guard at a broken section of the wall. Dunstan argued that there was nothing beyond that wall other than the field they could both clearly see. The guard said that for hundreds of years the wall has stood and for hundreds of years the gap had been guarded against crossings, so Dunstan was not about to have permission to go through. Dunstan started walking home and then quickly reversed direction to run past the unprepared guard. He ran through the aforementioned field and beyond that found a path to a market, lively even at night. There he saw strange wonders like a miniature elephant with two front ends, a jar full of eyes that still moved and looked at things, and a slave girl who claimed to be a princess tricked by a witch. The girl sold him a small white flower called a Snowdrop for a kiss and then lead him into her mistress's wagon while the witch was at a bar. Dunstan went back home and nine months later he was given a token to remember his time with the slave girl, their son whom she named Tristan had be left at the gap in the wall for him.
Tristan grew up and got a job at a grocer, but dreamed of dating the most popular girl in town, Victoria. Victoria, however, was being courted by a wealthy young man named Humphrey. Tristan picked some wildflowers to give to Victoria and called out to her outside her window one evening. Humphrey then showed up and tossed Tristan's flowers to the ground with his cane and had in-hand a dozen roses for Victoria. Tristan picked up a stick to try to return the favor to Humphrey but Humphrey defeated him easily, remarking that Tristan was terrible at fencing in school.
The next day Tristan is at work helping customers when Victoria shows up, cuts to the front of the line and demands that Tristan fulfill her shopping order immediately and carry the items home. Tristan is lovestruck so he is only too happy to oblige and loses his job. After encouraging words from his father that evening Tristan again goes to Victoria's window and asks that she join him because he has a surprise for her. Showing her character, Victoria is only too happy to go along with him as long as she is being given stuff. She cares nothing for Tristan's affection, only materialistic things.





Tristan prepared a candlelight picnic for Victoria. Victoria tells him that Humphrey is rumored to be going to the town of Ipswich to get her a ring to propose. She can't very well say no after he goes all the way to Ipswich. Tristan, incredulous at this mindset, vows to travel the world for her hand in marriage. He would go to California and bring her back her weight in gold, to Africa to get a diamond as big as her fist, or to the Arctic to slaughter a polar bear and bring back its head. The last one didn't have the same affect on Victoria as the first two, of course.
At the same time, across the wall in Stormhold, the king is on his deathbed and asks his four remaining sons to come to him. His sons are named Primus, Secondus, Tertias, and Septimus, for their order of birth. The king remarks the he had killed all 12 of his brothers before their father was even sick to lock in his place as heir. At that he invites Secondus to look out the window at the kingdom and gestures to Septimus to take care of Secondus. After he falls to his death Secondus finds that his other three brothers' spirits are all trapped in the land of the living, invisible spectators until the new king of Stormhold is crowned. He has to join them. The king asks about his daughter Una, but Primus says no one has seen her in years. Septimus is accused of doing away with her too, but he says he has no need since only a male heir can become king. The king then decides that an unusual method for deciding the new king must be taken. He takes his ruby pendant and the color drains out of it until it is clear and says that only he of royal blood can restore the ruby, and the one who does so will be the next king of Stormhold. He lets go of the necklace and it floats in the air, the king dies, and then the necklace darts past the three princes out into the night sky where it flies higher and higher until it collides with a star and knocks it out of its place in the heavens.
Tristan and Victoria see the falling star and Victoria remarks on how beautiful it is. Tristan says that he will get her that star for her hand in marriage even though it appears to have fallen on the other side of the wall. Victoria agrees, and promises that if he can bring back the star by her birthday in one week she will marry him and not Humphrey.
Capricious, ain't she?

Tristan and the princes aren't the only ones after the star. A witch notices the falling star as well, so she wakes her two sisters. These women are old, I mean, real old, so old they make Yzma from Emperor's New Groove look young. There's a reason they want the star. See, the star isn't a meteorite, it isn't a ball of gas, it's a young woman. If someone were to cut out the heart of a star and eat it, they would have eternal life. Well, they would if they weren't a witch. The witches had a heart from the last fallen star, they had been rationing it for a while, and when one of the sisters is chosen (by cheating) to go get this one, she is given the last piece of the heart and it rejuvenates her into a hot Michelle Pfeiffer. Using magic, though, would use up the youth the heart provided.
Tristan goes to the wall to try to cross and the guard (the same one his father encountered) stops him. At first the guard mistook Tristan for his father and the guard lets slip the Dunstan had crossed the wall before. Tristan tries the same trick his father used but this time the guard was ready. He vaulted over the wall and fought Tristan back through using his walking stick. He beat Tristan worse than Humphrey did at the beginning of the movie.
At home while nursing his wounds Tristan talks to his father about the wall and Dunstan tells him the story of how he met his mother (but unlike the TV show it doesn't take 9 years). He gives Tristan part of the magical chain he had cut that bound the girl to the witch (no, not one of the witches after the star). He also gives him the Snowdrop, it was glass, not a real flower, so it's still in pristine condition. Tristan is also given a letter left to him by his mother. She wrote that she would have kept him if the witch had allowed her to, but of course as a slave she couldn't. The letter was wrapped around a black candle which she said was the fastest way to travel. If Tristan lit the candle and thought of his mother he would go to her in an instant. His father helped him light the candle and off he went.
The girl who was a star picked herself up off the ground where she landed and put on the necklace that caused her downfall, and then saw a bright light traveling towards her. Tristan then crashed into her and mistook her for his mother. She assured him that she wasn't his mother and then he realized what happened. He was thinking about his mother at first, but then started thinking about Victoria and the star. Then Tristan realized he was standing in a crater and he asked the girl who was not his mother if she had seen the star. She thought he was joking, but then she described what happened to the star and how it was hit by a "magical flying moron." Tristan then puts the pieces together and realizes that she is the star.
You think Victoria will still be impressed if he brings her another woman?





The three princes are drinking a toast with the Bishop who is to crown the next king when the Bishop falls dead of poison in his wine along with Tertias. Septimus had hoped to poison his two brothers and spare the Bishop, but Primus grabbed the wrong cup and was spared instead. The two of them set out for the ruby.
Lamia, the witch, meets Ditchwater Sal, the witch who is keeping Tristan's mother a slave. The two witches share a meal and Sal had laced Lamia's meal with a truth-telling herb so she learns all about the star. Lamia is a much more powerful witch, though, so she curses Sal that she cannot see, hear, touch, or perceive the star in any way, ensuring another witch will not get in her way. Tristan's mother observes the whole encounter.
Yvaine, the star, agrees to go with Tristan to meet Victoria in return for the rest of his candle, called a Babylon Candle, so she can get back to the night sky. She can't stand traveling during the day since stars are used to sleeping during the day, so Tristan leaves her chained to a tree (with the magic chain his father gave him) and goes to get food while she rests. A unicorn frees her and takes her to an inn, however the inn was not there that morning, it was created by Lamia as a trap. Tristan finds the tree where he left Yvaine and sits down next to it, resting himself since it is now night. The stars tell him that Yvaine is being chased by the same witches who killed the last fallen star 400 years prior and that a coach is coming by that will let him get to her in time to save her. The coach is run by Primus who is the only good prince, so he allows Tristan to get a ride. They stop at the inn, neither knowing that what they both seek is there. Lamia was about to cut out Yvaine's heart when Primus knocked on the door. Primus gets into the bath that Yvaine had used and then goes on and on about his father's fabulous carriage that he now owns, not noticing that Yvaine is wearing the stone he is seeking. Lamia attempts to poison Tristan while he is in the stable with the horses, but the unicorn saves him. He runs in to warn Primus about the treachery but Primus gets his throat slit by the special knife (looks like obsidian, maybe) that Lamia has to use to cut out Yvaine's heart. Tristan and Yvaine try to flee but Lamia cuts them off with magical fire. Tristan then grabs the Babylon Candle and tells Yvaine to think of home. Then he thrusts his hand into the fire to light the candle and they both get out just as Lamia is about to stab them so she breaks the knife on the wall.
Turns out Tristan meant think of his home, but Yvaine thought of her home, so they ended up in the clouds, so they were halfway between their homes. They got picked up by pirates who crew a flying ship and poach lightning.
First witches, now pirates. However will they get out of this mess?





The pirates put the couple in their ship's brig for the night. The two of them stay up talking about life, adventure, and Victoria. Yvaine doesn't understand why Tristan has to do this to prove his love for Victoria when she will make no such gestures to show her feelings for him. Tristan says she'll understand when she meets Victoria. Yvaine then says one of the best lines of the movie:
"Murdered by pirates, heart torn out and eaten, meet Victoria. I can't quite decide which one sounds more fun."






Tristan and Yvaine are questioned by the pirate captain. The whole crew of the ship is at the top of the stairs to the brig listening through the door while the captain makes various threats against the two of them. Tristan says he is just trying to get them home to Wall when the captain reacts very badly and decides he's had enough of Tristan. The crew knows what's about to happen and run up to the side of the ship in time to see the captain dump Tristan out the window to fall to his death. He then drags Yvaine screaming back to his chamber and threatens the men to stay away or they'll be thrown overboard to. When he gets Yvaine into his room and locks the door they greet Tristan standing there in his long johns, a dummy had been dressed in his clothes and thrown overboard instead. The captain switches from a gruff pirate demeanor to a flamboyant, dainty one. He introduces himself as Captain Shakespeare, saying that to his crew and his enemies he is "Shake Spear!" but in his mind he follows the bard of England. For Captain Shakespeare tales of England are myths, but he loved them as a child and believed them to be true. He was so happy to have two people he could talk to and be himself around. He outfitted them with new clothes and had a magic brush that gave Tristan long hair so the pirates wouldn't recognize him. When they made their next port Tristan came out of hiding while the crew was trading their cargo of lightning and was introduced as the captain's nephew. Shakespeare gives Yvaine to Tristan in front of the crew as a gift to make his journey more fun. Along the way Shakespeare teaches Tristan swordplay and teaches Yvaine how to dance. One night while dancing with the captain Yvaine's hair begins to glow and Shakespeare tells her that he knows what she is. Her hair immediately stops glowing and she looks afraid but he reassures her that no one aboard his vessel intends her any harm, despite the rumored value of a star's heart. He advises her to keep her emotions in check so she can hide better. Tristan then cuts in and dances with Yvaine and her hair glows brighter than before within seconds.
Captain Shakespeare sends them off on the road leading to the market where Tristan's parents met so he can get back home. He gives Tristan a canister of lightning as a parting gift and whispers something to him. As they are walking away he bids them adieu in his true persona. His first mate clears his throat and he switches back to pirate persona which causes the men to cheer and the first mate just rolls his eyes.







Lamia and Septimus and his men and getting closer to Tristan and Yvaine. Septimus traces them to Shakespeare's ship and goes in to question the captain while his men take care of the crew. Before they get on board Shakespeare puts on a record and paints his mole with a heart shape like a beauty mark. The record that he's playing (at least as far as the audience can hear) is the Can-Can. Before the prince's men and the pirates begin their fight the pirates bow to the fighters. The fighters bow in return and before they come up out of their bow the pirates attack, cause, you know-- pirates. The well choreographed fight sequence times the ring of the swords against each other to the music, which is pretty darn awesome if you ask me. Shakespeare is in his cabin unaware of the fight going on, he's having fun being himself. He's in his secret wardrobe and is trying to pick out a dress to wear. He's reveling in the music and the outfits when Septimus finds him. Next thing we know Septimus has Shakespeare pressed down on his desk with a bloody nose and a dagger to his throat asking about Yvaine. They both hear the sound of many voices saying "Arrrr" and look up to see the whole pirate crew, the clear victors of the fight, rushing to the aide of their captain. Septimus realizes he can't succeed against those odds and jumps out the window (the ship is docked in a lake so he dives into the water and is fine).
Shakespeare is upset after the fight, the crew is worried that he may have betrayed Yvaine and Tristan, but no, he is actually upset that they saw him in his true state, he was wearing the underclothes for a dress when Septimus came in, still wearing it then. The crew assures him that he is still their captain Shakespeare. One chimes in "We always knew you was a whoopsie." The rest of the crew moves him to the back and moves into his old place. He spoke the unspoken, the thing they all knew and no one ever mentioned, so they hid him and continued on like it hadn't been said. I find it very amusing and also touching that they valued their captain as he was but still allowed him the fun of playing a role.






While traveling the road to the market, Tristan and Yvaine see a marker saying that it is 60 miles to the wall, which would take 2 days, but Victoria's birthday is the next day. Providence shines on them, though, and they see Ditchwater Sal and her wagon approaching. Yvaine saw her when Shakespeare was selling his lightning and heard that she has dealings at the market so she figures they can hitch a ride with her. When they approach her to ask for a ride she sees the flower Tristan is wearing and claims it is hers and she has been looking for it for 18 years. His mother is there but has been transformed into a bird, but she realizes this is her son. Tristan barters the flower back to Sal for safe passage to the wall. Sal agrees and promises he will arrive in the same condition he is in currently. After he hands over the flower Sal tells him that the flower is very powerful and protected him from what she was about to do. She casts a spell on him and he turns into a mouse. Yvaine is upset and tries to fight Sal but is unable to touch her or provoke any kind of reaction. Lamia's curse was in effect and Ditchwater Sal could not interact with the star in any manner. Sal locked Tristan in a small cage inside her wagon and Yvaine helped herself inside and insulted and threatened Sal knowing she couldn't be heard. While alone with Tristan for the ride she professed her love for him, thinking that he couldn't understand her as a mouse.
They get to the market and Tristan is transformed back into himself, but the transformation disorients him so Yvaine helps him to a nearby inn, aptly named The Slaughtered Prince.
While they are resting Lamia is still in communication with her sisters who tell her that Tristan and Yvaine are heading towards the wall. Lamia hardly considers that good news as she reveals (to the audience, her sisters knew) that if Yvaine crosses the threshhold into the human world she will become a true fallen star, just a lump of rock.
After resting Tristan reveals that he understood what Yvaine said while he was a mouse and says that she doesn't need to be embarrassed. The thing that Shakespeare whispered to him as they parted ways was that his true love was right in front of his eyes. Tristan agreed and tells Yvaine he loves her too. Her hair gets very bright then, of course.
In the morning Tristan sneaks a snippet of Yvaines hair and puts it in a handkerchief and sneaks out. He tries to leave a note but the inn proprietor doesn't want to look for paper at such an early hour. Tristan instead leaves a message that he's gone to see Victoria because he's found his true love and wants to spend the rest of his life with her.






Yvaine decides to go see Tristan in Wall and find out why he chose Victoria over her. While walking through the market she's seen by Tristan's mother, in her normal form again, who tries to get her attention to stop her. Tristan's mother decides the lock the sleeping Sal in her wagon and take it after Yvaine to save her from crossing over.
Tristan arrives at Victoria's house and gives her a birthday greeting. She is only mildly surprised by his transformation with the longer hair and new outfit and everything in just a week. She wants her star. He gives her the handkerchief and then she decides she wants him. Tristan takes Victoria in his arms, dips her for dramatic effect, leans in close, and tells her she needs to grow up and get over herself. Then he drops her to the ground. Humphrey walks up at that exact moment and pulls a sword out of his cane to get revenge for Tristan treating his woman so. Tristan takes out his own sword he had gotten while on the pirate ship and waves it in a skillful practice motion. Humphrey decides better and backs down. Tristan tells Humphrey that he has no need to fear and wants Humphrey and Victoria to be happy together. Victoria opens the handkerchief and is mad that all she got was a handful of stardust. Tristan looks at it and realizes that Yvaine cannot cross the wall.
It's now a mad dash for the wall. Yvaine is walking slowly, depressed over her mistaken break up with Tristan. Tristan is running through Wall trying to get to the location that gives it their name to stop Yvaine from turning into a rock. Tristan's mother is driving Sal's wagon to try to catch Yvaine before it is too late with Sal in the back getting tossed around by the jarring motions. Lamia is still in Primus's carriage and is trying to stop Yvaine to capture her and take her back home where they have another special knife to cut out her heart. Septimus is now on his own and is trying to find the stone Yvaine wears and he also wants Yvaine now so he can be king forever.
Yvaine is about to cross the wall when she is grabbed by Tristan's mother who tells her that she will die if she steps onto human soil. Sal breaks out of the back of the wagon and is upset with Tristan's mother thinking she drove them there for no reason at all since she still can't see Yvaine. Then Lamia arrives and kills Sal. Tristan's mother is happy because her chain is finally broken and she is free. Lamia then orders Yvaine to get into the carriage but Tristan's mother tells Lamia that Yvaine is staying with her. Lamia has no problem with that and takes the leftover part of the slave chain and binds the two women together and takes both of them.
Tristan arrives and finds the guard deserting his post, afraid of the witches and magic that goes on on the far side of the wall. He tells Tristan what happened and Tristan goes to the wagon and finds the Snowdrop flower and then takes the horse from the wagon and rides off to rescue Yvaine. Not long after Septimus arrives and sees the carnage left over and follows the tracks towards the witches' home.






Tristan and Septimus finally meet outside the witches' mansion. Tristan recognized him from what Primus had told him earlier. They look in and see the four women with Yvaine (they don't know that Tristan's mother isn't a witch and is their new slave) and decide to work together. Septimus goes in first and corners the first woman he finds, Tristan's mother. Of course, Septimus knows her real name, it's his long lost sister, Una. He leaves her to go fight the first of the sisters, Empusa. Empusa conjures fire and throws it at Septimus. While he's fighting her Tristan comes charging and and also goes for Una. She stops him and tells him that she is his mother. They both then watch the fight between Empusa and Septimus. Septimus can't even use his sword against her because she heats it up so he has to drop it. She keeps laughing, which seems to be her thing. She throws fire at him again and while she is laughing he finds a falchion in a large urn and hurls it at her. She is pinned against a wall, impaled on the large sword and laughs again. But it is her last laugh and she dies. Mormo, the other sister, is about to confront Septimus but Lamia stops her and instead pulls out a soft clay figure. She bends the figures right arm sharply and Septimus's arm snaps and he drops his sword (again). She then does the same to his right leg and he falls. There are still some smoldering flames on his jacked from Empusa's fire so she decides to help him put out those flames and drops the voodoo doll into a fountain. Septimus rises up into the air as if he was floating underwater and drowns. He joins his brothers' spirits watching the fight. They don't know that Una had a son so they suppose they must all "live" together forever.
Tristan goes to fight Mormo and sends Una outside for her own safety. Instead of fighting Mormo directly, he notices the reactions of all the caged animals to her (they keep lots of animals for divinations via entrail reading) and uses his sword to break open the locks on the cages and the animals kill Mormo and then run out the front door.
That just leaves Tristan and Lamia. Lamia asks him if he'd like to be a frog or tadpole and fires a spell at him, but the spell stops about a foot away from him. She tries again to the same effect. Tristan then reveals he has the Snowdrop flower (stupid Tristan) so she instead uses magic to levitate objects and throw them at him. He then breaks out the canister of lightning and shoots her, knocking her away. She lands next to the fountain and grabs Septimus's voodoo doll and uses it to make his corpse fight Tristan. Tristan stabs it repeatedly to no effect, so he finally drops a chandelier on it and uses the rope to bring him crashing down on Lamia next to Yvaine. He fights Lamia who is surprisingly good with the obsidian knives they have and fights him to a standstill and knocks away his sword in mere moments. He is standing over the slab where they have Yvaine strapped down, Lamia standing there with two knives while he is defenseless. Lamia looks to her sisters' bodies and then cries out loudly as she brings down one of her knives. Tristan and Yvaine are both in shock as they realize she cut the strap holding down Yvaine. She says that youth and beauty are meaningless without her sisters to share it with. She tells them to go so they run towards the front door to meet up with Una. Problem is that before they get to the door it slams shut as well as all the windows. Lamia's crying changed to laughing, it was all a ploy to get Yvaine's hope up to put more emotion into her heart. Lamia is glad she now has the heart all to herself. She breaks the windows in the front hallway inward causing Tristan and Yvaine to retreat back closer to the slab where she was just freed. Yvaine tells Tristan to close his eyes and hold on tight. He asks what is she going to to. She responds, "What do stars do best? Shine."
Then a really, really awesome score is playing as she shines brighter and brighter, so bright that Lamia bursts into ash. Tristan asked why she didn't do that earlier and she told him that she couldn't because no star can shine with a broken heart, but when he came back her heart was mended. He told that he came back because he loves her.
Yvaine goes to hug Una, glad to see that she made it through the conflict and Tristan notices that Yvaine's necklace had broken when she went nova. He picks up the clear jewel from the center but before he has a chance to give it to her it turns red in his hands. The ghostly princes are confused until Una declares that he is the sole male heir of the Stormhold bloodline and rightful king. The princes then move on to the next life and the scene shifts to the conclusion.







Tristan is crowned king of Stormhold, with Yvaine as his queen. They invite not only the people of Stormhold (the pirates are guests of honor) but also the people of Wall are in attendance. Tristan's parents are back together and looking happy to be with one another again. Una gives them a wedding gift, another Babylon Candle.
In the audience Shakespeare looks over to Humphrey sitting with Victoria and gives him a little wink to which Humphrey responds with a small smile. Victoria is not happy with that, ha ha.
Tristan and Yvaine ruled Stormhold for the next 80 years, but as the narrator says, no man can live forever except he who possesses the heart of a star, and Yvaine had given hers to Tristan completely. After their children and grandchildren are grown they light the Babylon Candle and both become stars in the sky.


I really enjoy this movie, mostly because of the magic, but the romance is really great as well. The score is also noteworthy, especially the pirate fight and when Yvaine destroys Lamia.
Oh yeah, and Humphrey, who was receptive to Shakespeare's flirtations, was played by Henry Cavill, now known for portraying Superman in Man of Steel.

Lemonade Mouth

Lemonade Mouth

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks, life has been full.

Today's movie is Lemonade Mouth, a DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) about a band of misfits, literally. They are a musical band, comprised of those who don't fit into their school's view of normal.
Since I love musicals when I heard that this was coming to Disney Channel I couldn't resist. I watched it and fell instantly in love with both the music and the story. As an outcast in school it was really easy to empathize with the characters in the movie. Plus, there are three really touching moments throughout the movie that I love.

And it's come to my attention that many of my readers misunderstand my use of the Play and Pause symbols. They aren't meant to be interactive, they are just something I put in to show when I'm watching the movie and when I stop to write about what I've seen and felt.

Time to watch.






The movie opens with a voiceover from one of the characters, Olivia, talking about what people think about the band Lemonade Mouth. She says that contrary to popular opinion they did not start out with the idea to form a band, they actually met and formed a group in detention. The detention was run by Ms. Reznick, the music teacher who has been forced to relocate to the basement to make room for the sports stars and new gymnasium. The kids in detention are Olivia, the narrator of the movie and lead vocalist for the band, Stella the guitarist, Wen the keyboard player, Charlie the drummer, and Mo the bassist. When Ms. Reznick hears the sound of toilets flushing above she starts to raise her voice about the state of the school and Olivia pauses and returns to the beginning of the day to show how all 5 of them got detention.
Stella just moved with her family from Rhode Island even though school had started a month prior, a fact which upset her and she is mad at her parents for not consulting her on that issue. Before going to school she gets in some time on her guitar to unwind. She is wearing a shirt that reads "Question Authority" when she and her mother meet with the principal, Mr. Brenigan, for her first day of school. He is upset at her shirt and her mother gives her a jacket to cover the offending shirt. At an assembly lauding the school's new gymnasium and sports programs which is really just a marketing ploy by the a sports drink company with a product called Turbo Blast. They paid for the school's shiny new things and as such have turned the school into a place dominated by the jocks and cheerleaders (kind of like regular high schools, except multiplied by 3). One of things mentioned by principal is empowering students so Stella takes it as an opportunity to speak out against the crowd and took off her mother's jacket and showed off her shirt because doing so gave her back her voice. She got sent to detention as a result of that.
Wen is seen as passenger in his dad's truck while they drop off his dad's girlfriend, Sydney, at a local community college. Wen is upset about his dad's choice to date someone much younger (she is only 28) and even more upset that his father seems to be giving more focus to Sydney than to him, one time even not picking him up from piano practice because Sydney needed him. When Wen is at school and asked to give a report he finds that his folder had gotten mixed up with Sydney's photography class portfolio. She arrives just in time to switch it back and the teacher asks if she is Wen's mother. Wen is upset that people compare her to his mother and calls the teacher stupid for thinking he could have such a young mother. That gets him into detention.
Charlie arrives at school hitting the back of his parents' seats with his drumsticks. After they stop in the parking lot his mother asks if he is excited for soccer tryouts like she is for him. Charlie's older brother, Tommy, was the star athlete of the school. Charlie's mom gives him the ball Tommy used to win the state championship game for luck. She starts to cry even though Tommy is only away at school, it's not like he died or had anything horrible happen. Charlie doesn't get it but he does understand that his parents are trying to force him into something he does not want to do. At tryouts he is terrible and is so fed up with it and the taunting of one of the current players, Ray, that he throws his brother's ball at him but Ray dodges and it hits the soccer coach instead. Guess where he sends Charlie?
Mo is dropped off at school be her father, an immigrant from India. He asks Mo to make sure to ask for extra credit so she can get a really high GPA for her college admissions even though she is only a sophomore. When he thinks he sees her wearing lipstick he chides her saying that she is too young for that sort of thing. Mo quickly wipes her lips and insists that she knows better than to be wearing makeup like that.She gets out of the car toting her violin case and starts to head to class. After her father leaves she runs into the bathroom and changes her outfit and puts on makeup to look like a regular high school girl. She runs into her boyfriend, Scott, another soccer player who is in a band called Mudslide Crush, the most popular band in the school (probably the only band). Between band rehearsals and soccer practice he doesn't get to spend much time with Mo so he asks her to skip class with him. They try to sneak out but are caught by the principal. She gets assigned detention while Scott gets off with a warning since he has to have time for soccer practice.
Olivia is very shy so she goes into the janitor's closet to read and knocks over some mops while Brenigan is driving past on his Segway. He opens the door and hands her a detention slip since she should be in class.

They use a cool storytellying device through Stella. Since she is new to the school and doesn't know where detention is the head of the AV Club gives her a tour of all the clubs and groups in the basement on the way to the detention room showing the audience and Stella how anyone who isn't related to sports is put away and thrust out of sight.

Right outside of the detention room (the new music room). There is a vending machine for Mel's Lemonade, an organic lemonade company. The light of the machine attracts all 5 misfits and they make their way to their assigned fates and they each stop and buy a drink and relish the sour but fulfilling taste.

Ms. Reznick makes the kids clean up her new music room as their detention punishment and she works herself up into a frenzy and decides to go give Brenigan a piece of her mind. She leaves the kids to clean. Since this is a Disney movie it's okay to leave 5 co ed teenagers alone together in the furthest room in the basement. Instead of getting up to trouble they get up to something awesome.





While cleaning they start to make rhythmic sounds with the stuff they are working on. They Charlie notices and takes out his drumsticks and starts to hit a beat on the desks. Mo picks up a bass (an upright, not an electric) and starts to pluck a tune. Wen sits and the piano and jumps in. Olivia starts to vocalize in tune with the music and Stella grabs an acoustic guitar. Olivia doesn't just read a lot, she also write poetry so she decides to sing one of her poems. They get into a groove and before they know it Ms. Reznick comes back in and sees and hears them. They end the song and notice her there and all start to hurriedly go back to work on the cleaning. She stops them and tells them their band is wonderful. The kids deny that they have a band but she tells them that the previous few minutes disproved that. Ms. Reznick tells the kids to join the Rising Star competition to stick it to Brenigan and everyone else who thinks they don't fit it. Their competition would include Mudslide Crush, so they don't want to risk the humiliation. Ms. Reznick tells Stella that this is their chance to be heard, in more ways than one.

The 5 misfits go their separate ways and each go back to their lives and their problems. Olivia lives with her grandmother and has a very old cat that she cares for very deeply but is sick and not eating. Wen's dad, sister, and Sydney want to go horseback riding and Wen tells them he hates doing that even though his sister says he doesn't. He just doesn't want to be around Sydney. Mo is trying to practice her violin so her father can see she is doing as he instructs. When he leaves the room she changes the tune to the song they had played together in detention. Stella is appalled at her family's fish dinner and her dad wonders if she's now a vegetarian. She proclaims that she's been a vegetarian for four months and somehow her genius family (not sarcastic, they really are all geniuses) didn't notice. She was even wearing a shirt that said "Vegetarians Rock."  Even though she can't invent things the way her family does, she knows she could start a revolution. First step in her revolution, get the band together to be heard.






The next day she texts the other 4 kids and they get together to discuss it. Stella signed them up for Rising Star as well as to open for Mudslide Crush at the school's Halloween party. They reluctantly agree to give the band a try. Their first practice has some hiccups, but by the end they are playing a new song, also written by Olivia. During the song there's also a kind of montage showing their school lives being overshadowed by the athletic minority and Turbo Blast.

They have to think of a name for their band, while trying to agree on one Olivia finds a threatening letter on their lemonade machine telling them to pull out of the Halloween Bash. The whole school is mad at them for taking time away from their idolized band.
At lunch one day Olivia goes to buy a Turbo Blast when one of the cheerleaders/Mudslide groupies takes it from her and the girl starts to threaten Olivia. Wen and Charlie try to come to help her but Ray (the soccer player and lead singer of Mudslide Crush) comes in and Wen and Charlie back down. Doesn't stop Stella, though. She takes a big swig of their favorite lemonade and spews forth all over Ray. When he tells Brenigan what happened he refers to Stella as Lemonade Mouth, giving them the perfect name for their band.






Wen goes over to Olivia's to work on music for their grand debut. While there he sees her cat, Nancy. She tells him that Nancy had belonged to her mother before she died so keeping the cat is like keeping her mother around. Wen asks about Olivia's father but Olivia changes the subject.

While going to their last rehearsal their hearts sink when they see a sign on the lemonade machine saying it was scheduled for removal. Instead of practicing Stella marches to the principal's office to demand that they keep their vending machine. It turns out that because of their endorsement deal with Turbo Blast they have to get rid of all other drinks.
Stella gets worked up because that machine is symbolic of them and their place in the school. Getting rid of it for another Turbo Blast machine is like the school is telling them to conform.

As if that is not a bad enough day for Wen, when he gets home he finds that Sydney is moving in with them and his dad plans to marry her.







Their debut goes well. When they first get on stage half of the audience boos them, preferring their Mudslide Crush. Their first song, however, is a hit, much to the dismay of Ray. Even his band's groupies are getting into the song "Determinate" that Lemonade Mouth plays. For their second song Stella passes out cans of lemonade to the crowd and tells them about the scheduled removal of the lemonade machine and tells them that it is proof that the school doesn't want individuality and that it thinks some programs and people (sports) are better than others. They start a new song and really get the crowd worked up. Principal Brenigan is also really worked up and ends up literally pulling the plug on their performance. The next week at school he takes them into his office and tells them they are no longer allowed to convene as Lemonade Mouth at school. The problem is, step 2 of Stella's revolution has begun: their message was heard.
All over school they find support for their band and their message. The AV Club, who had worked the sound for their performance, had already started selling CDs of their two songs and was giving them 70% of the sales. The week before they were pariahs and now they were the most popular thing in school. They not only had good music, they stood for something.







After getting their band back together outside of school things are going smoothly for everyone. Then one day Olivia is not in school. They find out that her mother's cat Nancy had died. The whole band goes over to offer their emotional support. They start to talk about their feelings and insecurities, especially about their families. Olivia reveals that her dad is in prison. He had made some bad mistakes after her mom died and now he's in prison. He writes to her but she is too humiliated to talk to him or about him. The band surrounds her again and then they start to play an emotional song called "More than a Band" saying that they are friends and family to each other and will support one another in everything. That was the first touching moment.






You know that moment when you hear your first hit on the radio while still in high school? I don't either, but they way they portrayed it in the movie I can imagine it pretty well. The excitement is infectious, even to their families. Wen is in the bathroom brushing his teeth pretending he is being interviewed when Sydney barges in. She is so excited for him she can't even take the time to knock, she has to tell him the good news. He then calls and tells the others so they all hear their song on the radio. Olivia and her grandmother are playing cards and they throw the cards up into the air because they can't contain their excitement.






They have 24 hours before the Rising Star competition when things start going bad, real bad. Mo comes down with a fever and cough, Charlie breaks a couple fingers in his garage while slamming shut a tool chest. Wen is helping his dad hang a picture on the wall when his dad asks him to be his best man at the wedding. In surprise he drops the picture and the frame hits him in the eye.
While Wen is chatting with Olivia the next day and complaining about Sydney Olivia yells at Wen about his lack of appreciation for his family, even Sydney.While shouting she loses her voice.
Then Stella sits down to stop the movers from taking away the lemonade machine and calls the band to come help her. They get picked up by the police and put in a holding cell to wait for their parents.
They start fighting among themselves while in the cell, some saying they shouldn't play since most of them can't perform anyway. After they go to their separate corners of the cell they start to fiddle with things and end up recreating the rhythm of their first song together. They then start to sing it and bond back together.






Now for the second touching moment: they have to talk to their families after being in "jail."
Olivia's grandmother is there first. She's glad that Olivia is no longer a loner, but remarks that this isn't exactly what she meant when she asked Olivia to get out more. Wen's dad is stuck at work but Sydney comes and instead of being upset that he has to deal with Sydney Wen gives her a hug for the first time and thanks her for coming to get him. Mo has to fight to get her dad to let her explain herself. She tells him that she's not the perfect Indian girl he wants her to be, but neither is she all American either. She hopes to be a combination of the two, and her band and her music are part of that now. She finally gets her dad to accept that she is growing up. When Charlie goes out to his parents' car he finds his brother Tommy there instead. Tommy tells Charlie that he has been doing poorly in school that semester and is not as perfect as their parents think. He tells Charlie to stand up and tell their parents that he wants to make music instead of play soccer. Tommy even suggests they talk to their parents together to support one another.
The best one of all is Stella's talk with her mother. Stella had felt like she was invisible to her mother, but her mother tells her that she has been watching how focused and determined Stella's been in starting a band and standing up for herself and the lemonade machine. Stella couldn't believe that not only had her mom noticed, but she was proud of her, too. Stella invites her mom to come see the revolution she started and her mom says "We were planning on it." "We?" They exit the police building and find Stella's dad holding her guitar with her brothers there, all waiting to escort her to the Rising Star competition.







Mudslide Crush plays first. I like this song a lot better than the one they played early in the movie, but the lyrics were terrible. Not terrible like they made up words and couldn't rhyme, but terrible as in they kept singing about how they were better than everybody else and everyone was jealous. Not like Lemonade Mouth's songs which people can relate to.

When Lemonade Mouth takes the stage the song is just horrendous. They play "Determinate" again, but instead of a nice piano intro it's messed up due to Wen's blurry vision. Olivia can't sing, Charlie can't keep time because he's trying not to hurt his broken fingers, and Mo has to keep stopping when she has a coughing fit. They end up stopping after the first couple lines and Ray from Mudslide Crush is ecstatic.

Mo and Scott had broken up earlier when she caught him flirting with one of the groupies (that and he thought her band should be secondary to his, like hers was just a cute hobby). When he saw how badly they were doing on stage her got his guitar back on to go out to help them. Ray fought against that and threatened to kick him out of Mudslide Crush if he did. Just when things looked worst for our band, the third touching moment happened. Classmates in the audience started singing their song for them. First one, then another, then their families joined in. Scott then told Ray that he thinks he could easily find another band and goes out to help Lemonade Mouth and plays back up for Stella (the only one who could still play) while the entire audience sings their song.

Lemonade Mouth loses Rising Star since they didn't actually play, but that makes no sense to me. The loyalty and devotion showed by their fans is something you can't manufacture with a record deal. If I was a music producer I would have declared them the winners from that alone.

Olivia then continues the narration that their lives have become better from everything. Scott and Mo get back together and he joins the band. Wen gives Olivia a new kitten to replace Nancy. He admits that Sydney genuinely cares about his family so he will give her a chance to be part of that family.
At Wen's dad's wedding Stella is sitting next to his old college buddy who used to play in a band, too. Shes asks him what he does now and it turns out the lemonade they love is his. Stella asks him to make a donation to their school to support the arts and they get a new music hall with Mel's Lemonade instead of Turbo Blast.

Then we find out that Olivia isn't just narrating the movie, she is actually writing a letter to her dad, the first one to him since he went to prison years before, and telling him all about her band and friends. She promises that she'll come see him soon. She ends by telling her dad that their band is playing Madison Square Garden, we then are treated to a song on stage. They've come a long way from the school basement, but their message is the same about standing up and being heard. This song is called "Break Through" and encourages people to stand up for themselves and what is right.


I love not only the music from this movie, but also the message it brings. It's not encouraging teenagers to go out and do things they shouldn't do, but it is empowering them to be real, to be themselves, to stand up for things.