Film Friday | Watching My DCOM Backlist [#1] – Coffee Cocktails & Books 📖

Hey friends,

Ah, it’s been such a long time since I did a Film Friday post! I haven’t been watching movies as much as I’ve been trying to dedicate my free time to reading. Now that we have the Stay at Home order, I’ve been balancing my time between reading, watching movies/tv, and watching YouTube.

Because of that, I thought it would be fun to document it on the blog since I’ve been rewatching a bunch of DCOMs and early 2000s Disney shows. Reliving some of these shows and movies that I grew up with has been so much fun and it’s really pushed me to watch more DCOMs since I haven’t seen many at all.

What I’ve Watched:

So over the last couple weeks, I’ve watched a good chunk of movies.

I first did a full series rewatch of Kim Possible and was super surprised as to how well the series held up overall. Everything makes sense within the internal logic and a lot of the problems that Kim and Ron face still hold up as normal problems for teens to have.

During this rewatch I watched a Sitch in Time (which is not just 3 episodes in season two) and So the Drama. Sitch in Time still holds up really well. It’s paced pretty well, has a solid conflict, and some genuinely hilarious dialouge.

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As for So the Drama, despite getting the most iconic end game couple for a 2000s Disney show, the movie itself was kind of lack luster. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it didn’t feel like it had the same weight as I remember. Also, the pacing was much slower than I remember, most of the more iconic reveals and moments happened so late in the story (which is normal, I know), but since this movie was like an hour-long, it felt like a lot of set up and little payoff. Still an enjoyable watch, but not as good as I remembered.

Then I was in the mood for some feel-good guilty pleasure movies and decided to rewatch the Teen Beach Movies. I was in undergrad when these came out and definitely thought they were dumb, but the music was super catchy. Occasionally I’ll turn this on if I’m struggling to sleep. Watching this recently I’m able to say objectively this movie is weird and bad, but it’s still super entertaining if you don’t opt to analyze it AT ALL.

The sequel isn’t as good as the first movie, but it isn’t like the worst thing I’ve ever seen. There’s a strong “women can do anything message,” which isn’t a bad thing, just a bit heavy-handed. There’s also a trope at the end that is weird and results in my overthinking things way too much for a movie made for kids.

Then I decided to rewatch the Descendents movies. When I first saw the first one, I wasn’t a fan. I thought the plot was nonsensical and didn’t like how much autotuning was used on the music (also I will never forgive the terrible rendition of Be Our Guest). But the movies have grown on me over the years and I genuinely like the music in the sequels. Each movie gets a little better than the first (in terms of the music, the plots suck in all of them). I wish the plot of the third one was treated a bit better since there were so many good ideas, but a lot of contradictions and choices that make no sense. Yeah yeah, this is a movie for kids made to sell merch, but still, there were some good ideas and I wish they were just treated better.

Lastly, I watched the classic of the Zenon movies. I remember loving these back in the day and was so so excited to rewatch them. I am happy to say, this first one is still pretty entertaining, but wow it does not hold up at all. I love seeing 90s tech made to look futuristic. But the sequels were not good, wow. Like space allowed for a bit more of a plot in the sequels without repeating too many plot points, but something about them just didn’t hold up. They’re a fun nostalgic watch, but are not nearly as good as some other DCOMs. Also, the frequent recasting of characters is super distractive as an adult lol (and Raven’s “cameo” in Z3 is just sad).

What I Plan to Watch This Week:

This week I definitely want to have a bit Halloween week.

The Halloweentown movies are still some of my favorites. I watch the first two almost every Halloween (along with Hocus Pocus). I remember watching Halloweentown II for the first time when I was little and was so terrified yet intrigued. It wasn’t until the following Halloween when I saw the first one and watched the 3rd and 4th ones when the released. I don’t like Halloweentown High as much, but it’s still pretty cute. Return to Halloweentown made me mad because of the recasting. I liked the premise of the movie, but the recasting was so distracting, I almost wish the entire movie was set in the past and this was just a prequel that like Dylan or Sophie were reading about.

When I was little I didn’t like Twitches that much, I don’t remember why and I honestly don’t remember if I saw the sequel or not. Now that I’m older I’m super excited to rewatch these and see how they hold up.

Lastly, I really want to rewatch my (current) favorite DCOM – Now You See It. I love magic and magicians and this movie came out when I was actively learning how to do magic tricks. So many things about this one I remember loving and I’m really excited to see how it holds up.

Have you watched any of these DCOMs recently?

What are your thoughts?

Let me know below!