16 Wishes

Looks like my wish for a really good modern DCOM has been granted

NOTE: The follow is the very first REMAKE of an older review of mine. There is nothing hugely wrong with my initial review, but it was hastily written and since then I’ve realized more things about the film. I feel a review in my current style would work better. So I decided to remake the review. This was done as a separate post here so the original could still exist and be read.

Nonetheless, this remake will be written as if it’s still that day the original went up. So no references to things that came after it. Enjoy the first review remake. I hope note to do more

Hello, Spongey here.

We’re all familiar was the reputation of Disney nowadays. More specifically, the Disney channel. You know, the home of tween sitcoms and movies. If you remember, my “Top 11 things I like that people hate” list did include Disney channel sitcoms.

And the same could apply to todays Disney Channel movies. I’ll go into more at a later date, but for now I’ll say that most of them are not the best. There are plenty of legitimately decent ones, but just as many wind up as Guilty pleasures.

But what if I told you there was a 2010 DCOM that is not only the best recent DCOM, but perhaps one of my personal favorites of all time? You would call me crazy, but it exists.

But first, allow me to introduce to Debby Ryan. She is one of the big Disney stars right now, following in the footsteps of Selema Gomez, Bridgit Mendler, and others. What I mean by that is that she is legitimately awesome. While she hasn’t been in as many legitimately decent things as them, I put her on the same level.

Again, I’ll discuss those others later, but for now it’s Debby time. She first came to Disney through The Suite life on deck, and she was quite funny and was a lot more down to earth in her acting. She’s not quite as awesome as the aforementioned ladies, but she’s still pretty cool.

Also, she’s nice.

With her growing popularity, it only makes sense she would star in her own movie in 2010. But this DCOM is interesting. It was actually not meant to be a normal DCOM. It was first started as a normal direct to video movie done as a Disney Canadian thingy.

But then Debby Ryan signed on, and that changed everything. Also, Disney was impressed with the script and that pretty much meant that they took it and put in their DCOM library. However, it wasn’t billed as a big official DCOM, putting it alongside Hariet the spy blog wars.

But Disney still overall counts out, and this I will too. But that does explain why it’s so different…and awesome. It was directed by Peter Deluise, who has done plenty ofTV work, including many episodes of RL Stine’s The Haunting Hour.

Coincidentally, Debby guest starred in an episode of that. It was awesome. Anyway, it was written by Anne Deyoung and Emily musgrave. Anne’s credits include Princess protection Program (eh), Starstruck and the equally awesome Girl Vs Monster. Emily has the Nick Tv movie, the boy who cried werewolf.

Some okay talent here. So enough of that long intro, let’s dig into a truly interesting film.

This, is 16 Wishes

The movie opens in the home of a girl named Abby, played by Debby Ryan, Of course there has to be a pop song as she gets up in the morning. I admit there a couple of minor cheesy bits like this thrown in.

We see that’s her 16 sweet, and she also has a normal teen girls bedroom. Invluding a poster of lame pop star #454. Also ,she was written her 16 Wishes as a young girl which is just what she wants when she is 16.

Under 16, it’s blank but she put a picture of a dude at school she likes. Keep that mind, that’s actually important.

Her opening pop montage is interrupted by her parents and brother. Being bumbling parents, they snap a picture of her at a bad moment when she stepped out of her room. But thankfully they aren’t sitcom level bumbling, and they obviously mean well.

Abby is not happy, and she does the whole “I’m not a kid, I need privacy and boundaries”. As far as Abby goes, she is incredibly likable throughout the entire thing. We see that, like most teens, she wants to be treated like an adult. And trust me, that fact plays a BIG part..

She also squeezes in a “love you” to rebound from a potentially unlikable moment.

“Today is going to be magical”

Subtle. We join the family downstairs, which includes the typical kind of brother. But they actually don’t make him a flat out dick, though he also doesn’t do too much, but he adds a certain element later.

Speaking of, he heads to Abby’s room to giver her, her breakfast. We also see that the brother is a big guitar guy but he sadly doesn’t have a real one yet. That comes into play later too.

Then he looks at her wish list mocks it, like you do. We also find out she wrote that list when she was 7, and they discuss the “realism” of some of her wishes. One of them leading to an imagine spot with 7 year old abby decorating her room the way she wants.

Then, the brother says this.

“You’re crushing on the quarterback.? How cliche”

BEST LINE. IN ANY MOVIE. EVER.

Now again, this as all part of how much of teenager girl Abby truly is. And perhaps this is a bit typical but the lame shows that they KNOW this and play around with it. So far we’ve seen a few amusing moments that poke fun at it. And that line proves it.

Plus, it plays into the overall plot as we see later. Then she looks outside and we see Krista Cook, the local Alpha bitch. Yep, the kind of Alpha bitch who seems to get what she wants, in contrast to our hero. Thankfully, she is kind of toned down from you’d expect. And again…they do something with it later.

It also happens to be her sweet 16 too. Abby doesn’t know why she hates her so much, as she been messing with her since 3^rd grade. I think the entire first half of this review will just point out things that come back later.

After a trip to the bathroom, she heads back to her room and finds a whole bunch of wasps. Yeah ,earlier we panned up to the attic to see a big ol’ wasps nest there. We even get what I call “wasp cam”

Smash cut to later as the wasps have taken over the house and the family can’t go back in the house with them in there. The exterminator lady says the nest must have been building up for about 16 years.

But she did save Abby’s 16 wishes list. I don’t know why that was the thing she chose to give to them but…there is a reason for that, believe it or not.

So the thing is, Abby is still in her PJ’s, and while she does have clothes in her gym locker, Dad can’t drive her as the wasps hang around the driveway too. Now she to take the because I guess they no other neighbor friends who could drive her or something. Even worse, the brother hitches a ride with Krista.

So after that she meets up with her friend Jay. Now, he’s actually a cool dude as he gets funny lines and reacts like a normal person would to all the film’s events. He’s not just a friend who will become a love interest. They play up the friend part, and make him seriously interesting later on.

After he gives her his jacket, he gives her half of a friendship necklace as her gift. Abby then talks about how this was supposed to be the day she gets all the things that come with being a grown up but it’s turned out pretty bad so far.

“This is the worst birthday in the history of birthdays”

Then the mail ruck pops up, and the mail lady gives her a package. I didn’t know the mail can be dumped off at someone’s bus stop.

“Real is delivered to your house. Not your bus stop!”

See, he gets it! Also, told you he was awesome.

She opens and it turns to be 16 candles. The packing says “blow out the candles and make your sweet 16 wishes come true”. Yep, we’re startign off the bat with the magic but we did get good introductions first.

So out of courssity she tries out Candle 8 as her Wish 8 was for her own car.

“What if something bad happens?”

“What if something good happens?”

I admit, minor bits make Abby a bit odd as she moped about her day and then she then accepts these past few events as perfectly normal. But many elements help make her likable, and Debby Ryan’s performance adds a little something extra.

“And if it’s a joke, the worst hat can happen is we take the bus”

So she blows out candle 8, and boom, instant car delivered by a lady who looks exactly like exterminator lady and mail lady.

“When a total stranger comes up and offers you a car, you don’t just take it!”

He continues to be the best non Debby character so far.

Abby points out she technically isn’t a stranger, cuz she figures she is the aforementioned ladies. I’ll defend Abby here since it did just so happen to appear when she did her wish. I”d suspect magic too.

Magic lady introduces herself as Celeste. She’s all cute and bubbly and hilarious. A very enjoyable presence, and she never gets annoying. She’s here to make abby’s 16 wishes come true.

“Well that pretty much explains exactly nothing”

Have I mentioned how self aware this movie is?

“Years from now, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in that car?”

…That reminds me of a line from Bayformers. Don’t know how to fell about that.

Jay sucks it up and joins her in the car.

“You’re some kind of magical being like an eld or a fairy?”

“Sure, why not?”

So many awesome lines, so little time. So Celeste drives them to school in record time. After that, she vanishes and we see that everyone is impressed with Abby’s new ride.

So Abby is pretty happy with how things are going now until she remembers she still has her Pajamas on. But those gym locker clothes fix that. Not sure why I mentioned that.

So she tries out wish #2: “When I’m 16, I’ll have the cutest clothes in school.” Only for some reason, the candle puts out itself when she tries. Then she gets caught with her matches by the gym teacher.

Then she has to go to the counselor ..but thankfully it’s Celeste. Not sure how that works but I’ll let it slide. Abby asks about the candle not lighting. Celeste explains that she gets one wish per hour.

“All magic has rules”

Something Timmy Turner knows all too well.

So she has to wait 27 minutes. Thankfully, the only other rule is that the magic expires at midnight. Also, all wishes become permanent then. Then Celeste magically takes out Krista’s diary and Abby reads it, but only after thinking she shouldn’t.

Abby bumps into Krista a bit later and it turns out Krista has pretty much been keeping score between them. Once that is said, the movie decides to do it to. Krista gets a point for throwing a sleepover more popular than the one Abby had one night.

I love that score gag. Which brings me to my next positive tangent about the tone. Most of DCOM’s, our at least the ones around this time are classified as a Drama/Comedy but they tend to be more dramatic. Or at least overly dramatic in the places.

What I’ve seen of Camp Rock and Let it shine is a perfect example. They aren’t super serious all the time, but it seems like there’s not much balance, and the drama ends up being dull and boring.

This movie however, is a flat out comedy, more often than not. The tone and feel is bright and easier to watch. It has strange effects at points and they squeeze a lot of amusing moments from the dialogue to even small things I can’t bring up.

What I mean is that it’s FUN and every dramatic or story element works, as they fit in well. And trust me, one of the most dramatic things ever happens later, but it’s done PERFECTLY. This is one of the biggest reasons this movie is so good. The writing, performances, and even editing captures all tones very well.

ANYWAY, Krista gets another point as Abby entered a talent show with a baton at, so Krista beat her with 12 Batons. Then Abbby says she’s beaten here at the show every year since then. This brings her up to 7.

KRISTA: Don’t play innocent with me, you know what you did!

So thus, I’ll never tell you until you find out for yourself later! I kid…but whoa, you’ll see why later.

Anyway, a pissed of Krista says she’ll make sure no one comes Abby’s sweet 16 party, and hers will be much bigger. This brings Krista’s score up to 11. Guess she watched some Spinal tap recently.

Also, Krista is running for Class president, and she is the only person on the ballot. Jay points she isn’t even interested in that kind of crap.

“And you are?”

“Well, I-”

“I didn’t think so”

Oh, we’;ll get to that later. …I am saying that a lot in this review. Also, Krista randomly jumps to 16 when the quarterback guy shows up to help her with posters.

So now Abby is pretty happy that those 20 something minutes have passed, as she hides in the janitor’s closet to blow up her candle. The cutest clothes thing.

Thus, Celeste pops up and the room turns into a clothes filled closet. So Celeste fixes her up, and Abby comes out of the closet (NOT LIKE THAT) to greets her peers.

…No comment. I wanted to keep the fanboy-ing to a minimum , and I intend to keep that promise.

Anyway, Krista’s goons are all giddy over her outfit and want to sit with her at lunch….but then Krista shows up to reveal she has the same handbag as Abby’s and it’s old hat now. Then her goons strike the Alpha bitch pose to back her up.

I love that. One second they are all over, but they flip back into position on command. The sound effect just makes it funnier. ..Anyway Celeste pops up and gives Abby a newer, more desirable handbag.

Of course, no one questions who this is and why she is giving this to her.

So Abby has finally one upped Krista, but she is not impressed. She just grows hilariously. So we cut to later before Gym, as Abby is late. She gives her handbag to the gym teacher lady who is quite impressed and she is excuse. She even just lets the girls have a game of volleyball instead of doing laps.

Perhaps you could what Abby did there is on par with what an Alpha bitch would do. Well, it’s amusing enough for me to forgive…and that kind of is the point. This desire to finally be better than Krista, is starting to get to her head. But not in the cliché, unlikable way. In the likable, understandable way.

Before heading out to play ,Abby makes her next wish. Now, Celeste said if you made a wish at say 3:58 than made another 2 minutes later, it would be in a different hour and it would fly. So I guess that’s why she can make a wish so quickly. Time went by,.

“I’ll beat Krista cook at something, anything…everything”

So Abby struts out and..oh my. …No, I made a promise. So er, the game begins and Abby’s ends up kicking ass. …And knocking Krista out. Both awesome and kind of extreme. But it does bring Abby’s score up to 25.

Krista wakes up in the nurse’s office, with Nurse Celeste. Again, ot sure how that works. Then Krista is called to the principal’s office, cuz why wait til she’s better to make her get up? Eh, she healed super quickly anyway.

As it turns out, Abby is now the class president cuz of a bunch of write in votes. Yeah, this was due to that wish. Magic works in weird ways, Abby’s gloating here is pretty amusing. I think the comedy actually gets better when we get to school, as it’s less crazy and it’s more controlled and enjoyable.

So Abby talks to Jay about how amazing this is, but Jay isn’t impressed. It seems like Jay is noting how Abby is changed, and in this bit we see he has his own desires that Abby isn’t realizing. When it comes to Abby, the big bit later reveals what kind of story this truly is…

‘This whole wish thing. you’re changing too fast. I can’t keep up.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve always been allergic to volunteer work. Now you’re student body president?”

“What can I say? The people spoke”

“The candles spoke, and you have no idea what you just wished for”

“Yes, I do. Being president is like…an honor”

“Being president is an important job. It should go to someone who really wants it”

Okay, let’s stop for a second. I’m making Abby seem a bit more bitchy than she really is, but I still like all of this. I’ve gone of this over already, but let’s talk about it some more. Here, we see Jay has noticed how she has changed. He’s aware and that bit above shows how interesting he actually is.

I think the reason I stick with Abby even though she doesn’t seem to be listening, is that we know exactly why she is letting this go to her head, and she is just so damn adorable. And yes, the whole “becoming a bitch” cuz of power thing has been done, but I love how they tie it into the story bits we get.

Thankfully, Abby persuades him with the power of her new free lunch card. So we move on to wish 12, which she just activated: “When I’m 16, I’ll be popular”.

Not sure why you need that with your student body president thing giving you enough spotlight, but whatever. So after she enjoys that, she talks to Jay about her 16 party, and how huge it is going to be.

Now she wants something to wear for it, and with their free period they can go buy something. But wait, they can’t drive cuz she doesn’t have her license. Luckily, that’s Wish 7. So she blows out the candle and a driver’s ed teacher pops up out of nowhere to her that license.

The bit is amusing to make up for how pointless it is. So they drive off and end up at a fancy store. Also, Jay drops his wallet outside and Krista pops up from her stalking area. Yes, this is important.

Once inside, Abby looks at some clothes. When she asks if Logan (thew quarterback guy) will like some dress, Jay suggests getting THAT wish over with. But she says she wants Logan to like her for her, and not cuz of a wish.

That’s admirable. It mostly certainly shows a bit of humanity that Abby still had in spite of how wish crazy she is right now. Krista enters (and they don’t see hear her coming in or anyhing) and she talks to the desk lady.

She says she feels bad for the lady for having to deal with “kids like that” and says they won’t be buying anything. She could have stolen the wallet and walked away instead of being INCREDIBLY SUSPICIOUS.

Right before, the lady seemed okay with them, but Krista’s comment makes her tell them to stop playing around other there. She asks her to pay up and get out, but of course Jay’s wallet is gone.

“But we’re customers!”

“No, you’re children”

THE VERY LAST SCENE..

“A Customer’s a customer”

How much did Krista piss her off with that comment? Geez..

Abby goes in the dressing room to take the dress off…but before I can be forced to make a perv joke, she realizes it’s her next wish hour.

“Wish #9: When I’m 16, people will stop treating me like a kid”

Oh boy. Here we go…this entire next 20 minutes or so that follows this wish…is interesting. But I’m getting ahead of myself…again.

Abby exits the dressing room with the dress on and it seems that Jay is missing. The lady tells her he left with a chick in a yellow car. Yep, he left with Krista. But more on that…you know by now.

The lady offers her a more grown up dress, but abby has no money. However, Abby now has a charge account so they’ll put it on that. I inserted that bit in to show you our first hint at how much of a…grown up Abby now is thanks to the wish.

So we cut to later as she steps out with a new grown up look. I made a promise not to make an obvious fanboy comment, and I shall keep it.

She heads back to school and bumps into Gym teacher lady. …Only she thinks Abby is a substitute teacher and heads off. Strange…and it’s only to start.

She sees Jay hanging out in the next class, and calls him over. Abby asks him what is up with him abandoning her. Except…he doesn’t know her!

“You’re not my best friend. I’m a sophomore, you’re a….woman”

No comment on that list bit. But yeah, Jay truly doesn’t remember being friends with her, and he goes back to class. Abby is quite confused and devastated.

Even worse, the Principal shows up and kicks her out.,and her parents are outside waiting for her. And they pull her away, with some news.

“With the house being fumigated, there’s just no room for you so your father and I figured-”’

“We found you an apartment”

Never mind that this is a dick move, let’s question how they got a moving truck and a nice apartment all ready to go on such short notice. Magic or not, this doesn’t make much sense.

Right away, they head to her place and Mom tells her first month’s rent is on her, and she needs to get a full time job. Abby thankfully is confused by thing’s moving so fast.

“I’m just a kid, I can’t live here by myself!”

However…

DAD: I moved out when I was 18.

ABBY: ‘I’m not 18,

DAD: No, you’re 21.

MOM: 22 today. Happy Birthday!

DUN DUN DUN! Yep, it seems like the wish changed things up so she was born earlier and is now 22 on this year.

MOM: We did this out of love

DAD: Yeah, tough love.

MOM: Bob!

The dad is kind of a dick in this AU.

“Come visit anytime”

Once they leave, Abby finds a box labeled High school memories. She finds pics of a graduation she missed. Then it hits her that the wish has gone quite …wrong. This is shown via the “lines from earlier re-used to sound echo-y” cliché.

“This isn’t what a wanted”

She just wanted to be treated like an adult, but not she IS one, and she has big responsibilities she really isn’t waiting for. Think this is a tad heavy? Oh…just you wait, my children. Wait, did I just turn into Morate?

She wants to talk to Celeste, so she pulls out a wish that could summon her. Wish #3: “When I’m 16, I’ll decorate my room the way I want”.Thus, Celeste shows up as a decorator.

Abby tells her what happened with the wish.

‘The candles have their own logic. They don’t always give you what you want.”

Abby is not happy with the candle’s logic, as she wished away awesome upcoming events, and she wants to be 16 again.

“Oh Sweetie, I’m afraid that’s not possible. Candles and your wishes go together. And since there’s no do over wish on your list…I’m afraid when midnight comes, this is your life”

Oh crap.

So this seems pretty interesting, as Abby has ditched her perfectly good kid life because of a dumb wish. There’s plenty of meat here to discuss…but it gets better. Or in Abby’s case, worse.

After that, Celeste leaves. Instead, Abby’s landlord is standing on her doorstep to warn her about her first rent due in three days.

“Pay up, or move out”

So that kind of sucks. After that, she takes notice of wish 14: When I’m 16, my parents will understand me. That one should come in handy. She puts this to the test by visiting them at their place, which is an RV cuz of the whole rasp thing. Which somehow still happens in this AU.

Though it looks like the wish isn’t exactly working, as they seem a bit distracted. Nonetheless, Abby attempts to explain what is going on.

“I need to come back and life with you…please tell me you understand”

Mom responds with some speech about how Abby had always to be a grown up and that growing up is far different from what you imagine.

“You’re scared that your childhood is over”

Abby seems kind of content and Dad assures her she will always by their little girl. …Then right after they rush back in side, and block her out.

“…So that’s what that feels like”

This scene is interesting, as the parents don’t seem to understand her like the wish states. But it does of make sense. They understand what her REAL problem is, not the fantasy one she’s thinking about. She really wasn’t ready to grow up but it’s something we have to do and yada yada.

So the wish gave her what she needed, but not what she wanted. It seems a tad pointless but it adds to the theme of the whole picture. So Abby walks off and bumps into Logan the quarterback.

He’s here cuz of Krista’s party and all that. After that pointless bit, she spies Jay and ambushes him. She’s desperate to get hm to believe her story of what happened. Thankfully, she has that necklace thingy to kind of prove it.

And with a look at it…it all comes back to him. Eh, I don’t mind that we skipped the usual crap. She tells him her issue that when midnight comes, she’s stuck like this forever. They pull out the wish list to see if it can help, but Jay points out Abby isn’t 16 anymore, and even the more useless ones are kind of moot now.

This is punctuated a sweet quiet moment with the two simply standing there, thinking about what has happened. Then Jay asks Abby out to Krista’s party, but not as a date cuz that would be weird now.

So they go there, and they notice that Mike is playing the band on stage.

“Something just clicked with him this year. He got serious about playing guitar”

On top of that, Krista is actually very nice and welcoming. Yeah, she’s nice. We’ll get into why in a second. Then they mention that Jay is currently their student body president and that in this AU, Krista didn’t run.,

Jay reveals he always wanted this and he’s glad he went for it.

“I thought with me out of the way, Krista would win for sure”

“Krista? She hates competition”

“Our Krista?”

“Yeah. I think without you in her life, she’s have a reason to be un-friendly. She’s kind, and a great friend”

Jay walks away and It all comes crashing down. She looks around sees how…happy everyone is without her. Because of Abby not being around much, Mike could live his dream, Jay could do what he wanted, and Krista didn’t need to be a bitch.

Krista was not the alpha bitch who weighed everyone down and cared only for herself. No, that was….Abby.

And then Abby looks around and drives home with a sad pop song playing, runs out of gas and to top it all off, the “sad person being drenched by water via car driving be” cliché. …

And here we are. The scene this entire review was building up to…and it’s freaking AWESOME. This reveals every asset of the story: Abby was actually kind of an Alpha bitch whose need to be grown up prevented everyone everyone from doing what they wanted.

This showed how happy everyone is without her, “It’s a wonderful life” style.. And to top it all off, no one truly knows because she was in such a hurry to grow and now she’s all alone, seeing all this happen.

I….think is the most tear jerking scene in DCOM history. I mean…wow. It’s depressing on it’s own seeing her so lonely, and the pop song actually adds to it, even if the “out of gas”, broken heel and water douse bits go a bit too far.

The movie was good up to this point. But this scene is….REALLY good. Oh my god, I can not praise this scene enough. It only gets better the more I think about it. The whole “growing up fast sucks” COMBINED with the reveal about who Abby is…makes this a double whammy of sad-ness.

So her being a tad bitch-y early on was actually the entire point. And while it’s certainty not subtle, the writers are smart enough not to flat out explaijn it and let Debby Ryan’s facial expressions show it all.

This is a masterful scene, and now that it’s almost done…the rest of the review will feel lesser by comparison.

So after THAT, Celeste shows up.

“I just thought you could use a friend”

GODDAMMIT.

So now Abby sees the error or her ways.

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to grow up. I thought that was the only way to get what I wanted”

Abby takes a look at her wish list….and gets an idea. Remember how the 16 slot only had a pic of Logan, put there by gum? Well, she discovers it can be taken off…and thus the wish can be replaced!

Chekov’s gun, you win again!

So she puts a pic of her 16 year old self on there. She makes her wish…and boom, we’re back to the start. WHAT A CLIMAX, eh?

Okay, it seems kind of lame but it fits, and we still have like 15 or so minutes to go. So of course now, Abby is insanely happy to have her old life back, and to get a restart.

But this time line has already changed as Celesta the exterminator has already gotten ride of the wasps. So after that, Abby trashes her wish list for good. Then she gives Mike her birthday money so he can get a real guitar. Awww!

Then she heads outside to talk to Krista. She asks the question…what did Abby do to Krista?

“It was in third grade. Jay and I were best friends Then you moved to town.”

“It was my birthday. Jay and I made a pact….best friends forever…I stole your best friend!”

…Well, that’s interesting. It turns out Abby has hit Krista where it hurts….and this further adds to the alpha-bitch thing I talked about earlier.

“That must have been horrible for you”

“It was”

Now, movies like this tend to have the alpha-bitch turn good, but unlike some other, this does it RIGHT! Granted, it’s a tad rushed but it works. It makes it so she wasn’t really that much of a bitch and she did really have a reason AND you feel bad for her.

Compare that to some others when she would just turn cuz of a rushed plot point. They properly hint at it, and that adds to how good the writing really is.

“I also made a vow that day. I vowed I would win at everything, so you could never get anything you wanted ever again.”

“You did a great job”

“Thank you”

So they talk it out, and seem to start getting alone. It is a tad rushed how she turns good here, but it’s done fine enough. Krista admits it’s hard winning all the time, and they should make up.

So they head to school and bump into Jay. They tell him they put him up on the ballot for Student Body president, and Krista gave up. And then we cut to later at the Sweet 16, as he has apparently won. Well, that was fast.

In the end, Abby and Krista joined forces to make one big sweet 16. And yes, Mike is playing on stage here as well. .And also Logan shows up and Abby lets Krista have him.

And of course Abby goes up to Jay and says this is the best sweet 16 ever. And yep, they share a little moment together.

“Are you gonna make a new wish list then?”

“No,. No more wish lists”

At least until the sequel: 21 Wishes, Rated R for obvious reasons.

“I have everything I could ever want. Right here”

One of the times a romantic romantic like that moved me.

And so they dance, Celeste pops up to wink at the camera and we pan out as a pop song plays us out. Roll outtake filled credits with the obligatory song preformed by the lead.

…Okay, I admit that whole ending was a tad rushed. It gives me a great feeling inside, but something is oddly missing. I don’t know what it is though. However, I still very much feel the moral about growing up too fast and they certainly show Abby’s growth by the end.

I would have liked to see a longer moment with Celeste and stuff like that though. I think the reason I feel empty is that I enjoyed the movie so much with it’s sweet moments that I wanted more, and so when it ended…i wanted more. This sounds like a compliment lobbed at a much bigger movie….but that’s how I truly feel.

Maybe that’s why abrupt endings to good movies bug me so much .But ah well, it was 85 minutes I enjoyed. And so, this review is finally almost over, as the movie is done.

Final Thoughts:

I won’t pretend this movie is flat out amazing or anything like that. But for what it is, it’s pretty impressive. I’ve listed every reason in the proper review, so I’ll keep this brief.

The writers balance humor, heart, and character stuff very well, making for a enjoyable film that also has substance for kids and adults. The humor can go into typical territory at times, and to some the over the top feel early on could be bothersome. But it worked for me, and it really got funny when the plot kicked in.’

They don’t make it a melodramatic mess, but it’s also not devoid of drama. The dramatic elements hits very hard but it never destroys the humor or vice versa.

The plot isn’t exactly the newest thing ever, but they keep it fresh with all the stuff I mentioned, and the ultimate moral is a good one for kids. The characters are all likable, with Abby getting some seriously complex stuff. Debby Ryan does a fine job at making her likable through every turn as well.

I especially like how Jay isn’t the typical “Best friend turned love interest” as he has focus as a character first, and he also gets the best lines. Celesta is also great as the magical figure, in how perky she is. The performance are good all around with the non Debby people too.

But like I said, the best part is that damn sad scene. It puts everything into perspective and makes this into one of the most complex, different, and smartly written DCOMs in years. It turns from a likable chap, to a bitch, to a jerkass woobie. And It all works.

The whole movie revolves around it  and thus it wins. I admit the rest of the movie is mostly simply “pretty good/” while only that scene is GREAT but the rest is still impressive in how different it is from what I expected.

Props goes to Debby Ryan and the whole crew for making a film that is in my top 10 DCOM’s list, even if it is a tad low. But I still say it Is the best Post-High school Musical DCOM ever.

DCOM Grade: A-

Normal Grade: B+.

Yeah, I know, but it’s important to see how it is on both levels.

See ya.

So there’s my first review remake. Did you like it? Should I do more? I hope the answer is no but whatever.