Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Adventures in Babysitting Review

I promise I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible!

Disney's 100th Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), Adventures in Babysitting, premiered this past weekend. I've been enjoying watching the previous 100 DCOMs on the WatchDisney app, reminiscing and remembering when I saw them for the first time. Zeno was more awesome in my memory than it seems now, but Double Teamed was just as inspiring and kind of made me want to play basketball for a day, which is kind of amazing in itself.

I finally got the chance to watch Adventures in Babysitting today and was not disappointed. I wasn't really sure what to expect, because the premise seems pretty predictable. Girls swap phones, girl impersonates frenemy, both girls get into heaps of trouble, hilarity ensues. Having not seen the original, I didn't have a lot of expectations for this remake. I do have high expectations of Sabrina Carpenter, as I adore her on Girl Meets World.


Although the subject matter is a tad far fetched, it wasn't as predictable as I'd feared. Watching as an adult, and a mom, I felt more worry for their clueless parents than I felt excitement for the adventuring kids. The pursuant bad guys made me quite nervous, as I always worry about bad guys and kids. I know; its crazy. The antics they get up to in this DCOM are very reminiscent of Home Alone, from kids tackling criminals to slapstick-style violence where no one actually gets seriously injured.

Both Sofia Carsen and Sabrina Carpenter do a fabulous job, with their characters vastly differing from previous characters they've portrayed. Sabrina excels as the uptight overachiever, while Sofia shines as the artistic goof-off without the foresight to fear consequences. Their interactions have that odd couple hilarity to them, and they do find themselves in some funny situations. From runaway tweens to the big concert in the 'city'-- a location deemed dangerous but is only referred to as 'the city' and has no other name, yet half the cast ends up there- the joyride is a rollercoaster of antics and feats. The importance of money is a real highlight, as well as how manipulation can have its place.


Alright, my spoiler free section ends here. I won't go into specifics below, but be warned: something might get given away!

Each character clearly influences the other, which is really nice to see. People change people, often not intentionally. It was also nice to see that there isn't necessarily a better way to behave based on the outcome. One girl needs to loosen up and one needs to tighten up, and both have to learn that they aren't perfect and there's more than one way to break an egg.

The varying kids' characteristics was wonderful; from the punk to the chef to the athlete, no kid was restricted as to what they liked based on their age or gender. A seven year old pima donna? Sure. A nine year old girl obsessed with roller derby? Why not! An eleven year old boy-chef-prodigy, taking on the culinary world by storm? Yes, please! I love how different each character was, yet their differences weren't the driving force in their character.

Have you seen Disney's latest DCOM? What were your thoughts?