One Last Thing About Jump In

I don't think this one is going to be as successful as High School Musical. Eh, sure, it will be a huge success, because the power of the Disney juggernaut is unstoppable, and it will inevitably not be as successful, because of its derivative nature. But there's something else, and it has to do with #4 below, that narrative intrusiveness that I can't quite put my finger on.

The thing about High School Musical is that even though it's inspirational, even though it's platitudinal, even though it's obvious, it's also self-consciously ridiculous. I mean, it's a musical, for goodness sake. Boys break into song on the basketball court. And it's got the whole internal satire on theater kids going on. It's fun and it's funny, and I think that's part of the appeal for kids, and I know that's part of what makes it bearable for parents--this parent, at least.

Jump In is darker, and I'm not just talking about the black people. The lighting of the film is darker, Izzy and Mary meet on their fire escapes at night, the boxing gym is cave-like, and the double dutch finals take place on a darkened stage. There are serious issues--dead parents, poverty. And there are no song-and-dance numbers.

Which is all fine: nothing wrong with dark, and some people go for it, though it's neither my preferred mode for kids nor my kids' preferred mode. But the problem is that this is Disney, and Disney can only cross dark with earnest obviousness, which, despite the double dutch, just isn't as much harebrained fun.

And now, I promise, I am done with Disney and will get back to more appropriate topics like Edna St. Vincent Millay and nuclear proliferation ASAP.

(Then again, E says she likes Jump In as much as High School Musical because she likes to jump rope, so maybe I'm all wrong.)