Camp Rock Review

My husband made a joke when he saw a commercial for Camp Rocksaying "I know you're going to DVR that!"  He thought it was funny, but didn't know I really was going to DVR it.  I love Disney and I watch almost every new Disney movie.  From the second I saw the commercial for Camp Rock on Disney, I knew they were trying to live up to the same success of High School Musical (HSM).  Did they manage?  Well, sort of.  Read on!!

The Plot
Mitchie is a rocker at heart.  She writes her own songs and seems to have a lot of confidence, but you can tell she's shy inside.  She is DYING to go to Camp Rock for the summer but her parents can't afford it.  Her mom gets lucky and manages to get her into Camp Rock by agreeing to be the camp's cook for the summer.  Upon arrival she instantly sees some way cool and way rich girls and is so impressed.  Mitchie is psyched! 

On the other side of things, Shane Gray is from a boy band and apparently he's been quite hard to work with lately.  He's got a bad image so to make up for it his band-mates set him up to work at Camp Rock AND tell him that they've agreed he will perform a song with the winner of Camp Rock's end-of-camp contest.  He's not so psyched...

You can probably guess a lot of what may happen, but I'll let you see that for yourself.

The Stars
Demi Lovato plays Mitchie and fit the part pretty well.  She seems like a sweet girl so it would be believable that she would befriend some of the less popular campers, but she's also believable as the person who would say WOOOAAH and want to be one of the rich/cool campers.  She can sing as well and I'm sure Disney will be pushing her CDs a lot.

Joe Jones plays Shane Gray with his brothers playing his band-mates.  I sure hope he's not that spoiled in real life, but he did a great job pretending to be.  He showed his absolute disgust for having to work at the camp and showed little care at all.  He did get pretty cheesy though when it came to finding "the girl who sang the song".  Near the beginning he overheard Mitchie singing but didn't see who it was.

The Lessons
Disney movies are all about lessons, as usual.  If you would rather learn for yourself and be surprised, then don't read this section.  If you want to know what your kids will learn, read on.

• Popular kids aren't always the greatest friends; you should stick with the nice ones who you met at first!
• Lies only cause you trouble in the end!
• Being in a famous boy band doesn't mean you should be a selfish spoiled brat!
• Just because you are popular doesn't mean you are well liked!
• Having great parents is better than having famous parents!

Compared to HSM
Although some of the songs were pretty well done, overall I found a lot of the performances to be a cheesy attempt at copying HSM's fame.  I'm SURE they will sell lots of DVDs and lots of shirts and "camp rock gear" to kids and preteens.  I'm SURE the Jonas Brothers and Demi will get tons of fame out of this film.  I'm SURE kids will love it, but as someone who is viewing it with an objective eye, I say it is not nearly as good as HSM.  HSM was outstanding, in my opinion.  Camp Rock was cute, and had good lessons, but just didn't have the same power and entertainment value of HSM.  Disney knows how to sell to your kids, so they will make their money even if it's not as good.

When I watched HSM for the first time, I thought it was funny, had good quality singing and dancing, and great characters.  The performances were enjoyable in HSM.  When I watched Camp Rock for the first time, I found the characters to be decent, besides Mitchie who was great.  The co-stars are not featured much as the movie really focuses almost entirely on Mitchie.  I would have liked to see more going on so maybe we will see that in Camp Rock 2.  As for the performances, well some are very very cheesy.  At the start of camp, a girl performs impromptu for some kind of karaoke night and has a crew of choreographed dancers and it sounds like a CD recording.  HSM just seemed more real overall.

Overall
I'm not saying NOT to let your kids watch this, but if you want them to get obsessed with a movie, High School Musical is much more fun for adults and provides basically the same fun and lessons for kids.  I will watch HSM and the sequels every so often when they are on, but I probably won't watch Camp Rock many times.  The lessons come through, but just like I said above, the lessons don't have as much POWER, especially since they are so obvious from the start.  Your kids will enjoy it so if you really don't care about your own entertainment, then go ahead and let them watch.  It can't hurt them, it just might bore you a little.