Lemonade Mouth (film)

Lemonade Mouth is a 2011 American teen musical drama television film, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Mark Peter Hughes. The film was directed by Patricia Riggen and written by April Blair, and stars Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Naomi Scott, Hayley Kiyoko and Blake Michael. The film tells the story of five high school students who meet in detention and form a band to stand up for their beliefs and to overcome their individual and collective struggles.
The film premiered in April 2011, on Disney Channel. It received over 7 million views on its premiere night, and has been met with generally positive reviews, with praise going towards the acting ensemble, the script-writing, the directing, as well as some praising it for its many positive themes of honesty, integrity, and self-expression. The film won the Popstar Award for Favorite TV Movie in 2011, and was also nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award. The soundtrack was also released in April 2011, and was a commercial success, peaking at number 4 on the US Billboard 200 and number three on the US Top Digital Albums. It was met with positive reviews; the single "Determinate" received a JanNEWary Award for Best iTunes Song.
Plot.
Five High school freshman students Olivia White, Mohini "Mo" Banjaree, Charles "Charlie" Delgado, Stella Yamada, and Wendell "Wen" Gifford all meet after ending up in detention for different reasons. Miss Reznick, the music teacher supervising detention, leaves to argue with the principal Mr. Brenigan about his decision to move all extracurricular activities to the basement to make room for a new gymnasium. The five then tap out a beat and play instruments, and Olivia sings "Turn Up the Music." Miss Reznick returns and says that they would make a great band, and encourages them to enter a music competition called "Rising Star," in which a popular band, Mudslide Crush, planned to enter.
The following day, Stella sends a text message to the members stating that they need to meet. The group agrees to chat at a pizza shop called Dante's Pizza where Stella reveals she signed the band up for Rising Star and the Halloween Bash.
The band forms with Olivia as lead vocalist, Stella as lead guitarist/backing vocalist, Mo as bassist/backing vocalist, Wen as keyboardist/keytarist/rapping vocalist, and Charlie as drummer. At school, Olivia gets cornered by Ray Beech, lead singer of Mudslide Crush. Stella spits lemonade on Ray in defense, and he refers to Stella as "Lemonade Mouth", giving the band its name. The band later discovers the lemonade machine they love is being removed from the school.
When Mo sees her boyfriend Scott Picket, Ray's best friend and the guitarist of Mudslide Crush, flirting with one of the cheerleader girls Jules, she leaves him. At the Halloween Bash, Lemonade Mouth performs "Determinate." After the performance, Stella makes a speech opposing Brenigan's decision to remove the lemonade machine, and encouraging self-expression to the supportive crowd. Angered, Principal Brenigan forbids them from playing at school. The next day, the band sees posters and banners all around the school supporting Lemonade Mouth, raising their spirits. Mo sings "She's So Gone" at the regular gig they have every Thursday night at Dante's Pizza. They also discover that "Determinate" is being played on the local radio. Shortly after, however, things go downhill: Mo gets the flu, Charlie breaks his fingers, Wen injures his eye, and Olivia loses her voice, leaving only Stella that doesn't have an injury.
Stella calls the band to the school, where she is protesting the removal of the lemonade machine. The group gets into a heated argument with the men removing the lemonade machine. Police arrive and they are brought to a holding cell to wait for their parents. They slowly come together singing "Turn up the Music." The band agrees to perform at Rising Star, after contemplating quitting. As each of their parents come to pick them up from the police station, all members of Lemonade Mouth and their parents sort out their various problems at home. Wen finally gets to like his Dad's girlfriend, Olivia gets the courage to send a letter to her Dad in prison, Mo gets her Dad to let her be herself not the perfect Indian daughter he wants, Charlie's older brother picks him up and Charlie finds out that his brother isn't as perfect as his parents always make out, and Stella's Mom makes her realize that she doesn't have to be a genius like the rest of the family to fit in with.
At Rising Star, Mudslide Crush performs "Don't Ya Wish U Were Us," but Lemonade Mouth unsuccessfully performs "Determinate" because Olivia's stage fright comes back and Mo's flu gets worse. Lemonade Mouth is about to walk off the stage when the audience begins to sing "Determinate" in support of the band. Scott gets his guitar and is going to help them when Ray threatens that he will never be in their band again if he helps Lemonade Mouth, but he goes onto the stage anyway and plays the guitar alongside the audience, which makes the Lemonade Mouth members come back onto the stage again and finish their performance. The next day at school, Mo and Scott get back together, and Charlie who had liked Mo during the time together, accepts that she is with Scott and begins talking with another girl who likes him.
At Wen's father's wedding, Stella recognizes the man sitting next to her as Mel, the owner of the lemonade machine company. He donates a music theatre to the school, which Mr. Brenigan accepts. Olivia mails the entire story to her father, who is in prison. The film closes with Lemonade Mouth performing "Breakthrough" at Madison Square Garden, with Scott as their new rhythm guitarist.
The extended edition includes an interview with Moxie Morris on "All Things Musical", in which Mo and Scott's relationship is nearly exposed by Moxie in front of Mo's father, but is stopped by Olivia, who says that she and Wen are dating. The band then performs "Livin On A High Wire".
Cast.
Author Mark Peter Hughes makes a cameo appearance as an extra dressed as a bee at the Halloween Bash.
Production.
Production.
In 2010, "Lemonade Mouth" was announced by Disney Channel initially as an upcoming musical franchise (though it was released as a standalone film), and it was announced that Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Hayley Kiyoko, Naomi Scott were cast in the film, as well as actress Tisha Campbell-Martin and actor Christopher McDonald, were cast in the film. The names of eight characters in the book were changed for the film; the character of "Olivia Whitehead" was changed to "Olivia White", "Wendel Gifford" was changed to "Wendell Gifford", "Stella Penn" was changed to "Stella Yamada", "Mohini Banerjee" was changed to "Mohini Banjaree", and "Charlie Hirsh" was changed to "Charlie Delgado".
Production began in August 2010, where filming took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Music.
The movie features ten original songs, and was released by Walt Disney Records as a soundtrack album on April 12, 2011.
Release.
Release and ratings.
"Lemonade Mouth" was watched by 5.7 million viewers on its premiere night, ranking as the No. 1 TV Telecast among Kids 7–11 (2.3 million/9.4 rating) and Teens (2.1 million/8.5 rating), and cable's No. 1 original movie of 2011 among Total Viewers. With DVR viewing included, its total was 7.1 million viewers.
A local premiere was held in the author Mark Peter Hughes's town of Wayland, Massachusetts. It was broadcast live by the town public access station, WayCAM.TV, by local students.
Critical reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 4 reviews listed, 3 are positive and 1 is negative.
Family-oriented reviewers at Common Sense Media praised the film for its themes of honesty, empowerment, overcoming adversity, self-expression, standing up for what one believes in, and for its emphasis on the importance of the arts and of friendship and family. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media wrote: "... Lemonade Mouth" is an uplifting celebration of the human spirit." Online publishing-platform Medium wrote "Superb music, talented cast, good script, a well used production design budget — this one hit the nail on the head. More than that, we love the spirit of Lemonade Mouth. The outcasts fight for equality with the cool crowd and stand up against the powers that be with music." Reviewing site Plugged In wrote: "The message is as clear as the Disney castle is colorful: Stand up for what you believe in—no matter what that may be. (And get famous in the process!)"
Cancelled sequel.
In 2011, the author of "Lemonade Mouth" said that he had been working on a sequel. Actor Blake Michael has said: "It's all up to the fans, it's in their hands. If people enjoy it and they love it and they want more, they'll get it. I think Disney is just a great organization in general and they're always one step ahead of the game. So you never really know what's gonna happen." On June 15, 2011, it was announced during the 2011 Licensing International Expo that "Lemonade Mouth 2" was in the works.
On April 6, 2012, Chris Brochu announced on his Twitter account, that the sequel was no longer going into production. In interviews with Kidzworld Media and BSCKids in May 2012, Bridgit Mendler confirmed that a sequel would not be produced, noting that "they tried to figure something out for a sequel, but everyone at Disney felt like the movie had completed its story in the first movie."