The Disney Channel is hitting a milestone with their new movie Adventures in Babysitting! – 100 original movies ! To celebrate this the Channel is doing a marathon of 51 movies during Memorial day weekend in the USA and showing the remaining movies during the month of June. Additionally, and which I find super interesting especially for those of you not in the USA, they will be available to watch in streaming channels like Apple (apple TV is already starting to have a much wider selection of them). The schedule of the marathon can be found here. If you’ve read this blog you know I am a big fan of Made for TV movies, especially if they are cheesy and cute, just like Disney makes them. I am also a huge Disney fan, so this is straight up my alley. As I have only seen 52 of them, I figure I would rank my favorite Disney channel Original Movies (or DCOM as they are known) for your reference (and mine) and use the chance of this marathon to maybe catch up on some of the remaining (of the ones airing as the memorial weekend marathon I have seen 38 of the 51!). I also think rewatching some of the old ones and getting some, new ones in will change my rankings, as after doing this I realized I’m skewing towards the new ones, and I think that’s just due to recollection! I am ranking just the originals first, and then at the end putting the Sequels as a separate entity .. given that they are a different animal (and would allow more room up top for different movies (if not I would put all the Halloweentown and HSM movies together in the top 20)
The Top 20!
- High School Musical – really what is not to like. Frist of all it’s definitely the most popular of the Channels movies, so its spot at the no. 1 just for ratings and effects should be considered. But again it’s also great and very well made. Love the music , love the actors and love everything that came out of it: HSM 2, HSM 3 in the movies and was happy to work with the HSM Stage show. Btw, if we are all in this together doesn’t make you happy have your pulse checked 🙂
- Descendants – the most recent, but I liked it because its one of the most ambitious – it has music which is a total plus for me and it Incorporated Disney back story and old tales in a modern and creative way.
- Cadet Kelly – this is a classic! Hillary Duff at her best. It quirky and sweet and you should all watch it. Question I was reminiscing myself of this – Whatever happened to Christy Romano? she is one of the stars of this time that disappeared
- Camp Rock- With how popular Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers are now, it’s no surprise I loved it when it came out and that people should check it out!
- Halloweentown – This franchise is great I love all 4 Halloweentown movies. It’s a perfect marathon to prep for Halloween. It could be cheesy but its not a great coming of age movie (or becoming a witch movie? whatever floats your boat) . another where is she now moment? Kimberly J. Brown was a strong presence in DCOMs, it mademe wonder what she is up to, according to IMDB, not much.
- Teen Beach Music, great actors and a little grease flashback makes this super cute
- Twitches -Oh, the time when the Mowry twins where awesome. This is such a cute magic movie (if you think about it there is a lot of magic going on in DCOMs
- The Cheetah Girls – This was a classic of its time ,and I loved all the music. THe sequels were not up to the level of this one, but the original has to be considered one of the strongest movies they made.
- Gotta Kick It Up! – Such a cute classic. I love that it was America Ferrera’s debut!
- Princess Protection Program – How can you not dig a vehicle with Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez as cute kids
- Lemonade Mouth
- Jump in
- Radio Rebel
- Get a Clue
- Cloud 9
- Read it and weep
- Quints
- Geek Charming
- Cowbelles
- Let it Shine
The best of the rest:
21. The color of Friendship
22. Avalon High
23. Starstruck
24. Pixel Perfect
25. Frenemies
26. Bad Hair Day
27. Invisible Sister
28. Full Court Miracle
29. Stepsister from Planet Weird
30. Zapped
31. Girl vs Monster
32. Smart House
33. How to build a better boy
34. Go Figure
35. You Wish!
36. Rip Girls
37. Den Brother
38. Minutemen
39. Stuck in the Suburbs
40. Right on Track
41. The Even Stevens Movie
42. Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
43. Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off
The Sequels ranked – the sequels as they follow some of the staples that I love are some of my favorites
- High School Musical 2 Of course HSM 2 is number 1 and it probably would have been my number 3 total of disney movies. As amazing as HSM! was the second one although not as great did not disappoint and its now of my favorites
- Return to Halloweentown
- Halloweentown High
- Camp Rock 2
- Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge
- Twitches 2
- Teen Beach 2
- The Cheetah Girls One World
Which are they showing that I want to watch: I have actually not watched the Zenon Movies so im looking forward to them and seeing where they land in my list. Also Brink!, The Thirteen year and Jhonny Tsunami
Which ones are on my list not on the marathon: Radio Rebel, Return to Halloweentown, Starstruck, Gotta Kick It Up!, Cowbelles, Geek Charming, Invisible Sister, Avalon High, Get a Clue, Frenemies, Let it Shine, Girl vs Monster, Go Figure, Den Brother, Minutemen, Stuck in the Suburbs
Some articles on the marathon and DCOMs:
- Disney Channel Memorial Day marathon: 10 movies you can’t miss
- Disney Channel to Air Every Original Movie Ever (!), From A to Zenon
- Marathon Will Show All the Disney Flicks That Defined Your Childhood
- 30 Disney Channel Original Movies, Ranked
- The Disney Channel Original Movie Memorial Day Marathon Schedule Is Set, So Clear Your Calendars & Get Excited
- The One Big Issue We Have With the Disney Channel Movie Marathon – i totalyl agree with this for people who havent seen the movies it makes no sense to air the sequels before the originals
- Oh My God, There’s Going To Be A Disney Channel Original Movie Marathon
- The 18 Greatest Disney Channel Original Movies, Ever
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