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Thursday, July 14, 2016

The Lookback: The Lost DCOM

The Flashback 
  
   Disney Channel just celebrated their 100th  made for TV by them movie  and they celebrated in an amazing way, by airing every single original movie dating back to their start in 1997. They also have them on demand and able to buy digital downloads!  But there is a Disney Channel Original Movie out there that didn't air, and was their first movie  in the DCOM era, not the things they did before.   
     That is called  "Northern Lights" and yes that is our lookback. (Get comfy... not that comfy have some pride) Also fun fact , that is important to this : this movie stars Diane Keaton ... who also was the executive producer (thanks Google , this time)   and came out on  August 23, 1997.



       The movie begins with a boy and his father  talking about The Northern Lights (the thing in the sky not this movie) then we go to an office building where a woman named Roberta  (Dianne Keaton)  works  on the phone as  a person who sells tickets to Broadway shows.  Forget all that there's a guy rescuing a cat (yay save that kitty) on power lines (uhhh) and he gets electrocuted to death (uhhh Disney, I have a question) .  Inter-cut with that scene we see Roberta doing her job  (kind of) and so far I am not sure what this movie is about.   Roberta gets a call  about the guy who was killed , so now it makes some sense , he was her brother.  There's a guy who works at some big box like store who also had a connection to the deceased.  Roberta  hasn't spoken with her brother for about 10 years.

    Copyright Disney 


       The boy from earlier was the man's,  Frank, son.  Roberta and the man from the big box store meet each other at a train station waiting for a taxi  where  a strange mumbling man in a truck picks them up on their way which was only short stop anyway.    Later on,  Roberta and the man , who's name is  Ben Rubadue find out that  Frank left his son to them.  (random)  which , understandably upsets Roberta that she would have to take care of a child with a random stranger.   She's having a hard time dealing with the situation.

yes...our images have nothing to do with the things we are taking about this time /copyright Disney 


      At a picnic that Jack is preforming at , Roberta finds out that Jack's mother is still alive  but she is unable to take care of jack and stays at a residential institution. After the incident with his mother , Jack runs away  with Ben chasing him. Jack doesn't want to leave the area because of  his mom.  Roberta sees Jack is mad at Sassy, the cat who his father died rescuing, and she talks with him  and she tells him that the reason she was mad at his father because she didn't want him to leave.  He asks her if she is going to stay but there's she doesn't want too and Jack storms off. Meanwhile, it seems that and Daphne have a liking to each other.
Gosh, get a room / copyright Disney 


    Ben tells Roberta that his wife is his ex-wife  (which is good because otherwise that would be awkward) they've been divorced for 6 years and he has decided to move  to that area and take care of Jack.  Roberta exits her hotel room and goes down and is greeted by the town's people saying goodbye to her.  While waiting to be picked up , Jack goes on the roof again, to look for the  northern lights when he slips and is hanging by the ledge. The gutter breaks and he jumps  and they catch him. She decides to stay as well.  The movie ends with the northern lights.

    So that's the movie .with some paraphrasing.   Diane Keaton's character does something you never see in a Disney Channel Movie these days... she smokes, not even with the it's bad for you warning or anything just she smokes. That is maybe a reason why  it's not aired or counted as a DCOM.. they should at least release it though , it couldn't hurt.

 For the movie itself it's a weird movie  but it has some heart and some funny moments . Everyone plays their part well, Diane Keaton's character is likeable and never comes off as mean spirited.

That's our lookback ... tune in next time when we  bury the this post and not even count it in our list.


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