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Thursday, February 28, 2019

A DCOM that's on the Brink.

Disney Channel  The Lookback 

    We dip back into Disney Channel Originals movies with a look at the 1998 movie , "Brink!"  It starts Erik von Deeten who we have run into before on this blog when we talked about "Christmas Everyday" and will run into again in the future because that's how our word works.  (We also ran into him when we talked about "So Weird")

         So, this is our look at the 1998 Disney Channel , wait we are repeating ourselves, on the with the movie!


          Erik plays our main character named Andy or Brink! (roll credits?) and he's on a hurry while his friends wonder why he's taking so long. They want to go to the beach and since they missed the bus and buses apparently take for ever on weekends they skate there.  Also it's nice to have a Fastball song in Disney Channel movie, remember Fastball?  They make it to the skate park and skate. "Brink"and his friends, Peter, Jordy, and Gabriella, are not just your average in-line skaters they call themselves soul skaters (that means they also sing R&B) meaning they don't do it for the money they do it for the fun. ( I Wonder what might happen in this movie later?)  There's another group of skaters who are called Team X-Bladz (woah starting with an X and ending with Z this is peak 90's Extereme!)  led by a boy named Val who also has surfer hair because California.  They are the antagonists to this movie because that's what we need.
             
 Well I can't make the Rocket power joke since this came out first/ Copyright Disney 

         If you don't understand skating lingo or if you do you might not understand half things said in this movie. (Kind of joking)  I didn't know bladers and skateboarders didn't get along.  Brink tricks some skateboarders to bother the X-Bladerz. Now, it's the first day of school (also this movie gave the line :why can't we be Mormons?)   The X-Bladerz get back at them at school for the incident the day before and now they continue the  back by putting worms in Val's sandwich. (mmm worms)  Val decides to challenge them skate race at school which is against the rules. (What could go wrong?)  Andy (we are going to interchange with the Brink name a lot) accepts because of course he does.  Does give us nice racing action though, so I'll allow it.
               
ACTION! /Copyright Disney

        Andy stops the race to help one of the X-bladerz who gets injured which is nice of him. He ends up being suspended.  His father plays the role of the guy who just doesn't understand his teenage son. (that's fun)  Also, the family is having some money woahs because the father, Ralph, got hurt and hasn't been able to work. Brink overhears his parent's talking about it. Val and his people minus Boomer, the boy who got hurt before, talk to the soul skaters about an open slot they have for a competition. The soul skaters laugh but Val says he wouldn't pick any of them anyway.  Val says it's great being a sponsored skater.
                     
nice car/ Copyright Disney 
     
       Now, Brink may have taken  hearing the word "money" as a sticking point because he goes to secretly audition for the X-Bladz open slot.   They do add him to the team and he doesn't want anybody to tell that he's part of their team and he's only there until Boomer is back on his feet.( Now I wonder if this goes wrong, well you know it will.)  He's now a sponsored skater. Brink tells his family that he wants to work  and talks about sponsored skating but Ralph doesn't take to the idea because it's skating. Guess what he's going to keep a secret from his family then?
          copyright Disney 


         Brink's double life starts as he  starts training with the X-Bladerz  and then spending time with his group too.  Ralph doesn't make it better because he got Brink a job working at a dog grooming because of course and doesn't like skating.   We get a montage of the stressful day Brink expreinces done to the song , "Give" by the The Suicide Machines. (This movie is getting into the alt-rock hard)   It's to play everyone's favorite game:  Guess what goes wrong?!  Yes! Brink's friends find out that he is the new X-Bladz member.
The shade make him more sun safe/ Copyright Disney

more after the jump


   How do they do the take it? Pretty well, no I'm kidding they get mad at him. Brink tries to talk to them about why he joined but, since we need a conflict , they don't want to listen to keep that going also, something something.  Val convinces him to stay with his team and Brink decides to continue so there we go keeping this movie going.  In a nice contrast, Ralph used to complain that Brink was too happy all the time now he's sad all the time.  The mother suggests that Ralph talk to Brink. (This gets the plot of father not understanding son and vice versa out of the way.) Brink doesn't feel like talking and Ralph tells him he's there when he's ready to talk. (Well never mind) 
                       

    We need more tension time!  So another race.  Brink has to race Gabriella because the soul skaters  want to use a spot.  Val decides to cheat  and make Gabriella trip (and I felt that fall) and she gets hurt.  He goes to visit her at her home and the movie uses the song "Apology" by Clarissa.  Meaning, this would be a good time for an apology. She says that he's the one that told her about the point of soul skating. He says that his family needed the money. She says you start doing something you love , then you do it for the money and then you become another sell out.  (Interjection time!)  To be fair they both might be right and wrong it's maybe pointed that they are going with that's its wrong to do something you love for money (then again lot of people making this movie might love making movie and making money for it) where in fact it might be alright to do both. I am not saying that the movie is wrong either.

At least she's not dead/ Copyright Disney 

    Finally, time for the father and son to talk. Brink tells his father that he joined the sponsored team because he wanted to help the family but it wasn't just for that he also wanted to be in magazines and other nice things, in his words he wanted to be something.  Ralph says that he felt the same way that he would define himself by his own job title and he's learned that to separate the two.  Ralph even says he would like to see Brink compete at the big tournament that weekend. (Also he tries to "how  you do fellow kids?")

 copyright Disney 

       Brink makes up with his friends and that part of our story is over. (wonderful!)  Now it's time for the competition. They used "Sooner or Later" again for the background music (glad they liked that song too).  Then they reused the "Apology" song because why not? (Yeah I'm talking about the music.)  Ralph got his job back too. (nice!)  Also, nice cross promo Disney with your owning ESPN powers, I see what you were doing.  If you like skating then this part will really enthuse you , if you don't then you will be bored but maybe stay along just to see how it ends. It all comes down to our rivals Vin an Brink (to the death!). Another skating race, huh , this movie really likes racing.  Like the other races someone gets hurt and Brink helps Vin but this time he was faking because he knows how Brink works.  Spoiler: Brink wins!  The man behind team XBladz says that Val is out and offers Brink the spot but he says no because it wasn't fun. 
               


       This is a good movie, the story is a well done one with a plot we know but executes it well. While it seems to guide the thought that if you do something you love but also for money then it's wrong but that's not fully what it's doing it says that you should be doing something you love and having fun. Not bashing the idea of people doing something they like for the money, but it saying that you don't have to do it for the money and both ways you should have fun if you love it. It's a strong  Disney Channel movie that even if you aren't a skating or sports in general fan can find enjoyable and  can relate to it.  The music was something I ,mentioned a few times is  nice mixture of alt rock (big in the late 90's) music using some good music and found that enjoyable.   It's a well done movie for Disney Channel.

  Tune in next time when we wonder how skaters feel about ice skaters. (and watch them fight it out!)

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