Previously. I wrote about the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie, Horse Sense, which starred Andy Lawrence and his brother, Joey, as cousins. That movie did really well to the point Disney Channel wanted to do a sequel. Though, that movie really had seemed to wrap things up, pretty well. This is the days when movies- especially TV movies- don't expect sequels as part of the game. Disney had a lot of the youngest Lawrence brother, he was the voice of TJ on Recess, was in the 2000 DCOM, I covered -The Other Me - and he'd do another DCOM later. I'll get to the rest of the cast, in a few.
Back to the sequel element. The idea of a sequel to Horse Sense is kind of hard to think about except Andy and Joey Lawrence. Joey's character, Michael Woods, went through character development in the movie, as one would expect, so the worry here would be the 2nd movie would ruin some of that because 2nd movie.
Jumping Ship first aired on Disney Channel on August 17, 2001. That date will also be important for something else soon. play attention. Also, look how quickly that turnaround is, the last movie was out in November 1999. (wow)
How does this movie start? With Montana, horses, Andy's character of Tommy, just to remind you that is Horse Sense 2. It also shows that Michael has grown a bit in character and is "farming" in his backyard... by the pool. (As you do) Also, thanks to Tommy's mother talking to Michael on the phone we know they are going Australia. (Random) Michael tells Tommy that's going to charter a private yacht to during their trip. I'm happy that this movie hasn't reset Michael's character just for sake of 2nd movie. It does show that he's not good with spending money still, which is a good way have a conflict and not have it be the problem from first movie. His father tells him he's spending money he doesn't have and tells him he has to pay him back and he has to find a job or he'll have to work with his Dad- as a file clerk.
There also seems to be a new conflict for Tommy, since the ranch was saved, he doesn't want this neighbor guy to like his mother and she kind of likes him too, and doesn't want to be part of this, because doesn't want a new Dad.
Michael and Tommy are now on an island as they are on vacation. This movie gives you the Lawrence Brothers doing a great job and makes an enjoyable performance. A lady runs into Michael on purpose and she steals his wallet without him noticing because plot. The duo get to be on a nice boat, oops wrong boat. Oh the woman meets up with a guy on a yacht and he looks through the wallet. So if Michael wasn't so showy three people wouldn't want to be after him now. (there's a moral here, somewhere)
Good thing he didn't notice me stealing his wallet, that I'm holding out here for everyone to see / Copyright Disney
The duo find their boat and guess what? You thought this movie would only have two Lawrence brothers, well, you were WRONG. (ooh I'm sad now) That's right. Matthew Lawrence, the middle brother between Joey and Andy shows up as a character named Jake Hunter. Which is funny. You see, in later seasons of Boy Meets World , Lawrence played Jack Hunter a character who was Shan Hunter's half brother on that series. The other fun part is Boy Meets World , ended it's run 1 year before this movie aired, but reruns were on Disney Channel. One Boy Meets World's production companies was: Touchstone Television, which was owned by Disney. It's fun. Fun fact 2: this movie was filmed in Australia for real.
More after the jump