Z is for Zapped
Zoey Stevens is a 17-year-old high school student who excels in dancing and academics. She has difficulties when she changes schools, including adapting to its inept dance squad, as well as her new stepfather and stepbrothers at home. A dog training app she downloads for her phone changes things when it lets her give commands to boys.
Honestly, since most Disney Channel Movies nowadays are terrible, I was expecting this one to fail. Granted I had my own issues with the acting, The story itself was a nice litltle twist to the Brady Bunch. In fact, do you remember the show Life with Derek, picture that family atmosphere. So to say the least the basis of the movie wasn't necessarily original, however their take was, and the message that they were trying to convey was.
Other than the obvious underlying differences: two black women (mom & daughter) moving in with four white men ( father & three sons), the main difference that the movie wanted to point out was the fact that these are women movie into a house of boys, and how the teenage daughter may or may not be able to accept that fact. Granted sometimes I felt as if she (Zoey, Zendaya's character) took it a little to far when it came to her qualms with the boys. But hey, I guess that's what makes for a good movie, right?
However, the biggest problem that I seem to have with the movie itself was how realistic it was. She literally went to school and saw no girls? Come on Disney, I know you need a mall dominate cast in order to make the movie work, but I swear I could count about 20 girls in the entire high school, about half were cheerleaders and the other have members of the dance team. The regular girls were few and far between.
Also, how can some students be in class while others are free to roam the halls as the please? I literally saw ONE teacher throughout the entire movie. These kids never went to class, and were rarely supervised. I mean I understand it's a movie, but come on can you please be a little realistic?
Finally, my last qualm is with the character Zoey, she never got angry and I couldn't understand why. Especially when she had all reasons to be! Maybe it was just Disney keeping it PG, or the writers making you want to love the character for being accepting and calm. OR maybe they just didn't want an angry black woman on screen but nonetheless, if I were in her shoes, you better believe I would have screamed at least once.
Now do not get me wrong, I really enjoyed this movie, even though it had it's problem, they were little. The overall message of the film was worth it and well conveyed. It's the idea that:
"Boys are no different from girls at the end of he a we're all stress cases sometimes"
I appreciate what Disney and the writers did with the film. It was definitely worth watching, and I do recommend it.
I'm not one for spoiling movies it literally hurts my insides when someone does it to me which is why this review and all the others will be in the same format as this. Plot, my thoughts, and recommendation.
