Les Cheetah girls 2

As a fan of musicals, I am pleased by the Disney Channel's efforts to keep the genre alive. Indeed, some of their efforts are excellent musicals: HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, for example.

This movie, however, is shot with little sophistication in either the musical forms or the dance forms. Most of the songs are fast, energetic hip-hop pieces danced with tremendous sexual energy. Only one song tries something different, "A La Nanita Nanan" and it is sung as a study in pure modality, with nothing to say beyond that.

The photography is beautiful but straightforward -- try to shoot Barcelona and make it ugly! -- and does not use the background for any real emotional content.

In short, this movie speaks down to its audience, giving them what they expect to see -- four teen-aged girls in Barcelona for a musical festival and romance with a dancing Spanish grandee. The lack of variety gets a little onerous at times and speaks to a pre-teen audience that used to be served by magazines like 'Tiger Beat'. The people who made this movie missed a great opportunity: 8.3 million people tuned in for the premiere. But the talent were not interested in either glorious past of the musical or the future potential. The result is a movie that won't survive.