Teen Beach 2 DVD Review

Teen Beach 2

On June 26th, Teen Beach 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach Movie, aired on Disney Channel.  Of course, the sequel has everything the original version had; including, but not limited to, a gripping story, hilarious moments, great characters, and lots of music!

And now for a little bit of background.  While surfing, Mack (Maia Mitchell) and Brady (Ross Lynch) manage to wind up in Wet Side Story, a 1962 musical and Brady’s favorite movie.  From there, they inadvertently change afore mentioned movie by preventing the stars, Lela and Tanner, from falling in love with each other.  Instead, Lela falls for Brady and Tanner falls for Mack.  You’ll have to find out if they ever fix everything.

The official summary from the back of the DVD;

Now that summer’s over and school has begun, Brady and Mack’s relationship seems headed for a wipeout – until Lela, Tanner, and the “Wet Side Story” kids show up!  Dazzled by the novelty and variety of the modern world, Lela wants to stay, but the real world and the “reel” world just don’t mix.  Can Mack and Brady find the magic to get the kids home and get their own romance back on track before it’s too late?

If you were watching this movie, you would be able to tell that the actors playing the characters really enjoy their jobs.  The characters are wonderfully portrayed.  Lela and Tanner know absolutely nothing about modern technology, as seen when they are baffled when a guy attempts to lend the two his smartphone.  The movie promotes the idea that women are equal to men.  Lela wants to be like Mack, who is a strong female character, and is willing to risk everything to follow her dreams.

Of course, there are numerous musical numbers.  One of them, when Mack and Brady try to convince Lela and Tanner to go back to the movie, has lots of different scenes from genres of movies. There is a scene with pirates, another with cowboys, and one that reminds me of a scene from Singing in the Rain.  Another number has Chee-chee and Seacat doing a rendition of a song in the original movie, “Fallin’ for Ya”.  They constantly fight over who’s singing and holding the microphone.

The dialogue is very well written and has a lot of humor.  Now for some of my favorite quotes in no particular order.

Lela (as she’s about to leave “Wet Side Story”): “Goodbye bikers.  Goodbye surfers.  Goodbye people always standing around in the background who never speak and whose names I don’t know.”

Tanner: “Everything you just said, I have no idea what it means.”

Chee-chee (seeing people in scuba suits): “Those people are made out of rubber.”

Tanner (seeing chicken nuggets): “Nuggets made out of chicken? Amazing!”

Phone: “I didn’t quite get that.” 
Lela: “The little box just spoke to us.”

Mack: “I can’t believe you did all this for me.”  
Brady: “I’d swim to China for you.  Or Hawaii.  Whatever’s that way.  I don’t know what’s that way.”

Butchy (thinking something’s wrong): “Maybe somebody should sing something.”  
Seacat: “I thought you’d never a…”  
Butchy (right after pushing Seacat on his back): “Chee-chee.  Sing something.”  
Chee-chee: “But, I’m doing my nails.”

Deven (Brady’s BFF – in chemistry class): “Here we got some weird tubey thing.  A squeezy sponge.  Some wet stuff.  And a blue creepy glove.”

Anyways, I hope that those quotes got you smiling.  Trust me, they are a lot funnier with visuals, and there are some parts that only work if you have visuals.

Now back to the the DVD.  There’s not a whole lot of extras, but it has the whole movie along with a “how this movie was made” segment.  The only thing I would do to change the content of the disc would be to add a “words-on-screen” option, like karaoke.  Inside the packaging, there’s a replica of Lela/Mack’s necklace.  It’s fairly well made and perfectly detailed.  The clasp was a little hard to work with, but it eventually decided to cooperate.

In summary, this movie ranks right up there with the top Disney Channel Original Movies.  The sets are well done, and all the songs have very good harmonies.  The dance numbers are perfectly choreographed.  The characters are well rounded and have strong backstories.  I would definitely recommend this movie, but you might want to watch the original first, or this movie will make little sense.  However, once you understand the background, this movie is really good.

All righty!  Well, as Butchy says in the movie, “Asta Lasagna!”  See ya later!