Written by Moriah

There was a specific point in my childhood and teenage years where all I wanted in the media, I watched were musical scenes. And I definitely got that. Descendants, High School Musical, Cheetah Girls, Big Time Rush, Lemonade Mouth, Camp Rock, Make it Pop, Violetta and so much more. When it comes to those, if I ever feel nostalgic, I can simply find them online or on DVD and replay them. But for two that hold an unnecessary amount of space in my brain, they are often hard to find, and for good reason too. I cannot justify the actions that led to me discovering School Gyrls and Standing Ovation when they originally came out and for the most part, I thought I had imagined them. However, on some twisted ranking scale, these hold a place in my heart for semi-trashy musicals.

Standing Ovation (2010)

I remember talking about Standing Ovation (2010) with my cousin and being so excited about it coming to theaters. While she was able to see it on the big screen, my local theater removed it after the first day because no one was buying tickets. I was so upset at the time, but after finding it on Netflix a year or so later, I understood exactly why it had to go that way. This movie follows a girl group, the 5 Ovations, competing in local talent shows for the chance to become famous, but consistently lose to their rival group the Wiggies – their father owns a wig company – either by sabotage or just lack of talent. After a few musical numbers, the Ovations learn of a best music video contest and work towards that. Side plots include an Ovation member dealing with her grandfather’s gambling problem, theft, more musical numbers, someone finding their long lost father, and as the name suggests, a standing ovation.

Every bit about this movie feels like a confusing dream. Having recently been reminded of its existence, I was shocked to see that Josh Brolin had been one of the producers as well as how low a Rotten Tomatoes score could be. Genuinely thought I made up that music number where they performed “River Deep – Mountain High.” After finding out it’s on Tubi right now, I have every intention of rewatching this over the holiday break and making my friends watch this too.

School Gyrls (2009)

While I can acknowledge how dated this movie is, I feel a little more defensive of School Gyrls (2009), because I can see the vision that was attempted when this came out. The group itself was around for a year prior to this release but this was the main marketing concept before their album release a month after. Following three girls get detention and after meeting, decide to form a band for some reason and then decide to try and win the school’s talent show to annoy the film’s villain. Even though the dialogue is violently 2009, the musical scenes were well placed but filmed as just mini videos with skits in between. This has H.E.R. as an evil middle schooler, Justin Bieber edited in because he was too young to film a night scene, Soulja Boy references, a girl pretending to be rich to get friends, and a plot that actually makes sense while still chaotic.

The only things I could find online nowadays about this are the music videos themselves, a bootleg of a bootleg of the original film, and very little about the Christmas special that came out after two original members left the band. And that may be a good thing as this had very stereotypical representation in the movies that was offensive then and even more offensive now. However, the band itself was going pretty well, having collaborated with the notable K-pop group, the Wonder Girls, when they were working on US promotions back in mid-2010. It wasn’t until recently that I realized their collaboration “The DJ is Mine” was my introduction to Kpop.

This is in no way a recommendation, I just needed confirmation that these movies exist while their online presence is limited. I will however make an honorable mention to a show that handled the “girl group reaching for fame” concept a little better, which would be Make It Pop! (2015) It had the boarding school, the musical numbers, love of Kpop, and a quirky air to it that doesn’t come off completely cringy. I still care for musical shows/movies deeply but have to know where it went wrong in order to find better.