Review of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009) by Sophi P — 09 Jan 2012

Disney Channel never seems to disappoint when it comes to trying to change itself from both a Turner Classic Movies predecessor and a haven about anything and everything related to The Walt Disney Company into an MTV for little girls that teaches kids to be snobby to their parents and act spoiled rotten. Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie is one example, it has the very hateful character Alex Russo (played by the very likable Selena Gomez) sneaking out to a party her parents would not allow her to attend, and having to go with her family on vacation to Puerto Rico as a punishment.

She constantly rebels against her parents, Jerry (David Deluise) and Theresa (Maria Canals-Barrera) throughout the beginning of the movie. In one scene, she talks back at her mom saying she's 16 and she's tired of people telling her what to do, and she is grounded for two months as a result of saying those things. Now, the main protagonist may be 16 years old, but you mostly don't have independence from your parents until you are in college. Anyway, she rebels on her mom again, saying she hates her and wishing her parents never met each other. This leads us to Alex and her two brothers, oldest child Justin (David Henrie) and youngest child Max (Jake T. Austin) having to find a secret treasure to reverse the wish before it's too late. Yep, it's that old Indiana Jones-style story again. So yeah, this is pretty much a ripoff of two popular franchises, Harry Potter and the aforementioned Indiana Jones.

This movie is just one of the many prime examples of how Disney Channel has become nothing but a slap in the face to traditional Disney fans since 2006 (one year after Bob Iger became Disney's CEO). It's depressing that a TV network that had so much potential of being the place Disney fans could go to for watching their favorite Disney movie or laughing at the adorable antics of Mickey Mouse and his friends while watching the classic Disney library of cartoons has become nothing but a Nickelodeon/MTV clone. I also have one more thing to say to Selena Gomez, you have all the money in the world and plenty of talent. Why waste it on insulting teenybopper garbage like this?