I found most of Disney Channel's original movies to be abysmal, cheesy messes with so-so acting and plots that could make Inspector Gadget: The Movie look like Shakespeare in comparison. But I found Lemonade Mouth to be an organic, well-acted, clever movie. It has some thought-provoking, inspiring themes that puts it aside from pretty much every other DCOM out there. The songs are catchy and pretty well-performed. And let's not forget the teen actors that all give likable, believable performances. I'm a musician in real life, and though my school has an incredibly well- funded music program, the thought of losing it still lurks and chills me to the bone. This movie suggests that music programs are important and allows us to express creativity and self-expression and that being yourself is the most important thing you could ever do... And though that seems to be the theme of many Disney Channel movies, it rings true to all of us. This is, in my humble opinion, the very best Disney Channel original movie, and I will keep watching it whenever it comes on.

Same old story: School kids parents don't understand them, overbearing boyfriend, overbearing principal, same old songs re-packaged. It's terrible, unless you're 8 years old and your parents let you watch it. There must be a group of writers out there who write this type of junk. Demonize parents, demonize authority, demonize jocks, demonize cheerleaders, all in an effort to tell the story of the down-trodden, misunderstood students who don't add value to the school sports teams. The songs are liberal Disney: Predictable lyrics about being misunderstood but standing firm. Predictable chord changes and time signatures. Some kids will like it. Most parents won't.

Having watched and discussed this movie with my nine-year-old niece, I found it both entertaining and disappointing.I hadn't intended to post here, but after reading reviews on a number of different sites, I decided what the heck – 'be heard'! :-) *steps up on soapbox* It was definitely entertaining, even with the necessity to 'suspend belief' in a lot of instances – as was pointed out in a number of postings I read, by 'youthful' reviewers. I'm also was quite comfortable with the 'message' I believe the story was meant to convey – with some effort, we can ALL overcome and achieve.Decent cast, although I have issues with how the 'adults' were portrayed. But then, it's a Disney movie and is of course, meant to reach a demographic other than my old self. *laughs* While all the 'kids' did seem to mesh and work well together, I thought I noticed some kind of 'connection' between Miss Mendler and Mr Hicks – or their characters at least. Miss Scott did, in my opinion, exceptionally well with the whole 'American' accent thing. Kudos to her.Now... the 'disappointed' part. As is usually the case when going from print to screen, I feel the original story (I did actually read the book before I gave it to my niece) was indeed, lost in the conversion. And, as we all know, movie-making is a business, and for the most part, projects are evaluated on the premise of profits. And yes, as I have seen posted by a number of youthful revolutionaries, *smirk* it shouldn't always be about profit. Unfortunately however, without profits, we'd have FAR FEWER movies worth watching. I will say that in this case, the changes from book to movie seem to have worked – quite nicely.I am VERY disappointed with the production of this movie. There are a BUNCH (a double-digit number) of filming/editing errors in it, making it blatantly apparent that Disney shot this solely on the premise of showing it on TV – and not in theaters. While I'm not going to delve too far into this, I will give you what I considered the most obvious. It involves a label-less bottle of water. In one scene, to characters are sitting at a table talking, the camera changes angles from one to the other as each of them has dialogue. During one of the cuts, a bottle of water appears between them, and then on the very next cut, disappears. There are a number of others, but my point is; the actors involved deserved better than to have all their efforts tossed into a blender, with the final result being a 5 (barely) on a scale of 10 for editing.Shame on you Disney. Good thing your demographic turned out to be YOUNG.Ultimately, I will say this: Any movie that can get a nine year old to continuously repeat 'be heard, be strong, be proud', is in this writer's opinion, a GOOD MOVIE.*steps down off his soapbox*

Alright, I understand this is a Disney movie but,even with that in consideration, i still wasn't impressed. Being a Musician myself, i was probably a little harder on this movie than a normal person would be if they watched it. So the music and lyrics in the movie, i felt to be a little generic. I know Disney movies aren't suppose to have the latest number one song,but from the movies they have put in the past there was always at least one catchy song that became a guilty pleasure of mine. The rapping was a little impressive, i'm not a fan of rap, but i do know what its about and can appreciate it, and i thought it was alright. The only thing that got awkward about it was when they made Hayley Kiyoko's character try and rap when she and Adam Hick's character were switching off Microphone when they were performing at their school. The acting wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the best. Some people were better than others but if you don't focus on it then you hardly notice. Dialog was a step back, i felt for a Disney film. For the past few years it seemed they were stepping it up with their DCOM's as far as dialog. They were starting to speak more in a way that actual teenagers or just people in general would speak. But in this film, i could almost predict what they were going to say.Some of the Scenes were a bit awkward, like when they first start playing together in the music room, or when they were in a holding cell just randomly playing around and SUDDENLY they make enough rhythms and beats to replace a whole drum kit. Another awkward part was when they were in the pizzeria and the bully in the movie just randomly jumps up on stage and takes the Mic. Also the weird scene where Charlie's Brother picks him up in his truck and gives him a talk about how he should do what he loves, now that wasn't the weird part but what was is how they also tie in the older brother failing college and how they're going to break the news that Charlie wants to be a drummer, and some how that it's OK to be failing college...They never really showed the characters passion for music. Most of the way through the movie they were always quitting and breaking up. The only one that seemed to have any real passion in the music was Stella. All in all, it was alright. It was still entertaining and a little funny here and there. I give it a 6.