It’s been about a week and a half since I saw The Cheetah Girls One World and the big finale number, One World, is still playing in my brain. It’s almost as bad as It’s a Small World. Hmm. Both are from Disney. The movie The Cheetah Girls One World premieres tonight (8/22) on Disney Channel.
Cheetah Girls, in case you don’t have a pre-teen girl in your household, is the movie franchise featuring a group of young women with big dreams of making it as a singing group. The movies actually started out as a series of books by Deborah Gregory and are reasonably readable.
The movies are mostly watchable. This latest is definitely thin on plot – Camp Rock had more going for it. The girls, minus Galleria (Raven Simone) who has gone off to college, snag a part in a movie – only it’s a Bollywood movie being shot in Mumbai, India. The director is a young man who must get the film made or it’s off to dental school. But the director’s mean, old producer uncle only wants one of the three remaining Cheetahs. Oh my. How will Chanel, Dorinda and Aqua make it all work out?
Utterly family-safe and mostly family-friendly, it’s one production number after another. And it is very visually beautiful. The only real issue I have with the story is the girls’ obsession with shopping. They’re in India and all they can think of is buying earrings?
The bottom line is that if you’ve got a pre-teen in the house, you’ll probably be able to sit through it without gagging too much. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to start a conversation on India’s social problems – which, not surprisingly, you don’t see in the film. Yes, the country’s economy has been growing by leaps and bounds, but grinding poverty and starvation are still an issue, especially outside of the cities. Worse comes to absolute worse, you’ll be listening to One World for the next week or so – whether or not it’s on the TV. Try listening to some Stones. Trust me, it helps. See you on Monday.
Anne Louise Bannon
Your Family Viewer
