Last week, social media was buzzing with the announcement that for the weekend of May 27th, Disney Channel is going to have a marathon of Disney Channel Original Movies. Everyone lost their shit, but rightly so. DCOMs were the best thing to happen to everyone's childhood and the originals rarely get played anymore. No longer are the days where "The Luck of the Irish" and "Cadet Kelly" are playing once a month. But for this one weekend (and rumor has it, periodically throughout the entire month of June), we can relive our childhoods and expose this generation to the filmic genius that were the original DCOMs. So in honor of this special occasion, here are what I believe to be the ten most underrated DCOMs that you should be sure to record when they come on.
1. "Tru Confessions"
In this DCOM, Shia LeBouf plays Eddie, a young boy with a mental disability. His twin sister, Tru, decides to make a documentary about her brother's life and this movie follows their relationship. This is one of the very few DCOM tear-jerkers and was rarely aired even when it came out. But this movie proves that DCOMs were more than just a superficial passing of time but instead had some real depth and character.
2. "Stuck in the Suburbs"
Let's be real, when a DCOM came with it's own soundtrack, you knew it was going to be good. This movie featured the less annoying Panabaker sister, Danielle, and Disney Channel favorite Brenda Song. The two best friends find their lives a little less boring when Danielle's character accidentally switches phones with superstar hottie, Jordan Cahill. There's singing, there's drama, there's a cute boy, what more does a DCOM need?
3. "Horse Sense"
While the plot was fairly mediocre (rich, bratty boy being forced to move to his relative's ranch), there are only three words to express how great this film was- THE LAWRENCE BROTHERS. Every girl in the world had a crush on one of them, and this was the DCOM that saw them in action (and bonus, the third Lawrence brother joined them in the sequel so add Jumping Ship to the list too).
4. "The Other Me"
And while we're on the topic of the Lawrence brothers, let's just talk about this classic. Andrew Lawrence accidentally clones himself and decides to send his clone to school in order to improve his grades. When two scientists find out that this boy has cloned himself, they end up kidnapping the real Andrew Lawrence! But don't worry, all DCOMs have a happy ending and the clone ends up not only saving Andrew but teaching him the lesson of not taking his life for granted.
5. "Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire"
Disney Channel decided to experiment with some "scarier" movies around this period of time (Don't Look Under the Bed, Under Wraps, Phantom of the Megaplex...) and this is arguably the most successful. Not only did it feature our favorite aunt from Sabrina the Teenage Witch but also Jake Epstein (who ended up being a dreamboat on Degrassi). In true DCOM fashion, this movie portrayed general shenanigans and the typical questioning of mom's new boyfriend.
6. "Quints"
I had a love/hate relationship with this movie. It featured DCOM favorite, Kimberly J. Brown, in her less successful movie venture with Disney (because nothing can top Halloween-town). While this movie had a great take-away lesson, it also featured five babies who would simultaneously throw temper tantrums... But nonetheless, it received less credit than it deserved.
7. "The Color of Friendship"
Along the lines of Tru Confessions, this was another one of Disney Channel's attempts to address more serious issues. While DCOMs quickly shifted to discuss less hard-hitting themes, we cannot deny that this DCOM does exist and is possibly one of the most well done movies on this list.
8. "The Jennie Project"
This is one of those movies that you have a vague memory of, but was barely given any air time. This DCOM is about a chimpanzee, Jennie, who becomes a member of the Archibald family. Jennie learns sign language, can play baseball, and reads comics. But in true Free Willy style, Jennie is eventually placed back in the wild (bring tissues).
9. "Pixel Perfect"
You have to admit, Ricky Ullman was your ultimate heartthrob in middle school. This movie was great because you felt sorry for Sam (hello, Ricky, she's cute too notice her please) and the songs were so killer you were willing to look past Loretta's weird dance moves. But unlike most DCOM movies, these songs didn't seem to get as much recognition when they TOTALLY should have.
10. "Smart House"
Featuring the apparent DCOM's favorite male actor, Ryan Merriman (aka also in "The Luck of the Irish" and "A Ring of Endless Light"), this film was equally creepy and awesome at the same time. You had to admit that for a split second, you wanted to live in that house until it became absolutely psychotic.