Remember Friday nights at 8/7c? It was the time we looked forward to at the age of 10, it was what we talked about at school with all of our elementary school friends.
Disney Channel gave us movies that helped shape us today. Okay, maybe not "shape us," but the little lessons of 'never give up,' 'girls can do anything boys can do,' or 'I wish I had a twin' stick with us until this day, and old Disney Channel movies still come up in conversation.
To old Disney Channel, thank you for giving me motivation, but most of all, for telling me that if I could race a dragster, it was completely normal for a girl to do so. "Right on Track" with Beverly Mitchell was the one movie that I wished would play over and over again—it was one of those movies that I begged my parents to record on VHS. Now I feel old.
Erica and Courtney Enders lived the perfect life... their dad was a cool racer, they had good grades, Courtney wanted to be just like her older sister, and Erica drove a pickup truck. Honestly, best of all, they were the average American family who "played" an abnormal sport. Thank you, Erica Enders, for teaching me that I can do anything a boy can do, and drive a cool dragster if I really wanted to.
So yes, "Right on Track" was my favorite, but what about Dean Talon and Andrew Carson from "Motocrossed?" C'mon, ladies, we all loved Dean, and Andrea, aka Andi, and her brother Andrew were the best bro-sis duo, but Andrew was hot. We all had a crush on him, but Andi was the coolest girl to ever grace Disney Channel; she helps her injured brother, cuts her hair, and competes against the hottest bikers around. What more could you ask for from a Disney movie?
Let's be real here, before "High School Musical" and the heartthrob Troy Bolten even surfaced, Disney was showing us girls what to look for in a boy at the age 10. Thank you, Disney Channel, and I hope I find my Andrew Carson soon, and I hope he rides dirt bikes too.
We have the average family who races cars, and we have a hot older brother, but what about the Disney Channel classic that was all about "catching the waves?" Before they moved to Vermont, that is...
"Johnny Tsunami," the one boy who put my heart in Hawaii at the age of 11. Living in upstate New York, I could completely relate to the snow that his parents brought him too, but he and I also clicked for the love of the beach, the sand, and the waves hitting the shore.
Johnny Kapahala was going through the same things we were at that age— trying to fit in, his parents getting new jobs, and trying to figure out middle school. It was coordinated to what we were living... okay, so maybe we can't all snowboard or surf the biggest waves in Hawaii, but Disney Channel let us relate to Johnny Kapahala, and let us be friends with him and grow up with him... because he came back for "Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board."
Disney Channel, not only did you have the best movies, but they were ones we looked forward to every week. Before the Disney Channel games started, and before "HSM: hit the world with a grand slam, you gave us real heartthrobs and you didn't make all of these characters have unrealistic lives. We could relate to everything, and that is why every child in the early 2000s want to make the Disney ears with the glow stick and be featured in the rollercoster reel that played before every movie that we knew we would never forget.
