“DANCING DOLLS”
Starring: Alexis Biesiada, Kayla Jackson, Pilar Martin, Kayla Raparelli, Na’jee Wilson, Alanna Palombo, Austin Powell, Joei DeCarlo, London Clark, Erika Corvette, Ashley Cutrona, Devon Jordan, Jeana Zettler
Writer and Director: Stewart Raffill
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for some rude behavior
Genre: Musical, Kids
Running Time: 1 hr. 48 min.
Release Date: July 16th 2010
Distributors: Rocky Mountain Pictures
By: John Delia Jr.
Here’s a movie that will have your children dancing in the isles and singing along with the songs. The film is called Standing Ovation and features a journey depicting five junior high school girls attempting to become dance superstars. Pre-teens and most youngsters will enjoy the encounters the team has with another local dance group and the soundtrack featuring 20 original songs.
The movie has many side plots but the main one goes like this; The Five Ovations, Brittany (Kayla Jackson), Tatiana (Alexis Biesiada), Blaze (Pilar Martin), Cameron (Kayla Raparelli), and Maya (Na’jee Wilson) are a young group of girls with unbelievable talent and are just starting to put it all together. They do a great job of convincing the audience that they are the best, but are just missing something to put them on top.
Their competition, The Wiggies, are a dance group managed by Mr. Wiggs (Sal Dupree) who believes his girls are the best and will do anything it takes to make sure they win. The girls, Twiggy (Devon Jordan), Zita (Ashley Cutrona), Angel (Erika Corvette), Ziggy (London Clark), and Zoey (Jeana Zettler) are a rich talented group that believes they are the best at any cost. When the Ovations agree to get managed by Joei Batalucci (Joei DeCarlo) things start to get better for the dance team leading to their ultimate challenge.
Standing Ovation plays really well to female youngsters from four to early teens, especially due to the music and dancing. The film reminds me a lot of the productions on The Disney Channel, but seeing it on the big screen makes it a lot more exciting. As for the adults, it will probably be fun watching your children clap, sing and dance along with the music, but there isn’t much more than that for accompanying parents.
Stewart Raffill (Writer and Director) did a great job on the music and dancing, but went a little overboard on the acting. The acting is too cute and way too much drama. The tricks and sabotage between the dance teams are way overboard and made me think that there must be a lot of this kind of thing going on in the real world. The movie also has too many side issues that kind of give you the feeling that Raffill ran out of time and money leaving some unresolved or ‘billboarded’ prior to credits.
Krystal Tini (Choreographer/Costume Designer) does an excellent job with the dance routines to the 20 original songs and music. She includes 13 fantastic dance routines that certainly entertain the audience.
(3 of 5 Palm Trees)