Lemonade Mouth: Lemonade Mouth

Lemonade Mouth is a 2011 musical drama film^[2]^[3] based on the book of the same name by Mark Peter Hughes.^[4]The film was directed by Patricia Riggen and written by April Blair, and stars Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Hayley Kiyoko, Naomi Scott, and Blake Michael. The Disney Channel Original Movie tells the story of five high school students who meet in detention and form a band to stand up for their beliefs and to overcome their individual and collective struggles. It premiered on April 15, 2011 on the Disney Channel.^[1] It has been met with positive reviews, and has been praised for its many positive themes of honesty, integrity, and self-expression, and for its emphasis on the importance of the arts and of family and friendship.^[2] The soundtrack was released on April 12, 2011.

Plot

Five Mesa High School freshmen: Olivia White (Bridgit Mendler), Mohini "Mo" Banjaree (Naomi Scott), Charles "Charlie" Delgado (Blake Michael), Stella Yamada (Hayley Kiyoko), and Wendell "Wen" Gifford (Adam Hicks) all meet in detention. The detention administrator and music teacher Ms. Reznik (Tisha Campbell-Martin) rants over the school principal having moved all extracurricular activities to the basement of the school to make room for a new gymnasium. In detention, Ms. Reznik storms angrily out of the room to file a complaint with Principal Stanley Brenigan (Christopher McDonald). While cleaning the music room, the students start tapping out a beat. They begin to pick up instruments and Olivia begins to sing "Turn Up the Music." Ms. Reznik returns just as they finish. Expecting to get in trouble, they are all surprised when Ms. Reznik instead praises them for being a wonderful band. She attempts to persuade them to continue making music as a music group, but all except Stella are reluctant.

The next day, after being ignored at home, Stella sends a text to each person and they all meet at Dante's Pizza Parlor, where she informs the others that she signed them to perform at the high school's "Halloween Bash." After heavy debate, Charlie flips a coin, which results in forming the band; Olivia as lead vocalist, Stella as lead guitarist, Mo as bass guitarist, Wen as keyboardist, and Charlie as drummer.^[5] At a later rehearsal, the band attempts to come up with a band name, to no avail.

During lunch, Olivia gets cornered by Ray Beech (Chris Brochu), lead singer and superstar of rival band Mudslide Crush, Jules (Caitlin Ribbans), and Patty (Elise Eberle), Jules' best friend. Stella spits her lemonade on Ray. Principal Brenigan rides up on his Segway PT and Ray refers to Stella as "Lemonade Mouth." Olivia, narrating, states: "And that is how we got our band name."

At the Halloween Bash, Lemonade Mouth performs a song titled "Determinate." The crowd, and even Principal Brenigan, love the song. As they finish the song, Stella makes a speech about the removal of the lemonade machine and how the school is treating students unfairly while Mo and Olivia pass back cans of Mel's Organic Lemonade. They begin performing a song titled "Here We Go," but Principal Brenigan shuts them down. He forbids them from playing at school again. The next day, the band sees posters and banners everywhere supporting Lemonade Mouth. The principal accuses Stella of hanging the posters, and she is unable to convince him that the banners were not the band's doing. Later the band members discover that "Determinate" is playing on the radio.

A little later, bad luck begins to befall the band when all but Stella come down with various afflictions: Mo gets sick, Charlie breaks his fingers, Wen is hit in the eye with a picture frame, and Olivia loses her voice. Stella calls everyone and summons them to the school, where she is protesting the removal of the lemonade machine in the rain. As the group approaches, they get into a heated argument with one another and fight with the men who are removing the lemonade machine. During the altercation, police arrive and the group is arrested. Since they are minors, they are put in a holding cell to wait for their parents. They agree, some reluctantly, to perform at Rising Star (an upcoming "battle of the bands" where the winner wins a record deal) even though they realize that they will not win the competition. When each member gets released from the jail, they meet with their families and reconcile with each other. Stella's mother states that she is so proud of Stella for standing up for what she believes in. Mo's parents agree to let her be more free, even though she was still in trouble.

At Rising Star, Mudslide Crush performs "Don't Ya Wish U Were Us." Lemonade Mouth takes the stage and tries to perform "Determinate," but no one except Stella can play due to their mishaps in the days before. Discouraged, they start to leave the stage but the crowd starts singing the song together. Scott tries to come out and help them, but Ray tells him that he will no longer be in Mudslide Crush if he goes out. Scott tells Ray that he will find another band and walks onto stage as the audience finishes, Mudslide Crush is over and split apart when Scott leaves and Ray's days of being a rock star are over. Olivia, narrating, reveals that although they did not win the competition neither did Mudslide Crush, they won "something bigger that night." Later, Mo and Scott get back together. Charlie accepts this and decides to aim his attention at a girl who has a crush on him, and Wen gives Olivia a new kitten after Nancy, her cat, dies. Wen also accepts his new stepmother as he realizes that while she's not his real mother, she cares about him.

At Wen's father's wedding, Stella tells the man next to her that Wen is her band mate, and the man next to Stella tells her that Wen's dad was his old college buddy. Then he says he used to be in a band but now he runs an organic lemonade company that has recently become extremely successful. Stella recognizes him as Mel, the name on the lemonade machine, and he agrees to donate a music hall for Ms. Reznik. At the end of the film, Olivia walks to a mailbox to mail the whole story to her father in prison. The film closes with Lemonade Mouth, with Scott as their new additional guitarist, performing "Breakthrough" at Madison Square Garden.

In the Extended Edition, Moxie Morris, host of The Music Scene, puts Mo and Scott's relationship on the spot in front of Mo's father. To protect Mo, Olivia comes out and says, unassuringly, that her and Wen are kind of dating, which he agrees too. Then Lemonade Mouth performs "High Wire" (the title of the song on the soundtrack CD is "Livin' on a High Wire").^[6]