Movie - Lemonade Mouth

The 2011 Disney movie "Lemonade Mouth" is the story of how five high school kids accidentally became a sensational band.  Olivia, the incredibly shy lead singer and songwriter, narrates the story.  Stella, the lead guitarist, is the driving force behind the band.  Wen (Wendell), the keyboardist, is also a songwriter and rapper.  Charlie is an insanely good drummer. And Mo (Mohini, aka Monu), whose strict parents are from India, plays bass guitar (and sings better than Olivia).  In the movie, they all seem to be multi-talented, singing and taking turns playing the guitars and keyboard.  Being a musical, we have to suspend a lot of disbelief at the seemingly spontaneous outpouring of song lyrics and music created by the band. But then, that's the story.

In some ways, Disney's 2011 adaptation of the book "Lemonade Mouth", by Mark Peter Hughes, is better than the book.  The music is great, if you like rock & roll with a bit of rap.  The lyrics are either inspiring or disgusting, depending on whether it is the good band or the bad band playing at the time. Where the book is an experimental collection of narratives from the five main characters, augmented with a couple of chapters collected from seventeen other people, the movie is narrated only by Olivia (but the story seems to be mostly from Stella's point of view).

Disney, of course, whitewashed any possibly offensive details.  In the book, Wen stands in front of the class to give his presentation, only to discover that his folder holds a collection of drawings of his father's girl friend, in the nude.  In the movie, they are only innocuous photographs from her photography class.  In the book, Stella is a six-foot amazon who hacked off her long hair and dyed the remaining tufts green.  She is intimidating both by her size and her preference for angry music.  In the movie, Stella is short and pretty.  In the book, Olivia is fat with unwashed hair and she sings to her seventeen cats.  In the movie, she is blond and beautiful and has only the one old cat, the last thing she has of her mother.  Then the cat dies (but Wen gives her a kitten at the end).  In the book, Mo's relationship with the self-centered Scott, ends badly and she ends up liking Charlie.  But in the movie, Scott asks for forgiveness, and (after her classic line, "It's going to take a lot more than 'sorry' to fix this." and she walks away.) they eventually get back together, and he becomes part of the band.  (The Disney message being that pretty, white-guys get the girl in the end, right?)

In the movie, the drink of choice is Mel's Organic Lemonade which comes out of the machine in pop-top plastic cans.  But in the book, it is frozen lemonade slush dispensed in paper cups (like a snow cone?).

In the book, the music created by the band is very oddball, very indie.  Stella ends up playing the ukulele, Mo plays a large acoustical bass (with a bow), Wen plays a trumpet, Olivia sings her original lyrics with a low, gravelly voice, and Charlie plays a collection of odd drums.  But in some weird way, it sounds good together, and to everyone who hears it. (???)  In the movie, the band and their instruments are mainstream rock&roll with a side of rap.

I really like this movie.  I have seen it more than five times, and listened to the music many more times.  The theme, that everyone matters, comes across very strong and very clear.  And no, they do not win the Rising Star contest.  And yes, the audience does stand up and sing their song when they were too broken and sick to sing it themselves.  That was inspiring.  It reminded me of something God did once.  And that God believes in us, because He is our biggest fan and He knows all the words to our songs.