Shocking Secrets from Your Favorite DCOMs
Disney Channel Original Movies feel like they've been around since the dawn of time, but it's actually only been 20 years. Yep, you read that correctly. TWENTY. YEARS.
On October 25, 1997, Under Wraps premiered on Disney Channel, and the future of TV movies was forever changed. Though technically, Northern Lights was the first DCOM, but now Disney claims Under Wraps is the inaugural film. Sketchy.
In honor of this monumental anniversary, Seventeen.com spoke to several DCOM actors as well as dug around the internet to compile secrets and fun facts even die-hard fans might not know.
1. High School Musical's Coach Bolton totally picked up on Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens' feelings for each other way before they made it public.
Dads always know, don't they? While working on the first HSM, Bart Johnson, who played Coach Bolton, witnessed sparks flying for Zanessa. "There was a time halfway thought filming #1 when I saw Zac and Vanessa sitting REALLY close to each other on the couch as I passed by and said, ‘Hey guys,'" Bart told Seventeen.com.
But then he noticed just how close they were sitting next to each other. He "stopped dead in [his] tracks and took a few steps backward to them and stared at them blank," saying, "'Uh... wait… uuuuh… you guys sure are sitting close.'" Needless to say, this moment occurred "LONG before anything ever happened."
2. There was a mega Hannah Montana reunion one night during the filming of Dadnapped.
While Jason Earles, Emily Osment, and Moises Arias were already in Utah together filming the DCOM, they randomly met up with fellow Hannah Montana co-stars Miley Cyrus and Mitchel Musso. "Miley had a huge concert there and Mitch came out too! It was one of the best nights ever," Jason told Seventeen.com. "A bunch of my all time favorite picture of the cast of Hannah happened that night. I even used one as the cover of a book I made for the cast as a wrap gift for season 3 of Hannah!"
Jason was kind enough to share with us the book's cover photo, pictured above.
3. Radio Rebel had an alternate ending.
Stars Debby Ryan and Adam DiMarco confessed to Seventeen.com they filmed an alternate ending where they "kissed for real and not on the cheek." C'mon, Disney!
4. Kal's first spell he utters in Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge was totally improvised.
Actor Daniel Kountz revealed to MTV News last year he thought the first spell was going to be written for him to recite onscreen. (The Creature Spell during the movie's climax was scripted.) But when director Mary Lambert – who also directed horror hit Pet Sematary - asked Daniel if he was ready with a spell to shoot the scene, Daniel had 15 minutes to come up with something that didn't sound like English.
Which is why he reached into his memory bank and pulled out a German song from his choir days and used that.
5. And Kal was almost played by a Supernatural star.
Jared Padalecki, best-known as Sam Winchester on Supernatural, was in the final running to play the Halloweentown sequel villain. Daniel Kountz shared he bumped into Jared "on the 52nd floor of the Disney building for the final audition." Kimberly J. Brown (Marnie) told Seventeen.com she never screen tested with Jared, nor with Daniel, for that matter. Instead, Daniel was cast and she met him before filming began.
6. Mr. Laritate did double duty while filming Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie.
Jake T. Austin, aka Max Russo, told Seventeen.com that actor Bill Chott, who played Mr. Laritate, put in some serious overtime during filming. "We were filming at the same hotel as Johnny Depp in Puerto Rico," Jake explained. Johnny was filming The Rum Diary, and, as it turns out, so was Mr. Laritate. Bill "filmed both projects while we were there!"
7. The Luck of the Irish and Halloweentown High shared a school.
Both DCOMs filmed interior scenes at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Utah. I knew that staircase looked familiar.
8. One of the infants in Quints was Kimberly J. Brown's IRL brother.
Though she's best-known for her work in the Halloweentown movies, Kimberly J. Brown also starred in the early DCOM Quints, a movie about a teen who winds up with five new siblings when her mom gives births to quintuplets.
"My real life brother Dylan was actually one of the babies that played the Quints at 6 months old, towards the end of the movie," Kimberly told Seventeen.com. "He was in Canada shooting with me and was really great about going to other people so they asked if they could use him on set. He’s credited at the end of the movie and is now 18 years old! We can still pick out the shots where we can see him up close; so that's something really fun for my family."
9. The Lawrence brothers named their dog after the wrecked boat in Jumping Ship.
Joey, Matthew, and Andy Lawrence adopted a dog while filming the Horse Sense sequel in Australia, appropriately naming her Tiffany.
10. Though they were Disney royalty, neither Christy Carlson Romano nor Hilary Duff had met each other prior to shooting Cadet Kelly.
Christy shared how the duo got along well during filming (despite their characters being enemies) and would shop for purses - Coach for Christy and Louis Vuitton for Hilary - during their downtime.
11. The Johnny Tsunami kids got to ride up a mountain via bungee cord during filming.
Star Brandon Baker told Disney Channel in 2016 how he loved getting to travel up the mountain in style during filming. Instead of taking the chair lift back up the mountain (because it'd take too long) the crew "put basically bungee cords at the end of snowmobiles, and [they'd] ride, like, board, up the mountain behind the snowmobile."
12. The star from The Thirteenth Year remained friends with baby Kristen Stewart after filming wrapped.
KStew had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the mermaid DCOM as "Girl in Fountain Line," one of the many kids annoyed by Cody's (Chez Starbuck) excessive water drinking. While Chez has since lost touch with the actress, he told MTV News the duo kept in touch when he lived in L.A.
13. Gotta Kick It Up!'s famous line has a historical backstory.
The DCOM itself is actually based on Meghan Cole's story of teaching middle school dance, and Meghan worked as a co-producer on the movie. She also sought out screenwriter Nancy De Los Santos, who made the characters' catch phrase and morale booster "sí, se puede."
In an interview with Millennial Hallmarker, Nancy explained "sí, se puede" means "yes, you can" in Spanish, and was the maxim for the United Farm Workers Union. The union was co-founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and "the phrase [was] credited to Ms. Huerta in support of Cesar’s hungry strike during the union’s creation."
14. The Suite Life Movie was the only time the franchise filmed on an actual boat.
Despite being a show about kids going to school on the S.S. Tipton, The Suite Life on Deck never actually filmed on a boat. Matthew Timmons (Woody Fink) told Seventeen.com the DCOM "was the only time we actually shot on a boat," and even then, it was only for "a few scenes."
15. Coach Tugnut was nearly knocked unconscious by Louis and Beans's prank in The Even Stevens Movie.
The opening scene of the DCOM involved poor Coach Tugnut (Jim Wise) getting pelted with spaghetti. Jim confessed how two crewmen dumped the spaghetti onto his head, but the food "was so heavy that [he] literally thought [he] was going to black out from the blow," adding how he was actually "seeing stars from the hit." Jim reiterated the story to Seventeen.com.
16. Ryan Merriman's ~killer~ dance moves in Smart House are still prevalent in his life today.
You know the dance moves I'm talking about. The ones Ryan broke out with during the house party scene while "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)" played in the background. According to Ryan's interview with Young Entertainment, his wife "often tries to recreate those sweet moves."
17. Joe Jonas nearly lost the role of Shane Grey in Camp Rock to a Twilight star.
Meaghan Martin, who played mean girl Tess, told M! Magazine she met Taylor Lautner at the auditions. He was apparently an "early favorite" for the role that eventually went to Joe.
18. The final lines in both Descendants and Descendants 2 weren't originally in the script.
Can you imagine both movies without the "You didn't think this was the end of the story, did you?" teased by Mal (Dove Cameron) in Descendants and by Uma (China Anne McClain) in the sequel? Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, China dished that Uma's line wasn't part of the original script. Cameron Boyce, who played Carlos, then chimed in and shared how Mal's line in the first film also wasn't part of the OG script.
19. The murder mystery DCOM Get a Clue was inspired by a Woody Allen film.
While no one was actually murdered in the Lindsay Lohan film, it made you think a teacher had bit the bullet for most of the movie. Screenwriter Alana Sanko confessed to Millennial Hallmarker that at the time she wrote Get a Clue, she "was obsessed with Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery," a 1993 comedy-mystery about a couple who believe their neighbor's wife was murdered. "I thought it would be fun to sort of do a play off a kid’s version of that – what if a student thought she could solve the mystery of her missing teacher…?"
20. Gabriella from Brink! accidentally fractured her coccyx during filming.
Speaking to People's Choice, actress Christina Vidal revealed she loved working on the movie, even though she fractured her tailbone. Whoops.
21. Shia LaBeouf blew his first audition for Tru Confessions.
After playing goofy Louis Stevens on Even Stevens, it's understandable why Shia wanted to expand his acting chops in Tru Confessions. His performance as mentally disabled Eddie was fantastic, but he nearly didn't get the part. Gary Marsh, President and Chief Creative Officer of Disney Channels Worldwide, told Entertainment Weekly Shia "overdid" his original audition.
Undeterred, Shia spent two weeks "doing this research, medically, and visited kids who had the exact same condition [as the character]." When he auditioned a second time, he nailed it.
22. Coach Bolton and Mrs. Darbus were supposed to have their own musical number in High School Musical.
Yeah yeah, we already shared a HSM fact, but we're doing another one because you know this movie is the best. Bart Johnson told Seventeen.com the track was going to be like the "Anything you can do I can do better" song from Annie Get Your Gun. Omg, can you even imagine how awesome that would've been?! East High wouldn't know what hit it.
Unfortunately, the movie would've run too long, so that song got the ax. But, director and choreographer Kenny Ortega "really wanted the number to be in the movie." Bart joked the real reason the song got cut was because Disney was scared he'd be "a better dancer then the rest of the cast." LOL.
23. Halloweentown originally had a much darker ending.
"If I remember correctly, it involved Marnie going into the middle of a forest to place the talisman instead of in the giant pumpkin," Kimberly J. Brown told Seventeen.com. "But I do remember that there was a section of the forest she had to walk through, and as she did she got older and older - that was the dangerous part about her having to go into it to save the town."
Creepy, right? It low key sounds like the carousel that ages you in Something Wicked This Way Comes, aka a super creepy book and '80s movie.
"Initially the FX guys had to take a mold of my head to make me a mask for that effect and I’d never done that before," Kimberly continued. "I still have the cement mold of my face; they let me keep it. They never ended up making the mask because the script was rewritten shortly thereafter."