Frenemies
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Frenemies is a 2012 teen comedy-drama television film and anthology based on the novel of the same name by Alexa Young which premiered on Disney Channel. It features an ensemble cast starring Bella Thorne, Zendaya, Stefanie Scott, Nick Robinson, Mary Mouser, and features Connor Price, Jascha Washington, and Dylan Everett. The film follows three pairs of teenage friends that go from friends to enemies and back again. The film was directed by Daisy Mayer and written by Dava Savel, Wendy Weiner, and Jim Krieg. The Disney Channel Original Movie premiered on January 13, 2012, in the United States and Canada.
Plot
Bella Thorne and Zendaya Coleman, who play Rocky and CeCe in hit Disney Channel series Shake it Up, star in this Disney Channel Original Movie. It is a comedy about three pairs of friends whose relationships go from good to bad and back again. Several couple fall out over girls, boys and work. Can all these couples settle their differences and be friends again?
Why It Will Be Your Ultimate Frenemy
- Out of all the movies Disney made, this is possibly the most unnecessary as it does literally nothing that hasn't been done before by before by other, often better, Disney movies, except for possibly having even worse acting and dialogue than most of them, which is saying so much; that's still not a good achievement in the slightest.
- Like most of Disney's bad movies, this film basically has this feminist agenda as it portrays all of the male characters as disgusting and juvenile while female characters are portrayed as perfect angels.
- The editing in the beginning isn’t that great and very mediocre at best.
- The movie has a lot of clichés, mainly how things occurred really fast. A notable example is the relationships between characters and events.
- This film has a few different stories that don't connect at all with each other.
- Like most Disney Channel movies (this also happens in most of their sitcoms), it always has that end-of-friendship crap when friends are fighting for something that only has one spot for one of them.
- Mediocre acting, even from actors such as Nick Robinson from Jurassic World and Mary Mouser from Cobra Kai.
- A girl having a rivalry with a dog is extremely stupid and nonsensical part of the plot.
- Very stereotypical characters.
- Julianne is nothing but one of those bratty high school girl stereotypes with those accents. She is very similar to Lexi Reed from A.N.T. Farm, who is coincidentally also played by her actress, Stefanie Scott.
- Halley and Avalon are both rip-offs of CeCe and Rocky from Shake it Up. To make matters worse, they're both like flanderized versions of them. Ironically enough, they are even played by CeCe and Rocky's actresses, Bella Thorne and Zendaya!
- The film tries so hard to be hip and current as it references to social media and internet lingo.
- The jokes are not funny at all.
- Lazy and very generic writing that has no purpose.
- This movie feels like three short films put into one big movie.
- Julianne used Jake for a science project, and she sabotaged Jake and Murray's relationship for no reason at all. Thankfully, her project got ruined before she got to turn it in, lesson learned: Karma is a bitch.
Redeeming Qualities
- The poster art looks very nice.
- It was Zendaya's first ever movie and she did surprisingly well as Halley Brandon.
- Julianne did get karma for what she did.
- While it's considered the most unnecessary Disney movie, it's at least not considered the worst.
- Nice camera work.
- There are surprisingly barely any editing errors in the film.
- Decent ending.
- The song Pose by Stefanie Scott and Carlon Jeffery is very catchy and nice.
- Decent setting.
Reception
This film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audience alike. The film has a 5/10 on IMDb and has a 1.9/5 on Letterboxd.
Trivia
- Zendaya and Bella Throne starred on a Disney Channel series Shake it Up.
- This is the first Disney movie made in 2012.
- Stefanie Scott starred on a Disney Channel series A.N.T. Farm.
- Zendaya later starred in another Disney Channel movie called Zapped, and after that movie, she got her own show called K.C. Undercover.