Grace Stirs Up Success review

I reviewed Isabelle's movie about a year ago and I finally got around to watching Grace's movie recently so I thought I'd review it like I did Isabelle's.(Hopefully you can still watch Grace here). I'll try to follow the same format I used in Isabelle's review. Please remember that quite a bit of this is going to be opinion because it's a review.

Isabelle's movie was shown on Disney Channel in early August so AG may have plans to do the same with Grace's movie. I have not heard anything and could not find anything online to indicate that this will happen but I don't think there was much warning about Isabelle's movie showing on Disney Channel before it happened. Keep an eye out. I will try to post about any showings if I hear about them. 

The director was Vince Marcello who also did Isabelle's movie and the two Disney Channel "Teen Beach Movie". Olivia Rodrigo stars as Grace. Caitlin Carmichael who portrays one of Grace's best friends, is a recurring voice on Disney Jr's Doc McStuffens.

Plot - Grace Thomas plans to start a cupcake business with her two best friends so that they can raise money to pay for their new bikes for some bike race at the end of the summer. Then Grace's mother drops the news that she and Grace will be living in Paris for a while because Grace's aunt is too pregnant to work in her husband's bakery anymore. Grace and her cousin do not get along and find it difficult to relate to each other. Grace gets in the way at the bakery when she tried too hard to prove how good she is to her uncle. After the baby comes, Grace and her mother return to Massachusetts where Grace overhears that her grandparents' bakery is in too much debt to keep running. Grace puts her Paris bakery knowledge to use and everything is going great until the old oven finally breaks. Grace gets an email the next morning saying that she is a contestant on a baking competition/TV show and the prize is $100,000 (and a trophy). Grace goes to the competition in hopes of winning. 

Good points 

• The acting was a lot better than the Isabelle movie
• Most of the characters were fairly developed and had meaning
• Grace wasn't nearly as whiny and woe-is-me as Isabelle was 
• All of Grace's doll outfits and most of her accessories were in the movie (along with a few original outfits which would've been cute additions to her set)

Some not-so-good points

• In all honesty, it seemed really long. There were a lot points that I thought were nearing the end and then I'd see how much time was left or I remembered another scene I had seen when passing the TV in the store. There were a lot of subplots within the whole movie.
• It seemed odd that Grace's parents could afford to give her an iPhone, iPad and an Apple laptop but couldn't afford a new bike for her. I also thought it was a little ridiculous that a 9 or 10 year old would have all of those devices. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but does an elementary schooler really need all of that? 
• Another thing I thought was odd was the fact that Grace had to go to Paris. Why couldn't she stay behind with her dad and brother or even her grandparents? She really only seemed to be in the way at the bakery for 95% of the movie so couldn't her mother just have gone? Or couldn't her uncle have just hired a temporary baker/worker?  
• Her dog (Bonbon) was practically pointless to include. He was only significant to one scene and it didn't even make sense how the dog knew where to go in that scene. (Without giving too much away, Bonbon is sent into a hotel with something around his neck for a specific person who he had never met before so I don't know how the heck he knew where he was going or who he was looking for.)

Personally, I wouldn't rewatch it as I didn't find it super entertaining but I think younger kids would like it. Supposedly the parents who went to the premier event at our store liked it a lot (in comparison to Isabelle's movie).