Review of AG's "Isabelle Dances Into The Spotlight"

I was able to find the latest American Girl Girl of the Year (GOTY) movie on YouTube. "Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight" is 2014 GOTY Isabelle's movie.

Disney Channel is showing the movie on Saturday August 9th at 7/6c if you want to watch or TiVo it.

Plot - The movie is about Isabelle's struggle to shine at her performing arts school. She loves ballet but feels stuck in her older sister Jade's shadow and is bullied by a classmate. Isabelle has very low self-esteem and has basically no faith in herself. When she takes a part in the Nutcracker she has to face both her bully and feeling like she'll never compare to Jade. When the big dance number becomes harder will she be able to land the final turn sequence or mess up in front of everyone? Will she be good enough to get the New York Ballet summer program?

Good points:

• The acting wasn't bad, especially for the number of child/teen actors
• The dancing/choreography was great (I have no experience dancing so I'm not the greatest judge on this). 
•  The costumes were nice although only two looked like the Isabelle doll outfits. 

(I realize that it looks like I have far more complaints than compliments but that does not mean I thought it was a bad movie. It's easier to find flaws than good points.)

Some things I noticed that were off or not quite right to me:

• Isabelle's pink hair seem to disappear on and off throughout the movie
• The girl who played Isabelle's sister Jade (Grace Davidson) is obviously not close to Jade's age (which I believe is about 13 because there is a New York ballet program for 4-7th grade spots and most kids are 12 or 13 in 7th grade). Jade could easily pass for a 18 year old. I wasn't able to find Grace Davidson's age but I'm sure she is a legal adult (18+). Isabelle is a 9 year old played by a 14 year old so I'm sure Grace is several years older than Jade which isn't uncommon. 
• There are very few kids that look to be Jade's age or any other age besides Isabelle/Renata's age despite the fact that the school spans several grades/ages.
• The movie is set in DC but quite a few people have noticeable Canadian accents.
• The movie can be painfully slow and predictable. Maybe it's less predictable for younger viewers but I was definitely able to guess what was about to happen most of the time. 
• The music wasn't very good. Mediocre singing and lyrics were (unsurprisingly) pretty cheesy. 
• Isabelle constantly put herself down, to the point where I didn't even feel sorry for her. 
• Renata's bullying went undetected in places where adults weren't out of ear-shot. The bullying seemed off in a way I don't think I can quite describe. It just seemed like too much I guess.
• (Spoiler alert!) It ended the same way every AG movie ends - everyone gets along and everything is perfect. 

Girl of the Year 2014 movie

The new Girl of the Year (GOTY) Isabelle will have a movie that is set to be released sometime in Summer 2014. It is directed by Vince Marcello (2012's GOTY movie "McKenna Shoots for the Stars" and Disney Channel's original movie "Teen Beach Movie"). It was written by Jessica O'Toole and Amy Rardin. The movie was filmed from May - June 2013 and the girl playing Isabelle is 14 year old Erin Pitt. 

Pitt was considered for the role of Renesmee from the final Twilight franchise movie. She is one of six children and is from Ontario. She played on of the little campers (Junior Rocker "Audrey") in the Disney Channel original movie "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam" that was released in 2010. Pitt had three roles in a 2012 horror film "Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" as Dark Alessa, Alessa Gillespie and the younger version of Sharon DaSilva. She dances and plays violin. Most recently, Pitt was in the movie "Against the Wild" where she and her brother must survive after a plane crash in the wild. She looks a lot like a young Hayden Panettiere in "Against the Wild". 

More of the released cast:

• Jade (Isabelle's sister) - Grace Davidson
• Chloe - Saara Chaudry
• Luisa (one of Isabelle's best friends) - Devyn Nekoda
• Gabriel (listed on IMDb as "tap dancer") - Matthew Edmondson

I'm not sure why the movie isn't being released with the doll (I was asked by many costumers if we had them), but my guess is that it is a marketing strategy to bring people back to the stores in the summer/fall to get them to buy more. 

The plot of the movie is not known but will be related to the three books Isabelle has. The first book, titled simply Isabelle, is about Isabelle being excited to start her first year at her new dance school (Anna Hart School of the Arts) and how she begins to doubt her talent when she meets the other students. The second book, Designs by Isabelle, Isabelle again struggles with how she compares to other students but begins to focus on the costumes of the plays and helps her sister. The third and final book, To the Stars, Isabelle, Isabelle is invited by her dance idol (Jackie Sanchez) to go on tour which Isabelle eagerly agrees to but learns that her classmates, Reneta, who isn't very nice, was also invited. The show begins to fall apart so Isabelle tries to her Jackie and ends up learning a lot about her dance idol and learns how she, herself, can inspire others around her. All of Isabelle's books are by Laurence Yep, who wrote 2008's GOTY Mia St. Clair's books. 

One of the articles about the casting search read:

"Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Martin Chase Productions are currently in pre-production on the seventh film in the American Girl series, “American Girl 2014″. This is the current working title of the film. The award winning casting director, who was formerly the executive vice president of feature castings at Walt Disney Studios, is auditioning actors to fill the lead roles. Additional casting for supporting and day player roles will take place as soon as the main roles are cast. A few of the roles being cast are a 10 year old girl with exceptional ballet skills for the lead role, a 12-15 year old ballet dancer to play the second lead role, and another 10 year old girl. Also up for grabs is the role of an ethnically diverse adult actress between the ages of 24-40, who also has expert level ballet skills. Shooting will take place in May throughout June, 2013.

“American Girl 2014″ centers on Blanche Palmer, a lively and energized 10 year-old girl who is very happy and full of life. Blanche has a dream of being a professional ballet dancer, but she has a bit of stage fright when dancing. This performance anxiety prevents her from exhibiting her true amazing talent. Blanche has an older sister Jade who is considered the very best ballet dancer in her school. The two enjoy a close relationship with each other, however Blanche always feels like she is living and performing in the shadow of her sister’s talent. To complicate her life even more, Blanche has a competitor named Renata who is the same age and dances with perfection since her parents hired a private coach. Renata is very pretty and very testy, and she criticizes Blanche for small mistakes in her performances. Jackie Sanchez, a recently retired world class ballerina, then becomes a role model for Blanche and her sister."

On IMDb the movie is listed as "American Girl Blanche." This is not the real title of the movie and obviously is not the real name of the GOTY 2014. American Girl puts out fake names, especially when looking for actors so that the real name is not released. 

UPDATE: the American Girl website states that the movie will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray in July of 2014.