High School Musical comes the Disney Channel’s highest-rated ever original
movie, Jump In!, starring that aforementioned
film’s Corbin Bleu and Akeelah and the
Bee’s wonderful
Keke Palmer.

As the exclamatory title might suggest, Jump In! is definitely pitched at kids and tweens, and within this
context the project succeeds fabulously. The movie premiered on the Disney Channel earlier
this January, to the highest ever ratings in total viewers (8.2 million), and finished
as TV’s most-watched program of that entire day (both broadcast and basic cable)
in target demos for kids both 6-11 and 9-14 years of age.

Penned by Doreen Spicer (The
Proud Family), and the team of Regina Hicks and Karin Gist (Girlfriends), Jump In! is a coming-of-age story about Brooklyn
teenager Izzy Daniels (Bleu) whose father dreams of him becoming a champion
boxer. When his neighbor Mary (Palmer) asks him to substitute for a jumper on
her double-dutch team in time for the city championship, Izzy hops right in. As
he acclimates with surprising quickness, Izzy discovers an unanticipated passion
for the world of competitive jump-roping.

Despite its premise, the movie doesn’t so much mess around
with gender roles to the degree that, say, Billy
Elliott did, as merely present a comfortable, sunny environment where boy-girl
playground divisions are knocked down and overcome. Older audiences will stare
right through or past the rather flimsy conceit on which this movie hangs, but
perhaps feel a pang of nostalgia for the jump-rope action. Speaking of which, director
Paul Hoen (South of Nowhere) does a nice
job of capturing that material, as well as keeping the tone light and agreeable,
and putting his young charges through the paces in brisk fashion. Bleu conveys
a certain likeability, and Palmer again proves herself a young actress of natural,
unaffected appeal. Rounding out the cast are David Reivers (Poseidon)
and Hannah Montana’s Shanica Knowles.

The movie’s so-called “freestyle edition” DVD is housed in a
regular Amray case with cardboard O-ring slipcover, and presented in 1.33:1
full frame, with a Dolby digital 5.1 soundtrack. Exclusive bonus materials
consist of a “Learning the Moves” featurette with Bleu, in which he hosts an
instructional double-dutch jump rope routine that showcases steps both simple and advanced for
at-home fans. Palmer, meanwhile, is featured in a pop-hop music video from the
movie’s soundtrack entitled, appropriately enough, “Jumpin’.” Rounding out the supplemental
features is a cursory seven-minute making-of featurette entitled “Inside the
Ropes,” and a second music video, from rising pop sensation T-Squad, for their song
“Vertical.” To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C+ (Movie) C (Disc)