Disney Channel Originals

Lili’s Pick: Sky High

Lanie’s Pick: Under Wraps

If you were a child of the 90s and the early 2000s, you likely spent your weeknights and weekends watching Disney Channel, and if you had any taste at all, you were watching their Originals (the Disney films that never went to theaters but instead had television premieres that for some reason, felt more special). There is a vast list of Disney Channel Original films—most of which are on Disney+, if you feel so inclined to take a trip down memory lane, as we did. From two different generations of Disney came Under Wraps and Sky High, two of our favorites. Both of these movies represent so much: our childhoods, a time before responsibilities or COVID, and a time before Disney films became oversaturated with musicals and worn-out plots with forced wholesomeness. I don’t mean to sound so jaded, I just know that the Disney Channel content of my childhood was markedly more impressive than the content Disney is releasing now. Call me old-fashioned, but I’d rather watch a movie about kids who find a mummy or kids who are superheroes than another High School Musical reboot (This dead horse is still being beaten and has the cursed title of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, I’m not even joking). Under Wraps and Sky High both have fairly simplistic plots, but the clever dialogue and subtle innuendos ultimately make these films, dated as they are, remarkably timeless. If you’re feeling nostalgic, or if you’re in need for some easy-viewing, I guarantee Bill Fagerbakke’s (aka the voice of Patrick Starr) portrayal of a precocious mummy and Nicholas Braun’s performance as a boy with the power to glow in the dark will make you smile.