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9 Strange—but Great—Disney Channel Original Movies You Forgot About

Including mermaids, holograms, and aliens aplenty.

Movies

Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash

Disney+ is trickling its way into our daily dependence on streaming services.

This means we've unlocked a whole new world (Aladdin pun intended) of movies to watch half-attentively while we also scroll on our phones. You probably already know of all the classic Disney Originals that are at your disposal, but what about the Disney Channel Originals?

It's probably a given that big hits like High School Musical, Zenon, and Camp Rock are now available for your adult self to stream and reminisce, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Name a DCOM, and it's likely available on Disney+, including all the strange, ridiculous low-fliers you might've forgotten about. Here are just nine to kickstart your nostalgia trip.

1. Alley Cats Strike!

Anything goes in the Disney Channel universe, including a bowling match to settle a basketball championship tie between rival towns. Why are both towns so invested in high school bowling? Why do the teenage winners get to pick the name of a new school in the area? We don't know, but we're still chasing the high of that final scene.

2. Stepsister from Planet Weird

In this sci-fi comedy from 2000, a literal alien refugee is immediately welcomed into the popular crowd at her new high school on Earth, despite thinking her human form is "grotesque." Not to mention that the emperor of her home planet is defeated by hair dryers and wind blowers.

3. Can of Worms

On the other end of the spectrum of Disney Channel's alien fixation, Can of Worms centers around Mike, who lives an entirely normal life besides believing he doesn't belong on Earth at all. After he accidentally sends a message to space, he's visited by an alien lawyer who deems Earth's living standards subpar. Strangely eerie 20 years later, isn't it?

4. The Thirteenth Year

Cody's birth mother is a mermaid who left him on a random boat when he was a baby. Now, as Cody approaches his teens, his merman features are beginning to present themselves, and he nearly gets accused for cheating during his swim meet. It's just fins, not steroids!

5. Luck of the Irish

There's little to take away from this film other than a white teenage boy finally embraces that he is both Irish and from Ohio, but leprechauns and river dancing will never not be amusing.

6. Motocrossed

Five years before Amanda Bynes posed as her own twin brother in She's the Man, Disney Channel offered their own adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. After Andi's brother gets injured, she decides to fill in for him in an all-male motocross tournament, chopping her hair off and all. The sexism is abundant, but—spoiler alert—Andi can totally take on the guys.

7. The Other Me

Poor Will. His grades are slipping, his dad is threatening to send him to military camp, and he just accidentally made a clone of himself who turns out to be way cooler and smarter than him, so they switch places. Kinda like the Parent Trap, but sciencey.

8. You Wish!

The lesson this film attempts to impart is: don't wish away your little brother, because he might instead become a child TV star and make your life even more of a living hell than it was when you lived under the same roof.

9. Pixel Perfect

The perfect pop star doesn't exist, until, of course, you make a hologram of her. Loretta Modern might have been programmed to become an overnight sensation, but she just wants to be a regular human, damn it! She ends up being helpful in more ways than one, but like all modern technology, she can't last forever.

Maybe they didn't all make total sense, but there's a reason DCOMs became such an integral part of growing up in the 2000s. DCOM creators conceived some of the strangest, most fringe ideas, and served them to a market that didn't mind how nonsensical they were; pair that with Disney Channel's omnipresence in the typical middle-class American household, and these oddly lovable films serve as a timestamp for an era.

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Baby Yoda Is Emo, and We Love That

Thanks to the Twitter account @emo_yoda, our favorite galactic infant now comes with your favorite sad tunes.

Photo by: Maksym Tymchyk / Unsplash

By now, we've already discussed in detail why internet celebrity (and my ideal offspring) Baby Yoda is so great, to a degree that he should probably run for president.

A lot of us haven't even watched a single episode of The Mandalorian, the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff that gave Baby Yoda a platform to steal our hearts, but that doesn't mean we can't participate in enjoying memes of the robed green creature. Naturally, many such memes have centered around music, whether little Yoda is bumping "Get Low" from the cockpit of his spaceship or proudly holding Charli XCX's Pop 2 mixtape.

This week, a Twitter account by the username @emo_yoda joined in on the fun for a specific lane of music lovers. In the wake of viral Instagram accounts like "Chandler Holding Ur Fav Album" and "Drake Loves Ur Fav Album," where different album covers are edited into the hands of either Chandler from Friends or Drake from Drake and Josh, @emo_yoda is where your favorite emo, pop-punk, and indie records are all beheld by the baby himself.

— (@)

It all started a few days ago when Baby Yoda started listening to Modern Baseball's Holy Ghost. While he certainly enjoys the classics—the header photo is Baby Yoda superimposed over the cover photo for American Football's 1999 debut—he enjoys many newer records, as well, like Joyce Manor's Never Hungover Again, Snail Mail's Lush, and PUP's Morbid Stuff. The latter band responded, saying, "Just noticing your profile photo, which is totally f**king unhinged." The photo is unhinged, indeed: a shot of Pope Francis lifting a chalice, except the Pope's face is edited over with PUP frontman Stefan Babcock and the chalice is—you guessed it—Baby Yoda. Imagining Baby Yoda would headbang to PUP or cry to American Football is a true delight, and we're thankful for all iterations of the meme to keep him alive in his adorable glory forever.

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Baby Yoda Sex Revealed and Other Questions Answered in Episode 3, "The Mandalorian"

The asset in the floating bassinet is at it yet again. Spoilers ahead!

Lucasfilm

Episode 3 of The Mandalorian premiered this morning on Disney+, providing revelations about our hero's moral compass, the intentions of the imperial remnant after the bounty, and most importantly: Baby Yoda.

Titled "The Sin," the third installment of the 8-episode season opens with the titular Mandalorian (yet unnamed aside from the nickname "Mando") traveling in his Razor Crest gunship to deliver Baby Yoda (whose species and name remain unknown, aside from "the Asset," so "Baby Yoda" it is) to the imperial remnant (a.k.a. "the Client").

Baby Yoda plays with a metal ball in the cockpit of the Mandalorian's starship. "That's not a toy!" (But wtf is it?) Lucasfilm

Quick facts we knew about Baby Yoda (the true protagonist of this series) coming into this episode:

Baby Yoda is 50 years old but is still in his/her infancy given that the species is known in canon to live for roughly 900 years and ages very slowly.
He is definitely "Force sensitive," as revealed at the climax of Episode 2.
He is highly sought after by a mysterious group linked to the First Galactic Empire (which appears to have been existing in secret since the Empire was overthrown approximately 5 years before the events of The Mandalorian).

Popular fan theories about the possible origins and significance of Baby Yoda:

Baby Yoda is the child of Yoda and Yaddle (the only other being of Yoda's species seen in Disney Star Wars canon, depicted briefly on screen as a member of the Jedi Council in the prequel trilogy).
Baby Yoda is actually a clone of Yoda himself.
Baby Yoda (and all members of the species) are actually born of and by the Force, not traditional methods of reproduction.
Baby Yoda's Force-rich DNA will be extracted and potentially used to revive Emperor Palpatine, explaining the Sith Lord's anticipated return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker set to release in theaters less than a month from today.
Snoke is the true client seeking Baby Yoda for some reason, as it is confirmed The Mandalorian will explore the origins of the First Order.
Baby Yoda is simply a random member of Yoda's species and a brilliant merchandising ploy.

So what do we learn in Episode 3?

First, let's discuss the title of the episode: "The Sin." In the first act of Episode 3, it would seem the "sin" is that Mando actually delivers Baby Yoda to the Client, accepts his enormous bounty in the form of Imperial-pressed Beskar steel, and bounces. Many fans didn't see that coming. Surely Mando would have formed too strong an attachment to Baby Yoda to betray him, especially considering Baby Yoda saved his life from a Mudhorn. However, the amount of Beskar paid for the delivery of Baby Yoda was insanely valuable (even in USD) and enough to complete and repair Mando's amor. Plus, we learn later that basically every bounty hunter in the parsec was after this bounty. Mando's delivery basically made him an instant celebrity (and target).

By the end of the episode, however, it seems the true sin is that of the Client. Mando eventually has a change of heart before leaving the planet on his next mission and returns to the Imperial hideout to rescue Baby Yoda. During the heist, it becomes clear that the Client intended to kill the cutie pie or at the very least it is heavily implied that Baby Yoda would be cloned or weaponized in some manner.

In my opinion, the real sin is that Baby Yoda doesn't get more screen time in this episode.

So what are the main takeaways? For one thing, Baby Yoda is definitely a child and is definitely male. That might seem like an obvious point, but many fans speculated the possibility that the 50-year-old bounty truly possessed the wisdom, perception, and knowledge of a 50-year-old but was simply trapped in a slowly aging body. Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi), a member of the Imperial remnant who wears the insignia from the cloning facility on Kamino, appears to have vast knowledge of the species and alien biology in general. When Mando comes to rescue Baby Yoda, Dr. Pershing first assumes that Mando is there to kill Baby Yoda and immediately begs, "Please don't hurt him. It's just a child."

Dr. Pershing in The Mandalorian Leave Baby Yoda alone! He's just a boy! Lucasfilm

Secondly, Baby Yoda is believed by the Empire to possess a "necessary material" which can be "extracted." Before raiding the Client's lair, Mando uses a tool on his rifle capable of picking up audio from long distances to spy on the imperials. He intercepts a conversation between Werner Herzog's character and Dr. Pershing, in which the former orders the doctor to "extract the necessary material and be done with it." Dr. Pershing protests, "He explicitly ordered us to bring it back alive." It's unclear who "He" is in this sentence, but perhaps this hints at the Palpatine and/or Snoke tie-ins that fans have theorized.

Finally, Baby Yoda is now, much like Mando, the parsec's most wanted. Escaping the planet with Baby Yoda basically forced Mando and his Mandalorian counterparts to wipe out a small village. I'm talking mass homicide. In a galaxy where news travels fast and hunting criminals seems to be a popular profession, there is no doubt that word of the events of Episode 3 will be widely known very soon. Moreover, the aforementioned conversation between Herzog's character and Dr. Pershing makes it clear that there is a bigger, more powerful baddie out there that seeks Baby Yoda.

Luckily for Baby Yoda, Mando is an extremely talented warrior, and Baby Yoda is now the most important being in his life. Mando not only mowed down (and disintegrated) countless people to protect Baby Yoda, he also endangered his fellow Mandalorians. Then again, perhaps Mando is lucky to have Baby Yoda. The 50-year-old infant has magical abilities that are sure to come in handy, and he shows a clear preference for Mando over anyone else. Perhaps Baby Yoda is intelligent enough to recognize that Mando is the only person in the galaxy trying to protect him or her. Or maybe Baby Yoda's Force abilities allow him or her to sense some larger significance or purpose that Mando will eventually fulfill in the big picture. In the end, Mando left with both Baby Yoda and his baller new chromed out amor, so I'd say it was a pretty solid day overall.

Baby Yoda enjoys eating a frog. That's a GOOD BOY!Lucasfilm

Release schedule for upcoming episodes of The Mandalorian

Episode 4 - Friday, November 29
Episode 5 - Friday, December 6
Episode 6 - Friday, December 13
Episode 7 - Wednesday, December 18
Episode 8 - Friday, December 27

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