ABC Family
The Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie has been promoted everywhere from kids’ gaming sites to movie theaters as a movie for the whole family. As someone who attempted to screen it with the whole family, I’d call it a movie for Wizards of Waverly Place fans. After Alex, the middle-sister wizard and series star is dragged on a tropical family vacation, she wishes, while holding the family wand and spell book, that her parents had never met. When her wish is granted, she and her brothers must find the Stone of Dreams to undo the spell before they disappear. The plot is surprisingly hackneyed for Disney and the setting worthy of the Hawaii episode of The Brady Bunch. Fortunately, the actors, even those in smaller roles, made the best of their material and moved the more cynical members of the audience to care (a little) about the obvious resolution. While the younger kids abandoned the couch early on, the 13-year-old Wizards fan remained thrilled throughout and kept assuring us that if only we’d watched the series, we’d “get it.”
—KJ Dell' Antonia
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