On Feb. 16, 2018, Disney Channel premiered their new original movie “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S.” The premise of the movie was much like the others, a romance story of a high school girl and boy that fall in love, and there’s music in it.
However, the actual movie itself was pretty surprising. I’m a huge Disney fan, so of course I was excited for the movie. I had to admit, when I’d seen the first trailer back in 2017, I hadn’t thought much of it. The more trailers that came out, however, the better the movie seemed.
The movie contains several musical numbers throughout the course of the hour and thirty-seven minutes, but they’re evenly spaced and most of them fit with the movie, meaning that they aren’t just random bursts of song unlike most musicals. The actual genre of the movie is listed as adventure and horror, which means there may not have been enough songs or random burst numbers to count as a musical.
“Z-O-M-B-I-E-S” stars Milo Manheim, a newcomer making his first major debut in television and film, as Zed, the main male zombie and one of the deuteragonist of the movie. He wants to create harmony between the humans and zombies and make them see that zombies are no different than humans.
Also starring is Meg Donnelly, from “American Housewife” as Addison, the other deuteragonist and main female character. She is a cheerleader who just wants to fit in but falls in love with Zed and begins to help him on his path to changing their world.
The main antagonist of the film is Bucky, played by Trevor Tordjman, Addison’s cousin and the star cheerleader of Seabrook High. He is against any sort of change, especially anything having to do with zombies. He and the ‘Aceys,’ as they’re nicknamed, set out on a path to destroy the change that the zombies are putting forth.
Zed joins the football team after an incident at a pep rally, and it angers Bucky who tried to ruin the day from the start. They hack the z-bands, which are the bracelets the zombies wear that keep them from going wild, and cause Zed and his two best friends to go wild and show the humans what kind of monster they really are.
Bucky remains an enemy for much of the movie until the end, where he decides to join the cheerleaders and the zombies at the cheer championships and decides they aren’t so bad after all. The main source of his change is Zed’s little sister Zoey, who has a heart for cheering and looks up to Bucky.
In the end, everyone comes together and unites in a block party style celebration, indicating that change has taken place. However, the fence between the two towns remain, a simple reminder that while things are changing, it will still take time for things to ever be fully equal.
Over the past few years, Disney has begun to use their massive platform as a voice for change. In late 2017, they had a character in a show called “Andi Mack” come out as gay, sparking one of the first main and recurring characters in a Disney show to be classified as LGBT. “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S” carried on the voice for change. In the movie, the characters keep mentioning how they’re fighting against intolerance. Although one of the characters makes a joke that she “fought hers by eliminating dairy,” the movie handles it very well.
The zombies in the movie represent any minority who feels discriminated against and the way that the humans react could be classified as racism. In the end, everyone comes together and change begins to take place.
If Disney continues on this path, they could become a voice for change for children and young teens for years to come. With all that we are forced to face these days, sometimes television can be more efficient at teaching a child a lesson on intolerance, racism, gender equality, LGBT and other social issues than an adult is.
Kids love TV and will watch and listen to it more than they do any adult. They can learn lessons they need for life without even knowing they’re doing it.
Jeri Hensley
Graphic Designer