Brink! (1998) Reminded Me That Children’s Films Are Cinematic Parables

Today’s issue of Dust On The VCR is a subscriber request! This throwback “classic” comes from my buddy Jake Thornton, one of my work homies that has become an actual real-life homie. It helps that he’s a bit of a man about town, so I’m always running into him at movies, concerts, and other events. But our best hangs are when he brings homemade kombucha to the office and I get to swing by his desk and indulge. (Get to know him, folks.) Jake is also a few years younger than me, which will be glaringly obvious by the end of today’s newsletter. Anyway. Want to request a film for a future issue? Subscribe to the paid version!

Reader, if I may, I’d like to start with a confession: Before this month, I’d never seen a Disney Channel Original Movie. (Or a DCOM, as y’all call them.)

I don’t know if we even had the Disney Channel in my home growing up.* But if we did, I definitely thought I was too cool to watch it by the time the first official DCOM dropped in October of 1997. I had just started 6th grade, I’d been mainlining Stephen King adaptations and other grown-up fare for a couple years, and it just didn’t suit my rapidly evolving tastes. (Besides, I was a Nickelodeon kid.)

So when I watched Brink!—the third DCOM and, from what my younger peers tell me, one of the best ones—for the first time at age 37, I had to calibrate my expectations. Because it’s an odd sensation experiencing someone else’s nostalgia, you know? Without fond memories of watching the film as a child informing my level of enjoyment, I figured I had two choices: I could critique the film by a standard set of cinematic criteria, or I could attempt to view the film through a child’s eyes.

I ended up doing my best to walk a line between both approaches.**

Because from a craft standpoint, there’s really not much to see here. I reckon the executives over at Big Mouse didn’t care enough about “cinema” to sink millions of dollars into their TV movies, and it shows. It’s all rather forgivable, of course, especially considering that most of the actors are teenagers and Erik von Detten was probably cast because he’s an off-brand Jonathan Taylor Thomas.***

So I did my best to look past the technical criteria and meet the film on its own terms. I just had to keep the audience in mind.

Many of us use the terms interchangeably, but I think there’s a difference between a children’s movie and a family movie. A family movie is always appropriate for children, and usually enjoyable for most children, though it might not hold the attention of certain kids at certain ages.**** Which means children’s movies are sort of a paradoxical opposite: Adults might tolerate a children’s movie because their kids love them, but they probably won’t get much out of the viewing experience. (Brink! is, of course, a children’s movie.)

But this is not to say that children’s movies have no value beyond providing a 90-minute distraction. I think the best ones function as age-appropriate parables, and Brink! is definitely that too. Young, impressionable viewers will walk away from this film having learned a few lessons—about maintaining friendships, honoring your parents, being honest and up front, shaping your own identity, etc. They’re obvious lessons to us, but they’re reminders for children who might need some practice.

Had I seen Brink! in elementary school, I imagine it would’ve really done a number on me. I would’ve laughed at all the pranks that the good guys pull on the bad guys. I would’ve made better use of the rollerblades my parents got me that one time (that I probably asked for after watching The Mighty Ducks). And I would’ve learned at an even younger age that selling out is the worst thing that you can possibly do.***** But most importantly, I would’ve been reminded that my actions have consequences and doing the right thing eventually pays off.

I don’t know that I’ll be revisiting Brink! anytime soon. And I don’t think I’ll be doing a deep dive on other DCOMs in the near future. But now that I’ve seen the best(?) one, I can appreciate them for what they are. And maybe now I’ll have more clout with young people! (I should dig up those rollerblades…)

*The Disney Wiki tells me that the Disney Channel became a “premium network” just months before the first DCOM dropped, and we just had basic cable. But y’all tell me.

**I took the coward’s way out and gave it 2.5 stars on Letterboxd. Lower than the 3.1 average, but higher than many of the critics I follow!

***Was he a better actor than me at age 15? Certainly. Did his acting range eclipse more than three emotions? No, it did not.

****My editor John will not like this, but Soul comes to mind. A film that I really enjoy but not one I would show to my young nephew.

*****Speaking of selling out, this film was released in 1998, and the soundtrack is ska adjacent. You know they were blasting Reel Big Fish in that writers room.

Brink! is now streaming on Disney+, and it is available to rent elsewhere.