Mighty Oak (2020) - Movie Review

Of all the family-friendly features I’ve covered on here, this has got to be one of the strangest. Not because it contains anything all that bizarre as far as content; it’s more how that content is framed. Put simply, this is what happens when a Disney Channel Original movie tries to be ‘edgy’.

A rock-n-roll music movie that is equal parts generic band drama and kid wish fulfillment, this somehow makes for one of the weirder efforts from a director whose entire career is made up of oddities. Director Sean McNamara not only brought us the Bratz movie, but also the third, fourth, and fifth entries in the Baby Geniuses series, a group of films that never should have survived past No. 1 to begin with. Based on that, I went into this expecting it to be made-on-the-cheap pap for kids, and to an extent that’s what this is… just with enough swearing to make Will Ferrell’s Land Of The Lost seem tonally consistent.

Yeah, not since Venom have I seen a movie insist its own ‘maturity’ through having every character say the word ‘shit’ as many times as the censors will allow, which turns out to be a hefty amount here. And the tonal issues only grow from there, managing to involve drug addiction, gambling addiction and alcoholism in a story that might as well be a Disney product in just how machine-washed it is, up to and including the idea of a 20-something rock star being reincarnated in the body of ten-year-old Oak, played by Tommy Ragen.

Ragen himself turns out to be the linchpin for the film’s genuine entertainment value, as most of the original music here comes directly from him. Dude is a legit musician, and while the songs aren’t that great, it’s such a far-cry from the Kidz Bop shit I was expecting that it’s quite remarkable. Not only that, but for a character that is basically pop punk embodied in an elementary schooler, he sells the dramatic role as well, even when he’s acting opposite an appearance from Raven-Symone of That’s So Raven. After seeing that, you can probably guess why I have Disney TV on the brain.

For a film with a closer resemblance to Spring Breakers than just about any other family film I’ve ever reviewed on here (what with the Disney pop sheen over what is actually a pretty grungy story in its character specifics), have to admit, I think I like this purely for the weirdness of it all. From a director best known for DVD bargain bin material, a writer who almost derailed Kevin Spacey’s career before the allegations became public in Matt Allen, and a clash between tone and content that’s almost too much to believe, this film being entertaining at all is rather inexplicable. But entertaining it is, to a certain extent, and I’d almost recommend checking it out if only so I can confirm that I didn’t just imagine this whole bloody thing out of some lockdown-fever need for input.