Good evening everyone, and welcome to likely the last film review until maybe this weekend, or early next week, sometime like that. Tonight, we will be tapping into a type of live-action Disney films, well known as the Disney Channel Original Movies. These exclusive films from Disney were movies that were made for TV, that aired on Disney Channel from around the mid to late 1990s through the 2000s, if not sometime after that. Included in this bunch of films were movies like Brink, Motocrossed, Hounded, the High School Musical trilogy (although the third one, for some reason, got the lucky opportunity of getting a theatrical release first), and the very movie that we will be looking into tonight, 1999’s Johnny Tsunami.
Plot: A kid from Hawaii named Johnny Kapahala (Brandon Baker) enjoys life in Hawaii surfing with his Grandfather, who is also named Johnny Kapahala, who’s portrayed by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (last name being nicknamed Tsumami in the film after saving some lives in a storm a while back). But news comes up that his Father (Yuji Okumoto) has gotten a job transfer to Vermont, causing younger Johnny, and his family to move from Hawaii to Vermont. Things don’t go well, as Johnny is roped into this situation at his new school, where he technically has to either ski with those of his new private school, or go to a public school, and snowboard with those who snowboard there. Will he have to choose, or can he defy traditions with these two new rival schools in the end?
Now, I must confess that when I first watched a little bit of this movie on Disney Channel years ago, I didn’t like the little bit that I saw when watching it. The reason being is because what I watched of this film made the movie feel like a downer at least for me. Because of this, I basically avoided this film, along with most other Disney Channel Original Movies for a long while. The only exception was a Disney Channel Original Movie by the name of Hounded (which aired two years later), likely because what I watched of that one was extremely funny, and I at least watched that one plenty of times on Disney Channel because of that. Thankfully, I started to give some of these films more of a chance years later. Well, long story short, I finally came across this film on, you likely guessed it, Disney+, and watched it ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
Now that I’ve seen all of this film, I have to confess that I am very disappointed in myself, as I should have watched all of Johnny Tsunami years ago like most other people around my age likely did. This film is very good. First off, some of the moments that I mentioned that I didn’t like about this film beforehand, they’re mostly minor moments that help build the characters, and the story up overall. Also, the film Johnny Tsunami helps show what life can be like for some families, as well as the difficulties of life that may come along the way. Additionally, people can probably learn some very important social skills from watching a movie like this one, especially if someone’s a kid who has yet to enter middle school, high school, or maybe even elementary school. Most, if not all of the acting is very good. Oh, and speaking of which, a lot of you have heard of an actor named Gregory Itzin, have you not? He was in this film too, as Pritchard, the Headmaster of the private school that Johnny attends. Wow, can you believe that he would go from family films like this, and the 1995 WB film Born To Be Wild, to playing a notorious fictional character by the name of President Charles Logan in around a third to half of the 24 TV series around five to ten years later after this movie’s premiere? Go figure! Additionally, as people watch this film, Johnny Tsunami can open the doors to people asking some very important questions in life. Questions included would be ones like “Can changes in life be for the better, or the worst?” “Or both?” “Will hardships bring out the best, or the worst in certain people?” Finally, “Do difficulties in life basically mean the end of the world for an individual, or will specific hardships be blessings in disguise in the long run?” Due to all of these questions mentioned, the film is bound to teach people to learn to embrace changes in life, even when it may not be easy to do so. Considering hardships such as what nations like the US are facing today, how could a message like that not ring more true even today? Finally, of course we can learn from this film that we can find some good friends that will be friends either for the short, or long term. The only downside to Johnny Tsunami was that there were at least one or two characters, if not more, who could have stood out in order to be more likable, and/or memorable. Oh yes, those one or two characters are still likable, but could have maybe been developed a little more than they were in the final product.
And that’s my review for the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie, Johnny Tsunami. For a movie that was made mainly for the TV screen, this movie is a very fun film to watch. It includes fun sports such as surfing and snowboarding, as well as skiing, has a lot of great heart to it’s story, mostly well thought out characters, besides the couple that could have been written up a little better, and a very good story overall. Honestly, if this film had a better picture quality, this film could have maybe been put in theaters, and possibly been somewhat of a hit amongst audiences. I would say that if you haven’t seen Johnny Tsunami yet, definitely do so. You’ll probably be surprised by how much you’ll gain by watching a film with really good messages, and an overall well-thought out story
Final Grade: A
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 