Written by: Vince Cheung, Ben Montanio, Mark Seabrooks, Lydia Look
Starring: Brenda Song, Shin Koyamada, Hadley Hudson, Ellen Woglom, Tsai Chin
Rating: [3/5]
Having the pressure to save the world placed upon one’s shoulders can overwhelm just about anyone, but having it occur to a teenager whose main priority lies in becoming Homecoming Queen sits at a different level. A film with all of the cheesiness one could expect from a Disney Channel original, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior stands out because of how it moves into ideas of identity and embracing destiny in a way that warms the heart on top of entertaining.
After the spirit of Yan-Lo appears once again, a young Buddhist monk, Shen (Shin Koyamada) makes his way to find the woman warrior for this ancient battle. He makes his way and finds Wendy Wu (Brenda Song) a high school-aged teenager who understandably cannot believe what Shen proposes to her, especially with homecoming right around the corner.
Presenting the responsibility and duty to this level on a teenage girl in no way seems fair in the way it takes someone who has not signed up for this and places everything squarely on her shoulders. If anything, it makes for the classic hero’s journey and what we see with Wendy displays a teenage girl not only accepting to take on something bigger than herself but also reaching back to her roots, which has never been a large focus of her upbringing.
With Shen’s arrival, it not only impacts Wendy and her life but also her family in the way they operate as a Chinese-American family unit. They fall into the same trappings of many immigrant families where in the rush to assimilate and be as American as possible, they forget the importance of maintaining their roots. Shen allows these family members to get in touch with this making for some of the better scenes the feature has to offer. From Wendy’s father getting in touch with food he has not experienced since childhood to the grandmother finally seeing her family embrace their roots, it makes for some touching moments.
In this feature, we also get the comedy of this entire high school experience where we have Wendy have this intense rivalry with Jessica (Ellen Woglom) for who will get the necessary votes to be Homecoming Queen. It gets quite intense and reaches areas where Jessica campaigns for this while doing a guest appearance and doing the weather for the local news. Now that is a level of campaigning political candidates cannot get, which shows the complete seriousness of the race between these two girls for this illustrious crown. Much of it comes off in such a comedic manner and really allows for the silliness of this feature to come out completely where you can strip away the seriousness of the entire endeavor.
Leading up to this big battle you have actors saddled with not the best dialogue and not doing themselves any favors in the way they deliver it. The biggest culprit of this comes from Shin Koyamada as Shen where some of the line delivery simply does not work and feels very cringey in several moments. His presence does add to the positives of the film overall, but he gets done no favors by the screenplay. Even when receiving the subpar dialogue, Brenda Song steps up and does her best here. Obviously, she has plenty of experience in the Disney Channel ecosystem with her work in “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and she just owns her line delivery. Most of it does not work but she makes the most of it.
Boasting some decent fight choreography for what one could expect from a Disney Channel Original Movie, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior brings a satisfying blend of action and story to make for something quite enjoyable as a whole. We receive some meaningful moments of this family in the way they reconnect with their Chinese culture that does not necessarily go very deep with its exploration but when compared to the other features made by this studio, it well and truly stands out. We get the growth of this teenage girl in learning to care for more than her own personal accomplishments like Homecoming Queen without outright demeaning the passion she has for it. A healthy mix and one that allows Brenda Song to lead a film, which is never a bad thing.
Films with Josh 
