Written by: Doreen Spicer-Dannelly, Regina Y. Hicks, Karin Gist
Starring: Corbin Bleu, Keke Palmer, David Reivers, Laivan Greene, Shanica Knowles
Rating: [3/5]
Finding passion in the things we love helps accentuate and increase our enjoyment, especially when at a young age and trying to figure out priorities in life. However, the things we love do not always align with what parents want for their children and can cause friction, as seen in so many parent-child dynamics in sports films. Jump In! serves as yet another example of this but includes the underappreciated world of double dutch jump roping.
Continually impressing as a boxer, Izzy (Corbin Bleu) receives plenty of support from his single father Kenneth (David Reivers). As much as Izzy enjoys boxing for his father, when he interacts with a childhood friend in Mary (Keke Palmer), he begins double dutch jump roping with her and finds an unlikely passion in this sport.
For various reasons, specific sports get ascribed to a gender as the ones who primarily participate in it. As we see in this feature, boxing has an association with something boys do while double dutching remains something mostly reserved for girls. A distinction that plays a major factor in the way this story gets told, especially when directed to its young audience. The feature seeks to pull the curtain away from trying to pigeonhole people into what sport they should participate in because of their gender, as Izzy battles with what truly matters to him and how boxing does not necessarily align with that.
If anything, this film does a great job of putting some respect on the name of double dutch jump roping as a sport and one that requires some great athleticism. We see Izzy learn this right away when he downplays the difficulty, but when he gets under the swinging ropes, he has a bit of a learning curve to make sure he gets everything right. I, for one, have always been impressed with the level of rhythm and coordination necessary to even just jump up and down but this feature adds the crazy choreography these groups add to this exercise. It makes it both an artistic expression in addition to an athletic performance that Izzy learns to love, as opposed to the world of boxing where he certainly has talent but mostly participates because of his father.
Jump In! certainly comes as a nostalgia play for me as one I would watch aplenty growing up that makes many of these scenes endearing but when viewing this film as an adult, it certainly has its issues. First and foremost, the acting on display, like many Disney Channel Original Movies, gets ridiculously cheesy. Not in an intentional way but rather in an after school special way that delivers the message of this film in a comedic manner. It makes those moments when the stakes are at their highest a bit laughable as we need to take what we see at face value but the acting on display does not fully sell us on the heightened emotions at play. This mostly extends to all of the actors except for Keke Palmer, who does her thing and brings her charm to each of her scenes, but everyone else struggled mightily here.
While admittedly struggling throughout, this feature still maintains a charming disposition in the way it tells its story. A tale of a boy trying to figure out his passions and how it aligns with those around him, especially his father. In all actuality, Izzy could do both of these sports but this film almost gives him an ultimatum that he can only choose one, which puts him at this crossroads so early in life. Izzy needs to navigate this not only with himself and his father, but also in the way others view him. A particular scene displays his embarrassment when pictures get taken of him double dutching and this journey of confirmation of his interest beyond what his gender classification should dictate allows this feature to maintain staying power. Couple that with the competition at the end that does well in showcasing the talent involved in these competitions and exactly what Izzy, Mary, and their team must take on and it brings all the fun and entertainment one could want. It surely has that Disney Channel Original Movie glean to it, but it works for the most part.
Films with Josh 
