January 12, 2007 – The Disney Channel Original Movie Jump In! Premieres
“Brooklyn: home of Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and teen boxing sensation Izzy Daniels.”
On January 12, 2007, the Disney Channel Original Movie Jump In! premiered. It broke the record for highest-rated premiere with 8.2 million viewers, a feat that was broken by High School Musical 2. As lead actor Corbin Bleu was known for starring in the High School Musical franchise, this film was advertised heavily during the High School Musical tour. The film was written by Doreen Spicer-Dannelly, Regina Y. Hicks, and Karin Gist, and was directed by Paul Hoen. It stars Corbin Bleu as Izzy Daniels, Keke Palmer as Mary Thomas, David Reivers as Kenneth Daniels, Patrick Johnson, Jr. as Rodney, and Rebecca Williams as Tammy.
The film begins with main character Izzy Daniels practicing at the boxing gym in Brooklyn, New York. As he leaves the gym, he begins to dance in the street. As he makes his way home, he sees his neighbor Mary practicing with her double dutch team and interrupts their practice. Mary harbors a secret crush on Izzy, but pretends that she finds him annoying. The narrator informs the audience that Izzy’s father used to be a great boxer back in the day, and now has big plans for Izzy: a shot at winning the coveted Golden Gloves.
The next day, Izzy has to take his little sister, Karin, to the double dutch competition. On the way there, Izzy runs into his competition, Rodney, the neighborhood bully. After a slight altercation, they arrive at the competition, where Mary has some rival issues of her own with the Dutch Dragons team. The competition starts well enough, and Izzy is impressed with the skills of the teams. Mary’s team wins fourth place in the competition, qualifying for the city championship, but her team begins to disintegrate.
Rodney and Izzy meet in the ring, ready for the exhibition match that will lead to the Golden Gloves match
Izzy finally has his boxing match against Rodney, and after a slow start, Izzy wins the match. He has been feeling guilty about Rodney’s home situation, as Rodney’s family has been going through a tough time. Izzy leaves a bag of clothes on Rodney’s doorstep, and after that day’s match, Rodney never suspected Izzy of the good deed. As this happens, one of Mary’s teammates quits the team, claiming that she’s in it to win it while the rest of the team is just “playing games.” At school the next day, Rodney challenges Izzy to a rematch, claiming that Izzy was just lucky in winning the match, but Izzy refuses. Later, he finds out about Mary’s problem and teases them, saying “anyone can jump some rope.” Annoyed, Mary dares him to jump some rope with them. Fortunately for Mary, Izzy’s a pretty good jumper, but she’s reluctant to ask him to join their team. Her other team members convince her to ask, but he refuses. However, Keisha and Shauna, the other two members of the team, ask him to fill in until they find a permanent replacement (although they have no intention of finding another member). He is finally convinced to help, but only before school and at the gym where none of their friends can see him.
Izzy quickly improves and begins to love double dutch, although he also begins to lose his focus when it comes to boxing. A fellow boxer, Tammy, finds out about his secret double dutch practice, but promises not to tell if he stops all the girl boxer jokes. Inspired by little kids playing double dutch in the park, Izzy creates a new freestyle routine for the team. Later, as Izzy and Mary are talking, she surprises him with a kiss, and the two begin to accept their growing feelings for each other. His father surprises him as well, showing up in his room and trying to figure out where Izzy’s focus has been recently. As Izzy practices one afternoon, Rodney sees him and takes pictures for blackmail. Things get even more complicated when Izzy stands up the team to watch a boxing match with his father instead of performing in the Double Dutch Showcase; when Mary finds out why he missed the showcase, she angrily tells him that he’s off the team, stating that she can’t rely on him.
Izzy finds the photos Rodney took posted all over the school
At school, Izzy finds that the pictures of him practicing double dutch are posted all over the school. Rodney comes by and claims that the reason Izzy won’t rematch him is because he’s too busy double dutching, and the whole school laughs at him. Mary tries to talk to him, but he won’t answer her. Thanks to the pictures, Izzy’s father finally finds out about the double dutch team. Izzy claims that since his mom died, his father only wants to talk about boxing, and he’s lost his love for it. Filled with anger, Izzy finally decides to focus only on boxing. When Mary comes by to ask him to join the team again, his response is a firm no, and she leaves, upset. Help for Izzy comes from Tammy, who tells him of her experience being the only girl boxer in the gym. “People make fun,” she says. “I figure, that’s their problem.” Rodney ambushes him so that Izzy has to fight him, but midway through the match, Izzy refuses to be angry anymore and calls off the match.
The double dutch city finals begins, and Izzy surprises Mary and the team by showing up. Rodney also shows up at the finals, to watch Izzy. The Dutch Dragons and Izzy’s team, now named the Hot Chili Steppers, are tied for first, which brings them to the freestyle round. Right before Izzy steps on the stage, he sees his father in the audience; his father smiles, proud of his son, which gives Izzy the courage to perform. After the performance, Izzy and his father make up, with his father accepting Izzy’s love of double dutch and letting him know how proud he is of him. The Hot Chili Steppers win first place in the competition, going on to State. The narrator of the film is none other than Rodney, who was inspired by Izzy to be a better person and do what he loves, no matter what.
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