Thread: Wizards Of Waverly Place [TV Series]
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Old 2010-07-14, 13:06   Link #1
milan kyuubi
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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Age: 34
Wizards Of Waverly Place [TV Series]


Welcome to the Wizards Of Waverly Place Thread here on Animesuki!



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Spoiler for Episode List:

Spoiler for Images from Tv Show/Movie:

Spoiler for Videos from Tv Show and Selena Gomez:


Movie Summary:


The film follows Alex, Max, Justin and their parents on a trip to the Caribbean. Alex is upset that her parents are telling her what to do despite being sixteen years old. When her parents confiscate her wand, and she gets in a fight with her mother, she wishes her parents had never met. This in turn causes her wish to come true, and her parents forget about each other and about their kids Alex, Max, and Justin. Justin figures his father must still have his powers since his dad and mom had never met and asks his father, who has no recollection of Justin and just regards him as a random tourist and wizard on what to do about the situation, he tells him that they must find the Stone Of Dreams, a magical stone that can reverse any spell and grant any wish. Justin and Alex then embark on a journey to find the Stone Of Dreams along with a not so great street magician and his parrot who have their own plans for the Stone Of Dreams. Meanwhile, Max scrambles to keep his parents from making mistakes that would further endanger the family's future while also trying to make his parents fall in love again.

See here for more informations.

Show Summary:

Wizards of Waverly Place follows the Russo children, Alex, Justin, and Max, who on the surface appear to be completely normal, but beneath the sibling rivalry lies their secret. They are all wizards in training! They use their powers to do most of their tasks. Whether it's washing the dishes or… More making dinner, or even getting back at a fellow sibling, whatever the reason, it'll always have hilarious consequences. Even though they all train and study, once they turn 18, only one of them will get to keep their wizardly powers.

Cast / Crew

* David Henrie plays Justin Russo


* Selena Gomez plays Alex Russo


* Jake T. Austin plays Max Russo


* David DeLuise plays Jerry Russo


* Maria Canals-Barrera plays Theresa Russo


* Jennifer Stone plays Harper


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The new sitcom is basically "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" mixed in with Harry Potter. A family moves to New York, but has a huge secret. They're actually a family filled with wizards dealing with magic. The three siblings are a younger brother, middle sister, older brother. I think it kind of resembles the "Even Stevens" family.
Honestly, I get a kick out of the show. I like most of the character (the mom is a bit bland, and the dad could maybe shout less), but for a teenage show, I don't mind it at all.
I think Selena's delivery is pretty good, and I get a kick about how unabashedly selfish/self-centered her character is.

Of the various Disney/Nick live action shows this is one of the few that I don't mind watching.
Also, I've probably done too much thought into this show, and the general Disney format (as it pertains to the characters/casting), but I'm going through a bout of insomnia, so I might as well post a bunch of poorly thought out observations about a kids show:

The general format that Disney seems to use for most of it's shows with a female lead seems to be for her to have a couple of best friends that she usually shares the A plot of the episode with, and a male sibling who generally gets the B plot, with the two often having little interaction in a given episode.

It seems like they were aiming for the standard formula with the early casting and character directions (and a lot of stuff from that "Kiddie show checklist" that was mentioned upthread) but sort of ended up going another way.

On Wizards they actually seem to build the show around the relationship between Alex and Justin, to the point that the best friend character seems to be missing from half the episodes (and when she is on, one of her major character traits is her crush on Justin, which is something else that I don't really recall from any other Disney series). The whole sibling rivalry angle on the show is something I find interesting. Selena and David both seem to have good timing and play off of each other really well, the scenes with Alex and Justin just seem to work and are strangely "real", considering that they're usually dealing with whatever the wacky magic plot of the week is.

Jake Austin doesn't seem to get much to do on the series, but he seems to be a pretty solid actor for his age as well. Jennifer Stone as Harper ends up being sort of a odd fit as a character; Alex is the clever mischievous one and Justin is the smart 'straight laced' one. It seems like Max is supposed to be the "dumb"/outrageous one, but that's a role that's also filled by Harper (with her crazy clothes, theater seat disguise, and delusions). I'd guess that the original intent of the casting was to have Alex and Harper on the main plot while Max would serve as the wacky half of a mismatched pair with Justin in the B plot. Then, when the ended up focusing more on Justin and Alex it left both Harper and Max without much to do. Max, though, is part of the family, so they can put him into the crazy kid role with the parents, but Harper really has no reason to be hanging around any of the Russo family other than Alex (or possibly Justin) so when she's not involved in Alex's story she's just not there.

Which leads to the only thing I actively dislike about the show, the father. It just seems strange that on a show with a bunch of teens Deluise is the only one who seems to constantly be shouting his lines. Jerry really is the embodiment of the over-the-top dumb/buffoonish sit-com Dad/Husband, the scenes with him just make me cringe as a result.
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Last edited by milan kyuubi; 2010-12-17 at 02:13. Reason: updated episode list
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