Wish Upon A Shooting Star

Friday the 13th is generally considered unlucky. But for Cory, Miley, and Zack & Cody it’s a chance for luck. The Disney Channel offers reality altering wished filled episodes of Cory in the House, Hannah Montana, and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. The episodes air for the first time on Friday, July 13th. Then have encore showings on Saturday and Sunday night.

Unlike the crossover episodes that comprised That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, these episodes are self contained. They can be watched in any order. The plot is very simple. Each of the show’s star finds their current lives rather boring. When a shooting star passes, they wish for a more exciting life. Cory wishes he could be President of the United States. Miley (Hannah’s real personality) wishes to be Hannah all the time so she can enjoy the rock star life without the burden of school work. Zack and Cody both wish for super powers.

I thought Cory’s episode was the weakest. But then I’m not a big fan of Cory in the House.

Hannah’s plot was a bit more exciting. An angel looking like Hannah’s bodyguard Roxy shows her this new reality where Miley Stewart never existed. Miley’s dad married a gold digger. Her brother, unable to deal with Hannah’s success, became a hermit. Her friends Oliver and Lily became shallow forms of themselves. Miley wants to return to her real reality, but her angel warns her that people are allowed one wish only. Fortunately, Jackson wishes that there was a world where people didn’t know that she was Hannah. Just then the shooting star reappears, reverting reality. Miley hugs Lily, happy that life is back to normal.

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode wasn’t so far-fetched. Yes, it was wacky and silly. But that’s the hallmark of the show. The plots tend to revolve around a crazy scheme of Zack, Maddy or London. In fact, they had another alternate reality episode. In this episode, Zack gains super-speed while Cody gains telepathy and telekinesis. Mr. Moseby turns out to be the superpowered, supervillain Mean-ager. His evil plan is to turn the kids of the world into miniature adults. He forces Esteban and Arwin to become his henchmen. After the twins defeat Mean-ager, they realize that as superheroes they have responsibilities can just be kids. They wish they didn’t have superpowers. Borrowing from Superman the Movie, Zack superspeeds him and Cody backwards around the world to reverse time. The hope is that by going back to the time when the shooting star first appeared, they can wish for their normal reality. The episode ends with Cody telling Zack it was all a dream.

Unfortunately, Maddy only makes a brief appearance (as Ashley Tisdale, the actress who portrays her, was filming High School Musical 2). A nice touch is that they include the long forgotten plot line of Zack’s crush on Maddy. When he discovers that he has superpowers, he immediately wants to call Maddy to impress her.

In all, these are fun episodes. Like most Disney Channel shows, you need to suspend belief a bit. So just sit back. Make a wish. And enjoy how it can go amiss!