We continue our journey through the nostalgia of the Disney Channel Original movies with Quints from the year 2000. This is one that I remember being advertised when I was younger, but I always avoided it. I cannot tell you exactly why. The trailers showed babies crying and not much action, so maybe it just didn’t speak to me. After finally seeing it years later, Quints is not a bad movie, but it sure is an infuriating one.
The Story and Issues
Kimberly J. Brown from the Halloweentown movies plays Jamie. She is a girl who is in eighth grade and is usually pressured by her parents to be great. Everything changes when Jamie’s mother gives birth to quintuplets. The family struggles to take care of all these babies and pressures Jamie to help out more. Eventually, the parents land a diaper brand deal that wants to use their babies for commercials and more. They accept this as it will help with financial issues while completely alienating their daughter.
The main issue that this movie has is that the parents are just so unlikable. While watching, I kept wondering what the message was here. Like, what was I getting out of watching this? The parents ignore Jamie before and after the babies are born. They expect her to take care of the babies that belong to them. The agent who is in charge of the brand of diapers tries not to include Jamie in any advertisements to pretend she doesn’t exist, and the parents don’t really do anything about it. These parents just suck.
Jamie decides to rise above her neglect and depression by joining an art club, where she finds she is really talented and has a calling. When her art show comes up, the parents cannot go because they are receiving an award that day as parents of the year by the governor. Why? I have no idea. They don’t do anything to deserve that besides being the only family around with quintuplets.
Now, if you are thinking, this is the part where the parents realize they were wrong and they should pay more attention to their daughter, you are dead wrong. Instead, Jamie puts her show aside to babysit the quints so her parents can get their award. What the hell? I realize babies are a lot of work, and there are many siblings who do more than they should to help out. But parents should at least make an effort to remember they have another kid. What is the message here? For kids to give up on their dreams and stop wanting their parents’ attention because they don’t matter in the end? These parents shouldn’t even have any kids, let alone six of them. The movie does wrap things up in a more understanding way, but getting there is rough.
The plot isn’t the only problem with the movie. It isn’t very entertaining. It isn’t clever or funny, and not much happens besides what I already talked about. The movie just kind of moves along at the same pace before it ends on a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.
The acting is good. Everyone does their jobs well. It’s fun to see Kimberly do more things, and the great Daniel Roebuck plays her father. The material is just what is infuriating.
Overview
Quints is not the worst DCOM movie out there, but it might be the most infuriating one. The message is all over the place, the story is boring and stagnant, and it is just highly forgettable. I’m not really sure who this movie is even for. I’d like to say it’s for kids with many siblings so they can have something to relate to, but there’s a chance it just might make them feel bad about themselves.
