Cow Belles

Cow Belles is a Disney Channel Original Movie starring Alyson and Amanda Michalka, better known as sister duo Aly & AJ. It debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The premiere brought in a total of 5.8 million viewers in the United States.
==Plot==
Taylor (Alyson Michalka) and Courtney Callum (Amanda Michalka) are two thoroughly spoiled yet well-intentioned sisters whose widower father, Reed Callum (Jack Coleman), owns Callum Dairy. Taylor has just gotten her license, after almost failing the test at the beginning of the movie. They leave the house to depart for a shopping trip, but leave a towel on the stove, starting a house fire. Shocked by their carelessness, and deciding the girls should start making their own cash, Reed puts them to work at the dairy to teach them responsibility. He goes out of town, looking for a rare butterfly to add to his collection. This leaves the girls to look after the dairy.
When the girls start working at the dairy, it quickly becomes their worst nightmare. They mess up almost every step of the way, such as dropping Courtney's cell phone into one of the full yogurt cups, and then tripping and splashing blueberries on themselves. All the employees think they are stuck-up and don't believe that they can do their job. Soon after they start working there and doing their jobs better, someone steals all the money out of the businesses' bank account. It is then up to the girls to come up with a plan to save the dairy, and the jobs of those who are working, but no one believes in them. Taylor has changed her nature and asks Courtney if she can use her party money to pay for the employees' paychecks, or else they will leave Callum Dairy. Taylor and Courtney are at a meeting with the other employees when Taylor tricks Courtney into leaving to get her cell phone, she says that she will get the money, but still no one believes her. Without consulting Courtney, Taylor uses her party money for the employees, thus causing a very big fight between the two of them.
Taylor and Courtney finally enjoy their work in the factory and earn the employees' belief and respect. However, Courtney ignores Taylor in every possible way. They have a fight at work when Courtney is putting in the numbers for the expiration dates. Even though they have the money to pay the employees' paychecks, Courtney's mistake threatens their business because the milk, believed to be expired, is sent back. Their employers realize this will take them all night and that they will miss the deadline, but Reed comes along with volunteers, mostly town folks (including the wealthy ones who attended Courtney and her friends' debutante) who are impressed with the sisters' efforts to save the beloved dairy company. They manage to pull through the evening and the employees and town folks celebrate. It is revealed that his business partner and best friend is the thief, but he gets away with the money. After checking his finances, Reed determines that the dairy will survive, but that money will be tight for some time. The girls happily volunteer to work with him even when he gives them the day off to help out.
In an alternate ending, Courtney finds a way to track Reed's friend who stole the money. The girls show their father a footage of the embezzler playing in a casino in Puerto Rico, and Reed alerts the FBI to catch him. Despite getting their money back, the sisters still go to work in the dairy.
==Cast==
*Alyson Michalka - Taylor Callum
*Amanda Michalka - Courtney Callum
*Jack Coleman - Reed Callum
*Michael Trevino - Jackson Meade
*Chris Gallinger - Phillipe
*Paula Brancati - Sarah Van Dyke
*Christian Serratos - Heather Perez
*Alex Hood - Richie
*Sandy Robson - Thomas
*Craig Eldridge - Wilbur Meade
*Sheila McCarthy - Fran Walker
*Michael Rhoades - Bob Fenwick
*Ron Gabriel - Melvin Melville
*Duane Murray - Big Pete
*Dylan Roberts - Ralph
*Stuart Clow - Keith Walker
==Production==
The movie was inspired by Fox TV series The Simple Life, which formerly starred Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The movie was filmed in Toronto, Canada in 2005.
==Release==
*The film was released on DVD on June 27, 2006.
*United Kingdom - June 16, 2008
*Family in Canada first aired the film on June 30, 2006.
*The film premiered on Disney Channel Asia on August 6, 2006 (original ending version) and November 19, 2006 (alternate ending version).
*The film debuted on U.L television on March 29, 2006 to 2.04 million viewers.
==Trivia==
*The film has a very similar plot to Material Girls, which was released several months after it. It coincidentally has another sister/sister duo, Hilary and Haylie Duff. Both were preceded by The Simple Life, said to be the first incarnation of a similar plot.
*The film's original title of was Dairy Girls.
**It has been said by the Michalka sisters that the finalized movie title essentially means dairy princesses, which ties back to the original title.
*The film is the first one that both Alyson and Amanda are in together.
*After the film's release, a sequel was confirmed and would begin production if the sisters returned. However, they didn't, as they wanted to focus on their music career.
==References==
==External links==
*Official Site
*Cow Belles at the Internet Movie Database
da:Cow Belles
es:Cow Belles
pt-br:Belas e Mimadas
Category:Disney Channel Original Movies
Category:Disney films
Category:2006 films
Category:Live-action films
Category:Films
Category:Cow Belles