Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie

**Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie**is a 2009 American made-for-television comedy-drama fantasy film based on the Disney Channel Original Series Wizards of Waverly Place. It was directed by Lev L. Spiro and filmed primarily in San Juan, Puerto Rico in February and March 2009. The full cast of the series starred in the film, although Jennifer Stone only had a small role at the beginning of the film. The film focuses on the Russo family taking a vacation to the Caribbean.

The film premiered on August 28, 2009 on the Disney Channel in the United States. It received 11.4 million viewers at its premiere, making it the second most viewed Disney Channel Original Movie premiere at that time, after High School Musical 2. It was also cable's No. 1 scripted telecast of 2009 in total viewers. It premiered in the UK and Ireland on October 23, 2009 as part of Wiz-Tober 2009. It was released on DVD on December 15, 2009 as an Extended Edition. The film won the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Best Children Program.

## Plot

The Russo family, Alex, Justin, Max and their parents Jerry and Theresa are preparing for a vacation to the Caribbean. An unenthusiastic Alex reluctantly agrees to tag along after a life-threatening situation in which Harper and Alex were almost hit by a coming subway. Justin saves the two for a chnce to be praised at using magic to save Alex once again after Alex does something wrong. Once in the Caribbean, the family meets a boy working at the hotel that Alex instantly develops a crush on. The family then visit a street fair, where they meet a street magician and former wizard (who lost the full-wizard contest to his older brother) named Archie who wants to turn his girlfriend, Giselle, from a parrot back into a human by finding the Stone of Dreams, which has the power to grant any wish or reverse any spell. Jerry considers it crazy since many wizards have gone on the quest and never returned.

Later, after Alex was about to use a spell on her mother to convince her to let Alex hang out with the boy from the hote, she gets caught, leading up to a heated confrontation with Theresa. Theresa tells Alex she is grounded for two months, which means she is forbidden to use magic and go out on dates or parties. As a result of this, Alex, in a fit of rage, wishes that her parents had never met. The smuggled full-wizard wand and spell book, which Alex was holding at the time, grants her wish. As a result, Jerry and Theresa do not remember Justin, Alex, Max and they don't know each other.

Alex, Max and Justin attempt to get a spell-book from Jerry by levitating it out of his pocket, but he catches it. Jerry is shown to still have his powers, since he never gave them up to marry Theresa. Jerry has a more carefree attitude with magic due to this change. Justin asks him "hypothetically" what would happen if a wizard wished that her parents never met. Jerry explains how they would gradually forget their past, and then disappear forever. He says it would take a miracle to fix it, whereupon Justin mentions the Stone of Dreams (La Piedra de los Suenos), which Jerry says would work too.

Justin and Alex set off to find the Stone of Dreams, guided by Archie. Along the way, Justin and Alex face many obstacles such as getting across a wide canyon, escaping death from quicksand, and getting across a narrow ledge. Meanwhile, Max stays at the resort to keep his parents from meeting other people. Over the course of the day, Max begins losing his memory. Realising that something is wrong, Max asks Jerry to help him find Alex and Justin, and Jerry agrees after some persuasion. They are joined by Theresa, who believes them to simply be treasure hunting, but nonetheless proves useful, as she is the only one of them who can speak Spanish.

Eventually, Alex and Justin succeed in finding the Stone of Dreams, but Giselle steals the stone. The kids tell Theresa and Jerry their story. Theresa doesn't believe them because she thinks she would never forget her own children. While trying to figure out how to reverse the spell without the Stone of Dreams, Jerry mentions that if one of the kids was a full wizard, they might be able to cast a spell to reverse it. While preparing to begin the full-wizard contest, Max finally loses all of his memories of who he is and gets sucked into the vortex of non-existence. Theresa remembers him slightly, and realises that they were telling the truth. Realising they must work quickly, Alex and Justin are transported to an ancient battlefield, where the contest will be held. Jerry explains that they will only be allowed to use spells involving the four elements (water, earth, fire and air). The winner will become a full wizard, and the loser gets nothing while losing their powers forever. Alex and Justin engage in what turns out to be an intense battle, and Alex narrowly wins.

In trying to come up with a spell to fix everything, she turns to Justin for help. However, Justin has lost all his memory (despite the fact that he is older than Alex). Alex tells him that even though they pick on each other, she looks up to him and begs Justin not to leave her there alone. Justin tells her that he'd never leave her and that even though he doesn't know, he believes her, and wants to help, but he cannot and is sucked into the same vortex that Max was.

Meanwhile, Theresa is back at the resort and sees that Giselle has returned to human form with the Stone of Dreams hanging by her neck. She wanted to leave Archie now that she was in human form. Archie manages to get the stone from Giselle, turns her back into a parrot, and gives the stone to Theresa. Theresa then wishes to be where Alex, Justin and Jerry are, at which point she is transported to the same battlefield and gives Alex the stone. Jerry tells Alex she can wish for her brothers to reappear and still keep her full wizard powers. However, Alex wishes that everything go back to the way it was before, and time rewinds back to the beginning of the confrontation that started all the trouble, which is quickly stopped when Alex apologises and accepts her punishments with grace. While Theresa and Jerry remember nothing about the ordeal, Alex, Justin and Max do. Their parents are astonished by the change in the kids' attitude.

## Cast

* Selena Gomez as Alex Russo
* David Henrie as Justin Russo
* Jake T. Austin as Max Russo
* Jennifer Stone as Harper Finkle
* Maria Canals Barrera as Theresa Russo
* David DeLuise as Jerry Russo
* Steve Valentine as Archie
* Xavier Enrique Torres as Javier
* Jennifer Alden as Giselle

## Production

### Casting

The full cast of the Disney Channel Original Series Wizards of Waverly Place starred in the film. However, Jennifer Stone as Harper Finkle only made appearances at the beginning of the film, and did not star.

### Filming

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was filmed primarily in San Juan, Puerto Rico between February and March 2009. Hotel scenes were shot at the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, while the main cave scene, where Alex, Justin and Archie are climbing inside the cave, was shot inside Cueva Ventana in Arecibo as well as a land that sits in the Rio Grande de Arecibo valley in front of the montain where the cave resides in which Alex asks for directions to the cave. The ancient battlefield where Alex and Justin compete to be the family wizard takes place at the Castillo Sa Felipe del Morro in the Old San Juan. The subway scene where the train from the platform is shown was shot in Toronto, despite the series being based in New York City.

### Promotion

Selena Gomez recorded a "Magic" cover for the film that is featured on the soundtrack for the film and television show. A sneak peek of the film aired during the conclusion of the four-part "Wizards vs. Vampires" event on Disney Channel on August 8, 2009 and on Family Channel during the week of August 24, 2009. The What's What Edition of the film premiered on October 24, 2009 on Disney Channel.

## Release

The film premiered on Disney Channel as a Disney Channel Original Movie on August 28, 2009. The film premiered in the UK and Ireland on October 23, 2009 as part of Wiz-Tober 2009. The film premiered in Spain on October 11, 2009 as part of Magoctubre 2009 in Spain.

### Ratings

The film garnered 11.4 million viewers on its premiere night, making it cable's No. 1 scripted telecast of 2009 and Disney Channel's second-most-viewed film premiere after High School Musical 2. On its second night, the film's second showing received 5.8 million viewers. The next day, the film's third showing got 4.3 million viewers, and its fourth showing received 4.7 million viewers. When the film premiered in the UK, as part of Wiz-Tober, the film received 1.0 million viewers, which made it the 7th-most-watched program on multi-channel viewing for that week, and the second-highest views watched on Disney Channel UK.

### What's What Edition

The "What's What Edition" of the film premiered on October 24, 2009 on Disney Channel, part of a Wizards of Waverly Place marathon. The "What's What Edition" featured exclusive behind-the-scenes information on the film during the presentation.

### Soundtrack

See Also: Wizards of Waverly Place (Soundtrack)

In an interview with Disney Channel's commercial-segment, Disney 365, Selena Gomez discussed her interpretations of the songs on the soundtrack saying: "Disappear" is more of a romantic song. It's basically talking about how a girl likes a guy and they don't want him to disappear, and then 'Magical' is about casting a spell on a guy and this song 'Magic', ties into Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie". Although recorded for an episode, "Make it Happen" doesn't appear on the album, for an unknown reason. The album includes songs from and inspired by the TV series and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. "Magic" by Selena Gomez is a digital single on the iTunes Store. The song was released on July 21, 2009 as part of the Radio Disney iTunes Pass. "Magic" premiered on Radio Disney and a music video to Disney Channel on July 24. The song's music video has Gomez singing into a microphone with bright and flamboyant background, as well as including clips from Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. "Magic" debuted at No. 61 in the Billboard Hot 100 with 42,000 downloads.

### Home Video Release

The film was released on DVD in the United States and Canada on December 15, 2009 as an "Extended Edition", which also came with a replica of the Stone of Dreams in a necklace. The film is in English, French and Spanish, and has subtitles in the same languages. The film was also released on DVD in Australia on December 15, 2009, in Germany and France on December 2, 2009, and in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2010. The film has not been released on Blu-ray.

## Marketing

The film's first teaser trailer was released on Disney Channel on June 17, 2009. The full-length trailer was released on June 26, 2009, during the premiere of Selena Gomez's other Disney Channel Original Movie, Princess Protection Program.

## Proposed Sequel

In June 2010, production of a second film was announced. Dan Berendsen was to return as script writer for the film. Since that announcement, no other updates were made about the sequel. On April 25, 2011, Selana Gomez confirmed in an interview that the proposed sequel would not be filmed. However, on July 28, 2011, Maria Canals Barrera stated in an interview that the project was "not 100% dead anymore" and that she was "hopeful" that a second film would be produced. Later, it was confirmed that the "Wizards" would return in a special event entitled The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex in early 2013.