WildSide: Journey to New Jersey

**WildSide: Journey to New Jersey** is a 2014 made-for-television comedy film based on the Comedies for Kids series *WildSide*. The film was directed by Randy Brooke, written by Geoff Rodkey and Kenwood Delay, and stars Sierra McCormick, Zachary Gordon, Chloe Moretz, Kyle Massey and Rebecca Graham as the "friends". It premiered on Comedies for Kids on March 22, 2014 to an audience of over 8 million viewers.

## Synopsis

When the US government schedules a meeting in Los Angeles, Rachel and Dean accidentally get on the wrong bus and land on the other side of the country instead.

## Plot

The film begins with Rachel and Dean competing in a scooter street race commentated by Justice. Rachel ends up winning the race by a landslide, where she witnesses Dean fall over the finish line. She begins to gloat before throwing her scooter into her neighbour's garden bed, which prompts her and her two friends to go inside their house.

Rachel, Dean and Justice enter the house with Gary speaking on the phone to someone, later revealed to be a representative from the United States government. Gary displays his friends a letter from the government, which reveals that they were going to discuss their living arrangement in a secret meeting held in Los Angeles, California in a few days. The letter also presents the friends with bus tickets, which was scheduled to arrive outside their house the following morning. The friends get ecstatic at the news and agree to begin to pack their belongings for a week long trip, before their neighbour returns Rachel's scooter to her with a bill to fix her flower beds.

In the following morning, the friends are greeted by two coaches outside of their house - a red one and a blue one - leading to confusion. At that moment, their neighbour Ms Waters reveals that she was travelling to see her family in New Jersey, hence the other bus, and climbs on board one of them. The friends' school principal Mr Leopron, their advice man Bill, and their friend Julianna, also greet them in the front yard to say goodbye to them before their week-long trip. In doing so, Julianna hands Rachel a P-Pad full of pictures and videos of herself and the others, in order to cure Rachel of homesickness if she gets it. Rachel appreciates the offer before they are ordered to get on the bus, where the friends say goodbye to the adults before doing so. Rachel and Dean go inside one of the buses first and agree to sit in the front, while Justice, Gary and April go inside the other bus (revealed later) and sit in the back. Gary manages to call Dean from the back of his bus soon after the buses depart.

After a couple of hours into their bus ride, Rachel manages to fall asleep, and wakes up to Dean chewing food in her ear. Startled and annoyed, she asks Dean about what he was eating. He tells her that it was a "Jersey Burger", which was being sold on the bus. While confused, the bus passes a sign saying "Welcome to Kansas", which makes Rachel worried. She at first assumes that it was the bus driver's negligence, so she approaches him and tells him that he was going the wrong way. The bus driver assures her that he was headed to *New Jersey* instead of Los Angeles, which makes her and Dean realise that they accidentally got on the wrong bus. They attempt to convince the bus driver to turn back around, but they fail. The bus driver also assures them that he wasn't going to stop anytime soon, so they were stuck on the bus. Going back to their seats, Dean begins to protest about being on the *correct* bus, however Rachel proves him wrong by showing him a map of the United States of America. In a panic, Dean rushes to call Gary, who reveals that his bus hasn't left the state yet; revealing that they were on a totally different bus. Rachel and Dean feel hopeless at this stage and agree to travel to New Jersey anyway.

**To be continued.**

## Cast

* Sierra McCormick as Rachel Norman
* Zachary Gordon as Dean Ford
* Chloe Moretz as Justice Leonardo
* Kyle Massey as Gary Fisherman
* Rebecca Graham as April Haden
* David St. James as Calum Leopron
* Ryan Gornman as Bill
* T'Keyah Crystal Keymah as Julianna
* Renee Taylor as Ms Waters
* Jack Plotnick as Government Rep

## Production

Comedies for Kids greenlit the film in March 2013 with the news confirmed on Kenwood Delay's self-made blog, *Kenwood Connection*. Production officially began in September 2013, with partial scenes shot in Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Canada. According to sources, the film was shot in one week.

## Trivia

* The film name itself, as well as the promotional art for the film, provides a major spoiler towards the main plot of the movie.
* Zachary Gordon was billed second in the credits of the movie, due to his significant role in the movie's plot. In the regular series, Zach is billed fourth.
* Justice, April, Mr Leopron, Bill and Julianna all serve relatively minor roles in the film, despite being apart of the main cast of the original series. Gary's role is considered more significant was he can be seen talking to Rachel and Dean on the phone constantly through out the film.
* The entire film, minus the Los Angeles sequence, was filmed in Toronto, Canada. The first set of scenes were shot in the cold-open on Toronto streets, and the rest were filmed on purposely built sets on a soundstage.
* The following scenes were shot in the cold-open.
	+ The opening scooter race scene was shot on a real residential street located in Downtown Toronto. In order to improve efficiency, all residents needed to be evacuated out of their homes and the road was closed off.
	+ The scene where the friends say goodbye and board the coaches was filmed on the same street.
	+ The scene were Gary, Justice and April are sightseeing in Los Angeles, was actually filmed in Los Angeles several weeks after primary production concluded.